that’s huge! great work.
I have the same feeling, and it puts a number of progress in between FTP tests. really nice to watch your numbers rise and know that what you’re doing is working.
good luck with your goals for next year!
that’s huge! great work.
I have the same feeling, and it puts a number of progress in between FTP tests. really nice to watch your numbers rise and know that what you’re doing is working.
good luck with your goals for next year!
What worked:
Consistency is king/queen. When I was consistent I saw gains
Adaptive Training and PLs – even in beta with narrow functionality has been a game changer of how to progress, pick workouts, assess progress, make up for missed workouts, etc.
Moving from MV to LV, while adding in long Sunday rides and adding in strength training - net net, adding TSS while feeling like I have more time.
Riding within my limits = faster times, least fatigue. Hit all time PRs for 3-5 hour rides this year by sticking in Tempo and finishing strong. Learned that I prefer not to stop often on rides if I can help it.
What hasn’t worked
Multi-month rehabbing hip / posterior chain, and really just about my whole body. ha. The upshot is understanding more why I have pain, weakness, and plans to fix it.
Recognizing how much life stress and lack of sleep stacks up.
Sitting at a desk all day destroys me. Getting up for 5 min an hour to do something helps a ton.
Despite all my progress, I HATE being 10-15% less strong than many folks I ride with. Which means I am either tongue-wagging or dropped more often than I would like. Especially as riding has been one of the few social outlets I have.
TR Olympic Triathlon HV plans and AT
Run focussed blocks
Triple days! Swim 7-7:45, Bike 12-13:00 Run 17:30-18:30
Short workouts made me fit for long course racing with just a few weeks of long sessions
What didn’t work:
Progressive overload weightlifting at the same time as Olympic MV Build Kind of obvious but tried it anyway
short course triathlon training for a marathon…again, kinda obvious this wouldn’t work but toed the line anyway
What worked for me this past year……
consistency, never missing workouts, rescheduled hard workouts that I had to move around for life.
2x a week strength program, made me feel like a stronger human being and eliminate minor pains from cycling and from being on my feet all day at work.
daily mobility, every night when watching tv doing 10-15 minutes of foam rolling/ stretching.
better sleep makes everything better
low volume plan even tho I can handle mid volume, it’s easier to hit the target workouts every week. Also leaves room for group rides, fun rides with more tss than following a strict mid volume plan.
What didn’t work;
following mid volume plan, sure I can do it but the low volume plan is working right now!
didn’t focus enough on my skills, definitely need to dedicate 1 hour a week of strict handling skills. whether it’s asphalt turns going at “race speed” or riding single track and not using the brakes so much.
trying to be perfect, I know I’m not but I need to relax when days of life/ training or even nutrition get off track. I always bounce back!
My goal events are ultra distance stuff(12+hrs 200+ miles)
I started off the year doing my own plan. Consisting of LONG SS intervals. managed a 1x105min @90% as a peak. also with massive 5+hr trainer endurance sessions. These workouts didn’t do a large amount in driving FTP up, but they did provide insane endurance/fatigue resistance. Which was evident with completing a 340 mile 32 hour event.
After the huge recovery period that event required I went back to doing the SSB>susPB>century plan. This did a decent job of building fitness for 100 mile events and lower. but when August rolled around and my second event(240 miles and 19 hours) It was evident I did not have the endurance/fatigue resistance that I had earlier in the year.
For my third event (200 miles and just under 14 hours) I continued on with the prescribed path as before, but subbed out the SS workouts for longer intervals, generally in the 30 minute range. The takeaway was that these long SS intervals provided the massive endurance/fatigue resistance I needed for my events.
All in all, there wasn’t much that went ‘wrong’ for me in 2021, I learned what and when I need to do things. I’m using this information this winter to build better than before, I’m using the Short power build plan to drive up my aerobic ceiling long before I have another event, then will transition to Sus power build to try and cement that higher ceiling, and before my next even I will move to the SSBII plan to draw out that massive endurance/fatigue resistance I need(replacing the prescribed SS workouts with long interval SS stuff.) Kind of a reverse periodization of sorts. since the SSB plan more closely mimics my goal events than any of the specialty plans.
this was good to think about, thanks for sparking this!
what worked:
more over unders at higher overs and lower unders.
more hard start vo2max vs steady state
less intervals and more (yes even more), endurance
less 5 hour rides and more consistent 4h rides
what didn’t work:
too much tempo on climbs, sometimes left me a bit tired
lifting too heavy of weights in early year
trying to come back from time off TOO fast and TOO hard
Didn’t work: extended time away from structured training, time off the bike in general, too many social rides
Did work: employing a plan focused on outdoor workouts on the MTB, under/overs, finding a good balance of hard group rides and structured workouts in my week. Remembering that training is fun.
Worked: Moving to HV plans after 2 years of MV.
Didn’t Work: Racing every event possible because you had a year off from racing. Need to prioritize races for 2022 and realize you can’t race everything. There’s too many good races it seems.
Here it goes:
What worked:
What didn’t work
What i did: tried to workout as much as i could, at first it was my running, then it was run and bike and then mostly bike, with some swimming, then lots of swimming with some bike.
What worked:
What didn’t work
Results overall:
Actions items:
What Worked
Keeping an open mind. I can disappear down a rabbit hole, convinced that if I deviate from a plan or course, the wheels will come off. This year I just said ‘sod it! If I want to do it, I’ll do it.’
This kept things fresh and interesting. Whilst I didn’t do many sanctioned races, I did plenty of events and I beat my personal goals every time.
So moving forward, I’m going to continue to give myself breathing space and time to play.
What Didn’t Work
Getting COVID
Joking aside, I’m not sure that I’d pick holes in this season. It has been another strange one and if I’m honest, I think I over performed.
What Worked
What Didn’t Work
Goals for 2021
What worked:
What didn’t work:
Worked:
Did Not Work:
2022 we are trying to resurrect some of the season long competitions that languished with Covid. Hopefully we get that together and it provides some focus and a reason to hit the training plans hard again.
Look forward to the 2022 GOALs thread!!
Your Friend Darth
2021 was such an interesting season for me, a lot of good things happened and a lot of confusing things happened. Between May and August I was really stuck and left in a state of confusion about what to do with my training. My FTP had stagnated and I just never felt like I was progressing.
It’s really hard to look back on this season and deduce what worked, I honestly don’t know.
What maybe worked
What didn’t work
That’s about it. Overall 2021 was good to me. A third place finish in a 250 field gravel race in May, followed by no racing, and then a return to cyclocross. 8 races comprised of 4 podiums with one win and realizing I’ve gotten A LOT better at racing and bike handling. So happy with my race season, lots to be proud about heading into a new season.
Cool thread, I like participating in these to provide insight/ideas. FWIW, I went from 280 to 305W FTP this season (up to 4.3W/kg at age 44)… I “only” raced 11 times, but scored 32 category points in 6 weeks to earn my 3 upgrade, finished top 5 in five races, including two wins, and a 4th in my first race as a cat 3.
What maybe worked
What didn’t work
What I’m trying now
those were some of the best threads on the forum, and I’m thankful for being part of them and learning from others.
Big shout out to my coach Isaiah Newkirk, while a bit of a luxury, he has kept me from making mistakes and I’m learning a lot. My training is really dialed in, he has me on a better path, and I’m building confidence to someday go back to self-coaching. My power curve looks good and I feel stronger and more capable on the bike.
What I believe worked:
What didn’t work:
Two events were cancelled this year, and so I’ve been using Strava segments for motivation and keeping things fresh. Along with group rides, that made 2021 a big improvement over 2020.
Congrats on the results!
This is almost identical to my current plan. I’m doing a long base (12 weeks) up til Xmas. I’ll do some threshold in the new year, and then a VO2 block.
I’ll certainly learn from not resting enough after a really hard VO2 block last year. After 6 easy days I went into a threshold block with lots of O/Us and ended up over-trained, just unable to keep putting out power.
On my way back from this I learned to appreciate easy Z2 rides. I never would’ve thought I could enjoy doing 2 hours at 0.6IF
I’m starting to see the adaptations from my base training. Holding over 200W at lower HR than Inwas pulling at 170-180 a few weeks ago. Now adding just a bit more intensity before the VO2max block to push higher.
Worked:
Did not work: