Log: 21/10/2011

21/10/2011 - Road | Muntanyes

Post work muntanyes. Made the right decision to go back to bed AM.

Rolled out along Burwood Hwy feeling pretty fresh. No rain. Warm. Traffic not as bad as was expecting. More daylight than I'm programmed to expect. Different smells - Pizza.. Steak. Different radio show. Days work behind me on the timeline, but still present in my head.

Expected the worst from the weather. Lightly dressed, but pockets full - rain jacket, arm warmers, knee warmers, shoe covers. Warm.

Mtn Hwy, Devil's/1Tree: Tonight I let the reigns loosen some.
Going by Stava's version of the climb "Devil's Elbow from roundabout" they give me 4.48 watts/kilo - but I backed off x1 street early (Alpine Rd instead of Merimbula Rd) as that was the spot that I though was the official end of the climb. Fair to say time would have been better had have kept on pushing to the finish line. Second climb was at requisite watts for next weeks sessions. 3rd climb I took it relatively easy.

Pea soop fog but no precipitation, quiet roads, dusk. Magic.

Ol - Thursday Skills Session

Duration:      3:12:29
Work:          1845 kJ
TSS:           227.5 (intensity factor 0.844) 

Pw:HR:          15.22%
Pa:HR:          -26.87%
Distance:      75.108 km
Elevation Gain:        1384 m
Heart Rate:      73    174    132     bpm
Temperature:     12    20    14.5     Celsius

Happy for now - numbers coming good.

Mid-Season Build1: Wrap-Up

Little late, but here is a wrap-up for Mid-Season 2011 Build1:

Looking back 6 or so weeks - here is the state of play at the end of Base.

I have labelled this period as Build1 - it's primary focus included continued ramp of CTL, introduction of more specific/race-like sessions, and tonnes of threshold work.

CTL ramp over the period was pretty fierce with an average of +5.25 per week for the 4 weeks. This saw CTL rise from 96 to 117.

Training moved away from the trainer over to a predominantly road based schedule where I was looking to be in the mountains multiple times per week.

Threshold work was accumulated while climbing. Average of 2 hours dedicated threshold work on climbs on per-week basis over the 4 week block. Average power output for threshold work increased 2.2% week on week.

Body weight at ~66.9kg moved down to ~65.3kg.

Mid-Season Build1 - PMC

In reference to the PMC above:
A: Peak

B: Post injury and illness trough

C: End of Mid-Season Base

D: End of Mid-Season Build1

Next Build is basically more of the same, but with a slowed CTL ramp..

Mid-Season Base: Wrap-Up

Ok, so have spent the last 4 weeks loosely speaking - building some base back.

Post injury and illness I found that CTL had fallen significantly, so I designed a program of high volume, mostly lower intensity work designed to get CTL back up to ~100TSS/d while also tuning up the aerobic engine..

In reference to the PMC above:
A: Peak

B: Post injury and illness trough

C: End of mid season base (today)

CTL ramp was aggressive:

Wk1: +5

Wk2: +7

Wk3: +7

Wk4: +0

There was an element of risk associated with such a steep ramp; I hadn't planned on the back to back 7's but followed the training plan nevertheless as many days consisted of two separate sessions - allowing for recovery in-between.

Week4 was planned as a "rest" to acclimatise to CTL at 100TSS/d before moving forward. With the reduced volume this week I still felt tired toward the end of the week and did less than planned.

Progress from here will be at a rate of +3 to 4 CTL/week until reaching ~110-115. I have found from previous experience that once CTL reaches 100TSS/d I'm starting to feel strong and able to cope with longer, more intense and race-like training sessions.

FTP was down at least 11% from level realised at peak(A) (based on sustainable output over 2 back-back 20min intervals at beginning of week2). End of week4 this has climbed by 7%  which I'm happy with - but have 4% to claw back before any real inroads to progress can be made.. 

Build phase begins tomorrow.