Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Yes, really. You've been off the bike for two weeks, you want to go easy to get blood flowing into all the bits you've not used properly for 2 weeks, not hit HRmax. No idea what it does to your heart but max effort after 2 weeks off sounds a great way to injure yourself - pull a muscle or worse. Everything is tighter having not been used. Your form might be a bit off, etc. I would never do this and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any coach suggest it.

Time off the bike? What's that?

fair enough.

My rest periods are only 4 or 5 days long.
I also ramp it up in a controlled manner.

In my personal experiance I need this session before I can start banging out proper sessions after a rest.

Maybe not for 2 weeks off then?

Don't think I've tried to hit my max for 10 years - I may have done during a HC but it wasn't intentional. I don't see much of a point, particularly since I haven't trained with HR for 5 or more years.

Wins HC trophy.
Didn't even try

Yeh, it's inevitable. It will come back remarkably quickly though, two weeks isn't that long. You just need to swallow your pride for the first week back and accept you won't have as much power or endurance.

In similar news, I need to cut back the miles for a few weeks to nurse an injury niggle - I can still do shorter sessions though. I accept I'm not going to make any fitness gains in this period, but what do you reckon would be best for keeping at the same level?

I can probably do three x 1 hour turbo sessions a week and one 80-90km 'long' ride.

I had been thinking of doing one threshold 2 x 20, one over under intervals, and one either vo2max or sweet spot session per week on the turbo.

Is that a good plan? Or a shit plan?

I see I've been misleading. I'll ninja edit.

I dont mean hit Your theoretical universal max. I just mean push Your HR up to the max you can hold that day. Still might be unwise. I'm no Coach. Works for me is all.

I do an interval, and pace it so I'm hanging on my the skin of my teeth for the last 20 Seconds. After a few days off its always HR thats limiting me. Yet I dont actually have HR on my intrval screen. Its distracting. I have a Power goal, and thats that. I either hold it or I dont.

I tend to find my number disapointing after this first session.

But session is always a winner.

Your 'Ticking Over' training volume is more than I'd do in a build week. Are you commuting too?

Is it the Achilles that's causing issues? If so, is swimming a good alternative as non impact, good cv work to give the injury a rest?

If its an injury. Wouldnt it be better keeping everything under threshold. Less force on the injury?

I commute yes, but it's about 25 mins max each way and i totally cruise.

It's not my achilles... it's not a tendinitis thing, I just need to avoid aggravating some scar tissue on my ankle for a couple of weeks; it's fine for shorter rides but gets a bit angry when I'm on the bike for a long time.

And Tom, your 'build' weeks normally involves that massive flat 130km loop which you do at about 35kph doesn't it?! Good suggestion on swimming, but i totally hate it. Something about it that drives me insane with boredom very quickly.

@Smallfurry you have a point on that one... may ask the physio what she thinks!

Tbh if you've an injury that won't heal just sack off all riding for a few weeks and let it repair. Then come back and train. No point messing about with half arsed 'training' that's not doing anything but just aggravating the injury. Just cruise to work and back and then when it's better start training. It's october. Either train or just do whatever. In between is kind of pointless.

I know what you mean, it does all seem a bit half arsed. I spoke to a Physio about it earlier in the week and she basically said to cut back volume and keep intensity

I've not got a strain or tendinitis or similar, its basically a bit of a lumpy bit of scar tissue around my foot/ ankle that causes a bit of pain if it gets aggrevated, which it did about a fortnight ago.

Hard to know what to do

From my understanding scar tissue is removed with massage (from my limited understanding).

Personally, from the sound of it. I'd keep training properly, and get massages to deal with the scar tissue.

But you have a physio for a reason, so just listen to them. I'd do what mine says. Or leave them and find a new one that I would trust.

Yep, regular deep massage will reduce scar tissue, takes a while though...

Interesting read this thread.

Just throwing my 10 pence in.
I've been testing at club level for the last 3 seasons using TrainerRoad as my primary structured plan.

Two winters ago I interspersed the TR workouts with longer weekend group rides (4 hrs in the cold and wet once a week). Where as this last winter I just got the turbo a lot at the weekends with shorter more intense efforts (2 hours max).

I noticed that last season (2014) I was able to recover better after hard sessions and big efforts like 25's where as this season (2015) I've hurt for like an extra day and been unable to recover as well.

I did manage to take 30 seconds of my 25 PB this year but couldn't better my 10 time.

I'm not sure if there's anything to take from my experience (n=1) but I think this winter I'll mix things up a little rather than just hitting the turbo like a droid. I'll be hitting Derby velodrome SQT's and Cannock on the MTB as often as I can through the winter as well as my long ride at the weekend and intervals in the week.

I think you need a healthy mix of training and enjoyment to keep you interested. It's very easy to hit a plateau doing the same training over and over.

I'm definitely going to add as much quality base training to my Winter as possible.

But Yeah. Intervals too. Just to mix it up. Maybe thats not optimal. But like you say. You need to maintain an interest. Its not like anyones paying me.

Spot on. You wouldn't believe the levels some of the lads in our club go to both financially and time wise just to compete at club level. Aero coaching, fitness coaching it all adds up.

I'm kind of old school and was brought up in and around watching my dad at cat 1 years ago. The old adage remains, just train hard son of you want to go faster.

He'd ride 1000 miles a month through the winter, always hard and fast. I can only give 6-7 hours a week so my fitness is a little fragile if you know what I mean.

Mixing it up keeps me sane but ultimately I know on top of base and sweet spot the only way to really get that top end is to destroy yourself now and again and recover well.

Ultimately I spend several 100 times longer training as I do racing. So its kinda my focus.

Tempted just to target one road race, and one triathlon NeXT year. Enter as much as possible. But consider everything else training.

I've seen tapering work very effectively with some seriously good guys (national level). I flirted with it this season leading up to a 25. It worked sort of but it was at the cost of a little enjoyment on the bike.

Target one road race? Bit of a dice roll no? Triathlon less so.

I can't understand people who don't use base rides as part of their training. I'm focused mainly on track sprinting and my coach still has me doing a lot of z2 rides at the moment. The good thing about that level of riding is that you can still bang out 2-3 hours of it when you're tired from the previous days training. It's not always nice, but it is do-able.

I'm currently on TR's Sweet Spot prog. Seems ok. I know I've lost a little top end but I don't mind this time of year.
I rode the A Group SQT at Derby a couple of weeks ago and managed to just about hang on in the 64 lapper at the end. It really pulled my legs off though. Really good training.

All about the BASE bout the base, no tempo.

I managed 38 mins of tempo and 27 mins threshold and 8 mins of anaerobic in the SQT. Not sure if that's a good idea but I'm err'ing on it keeping me "sharp".
Cannock tomorrow will have a few lung busting moments too with my old FSR.
It really should just be about the base, but I can't help having fun.