I'm writing this a few days late after a SNAFU on Monday in my apartment building. My downstairs neighbor had his floors refinished and we came home Monday after work to some pretty noxious fumes and were temporary refugees at a friend's apartment for a few days. Fumes from drying polyurethane will get you high as a kite, burn your eyes, lungs, etc. so this pushed everything back a few days. The first of many likely changes to my plans for this year. But the only thing you can do is roll with it and make the best of the situation!!
2017 Training Plans
This season I'm going to be following the TrainerRoad plans to (hopefully) drop me off with peak fitness leading into Nittany Lion Cross weekend. I loved that race last year and so it's an "A" race of mine this year. I'll be following the mid-volume versions of TrainerRoad's Sweet Spot Base, then Short Power Build, and Cyclocross plans.
Last year I followed the Sweet Spot Base plans then general build plan since I was targeting some lumpier road races. The longer intervals made me better at an area I was already decent at but left the gaping hole of 5 sec - 2 min power wide open. When I got into the cyclocross plan last fall, which focuses on shorter bursts, they were always a struggle and hitting the target power consistently just wasn't happening.
The TrainingPeaks Power Profile for 5 sec and 1 min power puts me below the Cat 5 level which is sad. This doesn't include any power data from last cyclocross season but I doubt it would change much. The poor short-term power also lines up well with poor starting ability in cross races. Comparatively all of the other Power Profile metrics ( 5-60 mins) are in the Cat 3-4 range. In general the graph isn't really worth much but it's a nice guide to show me my weaknesses.
So seeing how the left side of my power profile isn't nearly as spiky as it should be plus my poor starting ability last season, the focus on the trainer is definitely going to be in the sub 2 minute range. This should also translate well to summer crit smashing fitness that I fully plan to exploit.
On plan execution, the goal is to do most of the base work indoors with sporadic outdoor riding when the weather is nice then try to get outdoors as much as possible for the build and cross plans for the non-interval specific workouts. I'm going to make a concerted effort to ride my cross bike in Liberty State Park as much as possible during the spring and summer to get more comfortable with the technical skills that I need so desperately.
The one part of my long-term plan that I'm uncomfortable with is adding a Wednesday night cross practice on top of the TrainerRoad cyclocross plan. Their plan has 3 days/week of short power intensity with one long steady Sunday ride. The research I've been reading, though not a 100% direct correlation, shows a diminished returns and even losses for the 3rd or 4th interval session in a week. 4 days of intensity is a pure bet on early burnout too. Most likely I'll drop one of the weekday interval rides and replace with a slower steady-state recovery ride but I'll think about it more thoroughly as the summer approaches.
FTP Test Time
I did my first FTP test in November 2015 at
261 W (3.26W/kg) then successively raised it to
294 W (3.7W/kg) in August
before riding most of last cross season at
288 W (3.6W/kg). My goal for 2017 is to raise my W/kg over 4 with a mix of increased power (over 300 W) and reduced weight (down to 160lbs).
Since this was going to be my first FTP test since September and I felt like I had good power all fall, I was hoping to reach a FTP around 300 W, which based on taking 90% of the result for an 8 minute test means riding the test at 333 W. As I ramped up the first interval, the target power felt tough but manageable and I held strong for the first 5 minutes. I could see my heart rate ramping up above where I'm normally at and I popped, I just couldn't hold it. I went out wayyyy too strong. The last 3 minutes were a struggle and my power just dropped off a cliff. Frankly if it wasn't for planning on writing this post, I would have bailed then puked all over the place. It hurt. Bad.
I came to my senses on the second interval and rode it much more conservatively. The net result was a new FTP of
286 W which is 2 W shy of where I've been training for the last few months. I'm a bit disappointed since I thought I had more in me but I'm still starting this year 15 W above where I started last year. Also add in being kicked out of our apartment for a few days and doing this at night compared to a normal morning workout, I guess it's not that bad.
Now time for 12 weeks on the hamster wheel. What are some good things on Amazon Prime or Netflix to watch to get me through the (productive) monotony?