Where to go from here?

Training
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Usually I ski during the winter, but as my octogenarian folks live with me, and we live in a ski town and it seems noone is respecting travel restrictions and guidelines, I’ve been living like a hermit all winter long to keep them, and myself, healthy and safe.

So I started Sufferfest with the Transition Up program back in November.
Then I did the Intermediate All-Purpose Road training plan, which I just finished today.

Suffered through my second 4DP test just now - is it normal I never want to do another one ever again! :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks GvA

Aaaanyway. I’m a bit stuck in where to go from here. I ride bikes for fun, have most of my life, and have no intention of racing (Fondo maybe if we ever get to travel again). I’m suffering to try and stay in shape and stay sane (and kick ass tomorrow) over the winter months before I can try and go play outside again. Went from road biking to cyclocross and mountain biking in the last 4 years, as there is a lot of traffic in the area and I found riding in the woods safer and a lot of fun. But last summer with the pandemic the trails were so packed as to be not enjoyable anymore.
Let’s just say I have about 5-6x more mileage on the trainer as I had from last summer on the bikes.
So I bought a radar for the road bike, and plan on going back on the road next summer.

My last 4DP (like my first in December) tells me I’m am Attacker, with Repeated Efforts as my strength and Sustained Efforts as my weakness.

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Some base info: I’m 54, have asthma, and a paralysed lung diaphragm.
So it’s no surprise that sustained efforts are a weakness - the longer I go, the more I end up with a high HR and burning lungs, that give out before my legs ever do.
I’m training on a dumb trainer (CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro) with virtual watts.

So what’s the best way to go forward? I need to stay active until the end of April/beginning of May depending on when the snow will melt :slight_smile:
I was thinking about doing FTP Building Blocks, but I feel maybe I’ll go crazy doing that for the next 8 weeks (2 x 4 week blocks). Going for more than an hour sitting on the bike is… boring? Tedious? A literal pain in the butt? I just don’t enjoy it.

Is there a plan that will help with lung capacity specifically?
Can anyone suggest something that’ll be enjoyable and won’t make me go nuts (it’s a short trip right now!)?

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Oh dear God yes. Also suffered through #2 today.

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The building block programs are only 3 or 4 weeks long.

Improving your lung capacity (VO2 Max) means focusing on MAP (as the 4DP diagram mentions).

You could do the MAP building block, or just go to the workout tab on the app and search for workouts that have high MAP components and do them. Since repeated efforts are your weakness, you could also do those workouts recommended in the 4DP results associated with your weakness.