The_Convert

So you are a three right now? Do you have any upgrade points for 2 yet?

Anyone have a link to the results of this TT? Be interested to see it.

YMCA

Hey, we don't all live on the Tundra. Here in Florida, our main racing season is from Feb-June, with training crits in January. If you start training Dec1 and build steadily for 2 months, that puts you spot on ready to race a good 5 months. That's basically a 7 month commitment. If you burnout on that, then maybe it's time to reevaluate the importance of racing within your life.

With all my years, I don't even bother with base anymore. I just start riding steady rides on mod-big gears and hang with hard groups that week. That keeps me from having to sit on 44x19 all day for 2 months, like half the boys out there think you are supposed to do.

We also have a 4-5 weekend block in Sep/Oct, but with a well earned break after our main season, you can build right back up for those races pretty quickly if you really have the motivation.

popdelusions

Just curious here...R600 seems to be looking at a high TSS as a good thing in itself, sort of as a score to be bettered, kind of a parallel to w/kg. From what I understand, the point of TSS/TRIMPS scoring is to give you a quick number to assess the possibility of whether or not you're overtrained; i.e. a consistently high TSS per day of exercise if you're only doing a few days a week of workouts probably means you're not recovering well, you're functioning with chronic sleep debt or glycogen debt and need to train more/differently, eat better, work on recovery, etc. Thoughts?

timmhaan

i'm just doing whatever i feel like. some jogging, some riding. i'm also trying to strengthen my core, in an effort to strengthen my lower back - which always limits my performance on longer rides.

i'm joining a gym near my work as well, and plan on adding additional weight lifting and cardio work there during the weekdays at lunchtime.

El Diablo Rojo

Hey I love my Fortius as well, takes a lot of the boring trainer work and makes it much more bearable.

zimbo

One of the benefits of graphs such as the one r600 posted is certainly being able to spot overtraining but keeping track of those fun little acronyms (TSS, ATL, CTL) does a lot more than that, especially if your key races are longer distances. It helps you quantitatively assess if you're peaking at the right time and if you're tapering properly for your "A" races.

One area in which I expect we'll see improved software analysis is in breaking graphs such as that one down into training stress at various intensity levels. The TSS score alone doesn't provide enough information to know if you've done enough anaerobic work to stay with the lead group in a crit, for example.

Some people really like meters, charts, graphs, and numbers. Other people just like to go out and ride. There's plenty of room for both.

--Steve

pinky

Penguin, Fiordifruita? Kenda/Raleigh? CCB? Toga? Mengoni?

TheKillerPenguin

None of those. I'm not going to say, since its essentially speculation at this point, just been talking with one of the guys that rides for the team...

El Diablo Rojo

This is why I have a coach....so I get all the graphs and numbers but all I have to do is go out and ride

TheKillerPenguin

His results are out there, he can share em if he wants to.

I'm a cat3 with no upgrade points. I'd like to get a lot of upgrade points fast, but I don't even know if I'll be able to find my bearings that quickly. If I can, great, if not, that's okay too.

jfmckenna

The only thing I am training for now is cyclocross nationals. This includes commuting, fixed gear hill repeats, mountain bike riding and racing cross. Then in after a short break I race cross through January and start thinking about the road when it warms up and the ice melts.

I don't use electronic gadgets anymore, I have become accustomed to listening to my body. At the level I race at it works fine for me.

Lithuania

This comming season is going to be my first real racing season so for now I am just riding casually and not following any plan. Im riding between 7 - 10 hours a week at a slow to moderate pace. I am also running 3 - 4 times a week.

timmhaan

last week i rode a century and a few 50-60 mile rides without anything. no computer. no watch. no nothing. it was actually really nice. i have a tendency to stop if i reach my mileage goal. without the computer i just kept riding until i felt i had enough.

NomadVW 

Rolled out of october with 317 wt FTP. Looking to hit the 350 mark in May. Started my threshold improvement plan Dec 1st. Drop weight to 170, at 177 now. Recent 20 minute power was 343 on a hill climb event.

Also adding some short range sprint training come January. Would like to get consistent 1200w as well. Reading a bit more that this might not be possible to train effectively, so I'm not giving myself much time for this.

Snuffleupagus

Care to share your sources? I'm not being snarky, I'd just like to read up on it. Mebbe start a new thread?

NomadVW 

Drat.. this was supposed to be a new thread. Edited.

cslone

For the last month, I;ve just been doing pretty easy trainer rides for an hour or so, trying to increase cadence. The last week, I've had a case of bronchitis, so I'm sure any benefits will be nil when I get back on in a week.

hiromian

Just comming of a recovery rest week after 4 weeks of focus on hill climbs. I'm doing a minimum of 2 sessions of leg workouts a week for the next couple of months and my daily 1 hour commute to work is alternating days of intervals and recovery days. Next rest week is Xmass break. I'm suplimenting with proteen powder and glutamine. Gotta do the sprint training soon, and revisit hill climbs. No numbers or a coach. Play hockey 1X/week.

branman1986

I'm not sure what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. I thought I was supposed to be doing a lot of LSD, but then I kept hearing about not doing TOO much LSD, and doing some intensity and limiting my LSD to once a week. I'm mainly just going out and riding, I've only been riding my bike for 5 months and did well my first few cat 5 races at the end of the season.

Should I just keep riding, or maybe invest in a power meter of some sort? So far all I've done is tack on extra mileage before doing the local social rides.

Here's a link re: base mileage. Seems that most of the guys on the thread are pros and probably have different training regimens, but seems to make sense anyways.

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/ph...=base+training

also https://www.biketechreview.com/performance/base.htm

VosBike

branman,

The way I view it, after reading more articles than I care to mention on winter training and after a few debates with my coach is:

winter training has two goals:
1. build huge aerobic base
2. maintain high-end fitness

You can't really improve high-end fitness now because it will do you no good a few months down the line and it creates risk of burnout and makes high volume training very hard to do.

Research also suggests that higher-end fitness (LT and VO2 power) can be maintained at near-peak levels with as little as 1-2 sessions per week.

So, my training plan consists of a lot of mileage with about 95% of it at an endurance or Tempo pace (both well below LT) and a few intervals at and above LT each week. I just look at my training log every few days and make sure it hasn't been more than a week since I did some high-end intervals. Personally, I just use the weekly group rides for all my high-end stuff, but sometimes (i.e. right now) there are huge snowstorms and no group rides (me? bitter? never.)

Hope this helps.

Enthalpic

I'm in base 1 right now and the strength training portion calls for maximal strength. Of those who are doing weight training, how heavy do you go during this period? Friel sets (6 rep min) hip extension goals at :
-Step Up: 0.7 – 0.9 x body weight
-Squat: 1.3 – 1.7 x BW
-Leg Sled Press 2.5–2.9 x BW

I weigh 165lbs so for the low end of the scale my squat goal is 6 @ 215lbs and step up is 6 @ 115lbs. I am getting very close to these goals and am wondering if I should discontinue this phase a little early, or go for the upper end of the scale.

I do most of my workouts in the 10 – 12 rep range using this table, and some easy math, to convert those goals to lighter weights and higher reps.

Reps until fatigue / Fraction 1rep max
1 1.000
2 0.972
3 0.945
4 0.917
5 0.889
6 0.861
7 0.833
8 0.806
9 0.778
10 0.750
11 0.722
12 0.694
13 0.667
14 0.639
15 0.611
16 0.583
17 0.555
18 0.528
19 0.500
20 0.472
(eg my 6 @115lb step-up goal roughly equals 12 reps of 90lbs)
115 x 0.694/0.861 = 92.7lbs

So just how strong are you guys? Any comments welcome.

Stallionforce

I've been at sports so long I don't really feel the need to invest in coaching. I know what works for me. And I've tried coaching, and almost immediately stagnate. I find what works best for me is more of a traditional approach of base, build, peak, race. Etc. everyone's heard it. The only difference for me is that I really try to include a lot of intensity in my base period. I truly do believe that by going slow you simply train yourself to do that. I feel the real reason for base is to refresh psychologically. Physiologically, I don't think there's much benefit to long, slow rides.

The best ride for me is a two-up on a long-flat highway, pretty much 2 1/2 hours full speed. Right to enervation. It's not subtle but it is incredibly hard to do.

Snicklefritz

+1. I get bored easy from doing too much slow stuff during "base". Although a lot of long steady distance can be good for losing weight. For a lot of people, that type of riding doesn't jack up their appetite.

I do a fair amount of work in zone 4 during base as well as working on things that I find hard to do during race season, like crit style workouts: 15" HARD, 15" off for 10' then repeat 2x more.

Duke of Kent

1) Help my collegiate team qualify for nationals, whether that means water carrier, leadout man, or slave of the chase.

2) Do well at Joe Martin/Tri-Peaks/Stupid Week. Or, depending on where I'm living this summer, whatever local stage race I can find.

3) Start building points for upgrade to Cat 2.

4) 20min w/kg to 5.0.

El Diablo Rojo

Did a 30 min field test this morning and it looks like the gym work is paying off. I'm 2w below my peak from last year and I've raised my LTHR by 3 bpm. If today's field test were a fortune cookie it would have read "Things point to a powerful 2007"