I did stick with it, and am still doing it. I’m transitioning to incorporating Vo2 work and my training will be a little more polarized starting in 2 weeks due to some spring races coming up.
As to how it went, I’m really happy with my progression. The caveat to this being that I caught Covid in early December and it knocked me off the bike for 2 full weeks, and it took me another 2 full weeks to handle a full week of training — and then I may have gotten a little too aggressive in trying to get back to my pre-Covid metrics (which is an alchemy of power-to-HR-to-TTE) and had to step back and take a rest week and a few unplanned rest days. Overall, the 2 week illness cost me about 6+ weeks until I was back to my pre-Covid metrics. It was super frustrating.
With all that being said I’ll try to give you tangible numbers measuring progression — and I did not change my FTP:
— Key workout of the week is Tuesday (I take Monday and Friday off). I started with 3x30s and kept my HR at or below 84% HRmax. If I couldn’t achieve this, I lowered my watts and finished the workout under the prescribed BPM and didn’t progress until I could achieve the all the intervals with BPM at or under this number. ** Pro tip: if my HR wasn’t at least 10 BPM under the 84% of HRmax during the first interval, it was going to be way over at the end.
— When I hit the key metrics metrics I moved to 2x48, 1x105 and then 2x60. When I was able to work for 90 consecutive minutes at <84% AND complete the full 2x60 I moved my power floor up 8-10 watts and started the progression over
— Thursdays I do 4x20 … but since I know where my HR is going to be at a certain power, this workout is more about RPE, and being able to complete the full 4x20 (or more) after doing ~2 hrs at Tempo on Tuesday and 90-120 mins Z2 on Wednesday.
— I started the whole progression in October attempting 3x30 with HR cap at 233W.
— Yesterday I finished my first full 3x30 under the 84% cap at 253W
Todays 4x20 was predictably hard, and I didn’t complete it but I schedule the same workout every Thursday so I can track my RPE progression and what I can complete … which is a nice way to track progression (or lack thereof) week-over-week.
Given the hole that Covid blew in my schedule, and my associated “over zealous” mistakes I don’t think I can be anything but thrilled with the results. My training was a metronome before Covid, and I’ve improvised a little here and there since, but mostly stayed right on track.
I feel like a rock solid rider right now, and now I’m giving myself about 6-8 weeks of a build to touch up the high end stuff before 2 races in April🤘