Base training

[DrMekon]

Back to it after a restful week. I had gone from "cant have a day off the bike" to "I can't wait for another rest day / easy week".

This week is like the last cycle, but then next week and the week after are a bit chunky - suspect I will be struggling on the hard days. However, for now, even the hideous low rpm SST session is fun.

[Pedal Castro]

Yesterday was a rest day after a four day block consisting of 4x15', 5x10', 4x8' and finally a Billat 5x3'. Today is day one of the next four day block which is the same four sessions but in reverse order. After failing to hit my targets in Monday's 4x8', Tuesday was hard but achievable and today was a 5x3 power PB so it looks like I am back to where I was before the break.

I now feel confident in upping my FTP, maybe by 8W initially and see how the LI sessions go.

[rob]

You're all doing an awful lot of threshold/high intensity stuff.   I'm only doing 2 turbo sessions a week.

How many hours a week are you all doing in total ?

[simonp]

If I was feeling 100%, this week would be 9h, two threshold workouts (Tuesday and Thursday).

Tuesday - 12x 3m threshold.
Wednesday - 3x20m tempo.
Thursday - 4x8m threshold + 5s sprints.
Friday - 1h endurance.
Saturday - 6x8m sweet-spot with hard starts@ 200% FTP for 12s.
Sunday - 3h endurance.

[L CC]

And how much on the road?

(I'd say for me that much turbo time would be massively overtraining for this time of year and I would be completely burnt out by the time I actually wanted results in the real world in May / June / July)

[rob]

And how much on the road?

(I'd say for me that much turbo time would be massively overtraining for this time of year and I would be completely burnt out by the time I actually wanted results in the real world in May / June / July)

Same here.

I'm doing :-
 
- 10hrs of commuting - not junk miles but aiming to be in endurance/low end tempo bands using an HRM.
- a 4-6hr road ride at a weekend
- 2 turbo sessions of approx. an hour.   I'd call them both top end tempo/threshold.

Call it 16-17hrs a week

Key races are really June/July.    I properly overcooked it last Winter and paid the price with some below-par races.

No idea what the next few weeks will bring as I only get sent the plan week-by-week.

[rob]

And it's the 2 turbo sessions that I hate more than anything.

[zigzag]

with my key events at the end of july, i think it's still to early to start structured training. might be starting from base2 from around march. so far just keep doing some longer rides at easy and moderate pace.

[L CC]

As my top priority right now is weight loss (I'll worry about enjoying cycling again if I still feel like this in April) I'm not even doing much LSD- it generates an appetite for more calories than it burns off.
Commuting is when I can, (and CBA) and I really can't count that as it's pretty much all downhill. Or on a bridge 
Lighter evenings it'll start counting as I'll ride home- as that's (obviously) uphill all the way.

3 Turbo sessions (totalling 4 hours MAX) and probably 3 resistance sessions and that's more than enough.

[chrisbainbridge]

About 7.5 hours training per week including 3 hour ride at weekend.  I am also adding in some weights and pilates sessions.

[Lady Cavendish]

I think some people just find the turbo easier than others. I am a complete pussy in the cold and tend to hide inside a lot. I'd always prefer to ride outdoors and do where possible but I have no problems sitting on a turbo for several sessions a week if needs be. I honestly don't ever have any motivation issues, I love it. Some people really hate it. In the same way I hate the idea of a MTB!

My week looks something like
Mon- 90 min ride am, 60 mins pm plus 45 min run lunchtime
Tuesday- speed running session (hour) plus body pump am, 60 min ride pm
Weds- 90 min ride am, 45 min lunchtime run, turbo session of death pm
Thurs- 2 x GRIT classes am, spinning lunchtime (though don't go hard), running club evening
Friday- turbo session of death am, run and body pump pm
Saturday- 2+ hour run
Sunday- long ride (4-7 hours)

I tend to do this year round really, (Oct and Nov are easier months with less interval stuff) except when spring/summer comes, things get taken out/moved for racing. If I race on a Saturday (running obv this time of year) I move the long run to Weds morning. If the weather is shite, I will do all the rides on a turbo and be fine with it. There are only 2 'proper' turbo sessions in my week though, plus a running 'session' 

[simonp]

How much on the road? I'd do the 3h long ride on a Sunday on the road. I'm not commuting (3.5h round trip - not in winter) so total volume is much lower than rob's.

FTP is testing higher than just before last PBP for which I trained far more outdoors.

[DrMekon]

9h13m this week. That's a 540TSS week. No road. Goes up to 13.5hrs and 650TSS week after next. All less volume but more intensity and more rest than last year.

Mentally, it's all good for me. Listen to spotify, podcasts, watch Roadkill...

Lady Cav... chapeau. Last year taught me that I can dig myself in to a hole, notice the unfamiliar surroundings, and keep digging. I wish I had your resilience. Sadly, the colleague, who I ride with, has similar capacity. I have to accept I do not.

[Chris S]

I've had some sinus/snot/head thing going on since New Year, so I've done precisely NOWT for at least a couple of weeks (save for a bit of walking).

I'll start again once it doesn't feel like my eyeballs are going to explode whenever my HR increases  .

[rob]

Last year I did more hours with 3 turbo sessions totalling about 4hrs per work, but commuting was junk mileage.   Seems to be more quality this year as long as I do as I'm told.

have spent many years learning to suffer on the bike over long distances but going eyeballs out is just so different.

Probably why I'm crap at 10s & 25s.

I got close to the entry to my pain cave once, but bought something in the souvenir shop and caught the bus home.

[Pedal Castro]

You're all doing an awful lot of threshold/high intensity stuff.   I'm only doing 2 turbo sessions a week.

How many hours a week are you all doing in total ?

Currently it's only 6-7 hours a week, hence they all have to count. Sort of matching what I did last year following my broken hand, only this year I will put more long rides from March, a reverse periodisation programme type of thing.

Although it is said by some that you can't do high intensity intervals day after day without the intensity dropping I find I can. It needs a huge amount of motivation though, I find them much easier to do first thing in the morning at 5:30am because I don't have time to fear the pain. The workouts are a very specific design though, based on Seiler and Billat's research, maybe I have just hit on something that works for me?

[Pedal Castro]

And how much on the road?

(I'd say for me that much turbo time would be massively overtraining for this time of year and I would be completely burnt out by the time I actually wanted results in the real world in May / June / July)

Nothing on the road for another 3 weeks until my broken rib is healed enough. My main targets this year are the Cambridge Chrono (to qualify for the UCI Masters in France) and the National 12h. The Cambridge Chrono course has a couple of hills on it so I need to lose 10kg to have a reasonable chance there.

[chrisbainbridge]

feeling better tonight.  repeated a workout from 1 month ago.  NP up by 5% and a new record 1 minute power.  Took a much more controlled approach to the high intensity intervals.  I needed to know what my minute power was if properly paced and tonight I think I managed it.  I now have something to work on and build.

[rob]

You're all doing an awful lot of threshold/high intensity stuff.   I'm only doing 2 turbo sessions a week.

How many hours a week are you all doing in total ?

Currently it's only 6-7 hours a week, hence they all have to count. Sort of matching what I did last year following my broken hand, only this year I will put more long rides from March, a reverse periodisation programme type of thing.

Although it is said by some that you can't do high intensity intervals day after day without the intensity dropping I find I can. It needs a huge amount of motivation though, I find them much easier to do first thing in the morning at 5:30am because I don't have time to fear the pain. The workouts are a very specific design though, based on Seiler and Billat's research, maybe I have just hit on something that works for me?

My 3 hard sessions a week have me hurting for a couple of days.   When I started my long ride was on a Sunday and it compromised my Tuesday turbo session.  I couldn't do hard sessions day after day, but maybe my coach would change the sessions if they were for consecutive days.   I'm impressed by your commitment.

I stopped doing my 5am sessions as I simply couldn't sleep before them.   Evenings seem to work better at the moment.

[simonp]

Whatever is going on with me I'm very heavy legged this morning. Cycled to the station (10 miles) and my legs had no energy.

[Chris S]

Whatever is going on with me I'm very heavy legged this morning. Cycled to the station (10 miles) and my legs had no energy.

Not sure if you monitor HRV/RHR - my Fitbit does RHR each day, and I had a good four days warning that I was getting sick:



The day it reached 66 was the first day I started feeling ill.

(Yeah, I know - there's something almost CDC-ish about the spike; am I in the wrong thread?)

[rob]

Whatever is going on with me I'm very heavy legged this morning. Cycled to the station (10 miles) and my legs had no energy.

I got really cold/wet on the ride home last night.   I had to be helped out of my kit when I got home.

Legs felt very ropey this morning.   I'm shuffling tomorrows long ride onto more main roads and will likely flake on the lanesy audax I have entered.

[simonp]

We have Withings scales which do heart rate. My morning HR peaked early in the week and has been falling since. I'm going to try to have an easier weekend to get back to normal. I've volunteered to cox tomorrow which will reduce fatigue levels further compared to rowing and is also useful experience.

[Pedal Castro]

Last day of a four day block was 4x15' and I died 5' into the last interval but overall (over the four days) the numbers were good. The next three weeks are going to be more of a polarised approach starting with a very easy hour tomorrow spinning below LT1.

[Bobby]

How do people typically integrate TrainerRoad with real outdoor rides?

Do you go for one of the higher load training plans & replace some of the rides with outdoor rides? or do you go for a smaller load training plan & add in outdoor rides as you want?

I've seen the talk about TTS, do you approximate that for outdoor rides, or ignore outdoor rides?