Building a stronger bike
Back story- I don't want this to turn into a sorry for me thread, but due to another Achilles injury, I won't be racing like I hoped this year. Since I can't run for at least two months, I wanted to turn these lemons into lemonade and work on my weakest discipline, the bike.
The ask- if you were me and now had plenty of time to develop yourself into a much stronger cyclist, what would you do/have you done? The end goal is to take me from being an ok cyclist to a strong one.
Other info- as background, I use zwift and the races offered there. That has proven a much better way for me at least to get in threshold work. I also have been riding in the EN ABP Sunday ride so as to ride with folks that are stronger than me. I also know I will want to cross train for sanity if nothing else, but it isn't priority right now.
any advice, past successful endeavors, recommendations are all welcome. Thanks!
The ask- if you were me and now had plenty of time to develop yourself into a much stronger cyclist, what would you do/have you done? The end goal is to take me from being an ok cyclist to a strong one.
Other info- as background, I use zwift and the races offered there. That has proven a much better way for me at least to get in threshold work. I also have been riding in the EN ABP Sunday ride so as to ride with folks that are stronger than me. I also know I will want to cross train for sanity if nothing else, but it isn't priority right now.
any advice, past successful endeavors, recommendations are all welcome. Thanks!
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In fact, due to injury and no race in my near future, I still have about 6 outseason workouts in my Garmin and pick a different one each day depending on my mood and what sounds interesting.
Looking forward to see what the smart people have to say.
- Multi-day bike tours. These can vary from a long weekend to a cross country trip. You can design it yourself, or join up with an organized tour. Nothing builds muscular endurance like having to get on the bike day-after-day-afterday and ride 60-90 miles. Just one example of something which might help bring you to another level (no endorsement here, I've never done one of their camps): http://trainright.com/camp-v2/mammoth-gran-fondo-endurance-camp/
- Mountain Biking. I spent many happy days in the summer and fall riding on dirt trails in the woods. Bike handling and VO2 work get an extra boost this way.
- Commuting to work. Perfect for getting over any anxiety about sharing the road with cars, and learning self-sufficiency skills.
IMO, things like this are a lot more fun than slogging away on the trainer, or re-visiting the same local routes over and over. When it comes time to be a triathlete again, you'll have more strength on confidence on the TT bike.Doing your Sunday ride with folks that are stronger than you is also a very good start, bonus points if they are MUCH stronger than you and your tongue is hanging out to just not get dropped. Also find some local either road races (CAT5) or fun rides, but try to hang on to the front group as long as you can, then hang onto the next group as long as you can until they drop you (...don't shy away from gravel-grinder style rides/races)... All of these will force you to hammer harder than you ever imagined on all of the hills. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you are getting crushed and dropped in big group rides, you're doing it right. Keep doing it until you can not get dropped. If you are not getting dropped from your group, then make it your goal to drop somebody else. The whole group will be better for it (as long as everyone knows the objective going in).
This will translate into your "future" tri life as your FTP starting point (and your ability to suffer) will simply be higher when you start to layer in steady riding again and longer aerobic efforts in several months or next year.
In the context of step-function improvements during Ironman training, I have found bike camps or long back-to-back-to-back long rides to provide the necessary endurance benefit. Even a long 4-day weekend of consecutive ~60-100 miles will do the trick. But this generally will help you add a big fitness/endurance bump to your given FTP, not necessarily increase your FTP a long way (which I think is what you are currently looking to do).
Now on Tuesday, I would do something like 4 x 10 (4) and try and hit 103 - 105 % of FTP. I would get between 90 and 120 mins on the bike on this day.
On Thursday I would do a standard Outseason VO2 max set.
On Saturday I would try and do 5 x 10 (2) FTP, aiming to push my NP60 as high as I could. I started at 95% of FTP the first week, and tried to push that up towards 100% of FTP over the following week. I would get around 150 mins on the bike on this day.
And Sunday I would just try and get 90 mins in Zone 3.
After a 6 month lay off, my FTP had plunged to 155 watts (pathetic I know). But after 6 weeks of this work, it had climbed back to 185 watts in January. It is now over 200 which I hadn't seen for 3 or 4 years. I am 65 years old.
This is basically an example of JW's advice (to quote Rich, "ride the bike like you stole it!").
Structure wise, I would load up the GF plan, add one additional FTP session per week on top of the weekly plan volume given you will not be running and use the swims for recovery.
That should be some strong medicine which will surely drive bike fitness performance!
SS
Per chats with @tim cronk - I opted to do a TrainerRoad TT training plan. It was 6 or 7 WKOs a week of varying intervals. I did this as a pre-OS in the fall and got in more TV binge watching than ever during that time. Here I am 2 years later, back issues gone and I truly believe the lemons I suffered in losing my 2014 season became the lemonade that is expressing itself as what became the foundation a lifetime high FTP that I am at now.
In full disclosure, I hacked the plan subbing in "easier" wkos when the scheduled one was too challenging. the plan is not for the meek, but a very good, bike only build your FTP base plan
@Paul Curtin unfortunately Lou is toast based on required run downtime (at least two months) and the baby step rebuild that will have to happen. There isn't enough time to do that safely (or even a touch aggressively) without real risk of Achilles rupture. I'm good with playing with pain and if that were all this was I would likely just suck it up. That approach which has worked all those times in the past will just get me into real trouble. It sucks but I'm trying to embrace the opportunity it presents that I would not have had before.
If you can't watch TV, I have found that podcasts work great for trainer rides, through a set of bluetooth/wireless headphones. Somehow, not being able to hear myself breathe (gasp for air) seems to allow me to push (suffer) just a little bit longer.
Good luck!