BikeNube

So I spent a lot of time doing 15 minute intervals and really dumping it all out, trying to hit new PRs as often as I could. Turned out that this really only succeeded in bumping my 5 minute power. Makes sense, right?

Now I decided to try and focus on the longer stuff since anything that was a little bit lower power and over 20 minutes was pretty neglected.

What does bikeforums think of my 2 month training plan? I tried to sustain 1% increases every week over the next 2 months. Is this doable? My legs only have like a year and a half of riding on them, so this will be the best fitness I've been in. Is there anything Im missing in there?

Here is the link: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/pub...=0&output=html

notwist

yes - you are missing some races

echappist

I'm not so good at the actual racing part, but i do have a few suggestions for the planning part:

-you have a power meter, and you probably have by now a good idea of TSS associated with each type of work out. Instead of still planning by time, i'd plan by TSS. Have a column for planned TSS, ATL, CTL, and TSB; and one for the actual values. You can now adjust how much you do depending on whether you want to build ATL or minimize TSB (aka a taper). If you want, i can show you the home-made tracker that i have.

-What are the TSS of each of your past four weeks? Your on weeks have probably a TSS of 1100/week, and your rest week seems to give you a weekly TSS of ~800, which may or may not be adequate rest depending on your current CTL level. What's your current TSB? I know these are semi-quantitative numbers, but they are still better than nothing when it comes to periodizing a training plan

-your 15' best is most likely not representative of a potential 15' best as you are constantly trying to shoot for PB, and that can't be good for form; ditto for your 20' best. I also noticed that you are testing for 15' and 20', but i think you'd be better served to test 5' and 20' on the same day to get a better gauge of things. Do these after a real rest week.

BikeNube

Past four weeks Total BikeScore have been:

ending mar 6 -- 664
ending mar 13 -- 685
ending mar 20 -- 792
ending mar 27th --723
ending april 3 -- 335

Yea, I'll probably knock out the 15 minute test. Kinda pointless. But I like to play with the numbers and try to dump everything out in a 15 minute period. I feel like in 15 minutes, you still have a really good opportunity to grind it out in the last 5 minutes and fry your legs.

MDcatV

what is the goal of this training program? if it's to increase ftp for a while, then plateau and go backwards into a chasm of chronic fatigue, rock on. if it's to train for racing, start over.

you've largely ignored L5, have no L6 or L7, and have no recovery. also, no long rides are in there, just alot of frequent rides that accumulate volume.

someone, maybe you, would be able to do what you've planned out, but i'd defintely not be able to recover week to week from that program.

WonderLake

This.

echappist

words of wisdom right there

When your rest week TSS is comparable to your current "On Week" TSS, you are probably doing too much. Rule of thumb is that if your CTL ramps by more than 8.0/week, you're going to overtrain.

One thing about the testing. There are three different tests to get FTP values
-The 5' then 20' test as prescribed in the Coggan book. Do a 5' all out, rest for 10', then do 20' all out. Take power from 20' and multiply by 0.95 do get estimation of FTP.
-The critical power/Monod. After a rest week, do a TT > 3 min on one single day. Take the next day or two easy, then do a TT >12 min (your 15min TT would work here). Feed the values into Golden Cheetah to find critical power/FTP. You really do want to make sure you are well rested before each of the TT.
-Max Aerobic Test. Do this on a trainer, indoor. Ramp ~20W/minute, starting at low end of endurance zone. The power sustained for the last minute is your max aerobic power (sorta like VO2 max). Take this value and multiply by 0.72-0.77 (low if you have large anaerobic reserve, high if you are a TT type) to get estimation of FTP. I may personally opt for the last one from now on as it's controllable.

BikeNube

My goal is have a good threshold power, become a good ttist. My sprint is where I want it. My 5 minute power is as good as I want it. Also, those are numbers that I feel were more easily trained. Now I want to create the cardiovascular engine that I'll be using for the rest of my career. I quit smoking cigarettes november 09 (right before I turned 21) and started riding a bike. I think I have some catching up to do which made me try out this plan.