it was satisfying! especially on the third climb, mt sufferlandria. kept saying to myself, this is your mountain! easily the biggest ride i’ve done on the indoor trainer.
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Agreed. That was a tough one yesterday. The last ‘win the stage’ interval was much tougher than it looked on paper.
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Big congratulations to all who managed ISALGIATT at 100%
I know, I felt bad that I was riding our mountain at reduced intensity.
Still, it shows how badass we Sufferlandrians are - I still managed to beat gloworm, billboard,bluebell et al and I had my power turned down by 10 % - how weak were they? 
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I completed it for the first time at 100% and it was a tough one but I can be proud to say I did it. I remember being on the Mount Sufferlandria climb and swearing at the little orange lines coming up in the next climbs because I was getting tanked already.
I’m currently on the All-Purpose Road Plan, which would end with FF on February 20.
As ToS prep I decided just to continue with the All-Purpose plan, but move the final week’s prep for FF (Cadence, Taper, Recovery, Primer) forward one week to the week of February 8, ditch the workouts scheduled for the week of February 8, then follow the Post-Tour Plan to work up to FF a couple of weeks later.
It’s straight-forward to change the dates for the workouts that I am moving forward one week. But is there a way to delete those workouts that won’t get done from the schedule? A nit-picky housekeeping detail, but one that would make the calendar look neater.
If you delete a plan, any future workouts get deleted from your calendar, but completed and past incomplete workouts are retained.
When you’re ready to make the jump in your plan schedule, delete the existing plan, and re-add it with the appropriate modified target end date.
Soo…
I did my knighthood attempt on Nov 14. It got tendonitis in my left knee from my attempt, so I took 2 full weeks off. Well, except for 1 test ride after 10 days which showed I needed more time off.
Again, in my 3rd week after (the first week of Dec), I rode twice, but I still needed more rest.
My 4th week after (Dec 7-13) I did a ramp test and some recovery rides, but nothing intense other than Half Monty.
My 5th week (Dec 14-20) I did Half Monty and started the All-Purpose Road plan, but that was just 2 recovery rides and Crescendo.
I planned to do a lot of riding during the holiday break, but instead did almost nothing except for a recovery ride on Dec 27 and then Recharger on Dec 29.
After ToS was announced I cancelled my plan and started the ToS Prep Plan on Jan 3, but really only did 2 recovery rides and a couple beginning strength sessions during the next 2 weeks until I finally did Attacker at 75% on the 17th. Our water heater broke and my daughter had tonsillitis, so I was too stressed to wake up and ride, and I was playing catch-up with work, so I just never had to energy to ride.
This last week I finally rode 4 days in a week. I’ve noticed on Saturday’s ride and today’s ride that my HR has been higher than usual. And during my recoveries my HR is usually around 100-110, but I’ve noticed that instead it rarely drops below 125. So, it seems my fitness and endurance has dropped off a lot. I have just under 3 weeks until ToS starts. I’m thinking I need to work on my endurance. If I stick to the ToS Prep Plan (intermediate) will I build back up enough endurance? Or do I need to add in some extra Zone 2 rides to help myself out with some extra volume? And can I build up much endurance in the next 2 weeks before I taper a bit the week before?
@emacdoug Bummer! When I was going to CrossFit I did have some tendinitis in the knee. I found that it was less of an issue when I warmed up and stretched the area around the knee joint before exercising or lifting. Given your prior injury perhaps you should stick with the KOS prep plan as is and see where things go and be prepared to dial back the KOS if needed.
Yeah, that’s kinda what I have been doing and why it’s taken so long for me to build up to this point. Tendinitis can take a long time to get rid of. Took me a year to get rid of it in my elbow. Every time my knee started to hurt again I would back it off and take 2 or 3 days off (or more). I think the extended holiday layoff was probably for the best.
These last 2 weeks my knee has been fine. Today I did the Sprint/Threshold/Sprint “Race Winners” and had no pain at all, even while hitting 1090w in the warm up sprints.
Tomorrow is Elements of Style before Team Scream on Wed. This will be the most intensity I’ve had since Nov 14, so I’m hoping that if I can get thru this week then that’s a green light to allow me to build back up, again. But, I think you’re right, now that I think about it. I don’t want to aggravate my knee and miss the TOS. I’m already planning to do either the focused or Get me thru it, anyway. So, if I stick to the plan that’ll be more than I have been doing, and then combined with the Tour, that’s probably all the effort I really need to put out so I work myself into shape and don’t set myself back. There’s no real need to push myself to get back into shape too quickly, right?
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Did Elements of Style, today. I don’t remember it being as hard as it was, today. I was planning to add on an extra 30 minutes of open riding afterward, but ended up only doing 15 minutes of recovery spinning because I needed the cool down, not because I needed the volume. My HR usually hovers in my Z1 HR range of 100-110 for those recovery spins, but this time it never dropped below 125 and instead hovered between 125-132. So, I’ve definitely lost some fitness and I’m definitely going to need some time to get my fitness endurance back.
@emacdoug Sounds like the right call. Have you checked the other boxes - hydration, sleep, diet, stress management? Those all could be contributing to the puzzle as well.
Personally I am planning on the get me through it option for the TOS but could easily find myself moving to the focused option. I fortunately don’t have an injury (yet). However as much as I would like to experience a week of competitive tour racing I feel like the extra stress of going nuclear and also handling my day job isn’t the best fit at the moment.
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It’s got an IF of 0.82 so certainly not a trivial session - actually higher than the IF of Cobbler albeit a lot lot shorter and only a little lower than GOAT.
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@JSampson Oh yes, there’s definitely been a lot of non-bike stress going on and that’s seriously contributed. Most of the reasons (other than my tendonitis) that I had a hard time getting back on the bike were non-bike stress:
- planning for Xmas
- got used to staying up late (elf on the shelf) and sleeping in during the holidays
- daughter’s tonsillitis
- wife’s birthday in early January
- water heater leak & replacement
- garage repair from water heater leak (still ongoing)
- catching up on work after the holidays
I feel like I’m finally catching my breath now that I’ve caught up on work and the holidays and birthday has passed and the water heater is replaced and my daughter is feeling better and the damn elves have been banished from the house for the next 11 months. I’m finally getting to bed before 11pm which is making it easier to wake up at 5am. This week is the first time I’ve been able to wake up early two days in a row to ride my bike in the past 5 weeks.
We’ll see how I do on Team Scream tomorrow. And then maybe next week my HR will start coming back down. My resting HR is usually around 47-49. It was nice and low during the holidays when I was sleeping in. It has been up into the mid-50’s the first couple weeks of January when I was the most stressed out. It was going back down last week, but then has been up again this week now that I’m up early and exercising again. So, hopefully as I settle back into my work and early riding routine and improve my fitness it’ll drop back down, again.
As I talk it out, it seems more and more like you said I should probably stick to the plan and ease myself back in and not overdo it. I’m looking forward to TOS days 1, 5, and 7. If I do a focused plan then those will be my hardest days. But, if my fitness doesn’t return that fast, I’ll likely end up on the Get Me Thru it option.
@emacdoug Wow - that is quite the list! Hang in there! Yes, I definitely agree with you on sticking with the plan and dialing down the TOS. Also maybe think about trying an earlier bed time if possible based on your resting heart rate change.
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@JSampson Agreed. There’s been too many days I’ve gotten into bed at 9:50 and ended up not actually lying down until 11. I definitely need to untether myself and get to bed! Probably the best thing I can do for myself right now.
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I understand that everyone is different but it’s not unusual for me to start my training around the same time as you are going to bed!
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Aww, man. Sorry to hear there is so much on your plate at the moment.
I still congratulate you on being reasonable and taking all the time you need. Knowing when to hit your training hard and when to actually take a step back is absolutely vital. All our training is meant to last in the long run, after all.
Your favorite days for the ToS are the same as mine. 
It will be a fun tour!
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Thank you. I am thankful that life has eased for the time being. I’ve long felt that life comes in waves. Time to enjoy the trough and prepare before the next wave. Hopefully that next wave will include enjoyment of pure suffering in the TOS.
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Ouch. Team Scream this morning. Despite getting to bed early, I overslept my alarm and didn’t have time for the full ride. I got through 41 minutes and it was time to stop. Fortunate for me since I couldn’t have gone much longer as I was pretty much toast at that point. Then I dialed it down to 55% and did 10 minutes of cool down to end.
My Z5 HR tops out at 156. But I spent a lot of the workout with my HR around 160. Max was 163. And even in the “recovery” sections where my target HR was Z3 I was still over 150.
Afterward I noticed that my profile was using my old FF numbers from Nov (Map 311, FTP 238) instead on new ones from HM 3 weeks ago (Map 302 FTP 242). I could’ve really used the lower Map target, but I don’t know that it would’ve helped much with the slightly higher FTP.
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On the advanced/high-volume plan I had Sprint/Threshold/Sprint yesterday, which I did in level mode so I could try pushing past the power targets on some of the sprints – loved the work and came out thrashed, in particular the last two sprints I couldn’t match what I’d done earlier in the workout, but did manage the prescribed targets.
Today I had GCN Aerobic Endurance which looked gentler but in the moment felt somewhat harder. I’m tagged as a sustained weakness, so perhaps that’s to be expected! Definitely felt my body suffering towards the end of the sub-threshold intervals, especially the final 4 minutes of the second block, where I couldn’t quite maintain the cadence target of 110. And then the final minute of MAP work was devastating, if it had gone on even 5 seconds longer I might have hit the ERG spiral of death.
Really looking forward to “The Bat” tomorrow, with lots of MAP work (my happy space) and relatively short intervals near threshold.
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