The introductry plan was actually to train for 6 weeks and then perform an 8- or 20-minute FTP test. But as it is with plans – they have to be adjusted sometimes when the situation dictates so. And this was the case. Week 5 ist the last one and no FTP test will be performed after. I will try to get on the bike between Christmass and New Year and ride one of my local routes and see if any chages can be felt.
The two harder sessions in the week (Session 2 and 4) were quite difficult now, but not the the level that it was impossible to reach the requested interval heart-rate or keep the pace the for the whole. It can generally be felt in the legs that the I were not laying around the last 5 weeks – some lovels of pain in the knees or in the muscles themselves are visible.
The last session was especially interesting, as it was not a classical high-low interval one. Instead it was a two session growing load training, with two 100% FTHR intervals at the end. The interesting thing was that the growing-load parts did actually warmed up the body properly, instead of tiring it too much, which allowed good performance in the last ones. This was definately not expected, as my understanding was that the end will be done already without energy and very difficult.
This week’s summary:
Lessons Learned from this week:
- regenerate correctly – a good night sleep, a walk the day after can do you only good
- eat properly – your body has to have the energy stored to be able to run with higher levels of heart-rate for prelonged periods of time. Eat a lot of carbohydrates the day before an high-effort day. Pasta is your best friend!
Cover photo courtesy of Simon Connellan on Unsplash
Caesar's Cycling 