Advice regarding training plan :-(

Morpeth

Hi, I would appreciate it if you lot could take a look at my weekly plan and give some suggestions as to how I could improve it as I feel a little clueless. I want to target short races of less than 2 – 2.5 hours and Crits. This will be my first season racing on the road having previously focused on MTB events.

Note – all sessions include 20m warm-up and 20m cool down at 60 – 75% MHR, with 50m 'actual' training time (so 90mins total)


Sunday – Rest

Monday – Classic 20 x 2, @ 85 – 90% MHR (turbo)

Tuesday – Tempo, @ 80% MHR (turbo)

Wednesday – 4m Intervals, Base of 80% MHR with 5 x 4m intervals rising to 95% MHR (turbo)

Thursday – Rest

Friday – 40sec Intervals, 5 sets of 6 intervals @ 90 – 95% MHR (turbo)

Saturday – Club run, 3hrs, majority @ 75 – 80% MHR

Total = 3hrs below 75% and 6hrs above = 9hrs per week


The plan is to increase the amount of time on the road and replace some of the turbo sessions as and when the weather picks up. I have access to both HRM and Power (via my turbo).Can anyone offer any suggestions or advice.

Thanks

Toks

Morpeth wrote:

Hi, I would appreciate it if you lot could take a look at my weekly plan and give some suggestions as to how I could improve it as I feel a little clueless. I want to target short races of less than 2 – 2.5 hours and Crits. This will be my first season racing on the road having previously focused on MTB events.

Note – all sessions include 20m warm-up and 20m cool down at 60 – 75% MHR, with 50m 'actual' training time (so 90mins total)


Sunday – Rest

Monday – Classic 20 x 2, @ 85 – 90% MHR (turbo)

Tuesday – Tempo, @ 80% MHR (turbo)

Wednesday – 4m Intervals, Base of 80% MHR with 5 x 4m intervals rising to 95% MHR (turbo)

Thursday – Rest

Friday – 40sec Intervals, 5 sets of 6 intervals @ 90 – 95% MHR (turbo)

Saturday – Club run, 3hrs, majority @ 75 – 80% MHR

Total = 3hrs below 75% and 6hrs above = 9hrs per week


The plan is to increase the amount of time on the road and replace some of the turbo sessions as and when the weather picks up. I have access to both HRM and Power (via my turbo).Can anyone offer any suggestions or advice.

Thanks

Mmm?? you've got an an interesting mix of intervals going on there. Questions:

When does your racing season start?
Do you need to peak for certain races?
What are your goals? Move up a cat, bunch finish etc
What category are are you racing at?
What are you strengths and weaknesses? Good threshold power? weak sprint? etc

Morpeth

Thanks for the response;

When does your racing season start?
I’d say mid April for unseeded local races with some key events spaced through to September every couple of weeks.

Do you need to peak for certain races?
There is one in June I am looking forward to, it’s a 1hr crit. Other than that there are a few 50-60 mile races spaced every fought night after that.

What are your goals? Move up a cat, bunch finish etc
Well its my first season so my primary aim is to finish in the pack in larger races (Cats 2, 3, 4) and challenge in cat ¾ events. I’d like to think I could have a go at moving to third Cat.

What category are you racing at?
Just applying for a license so Cat 4

What are you strengths and weaknesses? Good threshold power? weak sprint? Etc
Strengths: Threshold power is ok, it’s going up fairly quickly with the current plan, I can sit at about 300W for an hour or so at 85% MHR (66Kg sound ok??), sprinting is my key strength.
Weaknesses: I’d have to say climbing, and endurance, anything over 70 miles is a chore.

Toks

Morpeth wrote:

Thanks for the response;

When does your racing season start?
I’d say mid April for unseeded local races with some key events spaced through to September every couple of weeks.

Do you need to peak for certain races?
There is one in June I am looking forward to, it’s a 1hr crit. Other than that there are a few 50-60 mile races spaced every fought night after that.

What are your goals? Move up a cat, bunch finish etc
Well its my first season so my primary aim is to finish in the pack in larger races (Cats 2, 3, 4) and challenge in cat ¾ events. I’d like to think I could have a go at moving to third Cat.

What category are you racing at?
Just applying for a license so Cat 4

What are you strengths and weaknesses? Good threshold power? weak sprint? Etc
Strengths: Threshold power is ok, it’s going up fairly quickly with the current plan, I can sit at about 300W for an hour or so at 85% MHR (66Kg sound ok??), sprinting is my key strength.
Weaknesses: I’d have to say climbing, and endurance, anything over 70 miles is a chore.

The key determinant in performing well in endurance cycling events is lactate threshold/functional threshold power. Yes you need to race smart, conserve energy etc but good LT/FT allows you be a real player in the race. 300watt threshold power is pretty impressive as a 4th cat and is perhaps the kind of power output a 2nd cat or strong 3rd cat would have.

Looking at your training plan I would add another Threshold workout and leave the anaerobic stuff (less than 3 min stuff, 40secs) till a few weeks before your first key races. Hence I'd replace Friday's works out with another 2 x 20. This will help lift your questionable endurance as well as increase threshold power and race fitness. If your sprint is a strong as you claim with that sustainable power output you should have a lot of fun racing...

With time you can drop one of the 2 x 20's and replace with a fast group ride/chain gangs and practice bunch skills, thru and off etc. Finally be wary of sticking religously to average Hrt's cause the old ticker can be affected by fatigue, heat, sleeping, dehydration, improved fitness levels etc. Also if your feeling tired don't hesitate to bag a session and take another rest/recovery day. Good Luck, let us know how you get on

Mike Willcox

This concentration on intervals during January and even February will bring short term speed gains. Those of us who have raced over many years have learnt how to pace ourselves over a season.

Fail to Plan then Plan to Fail.

Divide the year up into slots of periodisation so that you schedule yourself to peak two or three times in the year, normally during the summer months. Then ask yourself do you really want to be at your fastest next week or next month racing in an event in the cold and the wet.

Simple strategy. Seperate training into two categories endurance and speed. Unless you're doing a tempo ride (once a week or fortnight) then focus on building a solid aerobic base during the winter months. During the spring ease off the endurance and bring in more speed. Then closer to the time you want to peak mostly speed work and use racing as training.

Too much speed work now then come the summer months your mates will leave you for dead.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Morpeth wrote:

Strengths: Threshold power is ok, it’s going up fairly quickly with the current plan, I can sit at about 300W for an hour or so at 85% MHR (66Kg sound ok??), sprinting is my key strength.
Weaknesses: I’d have to say climbing, and endurance, anything over 70 miles is a chore.

If you have an FTP of >4.5W/kg (as your figures suggest) and then you say your climbing is a weakness vs Cat 4 riders, then your turbo power meter is wrong. That power to weight ratio would slay a Cat 4 field no trouble (unless it's full of burglars).

Morpeth

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Morpeth wrote:

Strengths: Threshold power is ok, it’s going up fairly quickly with the current plan, I can sit at about 300W for an hour or so at 85% MHR (66Kg sound ok??), sprinting is my key strength.
Weaknesses: I’d have to say climbing, and endurance, anything over 70 miles is a chore.

If you have an FTP of >4.5W/kg (as your figures suggest) and then you say your climbing is a weakness vs Cat 4 riders, then your turbo power meter is wrong. That power to weight ratio would slay a Cat 4 field no trouble (unless it's full of burglars).

Here in lies the problem, I ride out with a local racing club who are mainly made up of Cat 1 - 2 riders, on the flat I am ok, sign post sprints are ok, I am on the very edge keeping with the race snakes ambling up the hills. In short I cannot compare myself to any Cat 3 – 4 riders because I have not had the chance… perhaps that’s a start… find a more mixed group?

Thanks for the responses, I will take on board the need to cut back on short intervals and mix in some longer/paced sessions.

Toks

Morpeth wrote:

Here in lies the problem, I ride out with a local racing club who are mainly made up of Cat 1 - 2 riders, on the flat I am ok, sign post sprints are ok, I am on the very edge keeping with the race snakes ambling up the hills. In short I cannot compare myself to any Cat 3 – 4 riders because I have not had the chance… perhaps that’s a start… find a more mixed group?

Thanks for the responses, I will take on board the need to cut back on short intervals and mix in some longer/paced sessions.

Morpeth don't sweat it mate. If you're chainganging it it with 1's and 2's and your threshold wattage is fairly accurate you'll have no problems in 3/4 races. Is the hill difficulty about weight do you think?

Morpeth

Toks – I think that’s it, some of the boys look like they would struggle to stand up let alone dance up a hill like they do :shock: . I figure I need to drop a couple of Kg’s (65/64 is possible) and continue to push my FTP with another 2 x 20 instead of the short intervals.

Is it worth considering some cross training or weights? How and where would you add time to my plan and what HR zones would you target?

Toks

Morpeth wrote:

Toks – I think that’s it, some of the boys look like they would struggle to stand up let alone dance up a hill like they do :shock: . I figure I need to drop a couple of Kg’s (65/64 is possible) and continue to push my FTP with another 2 x 20 instead of the short intervals.

Nah we don't have many continental style climbs in the UK so just keep working on improving your fitness levels.

Is it worth considering some...weights? ?

Er Nope!..but don't take my word for it.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=strengthstern
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t126133.html
Here's some good links to check out when you've got time.
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/sweetspot.html
http://www.freeweb.com/velodynamics2/LTtest.pdf
http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/ (check numbers 4 and 5)

Happy reading :-)

Felix-da-house-mouse

can someone break down what the intervals (20x2 etc) mean is that 20x 2 minute intervals or what? i'm looking to make a training plan see my broken arm too late? topic. but its my 1st winter/season and i need to get alot fitter as i want to do club runs and my fitness is pretty low just now like burn off my wee bit of a belly etc.

Toks

Felix-da-house-mouse wrote:

can someone break down what the intervals (20x2 etc) mean is that 20x 2 minute intervals or what? i'm looking to make a training plan see my broken arm too late? topic. but its my 1st winter/season and i need to get alot fitter as i want to do club runs and my fitness is pretty low just now like burn off my wee bit of a belly etc.

try the thread on 2 x 20's