Last year I didn’t do a lot of top end work prior to the start of the season and noticed that in the first few races, however, I was on the podium in 3 consecutive races, all of which were late October into November. It felt weird to not have the punch in the first part of the season, but then feel the fitness come toward the back end.
Had only 30 min today so I fired up Striped -5 which is two sets of the 15/30/45/1/45/30/15 ladder. This was tough! I couldn’t hit the full 45 or 1 min on the last set. I know that repeatability is a downfall of mine so I’m excited to make this part of my CX prep.
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I’m still doing the CX specialty, but I’ve been riding the endurance wave lately. Last weekend did 82 miles solo, yesterday did 96 solo, 2 weeks ago did 150 gravel race lol and the first weekend of August did 80 miles with a group but kept pace.
I have back to back races this coming weekend so I’m nervously excited to see what the deal is with my fitness compared to others.
I also just finally bought another lasko pro fan today to add into my arsenal (currently running a lasko pro and lasko cyclone, which is not good). Hoping the double pro setup will yield some marginal gains in the quality of my workouts
Those long rides should be good padding that’ll take you deep into the season. Now time to get after it!
Had my first race of the season yesterday, so #crossishere!
Finished pretty much the same place as last year, a bit ahead of mid pack, but still far behind the front group, no change there.
Fitness wise, I was pretty much the same as last year, despite fairly different training. Last year, I did a lot of outdoor volume, topping out at nearly 1000 TSS/week, but no structured intervals. This year, I followed TR SSB2 and short power build, both LV, plus some outdoor rides (both plus 1-2 cx sessions a week). Despite this, my power-duration curve is pretty much identical, and I managed a grant total of 2 W increase to my FTP, lol. I’ve just finished build, so due to test sometime this week, but I don’t expect any real change to it from how the workouts feel.
Going forward, I was going to losely follow the cx speciality plan because I’m racing now pretty much every weekend.
This week is the week 8 recovery for MV Short Power Build, but I have been doing them mostly outdoors which has yielded more endurance miles at the beginning and end of the workouts for additional TSS. I have added in some unstructured mountain bike riding for substitutes for weekend rides and recovery weeks because I want to enjoy myself when traveling to mtb country. Put in 600+ TSS weeks the last 3 which is pretty high for me on a consistent basis. I had one CX practice race last week otherwise I have not touched the cross bike yet. That starts this week for the recovery week.
This week I add in the cx bike with some skills rides for the recovery week and then at the tail end of the week I have the opportunity for a big endurance mtb day plus 2 downhill days. Then into the specialty MV plan with 1 CX practice a week and probably an additional skills ride. Race season starts at the end of week 2, and I was planning on peaking for November state championships but now I am moving in October and trying out a new cross series mid season so I’ll just be looking to get the best results I can as early as possible and see what my goals are in the new location.
My fitness right now I think is at the peak of last season which was the last race of the year, so I am hoping I still have some gains to set in from this last push on the build and the start of race season efforts.
I’m coming off doing TTs this summer, so I’m going back to Sweet Spot Base with some weight training and using the racing as my intensity. Racing has a bit of a gap in October (I’m not planning on driving to the further away races), and I want to come on strong at the end of November which will be when SSB2 ends. I’ll see how I’m going before deciding what I do next, but I want to try traditional base mid volume when CX season is over as a way of upping my volume for next year.
I’m currently doing some base miles whilst on holiday in Calpe, Spain. When back in the UK, got my final rr of the season will continue of SSB1LV, then General build and finally CX speciality to review after that. All low volume so I can add outside rides and races.