A solid week's training for Raid Corsica

Five back to back quality sessions this week took my weekly TSS above 600 with 9 hours on the bike. I'd love to have this time every week, but I think my wife would kick me out and the kids would disown me.  


Time commitments, riding lessons, clients and shocking weather meant I was confined to the garage for three days. Nowadays, I look forward to my indoor sessions in the torture chamber with my companion and coach TrainerRoad.


Feeling refreshed on Coyote Wednesday; one hour of VO2max intervals, with a tasty little 12 minute Threshold session to round things off. 


Looking good on Thursday, I smashed Tallac; three evenly spaced 15 minute sweet spot sessions. Another good session. I fell like I could ride in that zone for hours, which is what I'll be doing in the mountains of Corsica come this time next month. 

Friday I thought I'd mix it up a bit with a TrainerRoad / Sufferfest combination - The HUNTED. This session is not for the faint hearted; children and adults of weak disposition need to be removed from the area. It gets ugly. Very Ugly.

Saturday was a gentle 30 miler, with a little lung opener to beat my PB on a local STRAVA segment. Not only did I smash a PB, I am now King of the Mountains. Check that baby out.
  

Come Sunday, I was starting to feel it a little in my legs, so I 75 mile club run  in heavy wind up to Ivinghoe and one of the highest points in the area was just the ticket. I felt great for the first 50 miles, then the hunger set in and I was going through the energy gels with increasing regularity. However, 4 STRAVA Achievements for the ride is not to be sniffed at. I earn't my Sunday roast after that.


So, over 9 hours of riding and a TSS nudging over 600; same again next week then.

Trainer Road v Sufferfest: The Hunted

Top session today on the turbo trainer. It hurt. A great deal.

Suffering in Paradise

This is my last day in Dubai after a great week with the family on the beach. Now it's back to the UK to get wrapped up for a weekly diet of Sufferfest and TrainerRoad combos mixed with a couple of longer tempo rides on the road laced with a shot or two of low cadence stomps.


I managed another session in the luxurious gym at the Atlantis Palm today. No messing about; 30 minutes of FTP work. 5 minutes tempo to warm up then 165 bpm for 25 minutes. The guy on the bike next to me was reading cycling weekly while I was totally soaked in in sweat. When I finished we had a brief chat - he thought I was mad - I just winked and said 'IWBMATTKYT'.


Back to Blighty and proper riding on Thursday. 

Life is a beach

After a week in Dubai eating and drinking in the luxury of the Atlantis Palm I am going to need some serious Sufferfest and TrainerRoad sessions in my chamber of pain (the garage - where my turbo trainer is located).

I heard today one of my fellow raiders has dropped out of the Raid Corsica due to work commitments - we will miss you Fletch! However, that means we have a spare place - are you up for it? Drop me a line if you are.

I have managed a session in the gym on the concept 2 rowing machine followed by a spin on the indoor bike. I was quite pleased to knock out 5k in 20 minutes - on the rower that is! I am not a great fan of gyms, but it was great entertainment watching others working out - without breaking into a sweat. Everyone was bemused to see me soaked after an hours 'proper' training.

I'll be back #hittingthenumbers again on Thursday evening with 3 long tempo rides back to back Friday through to Sunday to get my weekly TSS up to a reasonable level. Back on the wagon too - I've not got long left to get down to 80kg! No more Mojitos.

Dropped on Alpe d'Huez

If you haven't yet tried it, give The Sufferfest a go - in conjunction with your power meter and Trainer Road it is an awesome training tool.


Today I went for the Angels session - this is what the guy's at The Sufferfest dished up in a tasty hours session*:

• 6:30 warm-up, featuring footage from track racing in San Diego
• 10:00 of over/under intervals, with 1:00 just above your threshold, and 1:00 just below threshold, repeated 5x. Featuring footage from the 2009 Paris-Nice when Alberto Contador got, gasp, dropped by just about everyone!
• 3:00 rest, featuring some beautiful descending footage from cyclefilm.com, effort level 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, while you try to stay with Andy Schleck in the 2009 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Effort level starts at about 7/10, attacks take you up near 9/10, until setting down to 7/10 for most of the rest.
• 4:00 rest with more descending, effort level 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, with a gradually increasing pace up the famous Col d’Eze in the 2010 Paris-Nice, featuring Vockler, Contador, Sanchez…yeah, all the big boys. You do the first two minutes at 6/10, next two at 7/10, next two at 8/10 and the last two at 8.5/10. There are a few accelerations in the group that ask you to increase cadence without increasing effort….which can be a little tricky, as you’ll find out.
• 4:00 rest with more descending, effort 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, with the freaking mother of all climbs: Alpe d’Huez…can you stay with Contador in the 2010 Dauphine-Libere? You start the climb bridging up to the break with an effort level of 8/10. Then you pretty much do 8/10 the whole way up. Oh, wait, I forgot about the bajillion attacks that push you so far into the red that you’d swear your eyes are bleeding.
• 4:00 warm down featuring a sort of motley arrangement of things to keep you entertained. Including the first Sufferfest xtranormal video. Oh boy.

Here's a little taster:

* Cribbed from their website (hope you don't mind guy's?)

Having been dropped on the final climb of the session - Alpe d'Huez - where there are lots of accelerations at the top end of my VO2max and anaerobic capacity power zones it looks like this might be an area for me to focus on during March and April. 


You can see the training file from today's session online at STRAVA or Trainer Road.

Trainer Road - Angels 01.02.12

New FTP test PB with Trainer Road

This evening I completed a functional threshold power (FTP) test using the 2 x 8 minutes test session on TrainerRoad which links my laptop in real time via ANT+ broadcasting the data from my heart rate monitor and powertap power meter - very scientific and very motivational. I highly recommend it. 
The data file can be seen on TrainerRoad here. 
Below is the data file on STRAVA.