Training Summary: Mid-Season Transition, Week 1

You won't find this part of the training year in the textbooks, but I think it's a great way to keep things going over the Christmas and New Year period. The idea came from my rowing background, whereby we would put in three months of predominately steady-state type training in running up to the middle of December, and then have 10-12 days to train on our own before resuming squad training in the New Year.

The New Year work would typically progress quite quickly into work at race pace and above. In between, I always found it most valuable to try and mix up the training and do things that we didn't normally do during squad training. Since squad training consisted of 2 sessions a day with long blocks between steady and threshold intensities, I would try and stay clear of this range and do some harder training above threshold along with some work at the low end of steady.

I found on a number of occasions that this worked not only to make me feel fit and strong after the Christmas break, but also to recharge my mental batteries. As such, it is something that I will implement in my bike training.

The basic idea is not to stress too much about getting in work at certain intensities. Go out and so some steady work, but also do some high intensity bursts to try and wake up my anaerobic system after 4 months of dormancy. This is reflected in my (rough) plan for the fortnight (as always, at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AheXzGGp8uk3dEhoU19KZmhGTzVISmQ3ZVRIbTZYV0E#gid=1)

GOAL: None, really. Should be clear from the above that goal setting is not necessary.

Monday: Turbo 1h45 steady

Data: 224 W (228 NP), hr 135, cad 93

Notes: Got a bit wet towards the end.

Would have preferred to go for a spin on the roads as it was a medium day post-race but it was showery, so I stuck with the turbo (and still got caught in the rain). Standard session.

Tuesday: Turbo 60' + rollouts

Data: 200 W (221 NP), hr 131, cad 92. Rollouts varied from 300-400 W

Notes: Christmas morning. Intended to be a tune-up session before the Boxing Day TT.

Wednesday: 12 x 1' on 1' off @ 300-410 W (up 10 each time)

Data: See WKO file (http://tpks.ws/72rF)

Notes: All done in TT bars, fun little session.

Definitely in keeping with the spirit of this fortnight's training. I got up far too late to go to the TT so decided to start off at a solid threshold-type level and just increase the power each minute until it got significantly harder. Perhaps not the kind of session that will elicit long term sustainable progress, but I only had 40 minutes and it got me breathing hard.

Thursday: am: 90' steady, pm: 50' inc 25' @ 85%, 10' @ 100%

Data: am: 228 W (238 NP), hr 137, cad 88. pm: 25' @ 282 W, hr 158, cad 91, 10' @ 308 W, hr 169, cad 88

Notes: am: very windy & the odd puddle. pm: last minute of the 10 had dodgy wattage, true avg maybe 305

Put in a big day of training after the Boxing Day indulgence that was our family party. My initial plan was about 2 hours of solid work on the road but I again got up a bit late and only had 90 minutes before brunch, so stuck the bike on the turbo before dinner to do a second session with some moderate intensity in it.

Friday: Turbo 85' inc 6x1' @ 310, 350, 390, 430, 470, 510 W

Data: See WKO file (http://tpks.ws/U0my), but final minute @ 532 W

Notes: Done in base bars, last couple were pretty hard. 4' rest in between.

This was to be 4x1' anaerobic, and so I decided to put in a couple of easier minutes in to get warmed up, as well as allowing me to feel my way into these high power intervals as I haven't done them using a power meter before. In the future these sessions are going to be much harder, but at least I now have some idea of what I can do. I think 500 W for all four pieces is a good target for next time around.

Saturday: 2x20' @ 90%

Data: 1: 285 W, hr 166, cad 87, 2: 289 W, hr 171, cad 89

Notes: Felt pretty shocking.

No idea if that was due to fatigue or dodgy power readings or food or whatever, but the numbers were well down for the RPE - felt almost like threshold!

Sunday: 2 x tabata (8 x 20'' on MAX, 10'' off easy)

Data: See WKO file (http://tpks.ws/LQRz)

Notes: 500+ to start, settling around 460 once up to speed.

Had about half an hour to train in (again). Decided in the interest of tiring myself out to do some old-fashioned HIIT. Went with the Tabata protocol as I know that it ruins you pretty quickly, especially with the large amount of torque required to speed the turbo wheel up 8 times in 4 minutes!

Bike Totals: 9h08m, 562 TSS

Summary: Always a very busy week with lots of distractions from training, but I think I managed a solid effort.