This week was Week 3 of my speed and power phase and I do believe the positive effects of my training are beginning to reveal themselves. The main session I'm using in this phase is based around 6 minute intervals at 105% of FTP; at my current FTP 105% equates to approx 51kmh. In Week 1 I managed 2 and then 3 intervals during the week, and in Week 3 I managed 4 and then 4 + 2 minutes of a 5th, so my legs are definitely getting stronger. On my long road ride today I felt strong on all the hills, and am regularly riding up hills in the big ring when only a few weeks ago I would drop down into the granny ring. I also managed to sprint up one hill and hit 40kmh on a significant incline (with my HR doing it's best to catch up!). Overall, just under 10 hours of training and almost 280km of bike miles this week. I am VERY pleased with my cycling progress and am really looking forward to The Outlaw. I do, though, need to spend more time out on the road on my TT bike, getting used to the handling characteristics of the TT position and the deep front wheel.
Rest well folks (go and read Frank's blog if you haven't already!).
Resetting - 5K Fitness Baseline Race
3 months ago
3 comments:
Are you going to be including any race pace sessions into your longer rides?
The PB way is to not do so, you do long rides at 75% or less of your max heart rate and then during other sessions do the 95% intervals (as Mick says above). I've been following this protocol as well and took 2.5 mins off my 10 tt time.
I'm Sure Turbo will answer but most of his long rides have had some 'work' on an ad hoc basis but not specific 'conventional' planned intervals of race pace. That would be chronic cardio (aka threshold high carb burn).
Of course riding Sportives every month or so provides a 'breakthrough' stimulus - Mark talks about this in his book.
K
Sorry for the late reply. The weekend long rides are more fartlek than even paced efforts. I ride with some mates and there is the usual efforts up hills and we always end with a 15 minute 'wind-up' ending in a full on sprint. I then have an easy 30 mins spin home after that. I'm afraid I'm not disciplined enough to do long steady efforts, even if I wanted to. I'm afraid it's all about enjoyment at the moment; I will see how The Outlaw goes and then decide whether I need to change anything or carry on as I am. I must say I have never enjoyed cycling as much as I have this year. It really has been great fun.
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