Training Progress - Base Training

The purpose of base training is simple... to make physiological adaptations to your body to allow you to build your fitness later in the season. Without this you will basically reach a 'burn-out' point before the big day.

The physiological adaptations that you are looking to gain are processes within the aerobic energy system. The ability to process energy, the transporting of oxygen and the removal of lactic.

Traditionally, this was achieved by clocking up lots of slow miles. Winter miles. This however requires lots of time... over 15 hours a week to be exact. Each ride also needs to be long... not 15 x 1 hours rides... more like 5 x 3 hour rides. I for one simply do not have the weekday hours available to achieve this.

Thankfully there are also other ways of achieving this with less that 10 hours a week. It's called the Sweet Spot. This is approx 90% of your FTP power output. It's high enough to cause the adaptations of threshold work but low enough training stress to allow you to train on consecutive days. Another way of achieving this is fasted training sessions. Most of the adaptations in longer rides occur when your energy stores are depleted. By depleting them before hand, you can get similar adaptations in less time.

I'm now coming to an end of the 12 week sweet spot training plan with Trainerroad. I'm taking an early recovery in week 10 to prepare for a training camp in Majorca... I say training camp... I actually mean a holiday whereby I leave the Mrs to go cycling.

I will be raising my Training Stress Balance (form/recovery) to a high 15... That way I can inflict a large amount of training stress whilst I am away with less risk of 'over training' and becoming ill. The following week will be a rest week to recover fully before starting the build plan.

The plan is to do a mixture of long rides (to get to some of the famous climbs) and shorter rides at Sweet Spot... basically achieving both types of 'base training' in one hit... a large hit. The weeks TSS will total a massive 1300! A little higher than the 650-700 I'm currently at.

Doing a large 'block' of training like this is great for teaching your body to withstand a large amount of training stress. Once it has been completed and the necessary recovery/adaptations take place, I should be able to up my weekly training load. The build phase I am planning on will give me a peak weekly TSS of 800 and will take my CTL to over 100. 

A higher CTL isn't always good... Pro's don't necessarily train with that high of a training load. It's about finding what works best for you to give you the optimum gains. I'm purely doing this to trial how I respond to it... I figure, IF I withstand a higher training load, I can train more often or for longer resulting in more gains. All I know is... what ever I'm doing at the moment seems to be working... so i'll just carry on until something changes.

Summer Valley Cycle Club U303 Hardriders

After a successful race at Thursdays Inter-club I was feeling optimistic about this race. I did well the last time as the course is in my favor... only 19 miles but a long drag up for the first 17 miles and then a sharp drop at the end. Sufficiently hilly enough to suit the feather weights!

On the morning of the race though I wasn't feeling so optimistic... a head full of hayfever made breathing far more difficult... I had to race though as a result of forgetting to enter a few of the earlier races... I need this race to count towards the series.

Doping myself up on allergy relief I went on my way... nearly crashing a multiple of times on the journey there as a result of sneezing.

Up until the plague hitting me I was hoping for a 300+W average but I didn't know how my blocked nose was going to impact this. I decided to just go off on target and see what happens.

Hitting target on the first half wasn't too bad but it pretty much went down hill from there. Struggling to breathe I kept having to sit up more to get the necessary oxygen in. The second half also included the downhill section which I always struggle to keep power high on. Despite this I still managed to knock 75 seconds off my PB from earlier in the year and finished 5th overall.

First Half

Power - 297W

Speed - 23.9mph

Cadence - 87rpm

Second Half

Power - 270W

Speed - 23.8mph

Cadence - 89rpm

Just goes to show what difference a wheelset makes. Average power last time was 300W but I was running standard wheels. With the DT Swiss 65mm front and disk rear I managed to save over a minute despite being 17W lower in power (and 11lb over weight).

Maybe it had something to do with the lucky number...

The Victor!

My first win in a time trial came last Thursday at the Inter-club 10 mile TT on the U7b.

I have been riding well anyway recently and went into the race feeling confident. The new DT Swiss wheelset has been outstanding and my power is beginning to return to my best after 8 weeks of base training. The last time I rode the U7b I knocked over a min off my PB from last year to get a sub 23 with an average power of 297W. I've been feeling a lot stronger since then so was confident I could hit 320W target power. The plan was to go off hard and try to hang on... no half measures!

The wind wasn't in my favour... steady headwind on the return leg. If you go off hard it builds up a larger amount of lactic acid in the legs making it more difficult to hold the power later on... couple that with a head wind and it is destined for failure... 

Outward leg was great... the wind was behind me... the power was good at 313W... a little lower than I had hoped but still up on last time. Average speed was 29.4mph! 

Turned at the roundabout to return and it was like hitting a brick wall. Attempting to get as aero as possible to get the best gains (and knowing that my head sticks up way too much!) I was determined to keep the power on.

I was hurting all the way back... passing Berkeley Heath I was down to 27mph. This was putting me into the sub 22 bracket. From Berkeley, the course is a little lumpy with a drag up to the finish... the average was floating from 26.9 to 27 and back... it was going to be close. That last mile and a half saw power rise to 338W with the final half mile at 365W... Despite all my best efforts I crossed the line in 22:14 smashing my PB and joining fellow Dursley Road Club rider Graeme Davis in first position.

Outward leg
Power - 313W
Speed - 29.4mph
Cadence - 92rpm

Return leg
Power - 321W
Speed - 25mph
Cadence - 90rpm

If I had a better average power, rather than surging at the end, that would have been a sub 22 no problem... fingers crossed the weather turns out better next time... It will be an interesting result.

Thanks to Rod Hunt of rnh fotografia  I even came away with a photo of me towing a lorry