Training Load post Recovery

Training
1

Hey folks,

I have a question around training load post a recovery week! What is the suggested load after you have taken a recovery week after a 5 week block of work with TL increasing 10% week on week?

I have a recovery week coming up on the 26th Sep, the previous weeks load (19th) will be approx 550-600. I was going to set a target of 250-300 TL for my recovery week. Should I then go straight into a week of 550-600 again on the 3rd Oct and build again?

Thanks

2

It depends where you are in your training cycle. If you’re going from base to build or build to peak/tapering it will be different.

For the base phase, the first week of the new block should be close to the load from week 2 of your current block.

For the base to build, it would be a slight drop in load due to the drop in volume and increase in intensity.

For build to peak/taper it would be a significant drop as your rest more and keep the intensity up.

Here’s a generic periodised showing the progression each week, relative to each mesocycle:

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This is for a 2-peak season.
Blue = Transition
Green = Base
Orange = Build
Red/Pink = Peak/Taper and Race
White = Rest
Grey = end of season.

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3

I am quite new to structured training but it worked really well for the British Transplant Games at the end of July where I won both the TT and Road Race for my Age group. I now have been invited to the World Transplant Games in Perth, Australia on April 15th 2023 so that is my main peak date!

I will do a fair bit of Zwift racing now over the winter where the rest of my training (up to 80% hopefully will be Zone 2). So basically polarised training! I have no other dates until then. I just want to build fitness and drop weight between now and then. When I get closer to April then I’ll switch to a more race structured training. I’ll be competing in 3 events, 10km iTT, 20km TTT and 30km Road Race!

I would think I am starting a new season now, with the end goal being 15th April. I have a middle weight goal that I will be racing top level Cat B low A by Christmas and kick on from there into the new year!

Thanks again for your comments, that makes really good sense!

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Is this type of training sustainable? I’d figure I would just do polarised training until mid feb upping my load week on week with regular recovery weeks every 4. Then make it more Race structured Feb - April!

5

Well done on your achievement, and all the best for the races next year.

Is your training sustainable? It depends; a classic answer to many questions, but it does truly depend on a number of factors.

  1. There are 32 weeks (if I counted correctly) to the event. That’s more than enough time to train, and still adjust, if you see your interim goals are ahead/behind the goals.

  2. How have you trained for the British edition? What areas could you improve in?

  3. How is your aerobic fitness? You have already mentioned riding lots of Endurance zone (L2) rides.

  4. Racing a lot on Zwift can be good and bad. It depends how many races you do and how often, as well as what the intensity would be for the event duration. Racing a lot will require an equivalent amount of rest to be sure you’re ready for the next one.

I’d keep the Zwift racing for the build/speciality phase, where you train similar to the race events you will be taking part in.

  1. The ITT seems short enough to be just above FTP (I’d guess 103-110% of FTP) depending on your average speed.

10km at 60km/h is 10mins race time. 40Km/h is the classic Chris Carmichael test of doing 5Km (3 miles) in 8 minutes = 16-min race time. A 20-min FTP test is essentially 5-8% higher than FTP, so this should guide you for the efforts you need to be doing as preparation.

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Thanks again for coming back.

  1. I agree I have plenty of time to pivot for sure
  2. The BTG were 5km & 10km events so I had a 6 week block of Vo2 and sweetspot with z2 rides with a 10 day taper before the event
  3. I have a fairly good aerobic base, I have been off chemotherapy since Jan 2022 and I started kicking on after a cycling holiday to Majorca in May
  4. I intend to race once per week on Zwift in the ZRL so max 40-50min, I’ll do one other structured workout per week and build up the rest of the load doing z2 riding!
  5. For the iTT in BTG it was 5km and I tried to hold my 5min power numbers. I held 310w on the course but it had 2 hair pins and was wet. I did a 7m23s! I was hoping for closer to 330w avg to break 7min but wasnt possible as the bends were too sketchy! My current FTP is 270.
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Good luck with the training. Come back and let us know how you went in the big day.

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