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Tuesday nights after the kids have gone to bed is alone time for me, so I've spent a couple of hours contemplating todays thread and re-reading some of Friels MTB bible, particularly about planning, recovery and Veterans.
I think its now clear that I've been ill disciplined with both my training and my resting, recognition of ability, time age and planning. Weirdly I've been focused on physically and mentally battering myself yet unfocused on much else.
This is my fault and no one elses, its now up to me to spend the rest of 2016 on the back slope of an adjusted Veteran season and to work with a coach to plan Nov. 16- Oct 17 properly [i]for Mountain bike racing[/i].
Its been a public reminder / lesson, but that in itself encourages varied input which is very much appreciated. We learn lessons in life and march on come what may - thanks and see you at the races maybe. 🙂
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Good reply by rollingoughnut. This bit amused me...
but I spend 10-12hrs a week training and virtually none of it is pleasant.
Does make you question your sanity sometimes! 🙂
Interestingly this thread has made me think about my own training. I think I'm getting less time on the bike while trying to structure my training than when i was just riding. If anything I've been over-resting in training weeks and under resting on rest weeks. Think I also need to accept that for fitness I'm better off on turbo than trying to replicate offroad. Will beast myself in the morning!
Ferrals, this year and if I reprogram as above my plan would be the same - most likely a reduction in "miles" but and increase in "effort".
Reading Friel last night though, I believe I understood that what Miles I can get in for Z1/Z2/Recovery would be best done on an MTB to keep Technical skills up to par. But at those levels a person does a lot less Miles on an MTB than on a road bike for the given period.
Thats where I've been heading Kryton, but I'm just not sure my effort has been high enough, so from now on I'm thinking I'll use TR sessions to beast myself on Tues and Thurs, weds will commute to work a low tempo and Sat and Sun will be mtb rides (sat hard offorad efforts, sun long z2 rides).
I don't think that the z2 mtb is enough to one technical skills need to be riding offroad all out too. However I've been doing a lot of offroad hill climbs and while fun, the line choice, grip aspect means out and out effort is lower. Hard to balance it all. Especially when its a lush day and the last thing you want to do is sit on a turbo!!
[s]miles[/s] hours in zone
[s]speed[/s] work/power
Actually, Kryton, I enjoy reading your openness as it echoes mine. It is frustrating when you [i]feel[/i] like you are training loads yet are not seeing the results you want to, or expect to. I only had one experience with a coach and it didn't work for me, BUT I had a lot of personal matters going on so although I was putting the time in I was likely not dealing with it mentally.
It is only natural to beat yourself up, but what you should then try to do is look at why you failed and then next time reduce the chances of failure.
So much of the battle is mental. Feel good about what you do, see the reasons why you are doing it (resolution of training) and then see the results and then grow the results by learning from your failures and addressing them in training. 🙂
It is frustrating when you [i]feel[/i] like you are training loads yet are not seeing the results you want to, or expect to.
This was me winter before last but looking back on it now, comparing it to this winter, it was a bit of an unstructured inconsistent mess and not really that hard either. Working with a coach on the plans has definitely helped with this.
One more thing and I'll shut up. It's really easy to think you're doing a set amount of hours a week.
Just check the reality by dividing the last years hours (tp or connect) and divide by 365 and times by 7. The result may be sobering.
This thread is giving me the almighty fear I'm not doing anything like enough training!!
What adsh says. Training Peaks has nice charts for this that'll show you averages over time periods for things like duration and TSS. It only takes a skipped session or two, or a patchy week, for things to drop off a fair bit. Training Peaks is nice too in that you can put all your planned workouts in and if you complete them it's green, if you don't it's red, partial is yellow. A month of green is a sight to behold... 🙂
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(^^^ that unsightly yellow was a session I had to finish off on the turbo, so should be green!)
If you're using TSS/Duration to build up a load during a block of training too, you can see this clearly in the graphs, and if you skip sessions you can see the effect it has. And it's all reflected in the PMC chart too with your ATL/CTL/TSB.
Well that was an interesting race - two things:
a) Having cleared my head of expectation based on what we now know as less than perfect prep, and just decided that "what will be will be", I was much more able to focus on what I wanted to do, visualise the race, spend some mental time riding it, and put my Strategy together. As a result although it was hard race I really enjoyed it, picking off targets and focssing on my strengths to do so, including moderating my urge to overtake on a final climb - my weakness - saving energy to outsprint the guy by 10m to the line.
b) I got comments from top ten finishers about last weeks amazing staerting sprint to the line. Initially this was a confidence boost, and very flattering, I appeared to have earned a little bit of something. The bad news is I was marked on the start, shoved onto the second row, and as I tried throughout the long 250m uphill sprint start to pass doors were firmly shut on me.
Still finished 10th though with a few more good riders turning up than previous weeks, and very pleased with the evening.
Beer O clock!
Joe Friel is good, especially the bit about Vets needing a bit more recovery. If you want to get faster, it's the quality of your training sessions that's important, not the time. I'm 43 and it takes me 2 days to recover from Sunday's XC race - if I don't leave it long enough, I can't make a quality effort and that can be disheartening as well as ineffective.
PS Good job on the last race!
Nice one Kryton!
I'm 43 and it takes me 2 days to recover from Sunday's XC race
I'm 34 and it still takes me two days!! Though I tend to train on the tues anyway
Maybe there is a case for trying some of the new HRV (Heart Rate Variable)software like ithlete? The only problem with it is you need a bluetooth HR strap as it won't work with a Garmin strap.
From what I understand, you take a reading every morning and it reads your heart rate and then some clever software works out how fatigued you are and recommends training or not.
I've downloaded the software but dont have a compatible HR strap at the moment so can't vouch for it but I hear some really good things about it and TrainingPeaks are raving about the new HRV data
Maybe there is a case for trying some of the new HRV (Heart Rate Variable)software like ithlete? The only problem with it is you need a bluetooth HR strap as it won't work with a Garmin strap.
Hmm quite fancy a play with that. Just ordered a Polar H7 to give it a try. Shall report back in a few weeks.
if your HR is 10bpm above average at rest then rest. I try to train in 4 week cycles, with 2 complete days off at the end of each cycle. Remember Hard days are supposed to be hard, easy days are supposed to be easy, very easy in fact.
Can you please post an update review on your Cube?