As you may remember I broke my collar bone a couple of months ago
I am still under doctors order to not go on the road at all
However, I have been able to use the turbo for the whole period since I had my accident
To start with I was wearing a sling and not using the handlebars. For a few weeks now I am able to use my bad arm quite normally
I thought it might be of interest to describe my training program
It is based on
http://www.ultracycling.com/training/intensity_training.html and
http://www.ultracycling.com/training/limitedtime.htmlI had to assess the "limited time" side of it as I just cannot stay on the turbo that long. It is just too dull!!
The Basis of the plan is that I do one or two "Intensity" sessions a week and one "long" session
For the first two months for the intensity I was aiming to do a session of
3 x 85% HRM for 10 minutes with a 5 minute rest between each one. The last few sessions of this were 4x
These are something like the "AT Stimulation" sessions described in the ultracycling article
It is apparent that your heart rate is raised if you are sitting upright without your hands on the bars. But I ignored this as a potential problem. I am trying to train my cardovascular system and I figured that stress is stress.
This session takes around an hour to do after a warm up
For the warmup I was doing 5 minutes at less than 65% HRM, 5 minutes at 70%, a sprint for 60 seconds, 4 or 5 minutes recovery and then into the 85% intervals
For warm down I was doing 5 minutes at less than 65%
Recently I have stopped doing these sessions and started doing instead
4x 90% HRM + for 5 minutes with 2 minutes recovery
These are like the "Lactate Buffering" sessions described in the ultracycling article. The recovery is incomplete. The intensity isn't really on the HRM. I just go as hard as I can for 5 minutes. The HRM does help me estimate this.
The warmup is a bit longer- I fit in 5 minutes at 85% as part of this. These sessions are quite torturous.
After all the intensity sessions I use a recovery drink of All Sports "Amino Load". In my unscientifically proven experience this seems to be slightly better than just plain maltodextrine
The long ride was initially as long as I could be arsed at 70%
Later I switched this to a "tempo" ride at 80%
Now you may have read that 80% is a bad intensity to train at. However, it is apparently appropriate if you are doing long distance events. The idea is that you do 80% for a long time and then 70% feels easy.
80% for 100 minutes ( just did that earlier today...) is both kind of dull and kind of difficult, requiring more concentration on what you are doing than training at base.
I do use carbohydrate drink, about 1/2 a litre during the 1 hour+ tempo sessions. I don't use recovery drink afterwards
If I have the time to fit in other sessions on the turbo I will do them at base (ie 65-70%)
I have also noticed that there is a definite "warmup" effect for me with base. After 30 minutes I have to do a higher heart rate to maintain the same "power". Although I don't have a power meter this is just going on the turbo "speed". The extertion is supposed to be at a level where you can breathe through your nose. But this level of extertion is at a higher heart rate after 25 mins
So I do the first 25 minutes at a HRM "zone" of 66%-71% and the additional time at a zone of 70%-75%
Thank goodness I will be riding on the road in a months time. For one thing it is getting to hot, even in the garage. I am going to have to set up a fan.
