Winter training

couerdelion wrote: »

Well it's simple enough to go racing - get a license at the beginning of the year that has the road racing category on it and then look on the CI site for the ladies races, find out where they are being held and then turn up and pay your money. But I guess that's not really what you are asking?

Training wise - At this point in the year it's usually all about getting the miles in the legs - the "base" period. This isn't all about tootling around taking it easy though and it should increase your fitness and power levels as you are going along. After the "base" periods done you move to "build" looking to "peak" and then try and hold that level or just below for as long as you can. For one off races it's easy to aim for a peak - for a season of racing it's a bit more difficult. If that all sounds like a foreign language I'll try and explain how I look at it...

Training seems to be a bit secretive for some reason in cycling and very few people share what they are doing. I'll be back at A4 racing next year so here's what my plan is in the hope it might help you (or anyone else considering racing) - as I didn't get A3 this year I'm obviously crap though, so you might want to ignore any advice I'm giving!

The best thing to do is to work out when you are aiming to hit peak and work back from there.

After having a bit of time off through injury I'm back training properly from tomorrow. My plan is to aim to peak for mid April. The club league starts then and the race season is really under way so its as good a point as any - there's no races around that time I'm really targeting though that might be different for others.

So Mid April is 24 weeks away - so working back and knowing what I did last year, what worked well for me, and what training I can fit in - I'm aiming to turbo on a Tue and Thu, club spin on a Sat and another turbo on a Sunday. If the weather is bad I'll miss the club spin and turbo Sat as well. Too many cold, damp rides led to chest infections and lost weeks last season. I also find the turbo a time saver - it's an hour or so of constant pedaling compared to the freewheeling I might do outside so I get more bang for my buck so to speak.

First turbo session will be a fitness test to see where I am. I use TrainerRoad so it turns my turbo into a power meter - it might not be 100% accurate but it's a measurable and repeatable test so I can compare test to test to see if I'm improving. It also gives me a figure to train against so when I know that when I'm meant to be doing 80% I really am doing 80%.

After the test I'll move into the base phase. This is all about low intensity with most in the 70-80% zone and a few efforts up to 90% and this will take me around 12 weeks with testing every four weeks to make sure I'm heading in the right direction. It's split into 4 week blocks and the average weekly hours for this is: block 1 - 6.5hrs, block 2 - 7.2hrs and block 3 - 8.6hrs (Wednesdays added in for Block 4). There'll be more hours per week if I go out with the club on the Saturdays as it's usually a 4 hour ride or so rather than the 2 max on a Turbo.

12 weeks is pretty much the minimum base I'd do before I move to Build and this is where it gets seriously hard (you get out what you put in) and sessions are usually just below FTP with short all out efforts - kinda replicating a race where you are going fairly hard but still just within yourself for a lot of the time but then hitting max as you sprint hard out of corners and try to bridge when someone goes down the road before trying to settle again and recover whilst maintaining position.

Build period will be 11-12 weeks averaging 7.3 hours a week. Again - will be slightly more if I'm out on the road on a Saturday. I don't think for cycling this is a stupid amount of training and hopefully this amount of training will get me to a position to challenge for points next season and get me to A3.

As a disclaimer of sorts I will be doing a lot more than just the cycling with plenty of swimming, core and s&c work (plus a bit of that running stuff when the physio gives me the all clear). But I think if you are looking to race at a beginner level then 8 hours a week cycling is enough.

mathie wrote: »

Excellent post and thanks for sharing.

With regard to the "Build" period. The bursts of speed you're talking about ... how long should they be?

I've heard of Interval Training before (I think Joe Friel talks about it a bit).

If you're on a 1 1/2 hour spin in the build phase how many sprints and for how long should you be doing?

thanks
M

Inquitus wrote: »

I would only use the turbo as a last resort. It's boring and it feels harder, Z3 on the road feels easy, Z3 on the turbo feels like murder as a I gradually melt into the floor!