Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Have your other times gone up as well? @dubtap

Always find Layhams a strange segments to benchmark because there are many factors outside of one's control, wind factor, traffic, juctions (depending on the exact segment)

Or at least that's how I justify to myself not having a good time!

Yes, that ride was a total PB fest but it's definitely not a "good" time just good for me.

Wind is a big factor for Layhams. Also wasn't it resurfaced not that long ago?

It's like GCSEs. Gets easier.

I'm not biting ;)

Wilko set Comp records for 12 and 24hrs when he was in his late 40s so there's still hope for us...

Did my first turbo session in about 3 weeks after only riding on the road in that period and it was fucking awful. Even pushing z3 felt hard.

The pedal stroke / action felt so much harder than normal, like a lot more muscular force required than road. I've never noticed the difference that badly and have a always got on reasonably well with my turbo. Gonna have to just force out a few sessions with a lowered FTP till i adapt i guess...

Feeling a bit directionless in terms of training at the moment.

A crash a few weeks back has meant that I've had to make do with lower intensity, higher volume work since and I feel like I'm treading water as opposed to building.

I've done a couple of 1' tests this week, firstly to see where I am and also to see how the shoulder feels doing harder work. The results were promising and I'm confident I can resume proper build training again.

So, six weeks to go until the mountains. CTL is hovering at about 100 and FTP has stayed the same at about 295 for a while. The lack of FTP gains doesn't worry me hugely as my ability to hold a good percentage of it for 4/5 hours is much improved.

My question is, what would you do now in my position? I've been looking at Traineroad's Sustained Power Build plan, which is lots of work at about 108% and some higher vo2 stuff.

Time on the bike is a factor as work is starting to ramp up. So gettting out consistently during the week is tricky.

Cheers.

You've got the endurance so don't stress about that too much.

Maybe

• 2 x z4 and 5 on the turbo indoors in the week
  
• 1 x easy (z2) on the turbo
  
• 1 x long / club ride at the weekend (the 'soul' ride)
  
  

?

And stop obsessing and overanalysing it so much.

Cheers.

Not obsessing, just want a plan to make the most of the next six weeks.

Anyone had any experience of a fit @ Swift cycles? Have had niggling knee problems for some time now and have decided to invest in a fit but wanted to know how people got on (as my last BG fit was completely unrideable)

Jorrit at swift is the man. Helped fit me to my ultra bike.

Also there is a bike fit thread on here somewhere.

Good to hear - booked in for a 3 hour fit.

My TT fit was from Jorrit. He was very methodical and knowledgeable. I'll PM about the shop support I had, as I don't want publicly upset anyone with my (strong) criticism...

Anyone else sacked CTL etc as a measure? My legs can barely function after a week of only 2 intense sessions plus some recovery rides. CTL/TSB doesn't give a clue.

So I've set myself a target to be in competitive shape for a stage race in Thailand mid/end of Oct. I reckon 4.8w/kg should be enough for a top 5 and maybe a stage win.

I'm currently at 4.1w/kg based off 310w FTP and 76kg.

Does the following sound like a sensible way to build to where I want to be? The workload is broadly what I'm doing at the moment and absolutely manageable for me and I've built in plenty of additional time to allow for illness or failure to progress.

FTP of 345 (up from 310)
Weight <72kg (down from 76 by controlling calories better)

Proceed to step up FTP by working through the following on the turbo on a 4 weekly basis:

Week 1
Tue - 3 x 9 min over unders
Wed - 8 x 3 min @ 115% FTP
Thursday - 3 x 10 min at threshold

Week 2
Tue - 3 x 9 min over unders
Wed - 8 x 3 min @ 115% FTP
Thursday - 2 x 15 min at threshold

Week 3
Tuesday - 3 x 10 min over unders
Wed - 7 x 4 min @ 115% FTP
Thursday - 3 x 15 min at threshold

Week 4
Tue - 3 x 12 min over unders
Wed - 6 x 5 min @ 115% FTP
Thursday - 2 x 20 min at threshold

Saturdays - 80km training ride with some efforts
Sundays - social/coffee ride

Increase FTP by 10w and repeat.

Anyone else sacked CTL etc as a measure? My legs can barely function after a week of only 2 intense sessions plus some recovery rides. CTL/TSB doesn't give a clue.

It's only usable for trends over time rather than giving a measure of current fitness. Only also reliable if your repeatedly testing your FTP (and getting accurate results).
Did one 400 TSS ride for a 579 TSS total week, followed by a 848 TSS total week. TSB got positive a long time before I felt I could turn the pedals in anger again

Does ATL/TSB factor in age ? Takes me a longer time to recover now in my mid forties.

Depending how trained you are now, a 35W improvement could be easy, or totally unrealistic.

If the course is hilly, loose as much weight as you can.

A legit threshold of 310W is decent. I reckon you'd be better off working out what the course is like for the race, and then going from there. How many stages is it? Racing tactics and smarts is far more important than raw power (but bother are ideal).

Without being rude, your naivety does make me laugh (in a nice way). The 'increase FTP by 10W and repat' is so far from reality. I wish it was like that. But increasing FTP is not linear. In 5 years I've put 60W on mine. And most of those 60W came early on. I not have to work harder and smarter to improve.

What kind of training have you been doing? What is your current CTL

I think your third session will be low quality as you will be too tired from doing them so close together and your fourth week will risk injury/overtraining/low quality. You also haven't mentioned a rest week which is required and generally after each 2-3weeks

If you test as the first session back after your rest week you will get an idea of improvement/find it so painful you'll give up.

You also haven't mentioned a rest week which is required and generally after each 2-3weeks

Really? I'd disagree. Rest is individual and cannot be scheduled on a rigid timeframe. It needs to be dynamic, as needed.

Food for thought - thanks very much.

Race is four stages with an 11km mountain TT to finish. There's a crit in there too. Think the other stages will be ~100-120km.

Not sure about CTL as I've only briefly flirted with TP so far.

FTP is legit in that it's based off the 2 x 8 min test. Could I hold 310w for an hour? No way. Maybe a 20 min test would give me a slightly lower number.

Never had a problem doing three hard days back to back on the turbo so not worried about that.

http://masterstourofchiangmai.com/stages/ ?

Correct - stages shorter than I was led to believe.

If it's what you are doing already, is it shifting your FTP at all? As @skinny says, it's impossible to tell what improvement it will make unless you know how trained you are currently, and how much of a training effect the above will make based on what you currently do/are targeting. are you are just trying to up your FTP or get specifically better at certain things i.e. long climbs, short climbs, endurance, sprinting etc etc? I'd work that out, and try and incorporate actual bike riding that mimics this in addition/instead of a long turbofest.

In addition, my 2p would be to include an FTP test every 8 weeks, and think about maybe mixing up your sessions a bit more. Stuff like max efforts, ramp intervals, russian steps, hour of power, pyramids....whatever really, it's just I'd find OU's, V02 and sweetspot every single week without any rest weeks really draining. Whilst 3 weeks on and 1 week off works for most people, you'll need some rest weeks in there.

Thanks - I struggled to measure FTP reliably until I got a power meter a month ago as the estimated curve for my trainer on trainerroad was way out. However, since January, I have become markedly stronger following a similar training routine, albeit one that has been punctuated by travel/racing/holidays.

I think until six weeks/a month out, I'm happy to just build FTP before doing some stuff that's more focused on the race specifically. I live in Hong Kong where there's a dearth of racing between now and then.

Agree it probably makes sense to build in some different workouts. I do tend to vary it a bit more but find that VO2 and threshold work has always been pretty effective - as are ramp intervals to be fair.