2020 Structured Training

[Ming the Merciless]

Thought I d start a thread for 2020 structured plans.

I've just dusted down the turbo and will spend December reacquainting myself with hard turbo efforts. I've got a new recumbent, with a 700C rear wheel. So I'll be using the recumbent to develop power on it, as it uses the back of the leg muscles much more than upright. So you need to train on it, to get the most out of it when out on the road.

Got some hilly long distance rides in 2020 so keen to get my power and how long I can sustain it, as high as possible.

 

[Sharky]

To call my plans "structured" could be stretching it a little. I tend to do a short ride (60-90mins) to make heart beat faster, every 2 or 3 days.
Very worried about ice (black) nowadays, so if it gets to 3 days without venturing on the road, will do a 20 minute session on the turbo. I also play competitive table tennis and I include this as one of the training days.
No plans next year for long rides, just the club's evening 10 series and would love to beat my age standard. Maybe an open 25 or two and would really like to ride a 50 - haven't done one for a few years.

Had an enforced rest in september (kidney stone) for a few months, but have recovered and have made a start on this plan, although xmas might get in the way.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

2 sessions away from finishing anothrr Specialised Plan with TrainerRoad. Dithering whether I’ll have a couple of weeks completely structure free and then start with a Base plan and start all over. Ordinarily you would revert to the Build plan but I fancy square 1.

 

[Jerry Atrik]

Mid base 1 and 2 is definitely working for me .

 

[Ming the Merciless]

2 sessions away from finishing anothrr Specialised Plan with TrainerRoad. Dithering whether I’ll have a couple of weeks completely structure free and then start with a Base plan and start all over. Ordinarily you would revert to the Build plan but I fancy square 1.

I've been off the turbo the past few months. So I'd call what I'll be doing this month as preparation phase. As in preparing the body for the phases to come.

 

[HLaB]

Open TT's and the ToC TT are my targets for next year. I'm cautiously optimistic with the level of training I've been doing and with the op, I'm no longer seeing my stomach swell. Previously I'd be a relative superman, then an OAP for a bit then a relative superman again. I put it down to nutrition/hydration but the more I ate and drank the more often I'd be the OAP and it was the initial sign of a bigger problem. But now its sorted I seem to be more sustainable and I'm looking forwards to training over winter and next year

 

[Dogtrousers]

As part of my long term plan for next year I bought a tacx smart trainer a few months ago. My plan is to drop my monthly 100k ride while retaining the monthly 100miler, and do a few shorter 50k or so rides as replacement for the 100ks, plus work on the trainer so I don't lose fitness for the 100milers and 200k audaxes.

Quite how I'm going to do this I've not quite figured out. I've not bought any subscription to anything yet.

So far I've been trying Tacx's "Bora Hansgrohe (sp?)" Program. This has three weekly sessions - intervals (three bunches of 5x high effort with recovery between), over/under (three blocks of effort over then under FTP) plus an endurance session that is dull. I've binned that.

I've also been trying to figure out how much I can commit to. I'm thinking of two weekday sessions, one first thing (<=1hr) one evening (~90 min) Plus a weekend session if I'm not out on the road.

I need to figure out what I'm trying to achieve in a bit more detail. I'm hoping that if I can up my FTP then maybe my long distance easy effort cruising speed might go up a bit. And I don't want the loss of my monthly 100k rides resulting in me finishing my 100 milers struggling and making 200k audaxes an ordeal.

Also I've confirmed that yes, my wife's hybrid will fit on the trainer. So she's pinched it and puts in loads of time on it. (I have to do the swap and recalibration, tho )

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Well I finally got round to getting back on the turbo. I finished building the new recumbent three weeks ago, so I've been busy getting out on the road on that. The new recumbent has a 700C wheel, so at last I can do turbo efforts on the recumbent. I did a ramp test today just to see where I'm at. My FTP appears to be 75 watts down on where it was, on my road bike in early July. There's two things going on. I've had a fairly chilled late summer and Autumn with no really hard efforts. Secondly I spent most of my riding in the past year on the road bike. I was definitely leg limited during the ramp test, the heart and lungs had more to give, but the legs fatigued to the point of failure. So happy to start at the lower figure, and work on gettting my legs adapted to the recumbent. The recumbent is much more about the gluteous muscles and hamstrings than the road bike. So as my gluteous strengthen, the power should start to climb back.

Of course it may also be that I'm not used to hard turbo efforts, after a few months break, and that in a few weeks when I do the ramp test again I might see some nice gains.

Last season my FTP climbed 60 watts between my January structured training start and the summer season. If I can achieve similar on the recumbent, for the 2020 season, I'll be happy.

 

[HLaB]

Well I finally got round to getting back on the turbo. I finished building the new recumbent three weeks ago, so I've been busty getting out on the road on that. The new recumbent has a 700C wheel, so at last I can do turbo efforts on the recumbent. I did a ramp test today just to see where I'm at. My FTP appears to be 75 watts down on where it was, on my road bike in early July. There's two things going on. I've had a fairly chilled late summer and Autumn with no really hard efforts. Secondly I spent most of my riding in the past year on the road bike. I was definitely leg limited during the ramp test, the heart and lungs had more to give, but the legs fatigued to the point of failure. So happy to start at the lower figure, and work on gettting my legs adapted to the recumbent. The recumbent is much more about the gluteous muscles and hamstrings than the road bike. So as my gluteous strengthen, the power should start to climb back.

Of course it may also be that I'm not used to hard turbo efforts, after a few months break, and that in a few weeks when I do the ramp test again I might see some nice gains..

I was reading on the TR forum a ramp test could be 30 w too low for some folk. One bloke recorded 285w on a ramp test and 10 mins later he did a 8mins test and did a 314w.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was reading on the TR forum a ramp test could be 30 w too low for some folk. One bloke recorded 285w on a ramp test and 10 mins later he did a 8mins test and did a 314w.

I'll see where I'm at once I've done a few of the sessions I did last year, but using the new FTP value. If they feel too easy I'm not adverse to upping the FTP value till they feel about right. Really the ramp test and 20 min tests are to get you in the ball park. As long as the value is in the right ballpark I'll be happy. Next three weeks I'll just be doing the workouts, but without structure. Then I'll retest and get started on the structured training.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I use the turbo on the patio and this rain is driving me bonkers. Took the recumbent to a local hill, and did 10 repeats in the rain today. The hill length means these are VO2 Max intervals. No data, as I don't have power cranks for the road; so this was a perceived effort workout. Certainly got the heart, lungs, and legs working. I was very glad to reach the top of the hill each time, and have that ever so brief recovery time as you turn and descend back down to the start of the climb.

 

[HLaB]

I use the turbo on the patio and this rain is driving me bonkers. Took the recumbent to a local hill, and did 10 repeats in the rain today. The hill length means these are VO2 Max intervals. No data, as I don't have power cranks for the road; so this was a perceived effort workout. Certainly got the heart, lungs, and legs working. I was very glad to reach the top of the hill each time, and have that ever so brief recovery time as you turn and descend back down to the start of the climb.

A lot more energetic than me. I never fancied cleaning the bike again and just opted for a half hour recovery ride on the turbore to keep my legs fresh for the weekend.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A lot more energetic than me. I never fancied cleaning the bike again and just opted for a half hour recovery ride on the turbore to keep my legs fresh for the weekend.

Bike has mudguards so not a lot of cleaning to do.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I have a figure at the moment that may or may not be my FTP. I got that from the TACX built-in FTP test in which you do 20 min at your highest sustainable intensity and they use a percentage of that as your FTP. I say "may or may not be" because next time I do the test I'm pretty sure I'll better it simply because I have a target to aim at. I think there's plenty of latitude for simply getting better at the test (rather than improving the measured value).

So - question about ramp tests.

I've read that you can also get an FTP value from a ramp test. The following is what I've gleaned from reading around. Happy to be corrected. To do this I'd need to either sign up for trainerroad or zwift or someone and use their offering, but I'm not ready to sign up to anything yet as I'm still learning/discovering, or I'd need to roll my own ramp test. My own would, I think, be an erg-mode workout that - after warmup - has a minute at (say) 100W, then steps up each minute by an increment (not sure how much, maybe 20W). Then ride it until failure. Then look back at the max 1 minute power over the whole test. That's my MAP value. I can get another FTP estimate from that by taking 75%. That could be handy in setting a target for my next 20 min test.

Speaking more generally, I'm quite enjoying my turbo. I've used it fairly regularly since I bought it four months ago, except for a few weeks when life intervened rather heavily. I doubt I'm disciplined enough to call what I do "structured training" but it's a bit of fun, I doubt it does me any harm, and it fills in some periods of available time when I otherwise would be watching telly or scrolling through rubbish on the internet. These numbers like FTP are mainly to provide a bit of interest/motivation to keep the indoor sessions going, rather than anything serious or accurate. Oddly enough I do quite enjoy it, and it means I can push myself to a degree that I never can (or at least never do, as I always revert to trundle-mode) in the real world.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

@Dogtrousers TR offers a free trial period so you could do the ramp test and then drop it. I think I may have some codes somewhere. I’ll have a scratch around.