What's your big changes for 2020 season?

I pretty much changed everything for the 2020 season except my bike frame.

  • New cockpit
  • New tires
  • New drivetrain
  • New diet
  • New training regime/philosophy (in respect to my physiology)
  • New bike skills
  • New gym

Hopefully something works :sweat_smile:

At the very least, I’m down 5kg from 2019 race weight and knocking on the door of getting into the 10% body fat range.

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I hear ya, gambling a bit myself. Trying to figure out how to measure when the next block is done and time to move on.

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My biggest goal is to incorporate more weight lifting. I use to be a gym rat before getting focused on bikes about 5 years ago so that has allowed me to coast by without worrying too much. I like the way Frank from FasCat incoporartes strength as well as what Dialed Health is putting out.

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Doing more core work and after reading this thread doing some more low cadence work ( 90 instead of 100) .

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For a given wattage (say 250W), on any trainer, ERG mode or not, if you are pushing 250W, it is easier on the legs to do it at 100rpm (more reliance on your cardio vascular system) than pushing 250W at 85rpm (harder on your legs). To take the theory to the extreme, try 250W at 40rpm, vs 100rpm.

My point is that if I want to develop what TrainerRoad likes to call “Strength Endurance”, dropping my cadence a little bit puts less emphasis on cardio and more on muscular stress (my legs).

To tackle this on two fronts I’ve been working on (a) dropping my cadence a little bit (from 95-105 a couple of years ago to 85-90 this season, for sweet spot & threshold, and (b) using a lower gear, 50-16 instead of previous 50-14 or 50-15. Not a big change, but noticeably harder when I do a workoout where I’m on the limit. I also sometimes do workouts in 39-16, especially extreme VO2 Max burst intervals, as it’s easier for the ERG mode to track the big wattage changes than using big ring for these types.

For whatever reason this approach has improved not only my ability to hold power on hill climbs and hilly/rolling TT courses, but also on flat TT courses too. I’m not sure why, but it’s working, and I’m 55 years old so I’m sticking to the plan, haha!

For the record I use a Kickr Snap in ERG mode for all workouts.

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I stopped training on June due to… say non functional overreaching? mental crushed(so depressed all the time) body always fatigued. Job performance fallen… so spent summer and fall being noodling around with friends occasionally. when I felt my mentality healed a little bit, started high intensity things again. and recently, I suspect my fail on spring training might because of lack of good sleep.

Till june, I trained late at night and it definitely disturb my sleep. Took a shower, it gets over 12 o’clock… Being a father of two twin boy(even one with CP condition) also prevented me from getting good quality sleep. Wake up 6 AM makes my sleep below 6H. When I have rest day, I still slept late to crawling over internet…

As winter is coming, I made up my mind to brace myself. Instead of training late at night, do early morning workout.

Early Morning Workouts

Gathered information from a thread above and tested several 5AM trainings and It seems working. It requires me to sleep 10PM but since I recently got no interest on misc things to crawling over internet, it’s possible. Getting sleep quickly is also possible. When doing late night workout, i felt my body still hot and nervous and thereby sleeping was so hard. Early morning workout doesn’t have that problem!

During summer season instead of cycling, I hit some weight training and it also worked as I gain some muscle which I absolutely never had in my life. Still I’m smaller in figure than average male person, but i’m quite confident on myself.

So… my big change fot this 2020 is

  • Sleep ealry. 10 PM
  • Wake up early. 4:50 AM
  • Being good father(keep good mental health)

Big target for me is ftp of 250w(near 4w/kg). I know myself is so weak entirely on my life. But this time I feel I can get stronger. Hope this works.

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Thank you for detailed answer. Then i understand and agree with what you meant.
But doesn’t all your gearing options favour “high speed/TT” over climb?. I would say even 39-16 is a high speed gear. I’m at 39-15 now, been at 39-21 last 6 months.

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Wow, yes, my gearing is high compared to yours! And yes, it’s still essentially focused on high speed/TT, but even my small changes are making a difference.

Good luck with your training plan. :smiley:

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Not going to be racing (lost the bug totally), but have a few long events that will need focus, starting with the Dirty Reiver. Did a 100km (88km non-paved) a few weeks ago, and realise I’ve to re-up. FTP has been pretty static.

  1. Consistency
    I was consistently riding, but not consistently training. Happy I can cope with mid volume TSS load, but I wasn’t consistently doing the Tuesday/ Wednesday/ Saturday workouts, especially Saturday in favour of group rides/ events.
    Group rides and events is what I do it for though, so I’ve rescheduled, albeit with minor compromises, to the key workouts being Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday, so it’s the “Sunday” workout that will go outside.
    Bike events are my goals, so I’m going to focus on the bike and drop the runs (which I tended to slot in instead of the easy/ recovery midweek workout, to my overall detriment I think)

  2. Trusting the plan
    Resting on rest days the big one for me. Already failed once, yesterday, as I got a late availability for a group spin after doing my moderate workout on Saturday. Today is rest though instead.

  3. Fuelling
    Adequately fuelling workouts and recovery.
    After losing a substantial amount of weight, I feel my lack of proper fuelling has held back progress. So rather than rely on just stored glycogen for morning workouts, I’m going for a carb bottle mix/ gel as well as the evening before “loading”. I’ve also started taking a specific recovery mix post workout. The reality is the calories were being consumed anyway, but mainly on a treat/ junk/ just because I could.

  4. Sleep
    Really working on more sleep!

  5. Strength
    2 sessions of Strength Exercises for Cyclists. I’d love to say I’ll commit to more, but if I hit two a week of this (preceded by glute activation work), I’ll be making progress!

  6. Balance
    Notwithstanding 1-5, I’m trying to get a bit more balance. Coming with trusting the plan, and switching schedules, I’m hoping to enjoy the social side a bit more. And if that means joining the coffee stop, and eating cake so be it! I maybe skinny, but I think I may have gone too far the other way in my relationship with food and exercise.

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More volume. I’m 53 in a couple of weeks, so I can see racing in 2020, and 2021, and then that’s it.

I’ve usually hit ~600 bike hours/year. I’m aiming for 650 at the end of 2019. Basically, just get in 14-15 hours each week, a lot of zone 2 with two hard days each week. Continue in 2020, maybe hit a 700 hr/year.

At my age, I don’t know if I’m going to improve any, with regards to FTP (and I’ve been doing this since 1981). But, more volume could yield more biological durability and help with stamina, which is already a strength, but if more zone 2 over the next year can eek out a few more minutes at FTP, or increase the ability to go deep in workouts and races, I’ll take it.

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Logistical changes - I have switched to morning training and would like to continue that throughout the off-season

Training changes - I am doing a more polarized approach to my off-season. This has meant two hard interval sessions per week with lots of base rides on the other days. I am still undecided on if I will keep this up indefinitely, or switch to SSB at some point

Goal changes - I achieved my primary racing objective last season (cat 1 road upgrade) and am now transitioning my strengths to be (more) of a support rider to help a couple of teammates chase upgrade points. This actually won’t change my power profile dramatically as I have been focused on breakaways and thus sustained efforts were already in my wheelhouse

Life changes - I have forever been a roadie and only a roadie - I am considering buying a gravel bike and beginning to dabble into some other areas, but this is TBD

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tenor

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1 thing: race more no matter what!

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Having our first kid in February! That’s a big change. Training will take a back seat. Although, I picked up a power rack, bar, and plates over the weekend. So until the kid arrives, it’ll be stronglifts 5x5 3 times a week, 2 rides, 3 runs, 2 swims. I don’t have a race goal for 2020 yet. It might just be sprints as I adjust to family life.

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Aiming to actually get some points in 2020 and upgrade from CAT-4 to Cat-3 (UK Crit racing).

Hopefully the TR SSB LV1&2 plus build and speciality will set me up nicely.

This year was my first season and it took me all of the races I did (only 6 in total) to get used to the pace. Finished 12th out of a field of 27 in my last race - was super close (maybe 4 bike lengths) to a top 5 place.

Should probably say that I have only been riding for just over 2 years and up until after the end of racing this year had never done any structured training - just finished SSB LV1.

I have 8 races I am targeting between April and September and have another 4 optional - my understanding is I need 12 points to upgrade so it is a tall order but a few top 8 finishes would do it.

At age 46 (47 in early March) and just around average novice fitness (current Road measured 330ish FTP, but indoors about 300ish and currently 98Kg at 6’3” but aiming to drop about 4 to 5kg of fat by April) am I setting myself a realistic goal here (for those UK riders who’ve already bumped from 4 to 3) or am I dreaming and need to come back down to Earth?

If this is too ambitious what do those of you who’ve been there believe would be a more realistic goal for next year?

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Aiming to complete my first 70.3 this year. My initial thoughts on the upcoming season:

  1. Consistancy
  • Low Volume Plans
  • Early Morning Training before work to promote a good training / work / life balance
  1. Cyclocross off-season / pre-base (has begun)
  • Increase bike handling
  • Increase high end anaerobic
  • Adds in early running
  • Looks great fun
  1. Injury prevention
  • Begin a good steady build-up to base mileage in pre-base in all disciplines
  • Gym work
  • Listen to physio
  1. Race More
  • at least 2 Olympic distance triathlons before 70.3 in August
  • Take as many opportunities to replace training session with a swim/run/cycle race. Practice aim of training session in the race.
  1. As always… Have fun!

I’ll use this as diary entry so next year I can see how it all panned out.

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Loose weight and increase the power which will then lead me to happiness :slight_smile:

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Nice thread I was going to start something similar as 2019 in review, but I like this title better.

I’m going to go into my second season of focused training with perhaps 5-6 key events on the calendar.

I’m not going to skip the base phase this year. :+1:

Weight training with a focus on form.

Staying inside when the weather gets warmer or nailing the outdoor versions - just improving adherence to the plans. That was especially hard for me around March and April. And then again in July.

Scheduling two real mountain bike rides per week versus my average one. Improve skills.

Cat up to race XC1 instead of masters, less focus on results more focus on the process. Likely to go from a potential podium to mid pack and being ok with that.

Plan at least one endurance race this year in the 3-5 hour range. Continue to improve muscular endurance. Again not results focused as much here.

Nail that stupid local 5 min strava climb on the road bike, PR.

Improve FTP. 4.5 w/Kg possible?

Enduro race for fun? Cyclocross race for not fun maybe? Being a bit more flexible with non a events.

Cleaning and improving my trainer space. Making it as nice as possible and putting some new intention to the process of improving.

Should be a fun year!

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I’m shifting my winter Base to a mixed intensity distribution, rather than going with a pyramidal one, which has always been my ticket.

At 53, I’m realizing that I need to poke the zone 5 bear a little more often during the winter, but without waking him up completely – I want him to perk up once a week, but still keep resting through the winter, so he can roar in March and April.

With that in mind, my weeks are now looking like what Bill Rogers said to do for running – one day for speed, one day for strength, the rest is just endurance.

This means a Tuesday session of 2 sets of 5 x 2:00 on, :30 off, as hard as I can manage on my fixed gear + kurt kinetic setup. I’ll take anything over 105% of FTP. It’s just poking the bear a little bit.

Saturday is a long sweet spot chunk – 60-90 min @ 90% or so.

The rest is just riding a lot or zone 2 with two weight training days, Thursday and Sunday.

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Me too (53).

But am taking a different tact. We have a vibrant race scene and am thinking 55+ I will be competitive. Planning to focus on my career (job) next couple years, race a bit to stay in touch with it but in terms of bike and fitness set a big base and continue strength training for the next 24-30 months.

Build a big foundation then hit the race scene hard 55, 56, 57. Would take a bit of luck, but I’d like to win another state TT jersey before hanging it up.

I’ve seen plenty of guys race extremely well age 50-70 and in some ways, if life simplifies some guys do better. In relation to peers. None of us ride like we are 25 anymore though!!

If I retire early can finally try the 20+ hour per week training approach :grimacing:

Mark

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