2019 Structured training

[Ming the Merciless]

Max heart rate is dropping for the workouts I am doing. Tempted to move to the next phase early but will hold on before FTP retest. Good to see lower heart rates for the same power. Moving in right direction.

 

[HLaB]

If the stats are to be trusted fresh structured training over the last couple of months has brought back my power fast. I was only 2 watts off my 20 min best on Thursday night and apart from that its the most powerful I've been in a couple of years and after today I'm one unit off Strava 'Fitness and Freshness' metric and my VO2 max is up to 65 in Garmin

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Two weeks till next power tests. Did a vo2 max power pyramid interval session the other day. The longest interval was four minutes, two minute rest, then two minute interval. Boy was that tough as the max I can hold that power is five minutes.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I didn’t know till early Tuesday morning that I’ve been fighting off a bug. That explains why Monday’s sweet spot 1.5hrs was really hard. An hour of sweet spot this evening and I coped quite well.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I didn’t know till early Tuesday morning that I’ve been fighting off a bug. That explains why Monday’s sweet spot 1.5hrs was really hard. An hour of sweet spot this evening and I coped quite well.

My wife is ill and off work, so will see if I pick it up or get away with it. Rest period will come early if I go down with it.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did some strength work today. Basically trainer on slope mode and high gear / low cadence pedaling. Seems easy on first uphill but your muscles tire by second uphill and burn by the fourth. Heart rate was not that high as not intended to be a high aerobic workout but surprised at how much sweat I had generated in the end. A good workout to complement the other ones. Normally I do this on on hills outdoors, but too icy today.

Early signs of sniffles but still ok to keep going at the moment. Two weeks till recovery week comes along.

 

[Nebulous]

I've been working considerably harder than I usually do over the winter. Using training sessions on zwift, including the ftp builder, and some group events. I've been working consistently as well, which I'm pleased with, compared with my normal seesaw efforts. My choked nose is largely gone, but I still haven't retested my ftp. After overeating at Christmas the weight has finally begun to shift as well- I've lost a kilo. Feeling a bit weary, slightly heavy legs, possibly not helped by running a calorie deficit. Certainly a different approach, which hopefully will translate well into picking up my outdoor work as spring arrives.

 

[JhnBssll]

I've been pushing on with zone 2 efforts since 1st of Jan. I'm using Fridays as a rest day and trying to either commute by bike or ride on Zwift in the evening. Going well so far, I'm averaging just over an hour a day so far in January Mileage wise I'm at 387 so far and I'll be getting close to 500 for January if I keep going at this rate next week

I'm going to carry on with the zone 2 rides for another few weeks and see where I am weight and fitness wise before concentrating on building FTP again. I don't think building FTP and losing weight simultaneously would be a lot of fun I'm 5.2kg down so far this year and on target to have lost a stone in January so pretty pleased with that

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I've been working considerably harder than I usually do over the winter. Using training sessions on zwift, including the ftp builder, and some group events. I've been working consistently as well, which I'm pleased with, compared with my normal seesaw efforts. My choked nose is largely gone, but I still haven't retested my ftp. After overeating at Christmas the weight has finally begun to shift as well- I've lost a kilo. Feeling a bit weary, slightly heavy legs, possibly not helped by running a calorie deficit. Certainly a different approach, which hopefully will translate well into picking up my outdoor work as spring arrives.

Don't overtrain, recovery time is important as well.

Stress + recovery = fitness

 

[HLaB]

I think I should do a new FTP test Strava thinks Im up to 264w from 228w. I don't know if I'm fully up to 264w but it feels like I'm higher than 228w. Tonight was more of a cadence session but in hitting my cadence target I'm 90-100w over my secondary power target and I'm already in my lowest gear

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Bloody hard hill repeats today, defo a rest day tomorrow. Another week then bit of a rest and retest FTP.

 

[mattobrien]

Stress + recovery = fitness

Can someone tell that to my coach please, we certainly seem to be focusing on the stress element at the moment

 

[Ming the Merciless]

My resting HR and HRV indicate a day of active recovery today. So will go for a walk in country, nice amount of fresh air. Hopefully long low heart rate ride tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing result of FTP retest next week.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm just making this up as I go along now. I'm doing 1 hard, 2 moderately hard and two zone 2 sessions a week. Hard one is a race or event on zwift, moderate ones are workouts on zwift, but I'm making up the zone 2 ones myself. I can hold over an hour at 70% of ftp with much less upward drift of my heartrate than I could a month ago. I've been trying to put some variety into these sessions, today I did cadence drills. 5 mins warm-up then a steady 155watts for 10 mins each at a cadence of 70,80,90,100,90,80,70. Then 5 mins cooldown.

The turbo allows you to monitor small adjustments much more readily than on the road. For instance, moving my hands from the tops to the hoods drops my heartrate by 2-3 beats. It must open up my chest to get more oxygen in. On the road that would probably be countered by a wider frontal area increasing drag.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I didn’t know till early Tuesday morning that I’ve been fighting off a bug. That explains why Monday’s sweet spot 1.5hrs was really hard. An hour of sweet spot this evening and I coped quite well.

Take it easy if you have a bug. The setback is usually greater than the gain if you push on.