Probably 3 goals really 1) better blood sugar control 2) increased FTP specifically to increase the wattage I’m doing in zone 2 & 3) improved time to exhaustion on the bike i.e. pushing my time on the bike to the right as much as possible.
For me, intense workouts can be super beneficial for my sugars rather than detrimental. When I do Sugarloaf +5 as an example, my blood sugars can be relatively flat for days after. I think training stimulus is so high that it helps clear out any intramyolipids, fat in the muscle cells that inhibit insulin & the recovery needs cause increase metabolism so my body needs the sugar basically.
Some years ago, I did about a 7 hour outdoor ride with loads of crazy elevation over about 80 miles, for a week after I hardly needed any insulin. I also managed to get off one of my insulins entirely for a month.
Fair enough, you know your physiology better than any of us. A threshold workout like Sugarloaf you’re only going to be able to do like twice per week long term. A major concern with trying to manage a health condition with exercise is that it needs to be sustainable long term. You don’t want it to lead to injury, burnout etc. Things like recovery weeks in the TR plans may let your sugar levels rebound, which could be demoralizing.
There was another diabetic (t1 I think, don’t recall for sure) just a week ago who was doing low intensity workouts daily and getting results but questioned whether they even needed to TR to do that. You’ve found a a level of intensity where you can make significant headway on reducing medication load, but there may be other approaches than punishing yourself on the bike. I suspect that long-term a more boring routine will be superior.
Anyhow, best of luck. I think a future update in how it’s going would be a valuable contribution to the forum, just to document the process and results. Many others in your same situation would love to have your experience to build on.
EVERYBODY on this board wants to increase their watts - racers and non-racers alike. This is what TR is designed to try to do for people.
I’ll offer some anecdotal evidence here: I was stuck at like 230w for like 1.5 years on TR, but really never fully committed to doing the workouts or sticking to the plan. This year I decided to shut off my brain, and just stick to whatever plan showed up on my calendar (COVID helped out with this). I jumped to 260w end of March - and here’s my TSS chart over the months. Consistency is king here.
Shut your brain off, stop cherry-picking workouts. and just do the workouts. Trust that Nate and team have your backs on how to get faster here. That’s what you’re paying them for too.
I don’t know the exact physiological answer but I know that when I’ve done easy, fasted rides (90 min) I feel like I did a hard 50 mile, 3 hour ride on food. Fasted ride just seem like a low level of work for the amount of fatigue involved and don’t really help you get faster.
Your post above seems a little contradictory. On one hand you say that you do most of your rides fasted but then you mention only short zone 2 rides.
It probably doesn’t matter that much how you do your easy zone 2 rides. You also seem to think there is additional benefit to doing your zone 2 riding fasted. Is there? Have you researched this?
Overall, using Z2 riding for metabolic control and doing a training plan and improving seem to be at odds. I still think you need to separate them. Like I said before, you can do kettle bells, squats, dumbbells, or jump on the trainer for 15 minutes several times per day for metabolic control. I would look at that as an addition to training.
So, when I say short zone 2 rides, I mean 45 to 90 minute zone 2 rides.
For me, the main reason I do my rides fasted, is because I find it has a beneficial effect with blood sugars throughout the day but also ease. Getting up first thing & jumping straight on the bike gets it out of the way. If I eat first, I then have to wait before I do a ride which then means I have to wait till the afternoon or evening because of work.
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You’re definitely right about me needing to add them in. I love doing walking lunges & when I commit to doing them frequently throughout the day I do find a beneficial effect on my length strength as well as sugars.
I’ll give sweetspot a go & see how it works out. If I give 100% commitment & never deviate and don’t see improvements I can go back to using primarily Z2. I’m starting the plan today. I’m a bit confused on when to do rest weeks though? I used the plan builder & it has me doing 52 weeks straight of exercise.
Thanks mate. I’m starting SSB 1 today so will update this post with how I get on long term. It’ll be an interesting experience & even if I can’t make it work or if I don’t improve or even decline further, it’ll be cool to play around with still at least.
Recovery weeks are built in. A week where you still train but with less overall stress so you can adapt to the training of the previous period.
Not to be confused with rest days or rest weeks when you pretty much do nothing. These may or may not be implemented at certain times i.e a mid season break or couple of weeks off at the end of the season.
Anyway, the plans take into account recovery weeks and at end of any plan it is fine to start the next plan / phase following straight on. No break or rest week required… normally. Just follow the plan.
That sounds very similar to my mate he was getting T1 sorted (as much as possible) slipped a bit with life getting in the way. I have chronic brittle asthma (new one on me brittle it means random as *****) and allergic and every other type apart from exercise induced so like you I find keeping fit keeps it under control - fingers crossed.
Only other thing care with Durian rider’s advice it’s sometimes been proved to be less healthy and less pharmaceutical than he claims.
Glad you’re well and loving the riding and even better its good for you
