nilhg wrote: » Good stuff J, beat me on all 3 counts above, of course while stats are fun and important they don't tell the whole story, I said it before when we met that day in Dunlavin I hardly recognised you and mostly saw your backside any time the road went up that day, it seems to me that your hard work is paying off and that things will fall into place for you in 2015. I still can't get my head around your depletion rides, fair play to you on that, it'll be interesting to see how you feel it works for you in the racing season. Enjoy tonight and best of luck in 2015
upthe19th wrote: » Wow, nearly 5 years......where the hell did that go..... No sense starting a new thread, so I'll just picka upto where I left off. And certainly no point going through was happened since, so quick snap shot..... Racing, more racing, A3, training, injuries, more racing, work ****, family ****, diets and nutrition.......and here I am. So im back to where it all began.....riding my bike and getting back to enjoying it. The more I raced, the less I rode my bike, well at least the long, long spins. So thats where im going......endurance. Probably where I should have always gone, but hey. I still did a bit shortly after I left off last time.....350km being the longest I ever did. There are thoughts in my head and long term goals, but I'll get to those in time, hopefully.
upthe19th wrote: » Up next is the 500km week goal, the solo 200km & solo 250km.
Right, another 2 years rolls by......
One more stab at this thread for however long, if for no other reason than to keep myself accountable.
Sporadic ultra distance training in the past 2 years, no competitive/official events completed though.
At the moment, the longest I've done is a solo unsupported 24 TT of my own creation last year. I'm hoping to attempt this again on the same roads next month and try to exceed the last distance achieved.
After that, the plan is to push the boundaries as much as I can from there.
Training continues steadily. Fitness is coming good steadily too. It was such a pity that Covid hit me so hard and put me back 10 odd weeks.
The week previous to last post, I had completed a high load week, the last 2 weeks were lighter, less than half the workload. This week will be something similar.
The first provisional date I have planned to do my next 24 hour is next week, but something has come up. It may or may not scupper the plan, in which case, it's only another 3 weeks after that to the second provisional date.
So next week will either be a recovery week to be ready or another high load week to build. I'll build the sessions for the recovery early in the week and if it looks like it won't happen I'll ramp up on friday/saturday/Sunday.
Last 4 weeks were light to moderate, I just worked with the time and energy I had. Few other bits going on, so it was a balancing act.
It'll be very light this week. Light leg spinning and get bits together. I've found I need to be eager to get on the bike, looking forward to it, considering I'll see 24hours of it or so, minus stops.
Hopefully weather plays ball. Some rain won't bother me at all, as long as not torrential or stubbornly persistent unless it's light. When it's go time, it's go time.
So barring something coming up unexpectedly, we are T minus 5 days.
24 hour solo TT
This would be my 3rd attempt at one. The first was unsuccessful due to a mechanical and the second was completed with 561km.
The plan was to try to push the distance up to 600km or at the very least with more distance.
Finished a week of night shift and managed to get some sleep. I'd gotten tiny symptoms of a cold on Wednesday that still weren't great on Thursday. When I woke on the friday afternoon are nights, I had a pretty bad headache and a felt a bit under the weather but still not enough to pul the plug on starting.
Was on the bike for just after 4pm. Got caught in a heavy rain shower about 90 minutes in but that wouldn't bother me. That's par for the course, it's ireland, you dress appropriately and push on. However, I'd broken my first rule......dress for the weather you expect and not the current weather. So I got a good wetting. But I was also feeling negative, which is unlike me when I'm on the bike. I was fixating on the speed and the 600km, so I just pushed all that aside and concentrated on completing it. My mood immediately changed. But I was feeling it, and by 110km I was feeling pretty crappy.
First pitstop and full gear change for the night riding. Legs were coming around and headache was easing but still feeling crappy. So I broke it down into pieces and just told myself to keep riding the 4ish hour stints and play it by ear.
220km rolled by and another pitstop for fluids and food. Legs were in the zone now and rolling but I was still feeling kinda rubbish.
At about 290km, I noticed my HR fall out of the sky and breathing was shallow and tight. At 300km, the road surface I was on felt really rough but it made no sense as I'd ridden it earlier. Then I realised I was shaking kinda hard and it wasn't the road at all. It was time to call it off. Last 20km were torture and fell in the door at home. Passed out in bed, woke in bits, coughing and shaky.
I'm disappointed, it feels like a failure but maybe its all just failure until its success, just like what I learned from the first attempt and put in to practice on the second successful one.
So what's new that I've learned?
I can ride through pain and I can ride through tiredness to a point and I can work with bad legs......but sickness is a different story. The level of oxidative stress is enough in itself without underlying weakness in the body. I stuck it out in spite of feeling crappy and gave it my all, but I also then made the right decision to pull the plug otherwise I would have just dug a bigger hole and probably still wouldn't have finished.
Lessons learned. Push on now with a solid winter of training and make the plans and goals for 2023.
Thankfully the cold illness I had passed reasonably quickly midways through last week, so i was able to do a little subthreshold on the turbo.
Took a few days off this week to put a training plan of sorts together for the first 6 week block, so winter training and build starts this evening.....focussed and eager to train.
I'll take a look ahead to what I want to do/achieve in 2023 towards the end of November.
In a strange coincidence I was just wondering this morning what you're up to....and then went on Boards for the first time in about a year and found this.... Glad you're still at it!
No better or worse than I ever was C. Good to hear from you, it's been a while..........hope all is well on your end.
Good start to training so far, at least for past week. A mixed bag of sessions. Hopefully we get somewhat dry weather for the rest of October and November. Failing that, I'll get some character-building sessions in to the bargain.
Nutrition will also be in focus obviously. On a side note, I'm helping a co-worker on his weight-loss journey too. Just little bits that I've learned over the years. Very simple stuff, but simple doesn't equal easy. They are doing great so far and its all very balanced. It's helping keep me honest too, which is a bonus.
Setting out the stall
I suppose going forward I wanted to to put down how I'd like the log to go from here on.
There's a saying that goes something like this....
'The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now'
If you're looking for anything similar to the following, I'm afraid this won't be the place to find it:
This log will be steady improvement (hopefully) over an extended time period. It's taken me over 8 years to get to here, so I'm thinking of the bigger picture. That's not to say that I won't be pushing myself and striving to do better, but the plan is for it to be sustainable and realistic.
Training
The training will be steady and varied, with an emphasis on building a strong and consistent base, supplemented with high-end sessions. I have no educated background in any of this. I do not peruse mountains of journals on the subject. I do read bits and pieces from time to time and I try different things from time to time to see how they work or don't work for me.
Consistency is the key.....
Nutrition
I eat wholefoods almost exclusively. I don't bother with gels and bars and the likes anymore. Sugar does not agree with me in those types of sources.
I've done the fasted long rides and I've done the fasted cardio and other things. Do I think they particular work....well yes and no. At times i do them because they suit me on those days, perhaps I'm not hungry before training, etc. But then I fuel.
Some days I train 'lower' nutrition-wise but again based on how i feel and the session to be done. Sometimes i train 'high' nutrition-wise but again based on the same reasons. I always do events with a moderate intake of fluids and solids. I eat and drink consistently and steadily to provide only what I need as I go and prevent gut stress for the most part.
I've done the diets and explored many of them. Each had their own merits and downsides. For me, all roads lead to a calorie deficit for weight loss, irrespective of what I chose, so it just depends on what suits each individual and helps them to maintain their discipline.
And guess what....Consistency is the key.....
Again, I re-iterate, I have only what works for me by trial and error. I spend my time doing rather than discussing theories at length.
Don't expect a wealth of knowledge, I don't have it. I'm still figuring it out.
FTP Testing
I hadn't done an FTP test in over 12months, so this was just to set a marker for now. I was genuinely intrigued as to how it might go. I didn't have any idea of what numbers would be generated, but I reckoned maybe 250W, maybe even 260W.
I was well hydrated and reasonably well rested. A light breakfast taken on board and some coffee and then headed for the turbo trainer. A comfortable warm up and there could be no complaints as the legs felt good and relaxed. Did the 20min test and a cool down.
So the numbers looked like this:
Average power: 306W
Normalised power: 310W
Body Weight: 81.4kg
W/Kg: 3.5
So I'm happy out for now. I really didn't expect that, but then I didn't have a clue how it would go either.
At the end of June I was 88.6kg so the reduction in body weight has been steady over time and pretty much exactly where I thought it would be by now. Very sustainable and measured over the time. I will continue in this way and as the weight hopefully goes a little lower, the time allowed to achieve each weight milestone will extend also, making it a long term thing.
I will put the sessions in place now each week to aid an improvement in my FTP but within the overall plan for a strong base.
I will update on body weight maybe every month or so but I will also comment on mood and condition. No point in being lighter and weaker. But the approach thus far should prevent anything like that happening for the most part.
That's impressive power J.
Kudos on the improved power/weight ratio too. Was it mainly dietary changes or were you burning more energy too?
Ah it's not really C. It's about average at best. We'll call it a start.....and say no more.
Mostly dietary. IMO exercise is a woefully inefficient way of losing weight. Don't get me wrong, it goes hand in hand with the training but on its own it ain't gonna get it done.
What you can burn on a bike in a hour, you can eat in under 10minutes.
I made up my own acronym for the food side.....maybe I'll post and discuss sometime.....or maybe I'll leave that end to the educated.
First week of the newest block of training under the belt. More tired than usual last week for some reason. Could be just time of year but I will keep an eye on it.
All turbo sessions last week but they all went good. 6 days of training (7 sessions and one rest day). Did a small bit of reading on Zone 2 training too. I had a habit of approaching Zone 2 training as a glorified recovery session. But I will do it now in a more purposeful manner. It's not a handy session either, there's some work to do in it, but it's also a disciplined session in the appropriate training range.
The percentage of Zone 2 in the plan represents a build phase for now and will switch to more of a maintenance level gradually over time. There is one Zone 3 session per week and one Zone 4 session per week, which will increase moderately over time in intensity and slightly in occurrence. The Zone 3 frequency might remain as is. I need to read a bit more, but it seems that Zone 3 may not be as enhancing from a training perspective. But then I'll be hoping to perform in this zone for when I am doing actual ultra activities. For now, that's the approach until convinced otherwise.
Not as much training last week, only 3 sessions completed. I had a blood donation, a session of sports massage and a critically overdue session of needling but getting them all done in the same week was a bonus. Not as tired either and I had started an Iron supplement too.
Weather being brutal has thwarted attempts to get out on the road, so its turbo still for now. This week will be 4-5 training sessions. The aerobic decoupling values on the Zone 2 power are good, but then hard to really tell from 60-90min turbo sessions without seeing what's what on longer road spins.
I might return to using RGT again just to keep things interesting, I'll see.
My co-worker is doing really well on the weight loss and I will soon be helping a second person, which I am looking forward to.
What's RGT?
Virtual cycling app. It was taken over by Wahoo since i think I used it last, so must see what it is like now. It just makes a little bit of the turbo a bit more interesting and if it still has some race type events I can substitute them in for the higher intensity sessions, potentially.
got the wahoo kickr set up the last few weeks, without zwift.
things going well with some early morning sessions at zone 2 and zone 3
anyone any recommendations for training programs/workouts for 2/3 times per week?
You might get a better response if you set up as a separate thread....my log wouldn't be very busy that way
Back to back illnesses, including over xmas, has meant no training for the past 5 weeks.
Back at it tonight. Cant wait.
