Although the description on the blog says "husband, father, architect and cyclist," my guess is that this blog will deal with more on my cycling than any other facet of my life. A few posts ago, I hinted at my new training plan for the year, with an emphasis on training with Power in lieu of my old strategy which was just to get as many miles in my legs as possible. Its sort of comical to look back now and see that in the past my philosophy was that I didn't want to even try to attempt a race until I had 1,000 miles in my legs. Now I'm understanding that the hours needed to get to that magical 1,000 mile marker are somewhat arbitrary because an hour of riding with my team on Tuesday nights is not the same as an hour of riding with my wife down on the towpath trail. Both types of riding are necessary for my training plan, but a little better organized structure and plan should bring me to the start line a little more prepared than believing in a magical mile marker. (See www.scottthor.com for a great article on this).
It's funny to think but true that when undertaking a certain training plan, you will go into it with full belief that its the right plan for you otherwise you wouldn't be doing it right? It's not until you're well into the program that you know if you're having success with it or not. Cycling is also a funny sport that for most of us, it takes years to develop yourself as a cyclist. I remember my first team rides. We started out in early April and I think I got dropped every time that year except for once, the last ride of the season. It wasn't until this year (my third year with the team) that I could begin hanging with the fast guys and even feel comfortable attacking them. One of my teammates that I see in the same place as me a few years ago is Frank Kolasa. In his first year racing he has made unbelievable strides for a rookie and once he develops some more power, look out that guy will be tough.
Before going any further, let me first say that I am not a coach or an exercise physiologist so what I say is my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt as it might not be the best advice for you. The nice thing about the blog is that its easy for you to leave your comments so please feel free to do so. Like most programs these days mine follows the concept of periodization. The first category is called is called "Off Season Maintenance (OSM)", the next is "Endurance/Threshold" then comes the "pre-season race preparation" period.
I'm currently nearing the end of my OSM cycle. This period of training has been going on since mid December and has consisted of approximately 4 rides a week. 2 of those rides are where the real work comes in, the other are rides are longer and at a lower intensity, say L2 pace. In the more difficult sessions I'm doing a 1x20 at 90% of FTP, 2x5's at 100% FTP and 3x30 seconds where I give it my absolute all. Doing these workouts for about a month and a half now I can see an improvement in my fitness as I've added approximately 20 watts to each of my interval sessions.
The next phase lasts an additional six weeks and will be made up of long L2 and L3 rides ranging from 2 to 4 hours and more level 4 work, mostly 2x20's at 90 to 95% of my FTP. As I see this next phase of training quickly coming up, I'm praying for warm weather as I'd really like to be doing those long rides outdoors and not in on the rollers. I can get in 2 hours inside when I'm watching one of the "Lord of the Rings" movies, but that's about my limit.
The last phase before my taper week is an additional 6 weeks and that will lead me into the end of May (I'm trying to peak for the Snitger's Classic held in Pennsylvania). This session I will see less days on the bike, but my workouts will be way more intense. Here's where I introduce my body to more pain by subjecting it to some Level 5 and Level 6 workouts, which would be 5x5's at 110% of FTP and 10x1's at 150% of FTP respectively. Of course I can't do these workouts every day, so the remainder of the weeks will be spent doing long L3 rides.
So, that's my training plan looking at it from a 10,000 foot level. I'm not trying to be secretive by not telling you day for day what I'm doing, its just that my plan is somewhat flexible to allow life situations to intervene. Again, as a husband, father and architect there's going to be something that will interrupt my plans but as long as I get in my core workouts for the week, I'm on schedule.
brian
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