Week 9

Following a week’s recovery/rest, the week below was all good and to continue, with higher intensity work now being incorporated.

• First session on the 29^th was Vo2 interval work in a 60-minute endurance session.
• On the 2^nd it was anaerobic efforts 15 seconds on with 45 seconds recovery, 2 sets of 15, endurance at other times.
• 4^th was 45 minutes’ recovery with 4 x 30 seconds max sprints. Volume was low on all these sessions due to a Sportive on the 6^th, The Mad March Hare. We used this as a group training ride for the charity ride in May (see details at the footer); riding there and back gave us 120 miles

Week 10

Following Sundays 120 mile ride, the readings are mostly surprisingly good. Hopefully this is a sign of improved fitness and my body getting used to the increasing workload, adaptation, and therefore recovering quicker.

• I did however miss my planned workout on the 7^th, even though the reading was good, simply down to sore legs.
• So the next workout was on the 9^th; 60 minutes endurance and included 4 x 2 min V02 ints – this should have been 80 minutes but I reduced the volume due to the Sunday ride. My power started to drop at the 4th interval, so stopped at that point (the plan was for up to 8 x 3min V02 intervals). It was 5am so wasn’t an ideal time to do the session, and also forgot to take my reading.
• On the 11^th I did 60 minutes of recovery/low endurance, with an average HR that kept me at my MAF zone.
• Then on the 12^th it was a group ride for 3 hours 40 mins, 53% ride time at HR zone 2 and 44% at HR zone 3.
• The 13^th was a smaller group ride, 9% in HR zone 1, 66% in HR zone 2 and 23% HR zone 3, which included a 15 min sweet spot effort (even though the reading was red, I hoped that the trend would be favourable the next day on the 14^th which it was. If it had been red again or orange, it would have been enforced rest)

Week 11

Last week of the third, 3 week training block before 1 weeks recovery, which will be the end of the 12 week base period. Pleased with these readings this week considering it is after a 3 week block. Below shows the readings after each block of training in the base phase

• This weeks sessions started on the 14^th with 70 mins endurance session but included 6 x 2 min VO2 intervals (couldn’t manage the target of 3 mins), stopped on the 6th interval when power dropped by 5%.
• 16^th was 66 mins, endurance based but with 2 x 15 min sets of 15 seconds at 150% power with 30 seconds recovery.
• 18^th was 70 mins low endurance high cadence easy gear.
• 19^th was a 75 mile ride aimed at endurance pace but included 4 x 10 mins at threshold on climbs.
• 20^th was 32 miles included 1 x 10 min and 1 x 30 min sweet spot, endurance at other times

Below shows the base period HRV trend. The spaces between are the recovery weeks; the first one I had a cold so not much recovery to show, which did impact on the base 2 period. The second recovery week was more like I would expect. Heading towards the 3^rd recovery week my HRV is going up even with the intensity increasing, before recovery week effects. So will be interesting to see how the trend is this time next week (the sharp dip in base 3 was a system error and also my workout load for the 16^th didn’t show).

This training all counts towards a charity event riding to raise money for Breast Friends. You can check out more on the JustGiving page.

Profile;

I am a recreational athlete, who has around 5 to 8 hours a week to train (season dependant). I have a family with 2 young children and run a business. Therefore, the ethos of my training is to use training principles that elicit the best results in minimal time.