Weekly schedule: How is it looking?

tux259

Hi everyone. I'll try and keep this short. I've been out of the cycling game for about 8 months. I have about 2.5 months to train for a long, touring type of ride that will hopefully cover about 350 miles. That is the priority, but I also want to throw in some training for more race-type of situations for the upcoming summer.

If necessary: I am 20 years old, 5'11", 150lbs. Max HR is about 200bpm, but my resting HR is fairly high (85ish).

Here's what I got:
day 1 - 5 x (4min high intensity + 2min low intensity), 5 minutes cool down
day 2 - 2x20 minutes at 95% of your best pace for that time with 5 minutes rest between plus warmup and cooldown
day 3 - 2x30 minutes at 85-90% of your best pace for the duration(a bit easier than day 3, but longer)
day 4 - rest
day 5 - 5 x (4min high intensity + 2min low intensity), 5 minutes cool down
day 6 - 2x30 minutes at 85-90% of your best pace for the duration(a bit easier than day 3, but longer)
day 7 - rest

Thoughts? Thanks!

strader

It looks like you are off to a good start. Are you doing other types of racing, in adition to the 350 mile touring ride?
One suggestion I would make would be to replace one of your 2x30 days with a longer steady (not necessarily slow) paced ride of a couple hours or more. This should help you get your pacing dialed, as well build your endurance.
Regarding the 5x4 minute VO2 max efforts, most people seem to get by with one day a week of this type of workout. Personally I alternate each week with a VO2 max 5 minutes interval workout on week 1, and 1 minute anaerobic sprints on week 2 - but I'm also starting racing on the weekends along with some fast group rides and solo mountain bike rides. YMMV.
Last season I was also doing some brutal 3 day blocks like you are doing, starting with L5/vo2max 5 minutes intervals, followed by 2x20s, and then followed by an endurance day. I've changed my training this season so that I'm not doing back to back days of hard training. My typical week looks some thing like this:

Sunday: mountain bike ride or race
Mon: Rest or 1-2 hr ride at L2 level
Tues: 5 min L5 vo2max intervals, or 1 min sprints
Wed: 1-2 hour Mountain bike ride, skills focus, ~L3 level
Thurs: 2x20s at my FTP wattage (~270 watts)
Fri: 1-2 hour Road ride, L3/L4
Sat: Rest or 1 hour L3/L4

I want my hard training days on tues/thurs/sunday to be as high-quality as possible. The in-between days are easy enough that I can fully recover from the previous days workout (no residual fatique) but hard enough where I still get an endurance training benefit. Last season with back-to-back hard days I was experiencing a lot of residual fatigue, and the quality of my workouts was suffering.

swampy1970

Just a couple of questions to get a clearer picture....

The 350mile ride - is that a one day or a multi day ride?
Is there a day during the week that you could put in at least a 4 hour ride in similar terrain to that you'll be riding in?

Even if this is a 4 day ride averaging ~85 miles per day, you'll be doing yourself no favours by riding for not much more than an hour at a time.

Steve_B

I'm guessing that you are riding indoors mostly right now? At some point you should start to add some longer rides at least once per week. The exact length to target will depend upon whether the 350-mile ride is a one-day ride or a multi-day ride.

tux259

Thanks for the responses! I'm still getting used to the science that is all of this stuff.

"Are you doing other types of racing, in adition to the 350 mile touring ride?"

I don't have racing with a team or anything really official planned, but I do love participating in cycling events that usually only last a few hours.

" The 350mile ride - is that a one day or a multi day ride?"

Multi-day. It's on a dirt trail, and I am going with my father, who is now nearing 60. Last year when we did this, we rode about 50 miles per day on our hybrid style bikes (road bikes get too many flats, even with the liners/etc).

" Is there a day during the week that you could put in at least a 4 hour ride in similar terrain to that you'll be riding in?"

The problem is (I should have specified this earlier) that I am limited to the gym at the moment. My road bike is back at my home (I am away at school). I may be able to dedicate 4 hours on the trainer, but I won't be able to go on any real rides, unfortunately.

Steve_B

Well, if that's all you can do, it's pretty good. I know others who aren't doing as nice a program. If you are limited to the gym, I would recommend keeping to this general format. You've clearly been reading up on this stuff.

If it were me, I would cut back on the VO2 stuff (the 5x4 minutes) to once per week because that sort of stuff can really catch up to you and you won't know it until too late. There are benefits to doing it though so I wouldn't eliminate completely. Maybe every few weeks twice per week is cool but as a rule, twice per week might not be sustainable. It's up to you though. I would substitute another sub-threshold workout on day 1, maybe 4x10's at just slightly above 2x20 pace or another format that isn't quite as intense but yet isn't the same old stuff. Or perhaps a two-hour ride at the gym is do-able?

Three day blocks can be tough to get through, depending upon the composition and how fatigued you are from previous blocks. Everyone is different though. The benefits can be really great though.

Without some longer sessions in the 1-2 months before the event, it might be tough to get through the 350-mile ride. I don't know for sure. It depends upon how much cycling you've done in the past and the pace you take it at.

Good luck.

michelbrazeau

Hi,

It looks good, the main improvement I do is replace day 6 with a longer, 2+ hour aerobic activity (cycling but if weather not permitting, any type of cross training) where you keep your heart rate between 65-70% of max.

Especially for the distance you are doing, you need to train your system to use fat as energy. All your workouts are at 85%+ so you are mostly using your muscle glycogen as energy source, which only lasts about 1.5 hours. So you need to train at a lower intensity.

I would also add at least one core (abs, back, obliques) workout a week. That takes about 30 minutes and it can be done as a second workout on the same day as another workout.

Good luck,

Michel
www.freetrainingplan.com