Great thread to reflect on the past year!
Started using TR just after Xmas 2020, initial FTP 170 (2.6w/kg).
Perspective: 2-3 years triathlon from sprint to 70.3 distance prior to this, without any formal ‘structured’ training plan.
What worked:
- consistency and following a training plan - FTP peaked at 227 in late October (3.5w/kg), which was taken from an uphill time trial effort where I held 240 for 24 mins. I then went on to finish 10th in a 50km hilly road race that same afternoon in a super competitive field.
I was absolutely stoked with this compared to where I started - trying lots of different types of road racing to find what I enjoy and where my strengths lie - first year racing bikes rather than triathlon
- taking a break from triathlon - made my preferences quite clear to me about going forward: I like triathlon, particularly sprint and olympic, but I LOVE cycling.
What didn’t work:
- lack of strength training consistency - fizzled out when life got busy and cycling took precedence. Resulted in niggling injury in October that I’m still dealing with
- Too many race weekends in a row - went to 4 races in a row, most involving 2-3 hours travel, the 4th race I bombed hard and was super fatigued.
Focus on for 2022:
- Strength training at least 2x/week consistently - Dialed Health is very helpful for this so far!
- Season planning - better build and focus on a few ‘A’ races rather than so many races without one particular focus
- Improve bike handling and confidence riding in the bunch - to do this am going to drive 1hr Saturday mornings to race in a bigger local crit series than I have here.
Good luck to all for the year ahead!