I’m two weeks shy of wrapping up the Century plan and wondering what’s the best course of action from this point. I’m in Europe and it’s getting really cold, and while I enjoyed doing low volume plans with sprinkled outside rides before, I’d rather hunker down this winter and try to get as fit as possible for the spring.
I’d also like to note that I’m not racing apart from an occasional gran fondo here and there, and my goal is to basically hang in fast group rides which are usually 3-4h duration, and go fast up hills which are usually 12–90 minutes in duration.
My idea is to do a ramp test and restart base and build in mid volume. Does that sound like a good idea for me at the moment? Also, when that’s done, where to go next? Century low volume is my idea, since I plan to supplement with two long outdoor Z2 rides.
Exactly what i started 3 weeks ago. I do an extra ride on the active recovery day UK weather dependent .
If You set some Goal in the Plan for Mid April , it will give you a plan (Make it a B event)
I like doing Fast Audax and have had a 50 watt gain in FTP doing this plan.
I did have a 4 week break end of September to do a bathroom refurb and get ready for hard training again. Repeated FTP test a drop of 16 watts. But I am still starting my training from a higher base. 3 Weeks in i feel great, i am hitting every workout and my heart rate is getting lower during the workouts so a quick bounce back anticipated.
Are you saying that I should create a “fake” event in order for the plan builder to do its magic, which will take what I have done so far in consideration and include a base + build automatically?
I’d create more than one fake event. That way your training will truly be periodized.
Space them apart enough so that you go through at most two cycles (base+build or base+base) between events so you can see how your fitness needs to ebb and flow through a season. It can’t go up to infinity and beyond (as much as we all want it to). If you have a particular event you do every year then set that as your “A” and the other events spread out as “B”. The beauty of plan builder is that you can use case test multiple scenarios.
The above is not a real train prescription just a way to periodize training and space it out with plan builder and see more options
Plus focus as much on the rest/recovery sections as you do the “training” sections.
Yes. Plan Builder is that flexible. You can set events as you like, it will put base there , it will shorten build too such that it gives the right special phase. Although , i do not like the spec phases, i would rather do a bit more build for audax events. So i Just delete the weeks of special and put in the build stuff that i want from previous weeks. keep the week before the events, they have the right amount of rest recovery.
I just finished SSBI>SSBII>SPB>Climbing Road Race and have no plans for racing.
Instead of going back to base, I did a block of HIT Maintenance Low Volume I. It was great, something different, and improved my VO2. I don’t see lots of talk about this plan in the forum, but I enjoyed it very much.