Been ill - help me find my mojo!

Airmiles
Airmiles Posts: 101
To cut a long story short - baaaad sinus infection, 2 rounds of antibiotics, missed 8 weeks of training mid-Feb early April.

I was having a v solid winter - basically the same training as last year (my first serious year's training) but with commuting 8 miles each way on top and the 2 mid-week turbo sessions cut down from 90 mins to 60. weekend rides were 66 miles all the way through in 4h05 - 4h20, which is both longer and faster (by 1mph) than the same time last year. S0 180-190 miles/week. Plus, making some of the commutes fartlek-y or throwing in sprints had preserved a fair amount of top-end.

Now, however, I feel weak and slow, have clearly lost a lot of endurance, my thighs have visibly shrunk, and my threshold is clearly way down as my commutes are 2mph down on Feb.(I have a powermeter on the turbo bike but have avoided testing as I fear it would be too depressing). I did 37 miles last weekend and felt awful, but 44 miles yesterday and felt OK.

So what to do to recover in time for Aug & Sept sportives? (I've already resigned myself to missing the Maratona this year). :( I normally find blocks of 3 weeks on, 1 off work for me. All options obviously include slowly rebuilding my weekend endurance rides.

1) Default option - finish current block of base, block of tempo, block of 2x20 sweetspot, block 2 x 20 threshold etc
2) The Lemond option - finish current block of base, then 2 blocks of VO2Max, then sweetspot/threshold.
3) reverse pyramid - finish current block of base, then start 2 x 8 mins @ 3.75 w/kilo, building to 2 x 20 @ same

42 y.o. guy, 1st year serious riidng last year, hit 3.6 w/kilo, 1 sportive gold (Highclere Castle 74m course) , Maratona dles Dolomites middle course 5h51. Longest ride 102m (Polka Dot)

Thanks

Miles
I'm not saying pedestrians in Hackney are stupid.. but a fixed bayonet would be more use than a fixed gear...

Comments

  • azzerb
    azzerb Posts: 208
    Just start off training in the method which you know works best for you.

    My peak w/kg was 3.9, but with a winter of no training i was down to about 1.8. I just went about my 2x20's and 5x5's in February. With 2 weeks off for training, and coming back to training, i decided to test myself again and got back up to an FT of 3.1.

    So don't feel the pressure so much, enjoy your training, and because you were trained so well last year, you'll find the fitness not so hard to get back.