# Training Peaks - Virtual coach Strong vs. weak



## mgurtzweiler (Jul 11, 2010)

I'm in pretty good shape from bike commuting (20 miles each way 2-4x.. more around 2 since December damn cold wind) and weekend rides. Most commute's are done at a Tempo+ pace (my bad...). I can keep up with the local racers on group rides for about, you guessed it, 20 miles then my legs tell me they want to slide back to the slower group. :mad2: 

I am starting to race this year, first "training" crit is Saturday (and e very Saturday for a while) and first road race is in late April. It's pretty obvious to me that simply commuting is not going to cut it if I want to do well this year and years to come so I purchased WKO+ and a year of training peaks to get me some basic training schedules.

To the point. Should I select "Weak" or "Strong". My lizard brain says strong and the schedule looks better (no more base after my first road race) but I want to do whats best.

Next Question: Since my commute is 20 hilly miles x 2 would it be OK to split some of the workouts to morning and afternoon? Or would I be better off stretching out the morning leg to get a full workout in and then just try to spin on the way home (I find it very difficult to go slow on my commute but will try for the greater good!).

Thanks for all of the advice. I have a semi-unrelated question over in the training forum (http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=241478) if it would help to see some of my charts from 2 weeks of data.


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## PissedOffCil (Jan 3, 2008)

If you can only ride 20 miles at tempo before fading, definitely weak.


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## mgurtzweiler (Jul 11, 2010)

That's what I was afraid of. I have a Crit or road race every weekend or so now through August. This should be fun


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## BeeCharmer (Apr 30, 2003)

I remember reading Jack Simes' book about racing back in the late 70's. Today, more than 30 years later, my take away from it was that a rider needs five years to reach his potential. So true.

You will get blown away by the intensity of the races you enter this year. Even at the lowest cat, you have to be really fit just to suck. Give it time. Give yourself time to recover with easy spins after hard efforts. With no base, you are going to 'peak' early with these super hard efforts and then go flat. I suppose my advice would be to find the best group ride in your area, one that goes out for at least 40 miles at a hard effort and structure your riding and racing around that. You will learn more from riding with better riders in that group than you will getting dusted in a cat 5 crit. Use the racing as a peak at what's to come in the future and to get an idea of how hard it is.

The cool thing about racing and riding is that there is always more to learn.


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## mgurtzweiler (Jul 11, 2010)

Just finishing 8 weeks of "base" this week and feeling stronger than ever, not really that much "faster" but I am able to keep the power on even after 60 miles of fast riding. Starting my build period next week, I hope this will help with the speed. 

I have found my weakness is responding to attacks when I'm riding slightly above threshold (say a 2-3 min climb that kicks up near the end, or when I push it a bit too hard with my turn on the front and the next guy decides to surge causing me to not be able to get back on). Hopefully some of the intervals will help with this.


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## PissedOffCil (Jan 3, 2008)

It starts with increased endurance then translates to speed when you do "higher level" workout! Build will help and you'll really see the results after a period of increased rest.

Good job.


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