Hi today i finished the 12 week purpose plan.
Which plan is the next one? I have my first race in april. My weakness is vo2 map. Is better to do first map plan and then tempo plan? Or first tempo and then map?
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@Ap81 Check out this article on the Building Block plans.
I mix in a building block or two in between offseason plans and it seems to work for me.
Alternatively for an April race you could probably do an in-season plan and schedule your race for the end date of the plan.
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What sort of race do you have coming up in April?
I’d probably lean towards doing the MAP plan first, given that is your identified weakness. I’d then maybe follow that up with a Threshold plan instead of Tempo, assuming you’re not feeling too fatigued. Maybe with a Half Monty ramp test in between to reset your FTP and MAP power numbers for the second block.
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Agree with this, MAP first, then the next block should be dependant on what sort of event it is. Solo like a TT, sportive, or bunch like a crit, road race or track
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Thanks for your help. First race first day a 5 km prolog. 2nd day 50 km solo ride tt. 3rd day 80km race.
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I’d be tempted to do the MAP block but could consider doing a few swaps for the prescribed MAP workouts to move any longer MAP workouts (A Very Dark Place, Nine Hammers) to 40/20s (Rue the Day) on the basis that while both will target MAP, the micro intervals will benefit your AC which I turn will be useful for the road race.
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Sounds like a local race to me, but it is earlier. I would work in MAP as a priority, but add in longer rides on the weekend to build up endurance for the RR and some quick efforts (tabata style like Rue the day or Half Is Easy for the crit/prologue).
MAP block to start the, I think followed by FTP, the some repeated work for the road race. If you wanted to book a chat with a coach we could work out a detailed plan for you leading to the event
I train 6x a week. Monday mostly rest day or 30 min. recovery ride. about 10 -15 hours/week. I started the 3:1 map plan yesterday. Should I do a half monty test after the map plan?
And should I also do a lactate test if I train zone 2. to see if I’m below 2mmol/l. I find driving in zone 2 more difficult than zone 3 or 4!
Maybe someone can help me.
Thanks for your help and opinions.
lg
If you are doing a 12 week plan, HM should be at week 6 after a really relaxing recovery week. FF will be on the LAST DAY of the plan.
The good news is that as long as your plan is challenging enough to give you progressive overload but not so hard as to burn you out, there’s no wrong answer. Across endurance sports, I’ve had coaches whose philosophy was to immediately train the high end bc that’s where selection is made, and also coaches who advised to spend all your chips on zone 3/4 until you start finishing in the top 10 and THEN focus on the top end, and guess what? Both ways made us faster, and personally my biggest gains were when switching between the two.
Re: lactate, unless the information is independently of interest to you (eg, you want to track how it changes), I wouldn’t bother. There’s easier ways to pace zone 2 rides plus iirc, the 2mmol turn point is kind of arbitrary and doesn’t always mean much.