First block of build completed and the first race for 2011 in the legs.
As usual for me when I switch to those killer two and three minute intervals it takes me a couple of seesions to be able to cope with the full set at the required intensity. The block went well and I can feel I am progressing well with a hoped for slow steady build up. My theory is if I don't rush it I can get to a better level and hold it for the whole of July, my target month when I am going to be in Belgium.
I was over the moon with the race outcome. It was road handicap so no sitting in the bunch in a road race or criterium and potentially fooling myself that I got around OK. In a handicap no missed turns, working all the way, although I started a little tentaively - not sure how I was going to travel, the further the race went the stronger I felt. Even had a little dig towards the end, just to make sure I tried as hard as I could for the whole race. So very pleased with my first outing for 2011.
Because I didn't train the day before the race, just completed my pre race day ride, some short sharp intervals to get my body ready for race type efforts and the race day 'effort' score was a little down on what I would have achieved in training, high intensity for sure but not quite longe enough, I elected to do a fourth week of build before taking an easy week.
To be honest it also seeemed to work in well with some relatives visiting from overseas for a month and to fit with the races I am planning to ride up until Easter.
However it didn't turn out brilliantly, firtsly I don't think my body copes well with four full on weeks in a row and a we had a very sick puppy that kept me up for four nights so I wasn't really recovering very well between efforts. The week wasn't a complete waste but didn't go quite how I had planned, the tiredness excaserbated by some very hot days, one in particular I didn't get out early enough and as the hot North wind took the temperature very quickly from 28c to 40c, exactly 12 minutes. I was 9 minutes into a 20 minute interval at the time and my power just plummeted and although I manged to complete the interval I really had to go deep to finish it, too deep really I still wasted the next day!
Its OK this week I'm taking a recovery week this week and another race, on a much harder course, on Sunday.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
1st February 2011
First week of the next phase of training completed. I'm now in the "Build" phase, I will do two, possibly three, blocks of Build before moving onto "Race" phase in the middle of the year.
There is a world of difference between the 20/30/40 minute diesel type intervals carried out in the Build phase and the 2/3 minute intervals at 125 - 140% that are now included in this phase. Those long intervals really wear you down because they are so long but the short ones can be excruciating! You think you are almost done, then you look at the timer and you are only 30 seconds into the interval and then you seem to be edging forward on the clock so slowly, while your legs are screaming and you're lungs are heaving! Lots of fun.
Coupled with lots of twenty minute intervals in the 'sweetspot', defined as between 88% - 94% by the experts, and a long endurance ride in the mountains, makes for a pretty solid week of training even if its only around 15 hours because I have kept an extra rest day in the schedule. I know this will pay off in the long run and my slow steady build seems to be working well as I see the power output slowly rising.
Mind you we've had a run of hot days, 38c, 38c, 40c, which my old body doesn't seem to cope to well with anymore. Even getting out at 6.00am doesn't mitigate the heat too much, it was already 32c by 9.00am when I finished today, those temperatures just drain me and even worse definitely slow my recovery between sessions since the body is working so hard on temperature control! My heart rate and power output were almost the same at the end of today's ride, not good at all.
I may have to review the plan if the current forecast of another week of this hold good,
There is a world of difference between the 20/30/40 minute diesel type intervals carried out in the Build phase and the 2/3 minute intervals at 125 - 140% that are now included in this phase. Those long intervals really wear you down because they are so long but the short ones can be excruciating! You think you are almost done, then you look at the timer and you are only 30 seconds into the interval and then you seem to be edging forward on the clock so slowly, while your legs are screaming and you're lungs are heaving! Lots of fun.
Coupled with lots of twenty minute intervals in the 'sweetspot', defined as between 88% - 94% by the experts, and a long endurance ride in the mountains, makes for a pretty solid week of training even if its only around 15 hours because I have kept an extra rest day in the schedule. I know this will pay off in the long run and my slow steady build seems to be working well as I see the power output slowly rising.
Mind you we've had a run of hot days, 38c, 38c, 40c, which my old body doesn't seem to cope to well with anymore. Even getting out at 6.00am doesn't mitigate the heat too much, it was already 32c by 9.00am when I finished today, those temperatures just drain me and even worse definitely slow my recovery between sessions since the body is working so hard on temperature control! My heart rate and power output were almost the same at the end of today's ride, not good at all.
I may have to review the plan if the current forecast of another week of this hold good,
Monday, December 27, 2010
Dec 28th 2010
Wow. I am amazed at how far I've moved forward on a single block of training. Admittedly I was starting at a fairly low base but nonetheless its very very encouraging.
At the end of the 'down' week of each training block I would typically run an FTP* max test on the Saturday since that's when my legs would be freshest. Since it was only the first block of training (and Christmas day!) I opted not to go the mountains for 20 minutes of pain on my usual climb but do three 10 minute intervals at 95% of what I thought was my FTP.
Well either it was all the Christmas chocolates, Santa made me superman! or my powermeter is badly calibrated but my intervals were at +30 watts, +40 watts and +60watts!!!! So I'm pretty happy about that, especially since I did feel really good, I was obviously fresh and I did get up on my TT bike which always makes me feel fast.
I've had to reset my FTP in the software without doing the test.
Today was the first day of the second block of base training and even with my FTP increased to reflect a new FTP, I managed to over achieve on each interval so that extra rest day seems to be really paying off.
"Less is more" so they say!
*FTP is Functional Threshold Power and is the theoretical power output I could maintain for a one hour Time Trial.
At the end of the 'down' week of each training block I would typically run an FTP* max test on the Saturday since that's when my legs would be freshest. Since it was only the first block of training (and Christmas day!) I opted not to go the mountains for 20 minutes of pain on my usual climb but do three 10 minute intervals at 95% of what I thought was my FTP.
Well either it was all the Christmas chocolates, Santa made me superman! or my powermeter is badly calibrated but my intervals were at +30 watts, +40 watts and +60watts!!!! So I'm pretty happy about that, especially since I did feel really good, I was obviously fresh and I did get up on my TT bike which always makes me feel fast.
I've had to reset my FTP in the software without doing the test.
Today was the first day of the second block of base training and even with my FTP increased to reflect a new FTP, I managed to over achieve on each interval so that extra rest day seems to be really paying off.
"Less is more" so they say!
*FTP is Functional Threshold Power and is the theoretical power output I could maintain for a one hour Time Trial.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
22nd December 2010
Well one training block into the 2011 programme and I am so pleased, the bug that plagued me earlier in the year hasn't re occurred (yet?) and the extra rest day in the weekly programme seems to be paying big dividends.
So three weeks of training completed and I'm now in the middle of a recovery week prior to starting the next block of base training. Each session I completed, was done achieving or exceeding the power numbers I was aiming to hit. Admittedly this is Base training and I am therefore doing 'diesel' type power outputs but with intervals up to 40 minutes, I am happy with that achievement.
My CTL* is creeping up nicely, perhaps a little slower than previously, having knocked out a training day, but I am moving forward at about 4 points a week, so progress is progress and assuming positive things I can predict where I'll be as time goes by and be able to adjust the training load if I need to as the season moves forward.
Whilst my CTL is definitely moving in the right direction, more importantly I feel reasonably fresh to start each training session, which means that I achieve my planned workload, at good power levels for each ride I do. In past years, my achievement of each session goals might recede as the days rolled by in a week, which is demoralising. At the moment I am looking forward to each session with confidence.
I'll see how that pans out as I move from Base phase to Build phase where I start to introduce some 'top end' work. In the meantime I have one more block of Base training to complete.
(*CTL is Cumulative Training Load as defined by the software that I use to log my training. It is an indicator of the effects of the training I carry out and very broadly helps me with overall fitness indications. I know my absolute personal ceiling in CTL terms so would help me prevent over training. )
So three weeks of training completed and I'm now in the middle of a recovery week prior to starting the next block of base training. Each session I completed, was done achieving or exceeding the power numbers I was aiming to hit. Admittedly this is Base training and I am therefore doing 'diesel' type power outputs but with intervals up to 40 minutes, I am happy with that achievement.
My CTL* is creeping up nicely, perhaps a little slower than previously, having knocked out a training day, but I am moving forward at about 4 points a week, so progress is progress and assuming positive things I can predict where I'll be as time goes by and be able to adjust the training load if I need to as the season moves forward.
Whilst my CTL is definitely moving in the right direction, more importantly I feel reasonably fresh to start each training session, which means that I achieve my planned workload, at good power levels for each ride I do. In past years, my achievement of each session goals might recede as the days rolled by in a week, which is demoralising. At the moment I am looking forward to each session with confidence.
I'll see how that pans out as I move from Base phase to Build phase where I start to introduce some 'top end' work. In the meantime I have one more block of Base training to complete.
(*CTL is Cumulative Training Load as defined by the software that I use to log my training. It is an indicator of the effects of the training I carry out and very broadly helps me with overall fitness indications. I know my absolute personal ceiling in CTL terms so would help me prevent over training. )
Saturday, December 4, 2010
December 5th 2010
I thought I'd push my luck and start my blog early and take it through the training and planning for my racing trip to Belgium in July 2011.
Since I had to cancel the 2010 trip, the bug that affected me seemed to keep coming back every time I got into some serious training which was incredibly frustrating. So I decided on the drastic step (for me anyway) of not riding my road bike for a complete month to try and get rid of the bug. So that's what I did and the only activities I got into where some bush walking and a few mountain bike rides.
So I've had my months break and and have now completed my first week of what will be 8 weeks of base training. I've added an extra rest day into the programme, I guess I had to acknowledge my ancient legs and body can't grind it out everyday anymore. This seems to have been very effective in week one, but I also suppose I was pretty fresh as well. So we'll see how the new approach goes as the weeks go by, previously on a 5 day schedule the 'numbers' I was achieving definitely drifted in the wrong direction as the week went by. This week I've stayed on track all week. So far so good.
I'll show some of the power charts as time goes by to show the progress, or not, that I make.
Since I had to cancel the 2010 trip, the bug that affected me seemed to keep coming back every time I got into some serious training which was incredibly frustrating. So I decided on the drastic step (for me anyway) of not riding my road bike for a complete month to try and get rid of the bug. So that's what I did and the only activities I got into where some bush walking and a few mountain bike rides.
So I've had my months break and and have now completed my first week of what will be 8 weeks of base training. I've added an extra rest day into the programme, I guess I had to acknowledge my ancient legs and body can't grind it out everyday anymore. This seems to have been very effective in week one, but I also suppose I was pretty fresh as well. So we'll see how the new approach goes as the weeks go by, previously on a 5 day schedule the 'numbers' I was achieving definitely drifted in the wrong direction as the week went by. This week I've stayed on track all week. So far so good.
I'll show some of the power charts as time goes by to show the progress, or not, that I make.
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