Looking at this you can see the break in TR sweet spot workouts for a rest week and then an ad hoc week. Load should start to go up again now I’m back into the next block I reckon. Big Sunday coming off climbing too.

What’s not recorded here is any swimming / weight training / dog walking I do – mainly because I can’t be bothered to log it all.

Looking at your intensity distribution Joe, I’d say your Garmin is being harsh- you’re plenty close enough towards 80/20 easy/hard workouts 👌🏻

There’s loads of other factors too- trying to train for longer events like Kryton and I means we need a higher volume/load than someone looking to improve FTP.
Friel recommends building aerobic fitness to 2x the length of your ‘goal’ event for short events, so if you’re focussed on FTP (not going to open the ‘Hour of Power’ = FTP debate 🤣 but lets say loosely you want to be able to go hard for an hour) then you don’t have to do much more than an occasional 2hr ride.
What’s important is to calibrate it against your own results and feelings to look for clues as to what’s working or not.
Trainerroad plans are not high in TSS so you can get good FTP gains without getting a high ‘fitness’ score.

while we are sharing, more or less a full reset, 1 outdoor ride from July 22 – 1st January 23 in September, and only 5hrs on Zwift sporadically in early November, down 6kg or so from 88 to 82kg, mostly all Z2, there about 5 sub 40 minute efforts in there comprising of a couple of efforts up the Epic KOM or Zwift races, and 3 laps of Sherwood

Best 20minute effort is 265w, matching anything in 2022, quite a bit below 2020’s high of 319w though, which at approx 80kg at the time, put me on or around 4w/kg, which I’d be happy to get back to

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Awesome! That’s base done right 😎

I wonder if the amount of time in Z1 kind of has to increase with absolute FTP.
I notice a lot of Pro’s still ride alot at 180-220w even though the top of their Z2 might be 300w+.

Even my Base spell had a lot of Z1.
Or maybe I’m just lazy 🤣

might be a fuelling thing? must be hard work trying to keep on top of 1000cals per hour at 300w and maintaining body weight, 30 hour base week would have you at 30,000, drop that to 180w and you drop 10,000cal, of course most mortals don’t have 30 hours a week to noodle about

Yeah that’s it I think. It’s just physiologically too hard to ride right at 75% when you’re burning over 1000kcals hour! And as you say, they can add enough volume at lower percentages to compensate.

Did a sneaky mile swim this evening – first swim in about 3 weeks I think. Felt a little slow after a few weeks off. Going to start recording swims going forward as I guess the fatigue will add up.

Vo2 session this morning – it was hard but not as hard as the sweet spot session on Wednesday I’d say.

I find these kind of vo2 sessions easier than with 7+ min sweet spot interval sessions. That said I’m at a low progression level on vo2 and a bit higher on sweet spot – so I’m on ‘my first’ vo2 session level at the moment.

Perhaps a sign that the level was too easy for you. You could nudge it up a bit until it gets hard 🙂

Just measured my W yesterday and in order to get to 4W/kg my only realistic option is to reduce my weight to 25kg (without losoing power) 🙁

@thecaptain – I didn’t feel the need to notch the % up this early in a training block – just wasn’t as hard as I expected after Wednesday’s sweet spot workout!

@DrJ – reduce your weight to 25kg? That would mean only a 100w ftp if my maths is right? Or did you mean reduce your weight by 25kg…

@DrJ – reduce your weight to 25kg? That would mean only a 100w ftp if my maths is right? Or did you mean reduce your weight by 25kg…

A joke was intended, but still, I am on such a different level from you guys it ain’t funny 🙁

I completely missed that irony – sorry!

I’d have thought I’m middling fitness wise – so many people on here have so much better fitness / lighter weight or both together…

Works on Zwift @DrJ 🤣

Ramp test done.

🤢🥵

I’m confident I gave that 100%, I could barely turn the pedals over at 75w afterwards even with a 2 minute break! Those 2-3 minutes of hurt are the worst ever!

I’m ramping up this week before starting 6 weeks of dirt destroyer, current FTP is set at 222 but I think it’s a bit low so I’ll do a ramp test at the end of this week, I think I’ll be about 240w ish.

New FTP: 247w. Max HR, 191bpm. That puts me, at my current weight of 74.7kg, at 3.31w/kg. Back on the road to where I was last September, at my peak of 279w and 73kg (3.82w/kg). Here’s my FTP and weight over the entire time I’ve been training, since Sept 2021:

I reckon 6 weeks of dirt destroyer will set me up nicely, hopefully back up to 260w or so.

Good work – most recent ramp tests I’ve had slightly wobbly legs when I’ve finished!

Although on the most recent ones I had a 5 min breather and then did a 30 min easy endurance turbo session to chill out

You’re nearly bang on the same w/kg as me right now – although this is my peak ftp output so far. Would love to get near 270-280 for the summer but it might be too much of an ask vs the time I’ve got for training.

Yeah I’m happy with that considering I’ve not been doing any proper structured training recently, just increasing my hours on the bike slightly from pretty much nothing. In the past 3 weeks I’ve done a 2hr night MTB ride, and 4 zwift 40m-1hr workouts. So with 6 weeks of 3-4x workouts per week I should hopefully be back up close to where I was at the end of last year.

Well done @Ta11Pau1 👌🏻 Nice work 😀

finished the last 3 week block with 2hrs at zone 2 and then the remainder of Quatch Quest up the alpe on Zwift, took it steady for the last hour, for a total of 9 hours for the week, legs feel ready for an easier week, will probably drop to half volume and reduce the intensity a touch to lower Z2, catch up with some life stuff during the day as to fit in 9 hours has been tough (kids, masters, life)

don’t really have an end goal or race I’m working to (maybe I should, don’t feel like 300w or 4w/kg is really a goal, just an arbitrary figure I might not actually reach, older etc), so just going to do what I’ve been doing for the next block, hoping the weather improves enough to mix in some decent outdoor rides, don’t know if to pencil in some actual structured Vo2 sessions yet, as the couple of zwift races and hills I’ve done sit in the threshold range and of the 60 hours I’ve done this year, 52hrs are Z2 and I’ve only got 54 minutes in Z5

I did a big mtb ride today at Risca – about 30km and just over 1400m of climbing – proper broken now. It was riding the rough / steep off piste so even the downs were hard work.

Quite pleased with my fitness to get through that without cramp etc – still riding fast on the last downhill back to the car park.

Probably need a few days off legs now to recover. Might just take the dog on an extended walk tomorrow to loosen up and that’s about it.

First workout of dirt destroyer tonight, ‘back to basics’.

Oh, 65rpm intervals, how I’ve missed thee. 🤣

Interestingly I did this same workout in Dec 2021, with an FTP of 212 and my heart rate was 158 AVG/186 max. Today at 247 FTP my HR was 148 AVG/178 max.

I’m trying to get to 4 MW/g 🐜

I had a chill 1 hour endurance TR ride yesterday to spin my legs out without too much tss. Felt ok and my body feels back to normal after Sunday’s battering at Risca. On Monday I just felt totally exhausted full body so did nothing at all.

Back on a 45 min sweet spot workout this morning before work – 4 x 7 mins intervals between 88-94% ftp. Meant to be an hour version but not feeling it today.

No big ride planned this weekend due to Mother’s Day stuff seemingly absorbing the whole weekend annoyingly. Might try and pop out for a quick 1-1.5 blast on the road bike from the front door.

On Monday I just felt totally exhausted full body so did nothing at all.

TBH, i’ve always found that’s the best time to get the legs spun out.
Just an hour of “level zero”.
Always found (for me) that it meant i could do a session the following day (even a hard session) and staves off DOMS quite effectively.

Well done Joe, I’m awful at feeling bad for not doing what I had planned but consistency is key so at least you moved the needle 😀

Recovery days are a juggling act that’s for sure. If I’ve had a complete day off then I know that the following day is going to likely feel awful but I can still hit the numbers good and strong.

I need to basically do the 60 min recovery ride I should have done the day before, first, to feel in-sync again 🤣

That said, the science on recovery rides is patchy so I’d rather have at least two complete days off the bike each week.

If anyone has read about that Nils Van de Poel speed skater dude and his cycling training plan, they’ll know that he liked to actually take his two recovery days off together (the whole weekend as he was pro so could train five days in the week). And he’d even have an easy day Monday too if he felt he wasn’t recovered enough.

Bizarre week for me, after several issues with Sundays XC race I rested for 2 days then started last night with Zwift race coming 26th in the front pack of 200 over 40 mins averaging 3.5wkg despite a lot of coasting in the group, and was pleased with my short power to stay in on climbs at >5wkg. I’ve set several 12 month best – although not lifetime best – power records recently.

With wheels to rebuild and the travel from London I’m pretty sure I’m going to default the Cannock Chase race on Sunday (it may be postponed anyway) and defer to a long Zwift race such as the Chasing Tour 70km at the weekend instead. Followed by a steady MTB on Sunday to settle in those wheels.

Then, back to proper training next Tuesday.

When I say I did nothing on Monday I did walk the dog for 45 mins to stretch my legs a bit – but I couldn’t have got on a bike – I was just broken in terms of feeling exhausted.

Tuesday I weight trained chest and tri’s and that’s still hurting today as I did more weight for each exercise than recently. Going along quite nicely with that at the moment.

Tomorrow will be either a weights or swim day I think. If weights it’ll be deadlift / wide grip pull ups / dumbell rows / flute bridges / bicep 21’s with dumbbells I reckon.

TrainerRoad seems to be wanting to ramp up volume of vo2 stuff over the next month but I feel like I’d still like to do some more base – so I think I might switch some sessions for sweet spot ones a bit ad hoc.

@kryton57 – you sound on another level to me power / ftp / training seriousness wise. What was up with the xc race?

you sound on another level to me power / ftp / training seriousness wise. What was up with the xc race?

Well I am coached an committed to 9-12 training a week for Racing. :). 4wKG is more of an incidental thing for me but I though posting what we do for training to maximise power & fitness here would be of help.

The Race; to cut a long story short I think I had over expectations, would haver finish 28th of 40 Grand Vets if my free hub hadn’t exploded 500m from the finish. I needed to remember that I’ve had a 3yr absence to the format, it was regional A, a lot of the riders would have raced over winter & this was my first, and there were 14 GV’s & Vets behind my finishing time. After the race I just thought I was shit 😀

Well I am coached an committed to 9-12 training a week for Racing. :). 4wKG is more of an incidental thing for me but I though posting what we do for training to maximise power & fitness here would be of help.

Yes all this stuff / thoughts / advice are useful 100%! Good dedication there – I could only dream of having 9-12 hours to myself – let alone for biking.

It sounds like you’re being a bit harsh on yourself and the freehub disaster is so random.

I keep wondering about trying a low level enduro race but doubt I’d finish very high. No way I’d enter an xc race 🤣

XC is really accommodating with the cats Joe and are kind of weight/power to weight and skill dependant rather than power. I used to race way better at a lower w/kg and lower weight than I do know at 1.5 stone heavier.
And the big range of categories mean you can find close racing at any level.

And it’s (kind of) fun 🤣

I’m not sure racing xc on a coil spring / Lyrik Transition Sentinel would be amazing – it’s probably 10lbs heavier at least than any decent xc bikes 🤣

I guess I could race on my Marino hardtail as that’s only 30lbs give or take.

But no – just not going to happen!

aaaaaand i’m sick during my rest week, typical 😂 kids have been riddled and it finally caught up with me, have done 2x 1hr 20m low zone 2 sessions this week, Monday and Wednesday, cancelled todays, I dare say I won’t be feeling up to it tomorrow, had planned 4hrs this week, not a massive issue in the grand scheme of things

Always the same on recovery week 😔 And if you don’t get sick then you feel like it anyway 🤧 🤣

I’m on mine this week too. I’ve had a Baldrick style cunning plan for tomorrow and am going to do the slow group ride on my MTB 💡

If I do it on my road bike I’ll be in Z1 but on the MTB it should be Z2.
The medium group aren’t going out long enough and the fast group will be too hard for recovery week.
But the 70mile slow group ride should give me a lovely aerobic boost before I go into Build 1 😀

If anyone has read about that Nils Van de Poel speed skater dude and his cycling training plan, they’ll know that he liked to actually take his two recovery days off together (the whole weekend as he was pro so could train five days in the week). And he’d even have an easy day Monday too if he felt he wasn’t recovered enough.

TBH, comparing yourself to a pro is a pointless exercise, you don’t have the time, genetics, coaching and so on to even make it remotely relevant.

And FWIW, Nils VdPs dad lives about a 10 minute drive from me… So i’m well aware of him 😉

Hey that’s cool 😀

Actually that’s less true than you might think though because stress is stress is stress.
Recovery takes on even a greater importance for working amateurs as it’s easy to think low training volume means you can handle more bike stress. Whereas a busy family and work life means you may be under greater total stress than Nils and his bonkers bike workouts.

The interesting part for me was that he wasn’t afraid to clump 2-3 recovery days together. That’s pretty much unheard of in most cycle training literature where two days a week but evenly spaced is the norm (and even those may include active recovery).

we talking about this?

https://www.howtoskate.se/_files/ugd/e11bfe_b783631375f543248e271f440bcd45c5.pdf

Yes 👍🏻

This is quite good to pass the time on the turbo 😀

Quick road loop from the front door this morning. Not sure if I’m carrying a bit of fatigue from last weekend’s big effort. Was fine spinning along the Bristol/bath cycle path, but lansdown lane was more
Brutal than I remember – got my 2nd best ever time up it – but 52 seconds off my pb last May. Although that was a beautiful sunny day in just bibs and short sleeves jersey etc – whereas this was in a big commuter style coat and I got soaked with rain.

Feeling tired this evening – having a total rest day tomorrow I think.