Hello users, a brief description of my TR experience.
I had great plans and many A’s for this year.
So here goes,
Starting on 10/15/2018 with Low Volume base followed by the usual progression of the plans. March 20 2019 started with climbing road. It was too much to complete. I just couldn’t complete any of the work outs in climbing road. Couldn’t breathe in the upper VO2 max range.
Long story short:
I spent too much time being structured ( one too many plans) and got burnt out. I became a chore not fun to workout.
Had many 500-600 TSS weeks and it felt good. (at the time, but that comes at a price).
Got the flu twice and pushed on through. The dreaded sinus infection hit 2 weeks before my A race in May. Finished a series of ten days of antibotics 4 days before my race.
Work load both physical and cognitive for April and May was over the top. Lot’s of OT and less sleep. Found out that I can’t train when its been a long work day.
What I’m trying to say is, I got so much from the plans.
I get the cadence thing now. Riding like I had a diesel engine is over. Never in the previous 4 years of riding could I spin 90-110 or higher. Now it’s comfortable and doable.
My average speed is up on the flats and rollers by 2-3 mph.
Plus being now able to hold cadence going up rollers seated and wattage spikes to 200% or more.
Got much leaner, but still weigh the same, gotta lose 30 lbs to 170. Still can’t climb being 200 lbs.
Have a more comfortable feel to the riding position by way of hips feeling stronger.
I got a lot from doing the plans. Tons from the Pod casts. The forum is a wealth of info.
Im much better and faster now. Not as good as I want to be. Probably never as good as you.
So my A race sucked. I could roll on the flat start. But couldn’t hold any power on the climbs. 100 watts less than my target power. Cadence down 30-40 on the climbs. Just couldn’t spin.
HR that day was just under anaerobic for most of the ride, so I know I was working. It was suffering.
I think I lost a lot of fitness during the last phase that was too difficult to complete, and had little time in the saddle, by comparison so by half way the pain in the glutes and back was 7 on the 1-10 scale. I wanted to quit. I didn’t, I finished The Iron Horse with my worst time ever. I emptied the tank and wasn’t able to walk, sit ,stand or think for the next day. It was painful.
I’m glad that my plans of wearing a TR skin suit didn’t come about, and no one knew that it was my training program, because it would have been such an embarrassment to TR with my poor performance.
Thanks coaches and TR I’m better now with you than I was without a plan.
A lot of mistakes were made and learned from.
Moving forward with the next plan is exciting and fun again.
I’m once again waking up in the morning thinking I can be World class. If the genes and the calendar years are limiters, so what.
I will wake up tomorrow morning also thinking I can.
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Bravo! 