Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Challenge for me is that often I'm travelling, which (from a regular training perspective, and also a having a pleasant life perspective) sucks balls.

One of my new years resolutions is to try to travel a lot less.

Or take up running more than cycling. Can be done anywhere easily.

When I'm done with cycling I'll run, I love the simplicity and freedom of it. And it doesn't need much time.

I normally take my running kit with me, it does as you say not require much more than a pair of shoes and some shorts.

Shorts?

Oh... that's why I was getting so much attention.

And a sports bra of course.

I thought your original plan looked textbook. Only thing I'd add is there should be progression ie don't train for the same duration on Feb as you do in Nov.

It's possible to squeeze training in just about anywhere - did an hour on rollers in hospital car park while visiting my Dad.

And doing something consistently is king

This should be repeated on every single page of this thread. The best training programme is getting into a regular routine of riding.

I was discussing just that with Matt (whom I met on Brixton Road this morning - hi Matt).

Even though I'd stopped doing structured sessions I was holding onto some form just by commuting five days a week and then going on the club-run on Sundays, but then I started having to be in Europe three days out of ever five and my fitness just fell away with my routine.

Take a month off, lose form and then go in fast paced club ride and get dropped. During your limp back home you can contemplate how crap you have become and thus awakening the Eye of the Tiger.

Possibly a little extreme for what I'm thinking, but the principle makes sense!

Recently bought a power meter and after doing a FTP test on TrainerRoad it also gave me a corresponding Lactate Threshold HR reading of 150pm.
I'd previously based my LTHR on 0.95 x my average HR during a '10' TT = 164bpm.
Effort during the FTP test wasn't low - my HR at the end of the test was about 174bpm, roughly a similar HR to the one I end a '10' on.

Which should I use for setting HR zones ? Purely for generating a TSS number for when I'm not using the Power Meter.

Once you've done a few rides with the PM you should know what kind of TSS values you get for what kind of ride. If I ride without my PM I just make the TSS value up based on common sense and experience, using perceived effort.
So don't bother with the HR, just make the TSS up, from experience. The HR TSS will be no better.

HR is so variable.

2 x 15 hard
2 x 20-30 middle
1 x 45-90 middle.

Any advice on the best-bang-for-my-buck session to supplement a 200TSS (normally) club run with a few sprints, and a 120TSS tempo midweek chain gang? I'm struggling to find the time around uni/family recently so am missing indoor sessions. I can probably squeeze an hour in a couple of evenings a week, most likely Tuesday and Thursday/Friday.

I'd like to be competitive in Cat 3/4 crit and track league in the spring, and last 30 days put me at close to Cat 3 according to WKO4 power profiling.

Should I just be doing sweet spot/tempo sessions and sticking sprints in as and when, as other people have mentioned? I definitely don't have time for LSD.

Or something like:
Tuesday - Threshold (starting at 2x10, 3x10, 2x15, 2x20 as I go on)
Wednesday - Tempo-Threshold chaingang
Thursday - Recovery/something else depending on how I'm feeling
Friday - ? Over/unders? VO2 max 20:40/russian steps etc?
Sunday - 40-60 mile club run, normally tempo with a few sprints

There's also the possibility of strength and conditioning circuits at the gym...

Or is it still faaaaar too early to be thinking about it, and I should just be doing Endurance/Tempo until Feb?

Ditch the club run, you'll get better bang for your time by training alone and specific. Unless you enjoy it then keep it.

You're not just doing endurance tempo, your doing threshold too. That chaingang will be hard; probebrly with Vo2 efforts inc.

What you're doing looks fine. Shame you can ride saturday or monday, with your bigger day Sunday.
IT looks like a lot of harder work, so careful you don't burn out. If you're off thrsday and saturday, I'd make Friday the hard session, maybe some proper threshold work. And maybe make tuesday a bit easier Maybe 1h30 + Z2? as wednesday is hard. But it just depends how you're getting on and if it's tiring.

Don't bother with gym stuff, just use that time to ride the bike. Or maybe do some foam rolling.

Cheers man. Club run keeps me sane, tbh, and often involves a lot of threshold work depending who's riding. So easier and longer on Tuesday, then threshold intervals on Friday (Something like 3x10 etc?)

I feel fine with 450ish over the past few weeks and am planning a harder week this week with a rest week next week then restarting in the new year. Is it just a case of doing the same sort of stuff until specifying closer to the event? Just readjusting FTP after every block?

Depends what works for you and what makes your body improve.
You need to increase load; power, duration, TSS, generally in order to improve. So keep tat in mind. Some like to increase the length of an effort, some the power of the effort.

What brings improvement in one, won't bring the same improvement in another.

Cheers. Is that time crunched cyclist book any good?

Not read that one. Trainingpeaks website blog re posts a lot of the stuff from their book, have a look there.

I've found a snide ebook version so have had a look at their plans. Basically an 8 week build phase with lots of VO2max work. I think I'll do another bit of base in January and then have a crack at the time crunched plan in Feb, aiming to peak in early April.

I just have to get an FTP test out the way to see how much I've lost since September. Hopefully not too much, if my WKO4 profile is anything to go by.

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I quite like the plans on TrainerRoad that are scale-able depending on the time you have available. I'm doing the Sweet Spot Base training which with the low volume option is 2x 60mins and 1x 90mins indoor trainer sessions a week which I do on top of my commute miles for about 7h30/585TSS a week.

I did the first sweet spot base, medium, with a club run on top and it was fine. We have a chaingang at the local crit circuit in the winter though, and since that's started it's been harder to justify staying indoors to do rollers sessions. Combined with a load of uni work it's meant that I've been sat on week 4 of the sweet spot base, medium II for weeks. Hence why I'm considering a restart in January, though that is exam season, so it'll be hard to fit it all in.

It's meant I've only been hitting 3-400 TSS a week since September and have had a downwards ramp since the summer. I'm trying to be more practical about it and doing fewer, more intense sessions. Got around 6 hours a week max until the spring then I'll have a bit more.

I know it's not all about your CTL, but mine is on a mega-plateau and has been for ages.

Don't really understand how i can start ramping it more at the moment... have upped the intensity in the last weeks, tend to do this each week

1-2 x high intensity turbo (intervals)
1 easy recovery turbo
2 x outdoors - 90-1ookm (steady)
1 x total rest
1 x gym / S&C
But am trying to up the distance of the outdoor rides a bit each week to build volume.

Is proving difficult to up the volume though, there's something about me and winter that just doesn't get on.

Today i went out in the proper cold for the first time in a while and my legs just totally failed to co-operate. Admittedly I was pretty tired (the day before a scheduled rest day), but i felt like the cold just sapped all my energy

The cold does sap energy. You'll need to eat more than when it's warmer. Also wrap up to keep muscles warm.

If you can increase duration, increase load as you are. But you can't just keep making every session harder as you'll burn out.
That's the issue being time crunched, you will plateau.

Thanks for the feedback @skinny

Was well dressed (felt like i had all my cycling wardrobe on!) but i feel cold all the time anyway so i still ended up chilly. Definitely didn't eat enough, ad drank fuck all. Knew i wasn't drinking enough but you just totally stop wanting to do it when it's cold.... Not thirsty and the idea of putting a cold drink down your throat doesn't appeal!

Will continue the increased intensity and volume quest. Am seeking solace in the fact that the days are about to start lengthening and i've started to find sufferfest videos to be quite good. And doing one of them is basically xxx minutes of turning yourself inside out. Thus good intensity - i previously could only face fairly steady chugging indoors.

After that cold and shitty experience yesterday I'm not sure i can bring myself to going out in the cold again tomorrow. Really was a session of junk yesterday and am sort of thinking some quality indoors would be better.... but... turbo...