BUILD 2

As build2 continues, I figured I post a quick outline of my “key workouts” and a general perspective of why I’m doing what I’m doing in training. Hopefully helpful in some way.

Goals for this MesoCycle (which should last 19-22 days) are as follows:

Continue to prepare for my A races which come at the end of May (back to back stage race weekends. Both SR’s have 3 stages, including a 25′ TT)
To prepare, I need to focus on maintaining the endurance Base I’ve built all winter, Pull FTP up as high as possible, both for the TTs and for the general demands of hilly, long RR’s and get acclimated to doing truly hard efforts on the TT bike. I will also continue to do a bit of NP/sprint work through out this build period, but this should not interfere with the aforementioned training objectives.

To maintain the endurance base, I will make sure to get 2 rides per week that are 3 hours in length. But unlike BASE building, the intensity of these rides will be much higher and more varied in intensity. Examples include long RR’s, 3 hour workouts with LT intervals in the middle and 70′ crit followed by z2 and a few hill intervals. Ideally races will take car of most of this.

To boost the FTP, I’ll be doing the 6x5x1 intervals @ 103-106% twice per week. These will be the real focus of my weekday training. I foresee a great fitness boost from these intervals. I plan on doing 5-6 of these workouts in this mesocycle.

To address the TT side of things, I plan on riding the TT rig twice per week, at a minimum. One of the TT bike sessions will include a progressively harder and longer TT (duh). I will be aiming at 85% power for future sessions and hopefully close the power discrepancy gap quickly as new muscles adapt to a new position. I will do these workouts the day after the 6x5x1 sessions. I can also see them fitting into a 2-a-day session. I will need no more than 1 hour to do these TT sessions, so this should be a nice mental relief. But the idea is to get used to putting out power in this new and cramped position while not falling over or injuring my knees.

Lastly is assembling these key workout into 3 day blocks to mimic the demands of a SR. It will be a real challenge to sacrifice the fun of racing (on fresh legs, at least) and group rides in order that I get my key workouts done at the needed intensities to produce the adaptations I’m looking for.

The NP work is easy and I’m finding that I can do 5×8″ all out sprints before my LT work and still hit my goal wattages, so I will continue this pattern.

I will allow racing to take care of some of the vo2max/AWC type efforts that are so typical here in NewEngland races.

I think CTL will remain pretty stable around 81-86 until my taper begins, but a big double RR weekend could push that number a bit higher.

So, we’ll see how it all works out, but the LTP work should really get me in shape to race the way I want (long breakaways) while preparing me for the TT’s, too. Many birds are killed with the LTP stone.

As it is my first structured LTP pulling of the season, I’m excited to see where my body takes me. that 400w LTP is still my holy grail… motivation, for sure.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

-L