Training Plan - Input Please

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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CulBaire
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by CulBaire

Hi Guys,

I've been a long time member but only just recently come back to the boards; approx 5 years ago I had a pretty serious car accident which left me with a lot of shoulder / arm pain when on the bike subsequently the bikes ended up for sale and I didn't ride for about four years - last year I made the decision to buy a new MTB, this year I've made the decision that racing said MTB would be wise. However I've also acquired a road bike which I am interested in racing as well. I've been riding / training between 7 - 9 hours a week for the past few months (11hrs as below the last two weeks), and am looking to step up my riding a little coming up to a 12 Hour MTB Race I finished well in all those years ago (a repeat performance would be great); the race is in 13 weeks time.

Anyways, I am just after a little advise on my current regime which is still a work in progress...

My plan is to train in solid 4 day blocks as I have done over the last two weeks (below), followed by a solid rest period of 3 days which includes one or two days easy spinning. It's also worth noting that days three and four are switched each fortnight so one week will be 2.5hrs tempo on the MTB and 4 hours on the road, the following week will be the opposite 2.5hrs on the roadie, 4 hours on the MTB, these rides will increase in distance to 3.5hrs and 5hrs over the course of the next few weeks.

Day One: 1 Hour Total - 10 Minute Warm up followed by 3 x 3min Vo2 Max Intervals (3on/3off) then 3 sets of 5 x 30on/30off Vo2 Max Intervals.
Day Two: 2.5 Hours Total - 15min warm up, 3 x 20 minutes sweet spot intervals with 5min easy spinning between each set. Complete the remainder of the ride in Z2 before a 15min cool down.
Day Three: 2.5 Hours Total (MTB)- 15min Warm up followed by Z2 / Z3 ride, maintain solid tempo whilst attacking the climbs. Focus on eating and fluid intake strategies, and technical skills.
Day Four: 4 Hours Total – 15 Min warm up, followed by Z2 ride, towards end of ride (after 3 hours) complete 2 x 15min LT intervals, 1x5min Vo2 Max Interval, 5 x 2min Vo2 Max Intervals and 5x 1min sprints followed by 15min cool down.
Day Five: 1 Hour Total - Easy Spin, recovery ride ensuring HR doesn't go over Z1.
Day Six: Rest
Day Seven: 1 Hour Easy Spin, recovery ride ensuring HR doesn't go over Z1.
Day Eight: 1 Hour Total - 10 Minute Warm up followed by 3 x 3min Vo2 Max Intervals (3on/3off) then 3 sets of 5 x 30on/30off Vo2 Max Intervals.
Day Nine: 2.5 Hours Total - 15min warm up, 3 x 20 minutes sweet spot intervals with 5min easy spinning between each set. Complete the remainder of the ride in Z2 before a 15min cool down.
Day Ten: 2.5 Hours Total - 15min Warm up followed by Z2 / Z3 ride, maintain solid tempo whilst attacking the climbs, throw in the odd attack, etc....
Day Eleven: 4 Hours Total (MTB) – 15 Min warm up, followed by Z2 ride.
Day Twelve: 1 Hour Total - Easy Spin, recovery ride ensuring HR doesn't go over Z1.
Repeat...

The plan a few weeks out from the race is to reduce the volume slightly, and ramp up the intensity greatly.

I've just completed my second block as above (Day Thirteen today) and while the legs feel tired and a little sore I am feeling fantastic every time I get within 10' of the bike; I guess I am just wondering if there is anything there I could be doing better, or smarter?

Thoughts, comments, anyone?

ipdamages
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by ipdamages

Generally speaking, if you do the intervals hard, you have hard days d1, d2, sort of d3, and d4 is a monster. For a masters athlete, that would probably be insufficient rest between hard days. But it really depends on how hard hard is. Of course, if you look at how pros train for the Worlds, they often race the Vuelta, which often means going hard when an ideal training plan would suggest otherwise, so I try to take it all with a grain of salt.

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shoopdawoop
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by shoopdawoop

What device are you using to measure your effort? RPE? Heart rate? Power?

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devinci
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by devinci

I think you've got a nice plan there but it's too mixed up. For exemple, in day 1, maybe only nail the 3 x 3 and forget the 30/30, add another 3min if you feel up to it. Make these very hard, like, stressful, anxious hard!

Personnaly, I'd switch day 4 to a long ride, no structured efforts. Just a long ride on the MTB, the terrain will provide a certain amount of intensity.

CulBaire
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by CulBaire

Ipdamages I'm finding the easier day on day 3 really helps. By day 7 I am Def ready to go again. I'm only 29 so may be a little more resilient.

Shoop I'm using heart rate as my main method of measure. I use a powercal which I use as a guide for averages (watts, tss) but I don't use it for pacing.

Sent from my LG-P705 using Tapatalk 4

CulBaire
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by CulBaire

devinci wrote:I think you've got a nice plan there but it's too mixed up. For exemple, in day 1, maybe only nail the 3 x 3 and forget the 30/30, add another 3min if you feel up to it. Make these very hard, like, stressful, anxious hard!

Personnaly, I'd switch day 4 to a long ride, no structured efforts. Just a long ride on the MTB, the terrain will provide a certain amount of intensity.


Sorry Devinci, I didn't see your post there as it didn't pop up on my phone for some reason.

As of this week I’ve taken your advice scrapping the 30/30’s and sticking with just the 3 x 3, I did two sets of today (w/ 10 min rest between sets) and managed to nail a PR, 2nd, 3rd and 4th best times up this climb by a significant margin so I am obviously doing something right despite the limited climbing in the program. I would have to agree day 4 is a monster and this week I think I probably over done it, my legs still felt heavy yesterday despite an easy spin and a day completely off the bike. I will be scaling that ride back to a Z2/Tempo ride but keep attacking the hills, etc…

Keep the constructive comments coming guys :-)

chipomarc
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Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:56 pm

by chipomarc

People who do "regimes" will always burn out sooner or later.

CulBaire
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by CulBaire

chipomarc wrote:People who do "regimes" will always burn out sooner or later.


I'm not sure I agree with this; as there are planned rest days, easy days and I am also taking a week off next week before hitting another block leading upto a couple of races in November. I think I've learnt in my old(er) age when to push and when to take it easy even if I've not been back on the bike really all that long.

After my last race in November my regime will be modified with a more annual / seasonal focus, as 2014 I will be able to start from scratch.

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CulBaire
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by CulBaire

I figured I would update this thread for those that may be interested; I am still doing the plan above but the days are often shuffled a little dependent on time constraints, etc... however the body of training is the same. As mentioned above I scrapped the 30/30 intervals and went with 3min or 5min intervals depending on the day.

Improvements, well I am certainly a stronger rider now, both on the mtb and on the road; my mtb results have improved dramatically as well having gone from 30th in open late July to 11th in late September. I am riding well and feeling good!

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