mattm

We talked about Base, now let's talk about Build.

Towards the end of the Base thread a few people were arguing that specificity trumps all - from what I gather, Build is all about specificity.

Some reading: https://www.trainingbible.com/joesblo...ecificity.html

So what does your "Build" phase look like? Or maybe a better question is, what does a good Build phase look like?

gsteinb

too soon. talk to you in a few weeks.

waterrockets 

^^^

mattm

lol

Not everyone has to suffer through an East Coast winter!!

Fwiw I'm not starting until next week.

waterrockets 

I have two more weeks of base. Build plan: start a block with ZCI™s twice/week, tempo or sst other days. Next block, drop back to "push" workouts for threshold (2x20s) and throw in the AWC and VO2 stuff, with tempo or SST to fill in. Then some testing to see what's next.

grolby

Geez. I start my base period today. Build!? Yikes.

waterrockets 

My (hopeful) first race is the first week in Feb. Important races in late Feb.

Ygduf

I started build about 7 weeks ago.

I've never read that book you cite, so cover your gentle ears, sensitive ones. For build I basically reduce mileage, maintain hours, and do more riding at z0 and z7. I do about 3 weeks with a lot of fatigue, where you feel like ass on Monday and NEED your rest days. Then on the 4th week I cut back on the z7, make sure I'm sleeping enough, etc... I do 2-3 of these cycles and work my CTL slowly higher and higher.

I'm ahead of schedule this year as my yearly end-of-season crash was pretty mild!

gtrob

Racing starts mid april around here unless you are the type who likes mud and ice. I suppose that would put around feb-march to be the main part of build.

Ill start to push longer intervals, I race track all winter so Z7/6 is covered weekly as it is. I need to start pushing Z4 again as I can't do it on the trainer or the track, so that will be mainly what feb/march will be for me. Some longer Z3 rides in the sun would be nice. Some day...

Creakyknees

My highly unscientific method of "go a bit harder once in a while" and "do a few anaerobic efforts" will commence soon.

Dunbar

Just curious what your FTP is? I saw on a recent Strava segment where you pushed 380 watts for 35 minutes.

ovoleg

I enjoy build a lot more than base!

wens

Are you in canada?

misterwaterfall

All day. You actually feel like you're getting faster during build, and it usually means racing is close

Racer Ex 

furiousferret

As a new 5, I'm in a different boat than you guys...its more of a raft, really. Our ceiling for improvement is much higher but so is our chance to sink.

I have no friggin clue what I plan to do. My first race is 6 weeks from now, ftp keeps going up during base, so its going to be hard to change what is working. I'm considered getting a coach, because even though I'm improving, its not where I should be.

I do need to improve both my cadence speed and 10s power, so I've started integrating leg workouts at the gym, and fast cadence drills.

mike868y

honestly as a new 5 just ride as much as you can. do hard group rides, do long rides, do easy rides, do skills drills and clinics, listen to your body and those around you. worrying about following a plan is putting energy into the wrong place, imo.

skinnyguy

lets hope your build doesn't end w/ 24.36% body fat like the beautiful Amber. even if you look good you gonna get smoked. just sayin.

Racer Ex 

I was imaging metaphorically.

mollusk

+1

This kind of stuff after base for a couple of weeks is the ticket. One longish ride per week is also good.

And the bigger your base the more you can do this without going backwards.

After that there is some really painful stuff to do on a bike that isn't during a race.

aaronmcd

What are ZCIs? And by "filling in" with tempo or SST, do you mean all other days? Is a short tempo ride good enough for a semi-recovery day?

grolby

This is not necessarily the best advice for everyone, but few 5s can do any wrong by following it.

Why do you think you need to improve your cadence and 10 second power? What's your reasoning here? I mean, maybe you do, but how do you know?

The mistake new racers make is thinking that the biggest improvements they need to make are to their fitness. Fitness can definitely be a significant weakness for a new racer, but the biggest challenge faced by a newbie BY FAR is that they have no idea how to race. And then you think, well, if I just had a bit more 10 second power, I could have won that sprint. And maybe that's true, strictly speaking, but it's also probably true that with some more race smarts you could have won that sprint with exactly the same power you have now. The challenge is that you lead yourself into thinking you know what you need to improve, but sheesh, getting faster, if you can, is pretty much a given. OF COURSE you're going to work on your power. And determining your strengths and limiters can be a long-winded topic on its own, but at least everyone gets that tuning the engine is essential, and it's pretty much a matter of putting the work in. It's understanding the intangibles and developing them that's really hard. I think a lot of us have stories like this, but I can think of a race a little while ago where I placed third from a break. I was emphatically NOT the third-strongest guy in that field. Not even close. But I knew which wheel to be on and it worked out. Other guys can tell you about how they outright won when they didn't have the best 10 second power.

I mean, this is silly of me, because it's a thread on build, and I'm not telling you this doesn't matter. But I think you might be overthinking your physical weaknesses a bit. If you have that little bit more 10 second power, are you going to start winning races? Are you sure? By all means, work on that power. I'm just saying that you probably don't actually know where you should be actually is. My suggestion would be: whatever you do, race a lot. A LOT. I wish I'd done 20 races in my first season (I did 11 or 12 or something). Every season where I've done 20 or more races has taught me more than twice as much as th ones when I did 10. Don't worry. Just race.

gtrob

How far is the LA velodrome? They have a weekly intro session and open training just about every day. You can do 130rpm sprints all day long

furiousferret

My power is pathetic; I get what you are saying but putting any torque on my left leg the ankle gives slightly. Its just going to take time for it to strengthen (It was in a cast for a few months). What am I basing this off of? There's a chart floating around on the internet that gives w/kg and while my ftp is at Cat 4/5 level, the 5 second and 1 minute are in the 'untrained' area.

I get what you are saying, and it makes sense. I've been moving away from long solo rides and going on more group rides. I'm registered for 6 races so far, and will probably do more. I definitely need to learn race dynamics and being comfortably aggressive in a group. Luckily we have a few weekly competitive rides out here in addition to racing.

Roughly 90 miles. I'd love to make it out there one day, but its quite a drive (even with a FastPass).

Racer Ex 

It's not what your wattage is but when and how it's applied. Understand the Ewangeroo charts are data points of the best numbers people have put up who race certain categories. This is like looking at the heavily airbrushed nudes of Belinda Carlisle from that 2001 Playboy. Not only are you only getting a partial picture of what she looked like then, it's not really relevant to your stalking now.

Pretty numbers don't always add up to pretty results.