New Game Plan

Well it looks as though my elbow is going to have me off the road for a bit longer. The doctor told me "at least two weeks". Well I got out yesterday and road the cross bike through the yard, hit a rock with the front wheel which caused me to shift all my weight to that arm, and it hurt worse than it did when I wrecked. I still can't pull up on the bars, as one would for sprinting for example, so I'm going to back off road for this season and aim at cross.

I've been hammering out time above my FTP trying to keep steady fitness, and I'm ready for a bit of a break. Since my arm is out of commission, I'm going to drop back and start doing some foundation work again in an attempt to have a small peak during cross. I'll aim for mid December, towards the end of cross.

Here's a few things I'll be working on:

Time in L3- (75-90% of FTP)
Allan/Coggan call this the "meat and potatoes" of training. Being from the country I like meat and potatoes, and I also like L3 work. You start out easy and by the end you have what I call a starved type of hurt, and not the ouch kind you would get with above FTP intervals. I would say 1-3 hours a week in this area.

Time in sweet spot - (89-95% of FTP)
Allan/Coggan say 6 to 8 sweet spot workouts should be done before real threshold work begins. These are probably my favorite workouts. After just a few of these workouts I can feel a difference in my legs. I'll do this workout in the form of 2x20min sets. Probably 1-2 sets a week.

Time in L4 (threshold) - (95-105% of FTP)
Not much to say here. Threshold is threshold. I call it Functional Threshold Power. In my case on the trainer (note this is a different power than what I see on the road) that's about 305-310watts @ 100%FTP. After some sweet spot training I'll start creeping the amount per workout in this week up until I can stay at it for an hour. Once I start I'll aim for 30 min and add 5 min per week until I get to an hour. 1-2 sets of these per week after sweet spot training is complete. I may even attempt this L4 area in the form of 2x20's. For example in a week's time I may do a 1x45min at L4, and a set of 2x20's at L4.

Here's a sample non-race week:
Mon-off
Tuesday-2x20min @95%
Wed- off
Thurs-1-2hr in L3
Fri-Off
Sat-2x20min @95%
Sun-2-3 hr in L3 (keep this one around 75%FTP)

This will probably be what I do for the next few weeks. I'll start adding L4 in and take one set of 2x20's out around the first of October. Again this is just for a small peak in December. I will put more time in these areas this winter before next road/mtn season.

Still no word back on the Cat3 upgrade. Bill Collins said I'd know by the end of the week. I'm still saying a 50/50 shot at this. If I don't get it, I hope to knock out the final few points the first part of next season. Maybe he'll feel sorry for me and overlook 3 missing points since I tried to hit bigger races this year. We'll see.

Hopefully this post was at least interesting. Thanks for reading!