Trying to make national team

Exumanewbie

I live on a small island nation and I now have a legitimate opportunity to make the national team and travel for races in the US and Caribbean. I've started getting advice from a kiwi ex pro who lives here. However, Im wondering if his methods are outdated. He has me riding 13-16 hours (single & childless so i have the time) a week in Zone 3 (average speed is normaly 30km/18.6 mph) with one 5 hour ride and one hard effort per week . I am to continue this unti mid December. Afterwhich, I'll start threshold, sweetspot and interval sessions. Ive been riding for a couple years and have impoved rapidly to where ive gotten top 5 overall in races in the last 4 or 5 races. Am I on the right track? I wont be able to afford coaching until maybe next year but i dont want to do more harm than good. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Exumanewbie

I should probably note that I've been doing this regimine for the past month and I "feel" stronger. Especially after yesterday's ride of 90 miles solo at 19 Mph. I don't feel I would have been able to to that a couple months ago.

ck101

What are your options if you don’t have the money for private coaching, how do you know those here will give better advice? If he’s an ex pro arguably he knows more than some of the cycling coaches who are offering services in my country. They never made the Pro ranks.

The best way to know if if you are improving and you say you are is to get a Power meter and test your FTP periodically.

Good luck in your goals.

imposter2.0

Ck101 wrote:

If he’s an ex pro arguably he knows more than some of the cycling coaches who are offering services in my country. They never made the Pro ranks.

Worth noting that being an ex-pro does not automatically qualify you as a good coach. There's a bit more to it than that..

Alex_Simmons/RST

Exumanewbie wrote:

I live on a small island nation and I now have a legitimate opportunity to make the national team and travel for races in the US and Caribbean. I've started getting advice from a kiwi ex pro who lives here. However, Im wondering if his methods are outdated. He has me riding 13-16 hours (single & childless so i have the time) a week in Zone 3 (average speed is normaly 30km/18.6 mph) with one 5 hour ride and one hard effort per week . I am to continue this unti mid December. Afterwhich, I'll start threshold, sweetspot and interval sessions. Ive been riding for a couple years and have impoved rapidly to where ive gotten top 5 overall in races in the last 4 or 5 races. Am I on the right track? I wont be able to afford coaching until maybe next year but i dont want to do more harm than good. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's all but impossible to provide specific advice on a forum. It really requires a much greater in depth knowledge of you.

There is nothing really to suggest that what you are doing is terribly wrong (or right). Those blessed with inherit talent will tend to improve no matter what training structure is thrown at them provided it follows a couple of sound basic principles, and volume makes up for a lot of training sins. Provided you are recovering OK and keep improving then you are more than likely going to be fine. Just keep an eye on your fatigue levels as that's the one area that can creep up on you.