This week I am finishing off a 2 week recovery block after a 100 mile event and the 100 mile GG plan.
Plan calls for FF on Sunday. Then I start Volcano plan on Monday to prepare for my next event in early September.
During this recovery block I’ve been feeling pretty sluggish on the bike and not feeling like I’ve made gains other than in my endurance fitness. I did The Cure @100% on Wednesday - I’d say it was manageable - I definitely didn’t go over the line on the power targets. This l morning (for the first time ever) I struggled with building my cadence in Cadence Builds. I just felt blah… Plan has Primers tomorrow.
I last tested in May when I went from a classic trainer to a Smart trainer. Overall, I’d say I hit the targets on most of the workouts, rarely going over the line or feeling like they were more on the easy side unless it was a sustained VO2 Max effort (think 9 Hammers/AVP - yeah, I know, weird that those feel good. Right?).
So, I’m pondering. Do FF? Do HM? Skip the fitness test? Do the FF week long plan next week to flush out more fatigue?
Hello! Best you continue with that recovery for another week. This means the videos that you choose to complete need to be at 60-65%. I would recommend Elements of Style, G.O.A.T, Power Station, Defender and or Cadence Builds and Holds.
If your not already, I also suggest completing a couple of Recovery Yoga sessions for the week. After this additional recovery week, complete Half Monty.
Following your next scheduled recovery week in 3 or 4 weeks time, include FF to begin the week.
Be sure you are fueling your recovery week and getting the required iron and protein to trigger the recovery process!
The longest recovery I have taken in Suff, was the post tour recovery plan. Mentally I started finding it hard and felt my fitness plummet, but when I tested at the end of it, I got the biggest gains across the board ever.
Additionally, I haven’t had a complete off the bike rest since my last family vacation in October of last year.
So thinking back, General Road > TOS Prep (+ starting training for a 1/2 marathon) > TOS > Post TOS > Pre-season XC (stopped running 1/2 way through due to foot injury) > 100 mile GG plan > 100 mile XC MTB race > Post TOS Plan - with SUF strength and yoga added in. Non-stop training for almost 10 months.
So thinking out loud… Add in work, pandemic, etc. That might be a lot of cumulative fatigue. (Trying to rationalize) So taking another week to flush out more of that fatigue with my next event 5 weeks away is making sense. While my fitness may drop, it’s better then burning out or getting injured (more rationalization here). I can always do something like Volcano or one of the building blocks plans to prepare for the 2 September events using current or the HM numbers next weekend.
Hey Erick, Keep with the new numbers you have for a few days but if you are feeling like the AC isn’t challenging enough, try putting it up by 20-30watts and see how that goes.
Just hit the end of my Metric Century plan. The last three weeks I’ve felt sluggish and tired. I’ve been trying to get more sleep and do a better job of actually sleeping in on my days off instead of running on those days. My resting HR has been up since I did my 100 miles (instead of 100km) at the end of the plan and I still felt tired and sluggish and my legs tight and sore. I fully expected all my numbers to go down.
Despite that, I still went ahead and did Half Monty, today, and my MAP actually went up 7 points, although, likely because of fatigue, my LTHR went down 4 beats (157 to 153) and my FTP went down 7 points. I suspect my FTP is likely the same, but the calculations made it go down because my fatigue kept my HR lower than had I done the Half Monty while fresh. We’ll see how I feel on Saturday when I attempt my end of plan FF.
