I just had 2 weeks off in south of France where over indulged and did nil exercise. The 2 weeks prior was a record week on my power curve, and kept a decent TSS of c450.
I tried doing Starr King -1 today on my old FTP of 325w - needless to say i bailed after 10mins and was nearly sick. I felt my legs fill with lactate, heart rate go up… my goodness. I’m back at my desk now… just feeling it.
Are there workouts you recommend that would getting back into the flow?
I’ve got a good weekend coming up, so can put in some distance with a few solo outdoor rides. And, I’m starting a build phase from Monday, where i retest FTP.
I suggest something easy, like Pettit or another reasonable Endurance level ride to get your legs and body moving again.
Before that, I suggest turning your FTP down manually a bit. Maybe around 5% to give you some wiggle room. Or you can plan to manually adjust the Workout Intensity mid-workout as needed.
If you are just filling time before a test and new plan, it’s best to be conservative and ride too easy compared to riding too hard.
I like to do Truuli or the -1 version as my first workout after a >week of travel. Reminds my brain what it feels like at threshold and VO2 levels, but won’t suck the life out of you. Intervals are short enough that even if your FTP has dropped, you should be able to complete it.
I really like Goddard for this - a few short sprints to give you a shock without hurting too much, then a couple of sweet spot intervals. Always feel ready again after that!
Yes. This approach is useful both physically and mentally.
I’m also with @mcneese.chad on the ride suggestion: go to the workout library and select something in the Endurance category of the length you want and choose a ride that might motivate you. The specific workout won’t matter. It’s just to get you back going w/o the physical and mental stress of something in the SS and above zones.
I’d suggest you pick one of your bread and butter workouts. For me this would be 30/30s or something with race start intervals. These typically feel like workouts that are hard, but I’m pretty good at doing.
This could be totally different for you, but pick something you have confidence in doing and stay in your lane. Maybe grab an easy endurance one if you want, but if you’re looking to dive in then pick something hard that plays to your strengths
I second Baxter, and in resistance mode so I can spin at multiple cadences throughout without risk of blowing my legs up. After a couple of little layoffs, I’ve come back with Pettit or Baxter first, then a manageable sweet spot workout, then Truuli -2 prior to ramp test. That said, my ramp tests after layoffs have been poor because I’ve lost the feel for suffering, so I wish you luck come Monday!
Would you explain this comment? Trainers that support ERG mode (e.g. Tacx NEO) will adjust resistance applied per pedal stroke based on your cadence to achieve targeted power (albeit not without some delay).
Yes, erg mode allows you to pick a cadence. For me, I find that I just tend to settle in at my self-selected cadence and zone out in erg mode on the easier rides, which is fine most of the time. In Baxter, or when I’m working my way back in on the bike, I like resistance mode (w/o shifting in Baxter) so I can work between 80 and 110 rpm (or so) by focusing on maintaining target power by changing cadence. That’s all, just that I’m much more likely to vary cadence when I have to focus on power output than I am when power is managed by erg mode.
i would just go ride, get your legs back under you. After so much rest, you’ll be surprised how strong your sub 2m efforts will be (altho they will HURT), but durations like 10m or beyond will be awful (for most riders that is).
go get some miles in, acclimate to being home, and then jump back into structure 3-4 days later.
I always struggle with this, for instance, after fever or after a stressful workweek when I couldn’t train. For me, it’s largely motivational whether I can “still pull it off”, especially threshold. So I literally have anxiety first trainings when I have to get in again.
I typically start - as others have suggested - with zone 2 or tempo, just to see that my legs are moving on a trainer and that my heart rate does not increase too high.
Then I typically progress to a VO2 session, because that is easy for me. For instance the ones in sweet spot base training 2: just short bursts that are painful but also really short. For me long threshold (like 6 or 8 mins) is difficult because I have to “hang in there” while having my anxiety. But when I can pull three 1 or 2 min intervals off, I can make it through the rest.
Then, i typically start with a training plan. So endurance first, then VO2, then training plan again. That served me well. Getting back right at a training plan simply gives me too much anxiety and then I will fail workouts due to that (its all psychological for me).
