An interesting opportunity to baseline performance improvement

mpatts
mpatts Posts: 1,010
edited January 2016 in Training, fitness and health
I have had a rather extended break from the usual training regime, forced by illness, house move, and impending baby. Now things are a little more settled I'm back into the training plan.

However, I've decided its a good opportunity to do somthing different - therefore I'm replacing the normal 'winter base miles' with winter intervals (my new name for them; Wintervals).

On saturday I'm doing an FTP test, which I'm looking forward to as 1) it'll show power deteriation from 4 months unstructured training and 2) will show improvement (or not!) from 3 months Wintervals ahead of the impending season.

Froomey style, I'll post the results here.

I'm a weeny, with an previous FTP of 250 (as measured by my quarq), I'm betting its aroudn 215 now.
Insert bike here:

Comments

  • BrandonA
    BrandonA Posts: 553
    Isn't what you have described what a huge number of people during the winter months on their turbo trainers? I know I'd rather intervals on my Kickr during the winter than venturing outside and getting cold and dirty.
  • mpatts
    mpatts Posts: 1,010
    BrandonA wrote:
    Isn't what you have described what a huge number of people during the winter months on their turbo trainers? I know I'd rather intervals on my Kickr during the winter than venturing outside and getting cold and dirty.

    I'm not saying its not, but I do a good slug of base zone 2 miles normally. Different for me, rather than different.
    Insert bike here:
  • buckmulligan
    buckmulligan Posts: 1,031
    What kind of intervals are you planning, sub-threshold, over-unders, VO2 max, a mixture of everything? Are you planning on doing any long aerobic efforts at all?

    I'm very much in the camp that "base training" shouldn't just mean grinding out session after session of long aerobic efforts, but as a chance to address as many different facets of your cycling fitness as possible and then as the training season progresses towards your goal event(s), transition to training sessions that are increasingly specific to the demands of your races.
  • AK_jnr
    AK_jnr Posts: 717
    People still do base miles?
  • buckmulligan
    buckmulligan Posts: 1,031
    AK_jnr wrote:
    People still do base miles?

    This is precisely my point. What do you mean by "base miles"? It's a completely subjective term; I consider everything done at this time of year to be "base training" because at the moment it's not specifically geared towards an event, but that doesn't mean it's restricted to any particular type of workout.
  • AK_jnr
    AK_jnr Posts: 717
    Yeah thats a good point. I personally dont do the out dated easy miles all winter either, especially not for an hour on the turbo!
  • ozzzyosborn206
    ozzzyosborn206 Posts: 1,340
    AK_jnr wrote:
    Yeah thats a good point. I personally dont do the out dated easy miles all winter either, especially not for an hour on the turbo!
    an hour on the turbo as z2 wouldn't be base miles though, it would be more of a reco/maintenance ride, base miles would be 4/5 hours at zone 2
  • AK_jnr
    AK_jnr Posts: 717
    Thats what I meant.

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