Back in November, I created a custom plan on TR, with a specialization in climbing. Not knowing if I had been able to race, I used the imaginary date of May 1st, which is when I had scheduled to stop training indoors, more or less.
Looks like gran fondo may be back (COVID permitting), and I have two on my radar: June 13th and June 27th.
Since I probably will use indoor training only once a week, starting May, how should I change my plans? Should I use the calendar to plan race A and race B even if I won’t be able to complete to the T the plan? (I may be able to throw some outdoor training here and there, but that’s a topic for another day). Should I switch specialization to Gran fondo?
Right now I’m just about to start the second leg of the build plan. The gran fondo that I’m hoping/planning to ride have about 2200m / 7200 ft elevation.
Than you in advance!
I recommend using Plan Builder. Enter both events on your calendar. Since they are so close together, select the first as your A event and the second as a B. If you’re not entirely happy with the plan try it again changing the description of your A event.
If you’ve already done a base season and are happy with it, select the start of your plan to coincide with the date you started base.
I’m also doing fondos this summer with an A event road race in June and a bunch of B event fondos and centuries before and after. Plan Builder gave me base/build/specialty for the road race then base/build/specialty for centuries the second half of the summer.
As for moving outside, you can use the Outside Workout feature to push them to your head unit. Or, like a guy I used to ride with, write it on a piece of paper and tape it to your head tube. Follow the plan and you should be good to go.
Jeez, that’s old school.
All you need to know, for outside workouts, is the interval prescription for the zone you’re working on. 2x20 at XXX watts. 5x5 full gas up the Mount WannaHawkaLoogie segment.
All the 2 min at 65% slow ramp to 82% then a 5 stepped cool down at different cadences shouldn’t be used outside.
Hardly need to write things down, or push it to your head unit.
I am assuming your plan to date has been working through Sweet Spot Base. So no real difference between what you had been doing so far, and what you might have done with 20/20 foresight.
I would suggest using Plan Builder with your target GF’s, but with the start date of last November - this should pick up the base you have already done.
And just because the GF’s have significant elevation gain, doin’t get distracted by the word “Climbing” - the specialisation you should follow is Century. The CRR plan has over threshold efforts, whereas the sub-threshold efforts are generally the best and fastest way to ride a Fondo.
As for changing to outside riding, consider the terrain you can ride. There are nearby 20-30 minute hills that I ride, which are great for extended sweet spot efforts that are a feature of the SusPB and Century plans. (And don’t even need to push that to my head unit). Re-arrange your plan to do inside the workout that is hardest to replicate outside (probably VO2Max intervals, but possibly also over-unders).
Thanks! This is very useful. I have indeed been working on Sweet Spot, Base, and now Build. I just need to complete build (second half), then 1 week recovery and then it would have been the specialty phase. I guess I’ll let the plan builder rearrange with a different event/date and different specialization phase.
I followed your advise and re-created a custom plan with the past starting date of when I started training indoor (November '20). It came out with a plan starting next week with build. Now, as far as I have heard, complete two build blocks one after the other is not common practice/advice, so I’m a bit confused. Should I re-do the custom plan? But if that’s the case, then the custom plan builder doesn’t build very well. Should I go with what I’m suggested, hence build phase again? I guess I could, though the last weeks it beat me up quite a bit (maybe I was tired for other reasons, who knows) and I’m not exactly fond of the idea.
Thoughts?