Geoff wrote:
Agreed.
From the perspective of modifying the 'plan', the basic 'rule' of periodized training programmes (designed around Sunday as race day) is:
Monday: Rest day (generally a recovery ride, not sleeping on the couch);
Tuesday: Intervals (I use this as my 'short' - high-intensity - day);
Wednesday: Longer mid-week ride (Tempo);
Thursday: Intervals (I use this as my 'long' - lower-intensity - day);
Friday: Longer (steady pace, below Tempo);
Saturday: Longest day (steady pace, below Tempo);
Sunday: Longer day (road race pace), or race day.
If Sunday is a TT, I would switch Saturday for another recovery ride. Lots of guys will disagree strongly with that, but that is just how my body reacts for ITT.
Wednesday is kind of boring and painful, as it is usually a series of long, intervals. You can mix-it-up a bit with 4x10's or 2x20's. I would'nt go longer than that (especially indoors, your brain might explode).
Tuesday can really be a lot of fun (seriously). You can really play with lots of different MAP Intervals, of which there are hundreds and hundreds of different combinations.
Personally, I like to do my MAP Testing, set my MAP wattage and then produce a detailed, day-by-day plan for the entire Macrocycle, print it, put it in a plastic sheet and leave it by the trainer. That way, when I clip-in I know exactly what I have to do every day. No ducking it or arsing-around. It doesn't matter if it is 19:30 or 22:30, you just get on and do your 'job'. That is the best way to get through the winter and come out relatively unscathed on the other end. If you don't have a plan in writing for every day, I guarantee you that some excuse or other (usually camouflaged as a 'reason') will come-up and stop you.
Sounds very similar to my schedule. I'll elaborate a little.
Let me start off by saying that I follow religiously the Time Crunched Cyclist training programme (Powermeter), I do it from mid Jan to mid Sep, 3 times, with 1 month between each training block (I still race, I still do intervals, but I take it easy and don't follow any structure during these months in between).
From Oct to mid Jan I basically do what Geoff says. With regards to the Time Crunched training zones, I do 1 weekly session of
Tempo at low cadence (75 rpm) and 1 weekly session of
SS (at 95 rpm). I then do a longish ride on Sunday (3 hours) at EM (80%) and Tempo (20% of time). I also commute 2 hours every day at EM intensity.
This training plan usually takes me to beginning of Feb ready to start a hardcore Time Crunched training programme. By end of March I'm flying. Then in May I take it easy and start again early June. In July am flying again.
What do you guys think about my approach? Is my base training really a 'base'? I don't do any workout in the gym, I find it boring. I prefer those Tempo session at 75 rpm instead.
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