2017 Winter Training and 2018 Planning / Development

Up until now, I have relied heavily upon the generic training plans with Trainerroad. Don’t get me wrong… they truly are a valuable and awesome invention and when followed 100% correctly, work perfectly & produce excellent results. That being said, when you’re having to deal with unplanned time off the bike, trying to sync in races or adapt training sessions based on available time, I get the feeling it would be easier to make my own. I think i'm at a stage now where I have a good enough understanding of what type of fitness areas to develop at which time of the year.

Training Peaks now has some impressive functions for developing Annual Training Plans. You add in your priority A events and whether you want to manage your TSS based on average weekly TSS or Peak TSS for an event. This then automatically provides you with a structured, periodised plan with weekly TSS goals based on the parameters you set. This will then tell me how long to spend in ‘Base’, ‘Build’ and ‘Preparation’ phases.

As you can see, just by assigning an A priority event in May, August & October, Training Peaks automatically generates a periodised plan... complete with weekly TSS goals and an idea of CTL & TSB. All you have to do now, it plan each week with specific workouts.

One thing I am quickly learning is that developing specific training sessions is not as critical as I first thought. It’s just a case of addressing the right fitness at the right part in the season to match your goal events.

Base Phase will predominantly be Sweet Spot intervals to develop muscular endurance for a required time period. In addition, you would also use this time to work on efficiency such as single leg drills, form sprints / super spins and big gear sprints. I know criteriums are approx. 1 hours long however, I would also want additional muscular endurance for longer Road Races. Therefore, I will build my muscular endurance from 2 x 20min Sweet Spot Intervals up to 5 x 20 min. During the base phases, I will also complete weekly or two weekly races to help maintain a reasonable level of Anaerobic fitness. The later base phases will start to introduce over/under intervals as well as supra-threshold intervals to raise my FTP.

Build Phase will predominantly be focusing on raising Anaerobic Capacity and Anaerobic Endurance whilst working towards specific interval sessions that simulate race conditions.

Interval session would consist of:

3 min intervals at 120%, 5 min intervals at 115% or 8 min intervals at 110%. Each session will repeat until failure… failure point is calculated based on Andrew Coggan’s failure point model (approx.. 5-7% drop in power over these durations).

Tabata type intervals (20s on, 10s off @ 150%) will be a key workout. Excellent for Anaerobic Endurance…. And also develops an excellent resilience to pain and the phycological limitations.

More specific intervals for Criterium or Road Races would be:

4 x 8 min intervals @ 110% followed by Tabata intervals… simulating a demand for Anaerobic Endurance when your Anaerobic Capacity is already on the limit.

2 x 20 @ 100% followed by 4 x 3min @ 120%... simulating Anaerobic Capacity whilst Muscular Endurance is already fatigued.

30s @ 170% followed by 3 @ 120%, 5 @% 115% or 8 @ 110%... simulating breakaway efforts.

TrainerRoad have a large amount of workouts in their portfolio to provide variation to the seasonal calendar (eg… rather than 3 x 20 @ SweetSpot, it could be 6 x 10 or 4 x 15 or 12 x 5). I think I’d actually prefer a workout to be more fixed to provide a target for the next time. If my end goal is to achieve 5 x 20 mins and at the moment I can only do 3 x 20 mins, I can attempt the 4^th and see how far I get before dropping below the failure point. I can then complete the workout at a lower intensity. The following week, I can try and beat my previous ‘PB’… each week having a goal for improvement.

One of the great things about Training Peaks now is, you can develop your workouts in their workout generator, import them into your calendar to total your required weekly TSS and then export the workout. This workout can then be transferred into Zwift. An excellent training platform for structured intervals whilst also providing a visual stimulation to assist with the monotony of indoor training. No need for TrainerRoad any more (sorry guys). I will be doing a post on Zwift races in the future. I’m a massive advocate of indoor training… so finding ways of improving motivation and visual stimulation associated with this is always a bonus!

Between now and the end of January, I will be focusing on building my race fitness in preparation for the Winter Criterium Series. Focusing on Anaerobic Endurance and race specific intervals.

Once I have some direction from the team in terms of events and goals for next season, I will be able to fully develop my annual training plan for 2018.

It's what you do with it that counts...

So this year has been a bit of an experiment. The aim was to increase my CTL (Chronic Training Load) to as high as I could get it... and at least over 100. I will be honest... i'm not really sure why. If you read any coaching literature, the value of your CTL is not important, it's how you respond to that value and when you peak it which is important.

My question is though... how do I know what I respond best too... if I don't try it? Also, if I increase CTL year on year / season on season... will I become more tolerant to it and respond better to it?

So here is my CTL for 2016 / 2017 season:

Click on image to expand

2016 was a good year to compare. It was well structured and peaked well. 

Following the hill climb season I took a couple of weeks off before jumping into the winter training. I had my ramp rate far too high (rate of rise in CTL). As you can see, the sudden rise ended in illness with an equally spectacular drop. Back to square one...

I then started my steady rise in CTL. Weekly TSS at this stage was approx. 500-600.

By the time I peaked at 117 in July I was peaking TSS at 900-1000 a week.

This was basically just the base phase. Long slow miles before work... 3 hours + a day. Once I started to introduce structured interval training, it all started to go wrong. I was really struggling to hit the power targets, the more I tried the more I struggled. Not really noticing (or maybe not wanting to notice) my CTL started to diminish... along with my motivation. In the end, I went away on our summer holiday in France without the bike. A chance to unwind... and eat...

Coming back from holiday and 6-7 kg's heavier than target race weight I was only 2 weeks away from our club hill climb. An 'A' race for me. I was hoping to take the course record this year. As it happens, Ben Davis smashed the course record and put it way out of reach anyway.

Sucking it up... I started to pick up the pieces... it took a while but now nearing the end of the Hill Climbs, everything is back on track. I'm still 3-4 kg's over my hill climb weight but it's heading in the right direction... training  is going well and motivation is back.

Rather than hope for the best in the hill climbs, I've started to look towards next year.

After receiving confirmation of joining a team for 2018 (more on that in a few weeks), the goals for next year will be around racing national Road Races & Criteriums. Unfortunately, I only have my 3rd Cat licence... so I will be hitting the Winter Series to secure enough points for Cat 2.

So by drawing a line in the sand this year (and not entering the National Hill Climb), my training is now building for a peak this winter. 

So what have I learnt?

1) One's body can only withstand so much combined stress. With work, DIY and house chores, a CTL of 117 is not sustainable. The pro's might have CTL's of 130+ but they don't have to build a retaining wall in the garden or tile the bathroom on the weekend.

2) Looking through my peak power & PB W/kg my CTL was approx. 90-100. I think this should be a good peak CTL to aim for.

3) Long Slow Distance training is boring and does nothing for motivation when it comes to supra-threshold workouts & VO2 Max intervals. Base training this year will be condensed SweetSpot workouts with some fiery intervals thrown in.

4) TSS is not the most important factor. Quality is. I often found myself filling the week with 'TSS Fillers'... riding the bike, purely to hit a TSS target. Great if I was training to ride round the globe in 80 days... rubbish if I want to sustain high levels of FTP / VO2 Max for 60 mins. Structured training stress (SweetSpot & VO2 Max) and specific techniques (leg drills, form sprints, cadence work) are more importanter! 

So now I have learn't for myself, it's time to listen to all the literature out there and do what I should have done last year. Focus on quality... not quantity. 

Remember... the size of your CTL is not important... it's what you do with it that counts. 

I'm back... through popular demand!

I thought I only had one reader... and I talk to him more than I talk to my Mrs anyway... so the blog just diminished into nothing. It wasn't until I was leaving a race on the weekend and I found out I had a second reader... not only expressing his disappointment in not having any posts to read recently... but also praising me on the quality of content. 

Talking about the blog that day made me realise why I did it in the first place. To provide an insight into what I am doing... so others can learn and gain experience from my mistakes & success whilst at the same time, providing me with some reflection time. Talking about what I have done, why I have done it and what i'm planning on doing allows me to really channel my motivation to achieving my goals.

So for those reasons... i'm back. 

I ought to give a quick overview of 2017 so far to bring my new reader up to speed:
1) I started racing criteriums... and loved it
2) I bought a track bike and raced fixed gear criteriums... which was even better
3) My winter training went perfectly ending at 5W/kg FTP
4) I focused my Spring / Summer on developing a huge base & finding out my limits in Training Load... and going over those limits resulting in too much overreaching and potentially a case of over-training (this deserves a blog post of its own)
5) The demoralisation of starting the hill climb season with no form and overweight
6) I've reset my goals & started over again 
7) Training and racing on Zwift is going to form the fundamentals of my winter training (more on that in another post)
8) I've moved away from generic plans developed by Trainerroad. This next year will be a more personalised approach to developing my training plans & using the workout generator & Annual Training Plan development to train & peak for events next year (more on this also)

Can I Turn Pro Now?

Took my first victory in a Criterium on the weekend. The final round of the winter series at Odd Down cycle track.

A 0.9mile course with two hairpins… 40 mins + 3 laps.

This is only my 4th Criterium and still learning the ropes. So far, the outcomes have been a little bit like this:

Race 1 – Nervous in corners, losing too much time. Sat on the back of the pack ‘Yo-Yo-ing’. Too tired to sprint at the end.
Race 2 – Again, sat back in the pack ‘Yo-Yo-ing’ too much. Attempted a break in the last lap but blew up and had no sprint.
Race 3 – Got stuck behind a crash on lap 3. Spent the whole race chasing the front group. To tired to sprint at the end.
Race 4 – Was aggressive all race along with team mate. Tired the group & won an early sprint.

Following the advice from an experience racer & cycling coach I attempted to form a breakaway. After about 2 laps I attempted my first break but I was reeled in shortly after. A few laps later I repeated. This time I had someone come with me but they were reluctant to do any work, I continued for a bit longer but when I made them get on the front he basically sat up. It was a shame as a Bristol South rider was bridging the gap and we would have made a good trio.

I sat back in the group then for a while to recover. Someone else went for a break. I sat back for a bit to let the group chase him down. After a few laps I then attempted to bridge. The gap was quite large and by the time I bridged, the main group had basically caught us.

It was good to see my fellow Dursley Road Club team mate, Mike Davis, take up the offence and produce his own attack. It was good to sit in and watch everyone chase him down.

By this point, we were only a few laps from the end. I kept my position within the front few. If I ended up on the front, I would put in enough effort to keep everyone happy but not too much then sit back into the top 4/5.

Someone made an early break in the final laps. Again… I tried not to do any of the chasing but If I found myself on the front, I would do a little. The guy on the front as coming back in as he was tiring so wasn’t too fussed.

Instead I held my ground at the front of the pack round the last lap. We hit the hairpin at the half way point and I went for it. As no one wanted to take up the front of the back, they started to back off… only to realise I was on the other side of the course at full speed. I came into the final corner with the pack chasing me down… fortunately I had put in enough of a gap to take the win.

I was lucky enough to have the in-laws in the right spot with a camera to get an awesome shot of me sprinting up the home straight with the mob behind me!

Good tactics, team work and a bit of luck secured the win on this occasion. Certainly felt good being on the attack all the time. Feeling like you’re controlling the pace a bit more and not wasting energy with the Yo-Yo effect off the back certainly helps.

Got a few weeks of TT’s now until the Castle Combe & Odd Down summer series start.

Recap...

Seems as though I have been a bit absent from this blog for a while... fortunately, my cycling and training hasn't :)

I don't seem to have an excuse as I've had plenty of time... time I have spent watching Netflix or aimlessly scrolling through 100's of Strava activities of athletes I follow... Instead, I could have been writing a blog update on my own activities.

I can't blame it on a lack of activity either... there was a whole season of hill climbs, acceptance into the Nationals, the Nationals itself, the off season, the winter training and now; the beginning of the new season. 

There wouldn't be much point in back tracking now... so here's a quick recap:

UHC26 - T1 Diabetes Hill Climb - 10th - smashing my previous PB
UHC80 - Chippenham & DW - 4th - best position in a HC yet
UHC35 - VC Walcot - 5h - close to podium again
UHC90 - Severn RC - 7th - noticing everyone around me improving faster than me
UHC40 - Bath CC - 6th - not a bad race
UHC20 - Team Tor - 9th - not really my type of course

Overall in the series I took 5th. Big improvements on last year... aiming for a top 3 next year :)

National Hill Climb (Bank Road, Matlock) - I got accepted. Spent 3 days in Matlock riding the hill and enjoying the town. Raced. Had the best race of my life. Finished 42nd. 10s off 10th and 22s off first. 523W for 2:38.

Best Bike Split calculates I would need 4lb of weight saving and an extra 60W to win... Game On!

I then took some time off (2 weeks - not enough time). Put 14lb of fat on. Started a very high training load. Caught the flu. Took 3+ weeks off. Lost a lot of fitness. Took nearly 2 months to feel better again. Surprisingly, my last FTP test put me at 326W (4.9W/kg). A massive PB in both and I feel stronger than ever. That would put me at 5.2W/kg at race weight. Still 8lb over weight (which is not consistently coming off each week).

I've taken up a new type of racing... Critiriums (and at some point - Road Racing). Going to get rid of my TT gear and focus on a lighter road bike. At the same time, enjoy some group races and the odd TT on a road bike instead.

I will do a full blog on the Crit racing soon as it deserves it's own post it's so awesome!

Until then... 

Minehead CC - Porlock Hill Climb

The legendary Porlock Hill Climb... 4.1 miles @ 5% average gradient... and a very stable 5% at that. There aren't than many climbs of that duration in the UK. Not only that, they close the road for the duration of the competition. 

Long climbs are not exactly my specialty so I knew I wasn't going to come out of this race with a good time or position... even if the competition wasn't riddled with pro riders.

I'm not sure if it is the climb itself that attracts the pro's, the well organised event and hospitality of the Porlock community or the £300 prize for the winner. Either way it makes for a very competitive and exciting event... albeit useless for gaining points in the series.

Knowing that I was never going to get that much in the way of points I decided to go into the race with a very specific (if not painful) race plan. Go off hard, blow up and hang on.

According to BestBikeSplit.com I calculated a prize winning (7th) power output of 350W. The longest I have ever held that power output before was about 7-8 mins. This was going to be over 16 mins... but if there was ever a place to try it, it was here. The consistent 5% incline makes it easier to keep the power down... and as it doesn't change much, you don't find yourself going 'into the red' that much. Combining that with a race environment, it was the perfect place to attempt it.

Setting off I was finding it really difficult to hold back (which is typical of a race in general). The first minute I averaged 400W... but I still felt comfortable. Settling into the rhythm I was holding power ok. Fluctuation around the 350W +/- 10W. Before I knew it, I was at the hairpin bends... the half way mark. Getting out of the saddle coming out of the bends I realised my legs were beginning to feel it... they started to feel like jelly. 

From this point on, it started getting harder and harder to hold power. After another 3-4 mins I had blown up. I struggled to even hold threshold. I still had another 3-4 mins to go... it wasn't pleasant.

I'd overtaken my 2 minute man earlier in the climb and my minute man wasn't that far away. I had made good progress for the first half but I just couldn't bring him back in the second. He was holding his ground. It was still a good carrot to aim for. 

I don't really remember much of the last 1/2 a mile... I know I was probably upsetting the spectators with my birthing sounds and I vaguely remember the time keepers asking me if I was ok after crossing the line... I would have replied if I wasn't about to die from lack of oxygen.

As soon as I had caught my breath I made my way down... I always forget to drop off a bag of kit to put on at the top... instead I made my way down the 4 mile decent in nothing but a sweat ridden skin suit. I wont be making that mistake again... cold doesn't even describe it. 

The results were surprising...

Position: 14th/120

Time: 17:31

Average Power: 330W

I knocked 2 mins off last years time and took power PB's for my 8-18 min power output. 

Hill Climb Weekend #2

The second round of hill climbs was this weekend... a total of 4 races in two days! 

Saturday
Race #1 - UHC60c 0.5miles @ 6%

This sort of short hill definitely suits my attributes... 2-5min efforts seem to be my preferred choice. This one will be anywhere between 1:30-2:00 for the majority of riders. 

With a target power of 500W based on my PB power over this duration it was just a case of go hard and hang on! 

There was a slightly shallow section before the 6-8% ramp starts... Get the momentum up and try and hold it for as long as possible. Before you know it, the crest of the hill is in sight and your legs have turned to jelly. Like pushing down with two bits of rope instead of legs you attempt to muster every bit of energy before throwing the bike over the line. With a brutal headwind for most of the climb I was glad to have a disk wheel.

 Average power: 514W
Time: 1:47 (winning time 1:38)
Position: 8th

Race #2 - UHC60b 3.1m @ 2%

This length of hill climb definitely does not suit me... 8 mins really is at the upper edge of my preference. In hindsight, it would also of been worth bringing a TT bike for this one... > 20mph with a downhill section. Not ideal on the hill climb bike with the front derailleur removed for weight saving. I had removed the larger chain ring as well but given the course I decided to put it back on and just manually put the chain on the right ring at the start.

On the way down to the start my chain came off... this was not filling me with hope. I've run the chain on the smaller chain ring without any issues... turns out the larger chain ring is a bit more temperamental. It was too late to change anything... and the inner ring was too small.

Target power for this climb was 375W... it was a tall ask as it was over my PB power output for this duration... but then again, I have never done an all out 8 min effort before. The first section on the climb was more like 4-5% so it was easy to hit power then (maybe slightly too much power)... but once it had flattened out it was hard to keep on top of the gears. It was tough going and I was losing power. Probably went off too hard on the steeper section... power was hovering around 300W for the middle section then it started going downhill... then the chain came off... great! 

In the panic of a situation like this it difficult to know how to react. Fortunately I reacted well and managed to hook the chain back on with my right foot... albeit onto the small ring. Dropping down onto the 11 tooth on the back I span at 135rpm until the climb started again. I don't think I lost much power but the adrenaline certainly took my mind off the pain as I pushed 530W for the last section. 

Average power: 325W
Time: 8:50 (winning time 8:08)
Position: 9th

Race #3 - UHC60a 0.5miles @ 9%

9% average does not do this justice... a flat run-up and a shallow finish makes the middle section about 16%! 

Starting off you quickly spin up to max speed... and then you lose it just as quickly... Hitting 16% gradient like that is like hitting a brick wall. Just as the lactic is starting to build the climb really hits you... then you have another minute before you see the top. For some reason I thought the climb was longer than what it was. Hitting the top I still had some left in the tank. I guess I'll just have to save that for the following day.

Average power: 425W
Time: 3:02 (winning time 2:36)
Position: 11th

Overall I finished 9th in a combined time of 13:40.2... nearly 1 min behind the leader but only 20 seconds separating 5th and 10th.

Later that evening, my private physio (and better half) LouLou treated me to a full leg massage... not only very relaxing they also felt suitably supple... much more effective than a warm down... if not just for the psychological advantage.

Sunday
T1Diabetes.info's UHC26 Hill Climb on Burrington Combe 1.9 miles @ 6%

I can't say this is my favorite climb... in fact... it's far from it. Its too long (8mins in duration) and has too many changes in gradient. The changes are not something I'm used too... steady state efforts are what I usually train for... this year is a little different though. The VO2 Max intervals I've been doing certain will help with this... just maybe not with the duration.

I should be able to do 375-380W for this duration, but like I said earlier... its not really something I train for. Before arriving I had planned to go off with the intentions of averaging that power and seeing what happens. 

Once I started warming up though... I realised that wouldn't be the case... fatigue from yesterday was still present... I did a long warm up of about an hour consisting of a course recce and then 30mins on the turbo. Whilst on the turbo I did a few 15-30 sec intervals at 380-400W... the first few were hard but by the end I was actually feeling pretty good.

Yesterday I average 325W for 8 mins... as 375W was a bit high I aimed for 350W. It was difficult to hold back at the beginning but I did my best and it wasn't long before the pain was building... I just kept counting down the minutes and focusing on holding power. The final stretch was tough... I was out the saddle... I couldn't see the Garmin so it was just a case of smash it out and hope for the best. Crossing the line in 7:45 (ish) I knew it was a good time... a minute quicker than last year and better time than most of the other favorites in the race. I was hopeful of a podium.

Whilst cooling down it was apparent that I wasn't the only quick time... sub 7:30's and sub 7:15's started coming in... Not only that but Jo Jago took the women's course record in an impressive 8:59!

Average power: 345W
Time: 7:44 (winning time 7:14)
Position: 10th


It's becoming quite apparent that despite making some considerable gains this year... The level of competition has increased massively! There are some real quick riders including Junior's and Vet's... even a few domestic pro's have made an appearance. 

These times would have been putting me in top 5's and podium positions this time last year... I know I've got my own game in order though... It's just a case of seeing the plan through to next year and I'll be taking home the £££! ;)