grolby

Like I said, I built at least 50% of my fitness base over the winter last year on one hour rides. It was just too cold for me to want to do any more than that until maybe mid-February. I still sucked it up and did longer rides once a week, usually on Saturdays. There's no need to overthink this. Get 8 hours per week in if you can, don't sweat it if it ends up being more like 6 some weeks. If you want to do some intervals to work on recovery, knock yourself out; I didn't find surges to be that much of a problem, but my characteristics seem to tend toward short and medium power output - I handle short, explosive efforts and punchy ~5 minute climbs very well, and tend to find myself in trouble when I need to make long, steady efforts. If that doesn't describe you, working on anaerobic recovery could save you a lot of pain in crits (not that accelerating out of corners in crits doesn't hurt me, cause it hurts everyone, but it doesn't tend to blow me up).

Stallionforce

Actually I'm probably one of the few who likes your plan. But cut the volume. I don't believe in low intensity riding. I think its only benefit is to burn calories. But you're not riding to eat, you're riding to get faster. Since you are just starting out in racing, I would really recommend attending to PE rather than HR. Keep the intensity you have in your plan, but place at least one rest week in there. I would actually put in two rest weeks. The last week, in particular, should be tapered. Also, as WJO said, you want some VO2 heading into the season. I like to work up to 5 minute intervals; starting with one minute at about roughly 115%. It's hard to pinpoint all this without a power meter.

I also think, just starting out, don't be too rigorous. I know you're stuck inside, so your temptation will be to get really precise to stave off boredom. Have a plan, but (again, the importance of PE) if your body is unresponsive, be attentive: it's telling you something -- most likely, that you need rest.

And, yeah, as the others have said, when you're beginning, you can't do enough group riding. And get a power meter if you can afford it!

grolby

If you have an endurance base established either from riding or other endurance sports, this is true. If you're relatively new to the sport, in the first few years, endurance riding serves a very important purpose, causing a long-term physiological adaptation to high-endurance by allowing the energy metabolism to adapt, causing interconversion of muscle fibers, etc. As a newcomer to competitive cycling, I can tell you that endurance is a serious weakness for me. If the OP is new to cycling, and competitive endurance athletics in general, than moderate-intensity riding is probably an extremely good idea.

bdbike16

Doesn’t Friel say that if you're in your first year or two of training you don't need to, and shouldn't follow his book?

bdcheung

Sound advice worth listening to.

What Friel is getting at is that in your first couple years, you should be on the Eddy Merckx training plan: Ride lots.

AlexTaylor

Heh heh - You're right he does!

I ignored him and carried on regardless...

grolby

Yep. I'm basically using it as a guide to training hours per week this year, and perhaps trying to build threshold as I get further into the season, but that's about the extent of it. There are some other things worth following in there as a new racer, but the amount of structure Friel outlines in the bible would certainly be serious overkill. Riding lots builds fitness incredibly quickly for new riders, I can testify to that.

wfrogge

If you do that then you are following his book

bdbike16

That's probably what I'll do too. Although, Baker's "Smart Cycling" has been pretty helpful.


That makes sense, I just feel like at this point, especially since I'm trapped on the trainer, I'll get better results if I ride with some sort of purpose - i.e. I'll ride lots, but I want to get the most out of that riding. I think it is easier to improve by riding lots on the road.

Woah.

grolby

How would this make any sense? If you are spending significantly less time on the trainer than you would riding outdoors, there is something to this, but turning the pedals over is turning the pedals over. If you get the hours in, you will improve (always, always think in terms of time on the bike, not distance). The biggest problem here is finding the motivation to do lots of time on the trainer. I don't know of too many people who find this easy. I ride outside whenever possible simply because it's lot more motivating than spinning on my rollers for an hour or more while my junk goes numb .

MDcatV

I'm curious about the rationale of the intensities you're targetting for this workout. Does it mimic the races you do?

My understanding of the microburst workout is 15" on>200%ftp/15" off@50% ftp to end up with a workout that looks like a wave when graphed, and is similar to a "typical" criterium, where the targetted energy systems are L7 nm power and L2 aerobic. The intensities you're targetting seem more like a 115%/70% of ftp (or in that range), and while an extremely difficult workout, that would be targetting more of a L5 VO2Max/ L3tempo range of intensities.

fuzzthebee

Your workout has an AP of 125% FTP , whereas the other example (assuming a 345-350 w FTP) has an AP of 92.5% FTP. I like the 150/50 approach. I consider these as L4 workouts.

AlexTaylor

My head hurts now.

MDcatV

good catch, that's what I was meaning to write in my question.

wfrogge

Its a "pair o dux"