Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

@onyerbike Trainerroad outside will be a waste of money. Trainingpeaks is the best all round and you can plan sessions in it if you can't remember interval lengths when you are out on the bike.

Thanks for the tips. I thought TR>TP as TR provides plans. Don’t you have to pay for plans or build your own plans in TP?

@skinny But you also have to ask yourself why you ride a bike, if it's for fun, then spend the money on a good trip instead…I always like MAP tests to set zones/see fitness.

Gaining fitness has now become a new component of why I ride a bike. So the PM is part of exploring that. I would rather spend PM money on a trip to Girona, but that’s looking rather unlikely in tier 4, so I think a PM could be a great way to have some fun close to home. I’m guessing you could do a MAP test outdoors?

@andyp Thanks for those segments. I’ve planned rides to check them out.

Was making really good progress during the first lockdown, and was the most aerobically fit I remember being.

However, with the second lockdown and about 5 consecutive colds during Autumn and winter so far (9 month old going to nursery) my fitness has crashed down below pre covid levels...
Fortunately my weight hasn't ballooned catastrophically so my FTP W/KG is at the same starting point, but I've lost about 50-60w in 3-4 months.

Last time I gained 40w in 2 months with 2 repetitions of the Zwift 4w FTP booster, while also dropping 7.6kg. Trend it fitness was still going up, but didn't keep building (probably should have kept the momentum going)

So planning to do that again, but with a gentler 6 week FTP builder plan to start to get my legs spinning better again. Also with 1 week easy between each block.
Hopefully get near the weight and watts that I was at during the summer by mid March and then keep building towards 5w/kg.

Intermittent fasting (11am-7pm)
Harder workouts: 11am small pre ride snack, 12pm workout
Easier workouts: 11am workout fasted, 12pm lunch

Supplemented with yoga, stretching, some kettlebell work and burpees.

I wonder if there is causation between losing 8kg, training hard and then getting sick a lot...

Maybe, though I was completely virus and bug free between March and September, and then from September onwards, my daughter started reception year, and my son started nursery.

I had the same thing when my daughter started nursery, every other week she would be snotty and sneezing. Can't avoid wiping your kids noses, or them sneezing right in your face.

In terms of eating/volume, I was doing about 6-7h of structured training, about 1.5h of strength training, and running on roughly 600-700kcal deficit, so not crash dieting, or over training.

Yes fair enough, just a thought.
If you're likely to be exposed to more germs, perhaps less other stress will help keep you're immune system strong and thus fight off more and less interruptions from training. Consistency is the king for training.

I am exploring ways of improving my immune system against the viral onslaught.

Interestingly, my immune system seems strong against a lot of other bugs, just maybe exposed to colds/flu bugs more than most. (Teaching martial arts at uni, young kids, playgrounds, soft play etc)

I know the pros avoid shaking hands etc even before covid to avoid picking up colds.

High intensity training causes heavy stress and negatively effects immune system. While it might be great bang for buck in getting fit quick, it's pointless if it makes you more vulnerable or sick. Perhaps try more moderate training plan. And ramp up when nearer whatever your target is.

I looked at that zwift thing. It's not too bad, though the later weeks are a bit stressful. But they love to make it complicated to keep people interested. Jus be careful with that, and losing weight. Plus coming off being I'll and doing nothing.

Yeah, no good in being able to smash out intervals if you’re ill most of the time.

I’d agree with Zwift over complicating things, but as you say it keeps me a bit more interested than just sweetspot intervals for 1.5h. And I am aware that 1.5h of sweetspot has the potential to be more effective.

No particular targets for next year yet, need to find something more substantial than just chasing power numbers. Hard to see when racing will return for example.

so i'm trying to add some structure to my "training" this year. being one of those time poor people you read about (and not gonna lie, thank fuck the nurseries are staying open), i've been looking at stuff that gets me the most bang in the shortest time.

i only race cross and 10-mile time trials.

right now, i'm trying to do two relatively intense cross sessions a week and that's it. once the season's over, i'll be mixing things up with some more road interval sessions (1-min intervals, 20/40s, maybe something called Tabata I've read about, some others). maybe bump up to 3 sessions a week? once (if) TT season gets near i will start doing 2x20 min sweet spot sessions, which have worked well in the past.

i'm also wondering if i should add some off-bike strength stuff as well.

fwiw, i have no power meter or indoor bike. i have a garmin on the bike and i think we have a heart monitor somewhere but i've never used it. i have a very fast HR iirc.

any obvious tips i'm missing? i know this is very little training overall, but i'm being realistic.

i'm also wondering if i should add some off-bike strength stuff as well.

This helped me immensely.

My bike performance went down as I started losing interest in one dimensional fitness :P But I figured out how weak I was other than cycling.

What sort of stuff were you doing, prince?

Oh the other thing I was thinking about was an early morning track session. Remember rhb mentioning something to me aaaaaaaages ago about 8am starts at the velodrome. This was pre-covid, of course

Does anyone have a free trial code for TrainerRoad?

Mostly body weight; push ups, crunches but a friend of mine gave me a kettlebell so doing squats, goblet squats, single leg balance exercises. It hurts.

https://www.trainerroad.com/?referral=3RJC6CTB

cheers. and you said your cycling performance dropped? cos you spent less time on the bike?

yeah pretty much, more dad-ing i.e riding the eBike

At a glance, I’d say put the 2x20 before any high intensity tabata kind of things. You want to build a wide base of fitness, only adding the high intensity low volume stuff at the end / close to your target event.

That's interesting. During the TT season I'll be 'racing' most weeks (just club 10s) and for cross it'll be maybe 10 times over the season. you reckon add that speed towards the end of both?

Great, thanks

That’s the usual model. Probs don’t need it for the 10s but some vO2 max intervals will defo help cross. I use TrainerRoad which puts in vO2 max stuff earlier than usual but the general consensus is to save it until 6 to 8 weeks out from racing. Your last couple of blocks in the program.

Only just saw this thread today, going to just wade in...

Keeping some Vo2 work in your schedule keeps your top end switched on. You don't really need a super switched on top end unless you're in racing/going hard season but it's useful to keep you open, especially if you are doing ramp tests which largely calculate your final 1min power, which is when you'll be deep in that red Vo2 zone. So even if you're doing mainly SS or tempo training a Vo2 session (or just sort efforts tabata style) will help keep your range CV accessible.

My 2p on tabata - it's good, but research shows you have to do it consistently over time for it to make a difference, surprise surprise. I sometime throw 20sec on/10sec off x6 into a hill effort or on the rollers after a commute if I want to get a quick bit of deepness into my day.

get a quick bit of deepness into my day.

Sounds gorge.

this is all getting very technical but what you're saying is make your training harder and more intense towards the end of a racing season? or leading up to the start of it?

More intense zone training towards the start of the season then the races themselves should be enough keep you topped up