2020 Structured Training

[Ming the Merciless]

Oddly, now that I have absolutely nothing to train for I have, for the first time ever, settled down into a regular series of sessions that could almost be described as "structured". If not actually structured then at least non-chaotic.

Best time to try new fitness regimes out. If it doesn't work or not as well as what you used to do, then there's no event you've cocked up by not being as fit as you wanted.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

1w up on my 20mins best but I am 4kg down since my last test. I probably could have done better earlier in the week the cold damp weather has got to my feet (just when I thought I was getting rid of the chemo 😕) and I didn't have the motivation to push it either. I'm still 30w down on my 20min best which was actually set in an interval session rather than a test.

1w I would put within the realms of well within error margin in terms of power accuracy.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I hate the rest days of structured training particularly just now

Yeah but without the recovery days you stunt your fitness improvements. You get fitter during the recovery periods not during the hard exercise periods. Plus the hard workouts increase cortisol in the body, which is good during muscle repair and build but sustained high levels of the hormone lead to systemic inflamation and illness.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did my high intensity session today. Start of lockdown I dropped volume and intensity of these and have gradually been increasing both intesnity and number of intervals / sets back towards pre lockdown levels. I got up to 97% of my max heart rate today. It was a tough session and a reminder that hard means hard, easy means easy. I'll keep it where it is for now until I see the heart rate dropping 5-7% or so.

 

[HLaB]

Did my high intensity session today. Start of lockdown I dropped volume and intensity of these and have gradually been increasing both intesnity and number of intervals / sets back towards pre lockdown levels. I got up to 97% of my max heart rate today. It was a tough session and a reminder that hard means hard, easy means easy. I'll keep it where it is for now until I see the heart rate dropping 5-7% or so.

Since mid March the highest my HR has been is 96% (on my FTP test). I am dismissing the 107% and 114% as spikes (old hrm). I've got some higher intensity intervals tomorrow which normally raise it higher but I don't know if I have the motivation 😕

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Since mid March the highest my HR has been is 96% (on my FTP test). I am dismissing the 107% and 114% as spikes (old hrm). I've got some higher intensity intervals tomorrow which normally raise it higher but I don't know if I have the motivation 😕

Well yeah, if 107% and 114% were valid then your max HR is too low.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did my high intensity session for this week. It felt a lot easier than last week, still hard, but not as hard. Interestingly HR data says it was with 2 bpm of week before. Interesting how perceived effort can vary despite internal and external loads being pretty much the same. No change to workout from a week ago. I’ll add some extra intervals for next week.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I finally bit the bullet and retested my FTP at the weekend. As expected it was up quite a bit on the previous value which was done after a period of inactivity and illness, and was back up to where it had been before that. This morning I did what has become a regular hard-ish interval session. Unsurprisingly it was horrible.

I'm now combining two regular hard-ish interval sessions during the week with a Saturday morning "endurance" ride which is between 2 and 5 hours long and at a significantly higher intensity than my normal long (lazy, relaxing) rides of 6-10 hours on the road. I guess my aerobic fitness will probably be up when we get to the end of this, but I don't know where my endurance will be.

 

[HLaB]

I did my short HIIT session this morning, I need to find that motivation to push into the red on the last interval again. The literature on training is stopping me for the short term though.
I've sent an email to RGT to ask them to unlock the training element of their package I prefer seeing the full structure ahead of me but just running the session on my garmin in parallel with one of their available flat courses seemed ok.
Lol, I think you can tell when I had to stop to tighten my skewer and the subsequent unnecessary seated sprint at the start of a rest interval https://www.strava.com/activities/3438477063/overview

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I finally bit the bullet and retested my FTP at the weekend. As expected it was up quite a bit on the previous value which was done after a period of inactivity and illness, and was back up to where it had been before that. This morning I did what has become a regular hard-ish interval session. Unsurprisingly it was horrible.

I'm now combining two regular hard-ish interval sessions during the week with a Saturday morning "endurance" ride which is between 2 and 5 hours long and at a significantly higher intensity than my normal long (lazy, relaxing) rides of 6-10 hours on the road. I guess my aerobic fitness will probably be up when we get to the end of this, but I don't know where my endurance will be.

No doubt down if you’ve only been doing one longish ride a week. Congrats on FTP rise. I’ve not been testing mine but I do have a workout which exposes if it’s risen. I should do that workout next in about three weeks. My ftp was shown to have last increased a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Dogtrousers]

No doubt down if you’ve only been doing one longish ride a week.

I don't know, because I've never done more than one long ride a week. Often it's a two week gap (100k and 100 miler in a month). Now my long rides are half the duration but double the intensity. So it'll be interesting to see how I feel if I set off on the road for 100k.

Unfortunately I've done damn all about fixing my bike during lockdown and it's still not roadworthy so it'll be a while before I find out unless I fancy a long ride on the Brompton.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did someone say unlimited exercise?

 

[ianrobo]

interesting to read others experience ...

Since lockdown (and after I think I had cover) I have done 54 days running and pushed up[ my FTP from 251 to 277 ...

This I think is due to doing a structure in that I decided to do a lot of virtual climbing so most of rides in 70% of FTP range and that seems to be working perfectly. Only rode outside for 5 days and never felt fitter and better. So whilst I can not wait to restart Audaxes the realty is I have never been so focussed and determined and I can feel it totally.

 

[ianrobo]

however I would say in these times then the best training is the type that you actually enjoy, if you want to do 5 high intensity in a work, go for it !

if you just want to zone 2 stuff all the time just do it and if you don't fancy it then great and relax.

 

[HLaB]

interesting to read others experience ...

Since lockdown (and after I think I had cover) I have done 54 days running and pushed up[ my FTP from 251 to 277 ...

This I think is due to doing a structure in that I decided to do a lot of virtual climbing so most of rides in 70% of FTP range and that seems to be working perfectly. Only rode outside for 5 days and never felt fitter and better. So whilst I can not wait to restart Audaxes the realty is I have never been so focussed and determined and I can feel it totally.

I did a lot of virtual climbs also just over 70%. I've started to take things outdoors but not pushing too the extreme, Whilst I've avoided taking the TT bike out I'm quite confident for the TT season if it ever resumes this year or the next. I suspect that TT will resume as they are relatively solo but there'll be big changes :-/