# Training Plan Questions



## maclover (Jun 29, 2004)

Stats: 
142 lbs
FTP 212 watts measured in winter (via 20 min effort), probably a bit higher now.
Current CTL (measured in bikescore) is roughly 58.
Cat 5 Racer. Mostly Crits that are about 30 mins long. I can finish in the pack regularly, but it depends on positioning. I need to be in the front or else it doesn't work out. 

I am somewhat limited on time. But my week is as follows:
Sunday - Lots of time to ride
Monday - 1 hour or so
Tuesday - Tuesday Night Crit (30 mins) gives me about a Bikescore of 70. 
Wednesday - not much time if any
Thursday - 1 hour if I'm lucky
Friday - 1-2 hours
Saturday - Group Ride with shop 2 hours or so Bikescore of 160

In the winter I did 2x20s twice a week and a session or 2 or 90 min tempos or so to build my FTP, I believe I started in the 180's. I did not do any other intervals than that. Now that I'm doing the crits, I find that my legs are tired for the following days, and the best workouts that I can manage are 60 min tempos. I then do the shop ride on Saturday and then try to ride on Sunday but my legs feel like crap. Mentally I cannot do any 2x20's or even 4x10's for that matter. I just tried it today, maybe my legs are fried from Saturday's ride or I just need to HTFU! Or maybe my base was never high enough to sustain all the L5/L6 efforts I do on the crits, as well as a little on the Saturday rides. 

My goals are to increase my FTP as well as increase overall fitness so that I can continue to train without feeling drained/burned out.

I've enclosed my Performance manager from golden cheetah as well as a Tuesday Night crit and my Critcal power plot. 



Any tips on how to structure my training week, especially to balance recovery and workouts. 

Thanks!


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## the_gormandizer (May 12, 2006)

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, but the internet is wonderful in that so many unqualified people are ready with advice, myself included. 
I'm not a coach but I have one, and I'm also a Cat 5 who has a very similar training schedule to you (8-10 hours per week). I'm slightly more of an all-rounder at 152 lbs, 270W ftp.

Based on my training plan, you could try:

Sunday - 2-3 hours endurance. Maybe 2x20 included.
Monday - 30 mins recovery
Tuesday - Tuesday Night Crit (30 mins)
Wednesday - Off or 30 mins recovery
Thursday - Some hard intervals. Either 7x3, 6x5, 3x12, 2x20 depending on your training goal
Friday - Easy hour
Saturday - Group Ride with shop

I know that this does not exactly fit in your schedule since it crams in a ride on Thursday instead of Friday. But it would be better for you to take it easy on Friday before riding hard on the weekend. If you have to switch Thursday and Friday I guess you could do that.

Regarding ftp, I suspect yours might be a little higher than you think, and you ought to retest.. You need to find a good stretch of road (constant climb is good) for the 20 min effort. You should also consider doing a 5 min effort and use both in a Monod calculator to check your ftp.
See http://www.cyclingpowermodels.com/MonodCriticalPower.aspx

About your sore legs, are you fueling up and taking a recovery drink like chocolate milk right after the crit? I'm 50, and I manage to race a crit on Tuesdays without killing my legs. 

I also think your CTL looks a little low if you really are doing 8-10 hours or so per week. I have appended mine, which shows that I'm in the 80's. (I had a high-volume weekend, so ignore the blip at the end.)

Finally, if you want to consider a coach, PM me and I can give you contact the details of mine.


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

One of the problems with not varying the schedule is stagnation in form. Agree that your training loads look low, either because they are not being calculated correctly or are simply too low.

Either way, your chart is displaying a stagnation of training.

I'd also encourage considering a coach.


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

Also, looking at the chart of daily bike scores, up to end March you had regular blocks of back to back training days, with a little rest between blocks. Form was improving during that phase I bet. 

Since then you have been resting at least every other day and you are stagnating, not improving fitness and accordingly ability to recover drops as well. 

You need to train more frequently. Take a 4 weeks off racing and get some quality bikescores going to build up your training loads.


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## maclover (Jun 29, 2004)

Thanks for all the tips. 
Re: FTP; the last time I measured it was a couple of months ago and that was on the trainer. 
But most of my training in on the trainer, esp the 2x20s. 

I'm trying to get back on the track of doing more tempos and 2x20s and seeing how that will fare with me. As for recovery, I'm trying to eat immediately after rides now. We'll see how it all goes.


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