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Race The Training Thread

Interesting, I still think I'm in the newbie territory, although my body is adapting relatively quickly and so far my heart is responding pretty fast. The plan over the next month is a lot of endurance rides and keep my HR in the same zone.

Also dialing in (aka having smaller) breakfast before I do my workout on bike has helped a lot. Riding on a full stomach doesn't agree with me.

A small breakfast and lots of goodies in the pockets is the way to go!

Andy
 
@andywood Thanks for the tip on setting up my screen to use my power meter. I'll give it a try.

Also have another question. I'm 65 and have never really trained much on the bike. I have a lot of long slow distance behind me but little of the harder, faster, more intense riding. I'd like to improve my climbing ability and use Yabitsu as my yardstick to measure my progress. If I want to make the biggest improvement over a 12 week period, would it be better to focus on FTP building or do a lot of hill work? I see a lot of plans for FTP building and they don't look all that different to me from the 'climb' specific plans. Any advice (or pointing me to good sources) would be much appreciated.
There is an amount of truth to the saying that the only way to climb better is to climb lots.

I would say that sustainability is the most important thing.

First you need to find the best position on the bike, in terms of hands on bars and bum on seat, to do a steady constant effort on a climb.

Then cadence. Too heavy a gear and you will wear your legs down. Too light a gear and you are wasting cardio. Your HR has a bpm max, and a damaging red zone. Basically you need to find the cadence that you can sustain from the bottom to the top of the climb without your legs or heart blowing up.

In terms of specific training, assuming you want to climb steadily, then FTP workouts are definitely the way to go.

Two ways to increase FTP are
1. to ride at sweetspot ie. just below your threshold power FTP or threshold heart rate LTHR.
2. to criss cross the FTP or LTHR repeatedly

If you are doing your training on a climb, then the first option is probably easier to deal with.

If you are using a trainer then the 2nd option is probably easier to deal with.

I don't know the climb, but if you are doing Yabitsu as your yardstick, I would say practice it to find your target cadence, heart rate and power that you can hold for the climb.

If you climb it repeatedly at the same HR and cadence, you should see your power & speed increase over time.

Hope this helps!

Andy
 
Very helpful. Thanks. Your advice was in line with what I was thinking so glad I'm on the right track.
 
When doing a long climb or other hard effort, don't think about the finish.
Think about getting to the next random landmark. And then the next one. And the next one. And so on.

It's too mentally hard to sustain long, hard efforts if you don't break it up into manageable chunks.
The harder the effort, the smaller the chunks will have to be.
 
Personally I am not alarmed if it is 10 to 20 beats lower than when "fresh" but if the heart rate is really slow to respond, both up and down, it's a good sign to take a rest.
Right, it isn't about being alarmed and more about being informed. The older I get, the smarter I get about not blindly pushing through. If I see that I am exhausted, like you wrote, I'd take a rest or do replace my Z2 workout with a Z1 workout instead. Doing that can feel great, which makes training a more positive experience.
 
@andywood Thanks for the tip on setting up my screen to use my power meter. I'll give it a try.

Also have another question. I'm 65 and have never really trained much on the bike. I have a lot of long slow distance behind me but little of the harder, faster, more intense riding.
You are never too old to train. A good base fitness due to years of long, slow distance will be a big advantage in my opinion.
I'd like to improve my climbing ability and use Yabitsu as my yardstick to measure my progress. If I want to make the biggest improvement over a 12 week period, would it be better to focus on FTP building or do a lot of hill work?
With hill work, I assume you mean VO2max intervals by doing hill repeats? Most training plans will mix training zones for maximum effect. Do you intend to use an app like TrainerRoad? (I could give you a code for a free trial.) No worries, you can do the workouts outdoors if you have a Garmin or Wahoo cycling computer.
 
Another week of training. I took the last couple of days easy, which is always difficult with the good weather at this time of the year. Just sitting around waiting for the cherry blossom front!

The usual blog link and cut and paste below.

Cheers, Andy



「beach boys!」

last week's training blog
先週のトレーニングブログです
変な日本語すみません!

tomorrow is the niigata cyclocross championships
明日は新潟シクロクロス選手権です

including last Sunday's race
I did 5 days of hard training
先週の日曜日のレースも入れて
5日間のハードトレーニングをやりました

one of the weakest riders tomorrow
no chance of winning!
明日最も弱いライダーの一人
勝つチャンスはない!

but if I want to get my best out
it is important to take two easy days before the race
でも自分のベストが出せるようにレースの2日前にレストモードへ

・monday: rollers tempo /sweetspot
・tuesday: race pace 370W x 35mins / tempo (100km)
・wednesday: sweetspot 330~350W 20mins x 3, (75km)
・thursday: road volume (125
km)
・friday: rest
・saturday: pipe openers (25km)
・sunday: race

let's leave our souls on the beach tomorrow!
皆さん、明日のビーチでオールアウトへ!

#imezi #imezi167 #167grv
#imezisealant
 
Went mountain biking an MTB course about an hour away. The first time hitting a trail with my own bike.

I got it up over 180 chasing some other guys. Oof. The part of my ride seems to have been cut off my my ride file, possibly due to harsh vibrations on the downhill section. I couldn't see straight on account of my eyeballs jiggling. Haha.

I need to get a MTB helmet, since I would cry if I cracked my road helmet...

On another note, I converted my MTB and road bike to tubeless!
28 mm tubeless tires are smooth as butter!
It's also a great way to improve grip with MTBs since you can lower the tire pressure quite a bit more.
 
@OreoCookie said, "With hill work, I assume you mean VO2max intervals by doing hill repeats? Most training plans will mix training zones for maximum effect. Do you intend to use an app like TrainerRoad? (I could give you a code for a free trial.) No worries, you can do the workouts outdoors if you have a Garmin or Wahoo cycling computer."

I'm using a trial plan on Training Peaks but that ends next week. Thanks for the offer of the TrainerRoad code. That would be great. Vielen Dank.
 
@OreoCookie said, "With hill work, I assume you mean VO2max intervals by doing hill repeats? Most training plans will mix training zones for maximum effect. Do you intend to use an app like TrainerRoad? (I could give you a code for a free trial.) No worries, you can do the workouts outdoors if you have a Garmin or Wahoo cycling computer."

I'm using a trial plan on Training Peaks but that ends next week. Thanks for the offer of the TrainerRoad code. That would be great. Vielen Dank.

Vo2 max intervals will give you race sharpness, ie. the ability to follow others for short accelerations, or the ability to go over short bumps quickly. If you just want to climb steadily and stronger for longer, longer hill climb specific intervals might be better for you. Of course, variety is the spice of life, so it's worth trying lots of different kinds of intervals.

At the end of the day, motivation, consistency and then progress are the three most important things which will help you improve.

Andy
 
Tore myself inside out at the prefectural CX championships yesterday.

A race report here in Japanese but it should translate to 5 year's old English easily enough!

Cheers, Andy

 
Vo2 max intervals will give you race sharpness, ie. the ability to follow others for short accelerations, or the ability to go over short bumps quickly. If you just want to climb steadily and stronger for longer, longer hill climb specific intervals might be better for you. Of course, variety is the spice of life, so it's worth trying lots of different kinds of intervals.

At the end of the day, motivation, consistency and then progress are the three most important things which will help you improve.

Andy
Thanks. I've noticed that sometimes I'm good with consistency and sometimes not. IOW.. inconsistently consistent. :ashamed: (Kinda like the Groucho Marx line: "Sincerity...if you can fake that, you've got it made.)

I've been looking over lots of training plans, I think the common denominators for the hill climb plans are:

1. Gradually increase sweet spot training so that you can hold it for an equivalent to the duration of your climb.
2. Increase training load by 15% a month. 3 weeks of gradual increase, 4th week down 25% for recovery.

Finally, I've noticed that my fitness numbers really jump up after a long ride with lots of climbing. With the indoor trainer, fitness gains are much more gradual. So, I figure to try for at least one long ride in the mountains each week. Besides, seems like an hour and a half is about the maximum I can stand to ride indoors.
 
This week I've focused completely on volume.

200km on Monday.

Screenshot_20210329-163640_Strava.jpg

A day off for my son's birthday on Tuesday. Then 100km before breakfast the last 3 mornings.

20210402_085950.jpg

At 5 in the morning it's 3℃. But today will hit an afternoon high of 20℃.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom.

20210402_063558.jpg

So a chance for some local "hanami" this afternoon.

This is the best time of year to be out on your bike.

Pedal on!

Andy
 
What a pity I'm gonna miss all that. There are a few very pretty countryside roads lined by cherry trees that I'd usually ride. Well, next year, I suppose.
 
A really solid week of training last week. Don't think I've put in that kind of volume since we had our first son 12 years ago. Rolling back the years!

The usual blog link and cut and paste below.

Cheers, Andy



「project 167!? project 700!」

last week's training blog
先週のトレーニングブログです
変な日本語すみません!

after last sunday's race
I turned my attention to volume
building my aerobic engine
the project?
700km in 7 days!
I set up the road bike with Imezi 167 wheels and
hit the road!
先週の日曜日のレースの後
ボリュームに注意しました
エンジンを作るプロジェクトは?
7日間で700km!
Imezi167ホイールでロードバイクをセットアップして
ライドオン!

・monday: road 200km
・tuesday: rest
・wednesday: road asaren 100km
・thursday: road asaren 100km
・friday: road asaren 100km
・saturday: road 100km
・sunday: road asaren 100km

this is base training
volume not intensity
zones 1 and 2
but these wheels are fast
これはベーストレーニングです
インターバルではなくボリューム
ゾーン1と2
それでもホイールは速い!

I will right a blog on the Imezi homepage about
1. setting up the wheels
2. wheel performance
後でImeziのブログに
1.ホイールのセットアップ
2.ホイールのパフォーマンス
についてアップします

happy to see my fitness increasing this month too
now at a two year peak!
今月フィットネスが上がることを見るとうれしい
そして今のフィットネスは2年間のピークだそうです!

here we go!
これからですね!

 
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