Im looking for some of you guys wisdom. So first a little background about me, before we go into my question.
So, ive been cycling since 2016 with around 5-7000km each year. In 2018, i started doing trainerroad/structered workouts for real - and ive reached around 300FTP both in 18’ and 19’. In 18’ i did low volume + I then added an extra outdoor workout pretty often on sundays, or even weekdays. In 19’ I came back from a surgery which kept we away for 6-7 weeks without any training AT all. I went slow into it, and then started the medium volume pretty quick - as I was prepering for LaMarmotte, i knew i had to get some volume.
Anyways - late that season I went to do another surgery, which had me off training for 5 weeks - and which led to a miserable FTP - lower than ever before - which had me quite demotivated, so with struggling with motivation and corona shit, I didnt ride my bike quite as often - maybe 1-2 a week with some weeks off here and there - come september i gained some motivation again and I started medium volume, as I have the time for it. However - my FTP at the start was 240 when beginning following sweetspot base - and i tought to myself, i would see some real gains pretty quick seing where im coming from - but no. Time went by - the plan was followed to the tooth - except 4-5 times where i went outside instead on the cross bike or the madone, but still - was doing the most important workouts every week. First block went by . 7 watt increase… Disappointing… another block went by … yet another 7 watt increase… build going forward… another block went by, and again 7 watt… another block went by… and -5watt !! - Allthough for this last block i need to add, i did the Rapha challenge in denmark, which was brutal with frost weather and alot of rain, and i got a little cold - had three days off and then took petitt sunday, monday rest and then ramp test.
It was a big blow to take really - i was sure - eventhough Rapha isnt structured or anything - that my body would be tougher and stronger - however, it was not. Atleast i had some rest and i was really feeling fresh going into the ramp test - and before Rapha i did all the schedules workouts too… So… this is leading to my question:
Could it be that my body cant handle the training stress enough? I mean with mid volume - Could it be, that the stress is to high for my to get proper rest to accumulate the stress to gains? Or should med volume, allways - having the time - the best option?
Would it make sense to do low volume, and just add a weekend workout and see if that midweek rest day instead of zone 2, could do that I heal proper and get stronger than before?
I wouldn’t be worried at all. Your making steady progress as it is. Ignoring the last ramp test, if you keep adding 7 Watts per block, up to LaMarmotte in July, you’ll be pretty much back to where you were and flying. I’m signed up for it as well, fingers crossed it goes ahead this time🤞.
Regarding the festive 500, it’s a tough challenge at any time of the year. It’ll take a couple of weeks for the bump in fitness to bed in. Most likely you were still carrying fatigue from it, hence the drop in FTP. You may find yourself cruising through the plan in a couple of weeks and needing to manually bump up your FTP.
I mean - 7 watts? The last couple of years with less structured following the plans, i’d gained more than 7 watts pr. 4 weeks. So that just feel strange to me - because ive been killing it - so damn demotivating - and i had the idea with the first winter training in two years i could come back stronger than ever with ever watts than ever.
With the Rapha, you could be right - atleast i hope!
Hey ABG
My sleep has been quite steady at 7:30-9:30 hours each day. And coming into it, i could see from my resting HR, i should be fresh? I actually measured the lowest resting HR the last year, at 36 bpm - nd usually the HR, while training hard is at 42-48.
I mean, i lost alittle bit - like 500grams - but im fueling fine, and i had breakfast two hours before the ramp test, and a banana right before - and energy in my bottle.
Did you have a look at your FTP tests? Is there a change of power source compared to your 300 W days? Also if not done in erg mode the ramp test can be off if you throw in a last minute effort that is too high. (You can use the power curve of the test to check)
Sounds like your successful on off the bike stuff. You using the same power device for comparison? My buddy had a 10% difference between his crank and his trainer and it caused some issues