This year, I intended to do a full training plan (Criterium, low volume). I am a trackie, usually sprints but my goal for this season was to be more competitive in the mass starts.
Problem is, I have not been very good at sticking with the training and it shows. My race performance is terrible and I am way slower than anyone else. Getting dropped so early that 1) it’s not fun and 2) I’m not gaining or learning anything riding around by myself.
So, I am thinking of shifting focus away from training for races and back towards basic fitness (need to lose quite a bit of weight too). My training plan for the rest of the summer is mostly anaerobic and VO2max workouts (Specialty phases), which does not seem the most productive if I don’t have the basic underlying fitness.
Looking for advice from the experts here on what I should do. Go back to Base phases with Sweet Spot & Threshold workouts? To be clear, I don’t mean to abandon racing completely, I just don’t think I should be centering my training plan around it.
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If you haven’t tried it yet I’d recommend trying the polarized plans. Nothing sharp and short in there, but might help build your foundation for next season
What’s the reason you’ve been struggling to follow the current plan? I’d start with that and figuring out how to enjoy your riding more, do that and you’ll get more volume which is a good way of improving the base you need to go deeper into those races.
I think you need a goal and an objective. That could be improving VT1 say, or 5 minute power, or a particular sportive; it doesn’t really matter, but that gives you something to aim for. That will not only inform what training you do (I wouldn’t be doing the same sessions for La Marmotte as I would for a local crit, for example), but will also help (hopefully!) with adherence.
If you’re lacking the underlying fitness, that’s what Base is for. Then pick a build that you’ll complete. If you’re still missing the underlying fitness after base & build, repeat them.
A mix of trips out of town, wrist injury flaring up, and mental health stuff. And lately it’s a bummer that I have basically made zero progress since last year.
But I agree, need to get back to doing it for the fun. Much easier to build miles when you’re enjoying it.
This looks like a good option! One threshold workout a week and plenty of outdoor zone 2. Add one velodrome night a week to keep the sprint sharp and that sounds like a solid balance.
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