Order of intensity's in training

[dm69]

Heading into a 16 week plan to hopefully get me up to good fitness so I can compete well in a 100km plus classic that ends in a HC climb (Baw Baw Classic). After this plan my training for the next month or so won't be very structured and it will look like race, recover, prepare for next weekends race repeat.

Here is my order of intensities for my preparation. BTW understand that I have a had month off the bike where I have mainly just tried to X-train when I feel like it and live an active lifestyle (mentally I needed the break big time).

All professional coaches on this forum obviously don't need to reply, if I wanted to hear your thoughts on this I am willing to pay for it not scab on a forum .

This will be the plan I give to my personal coach after he reads my plan he will look at it and dabble with it to suit him. Or he may infact totally overhaul every idea I have which is cool aswell but we tend to be very like minded on most things.

Prep phase- Get my **** into some condition before I hit Long Hard training weeks!

Endurance Phase- I guess you could call it "base" but its a more modern type of "base" training I think ric calls his base a similar type of base as what I am doing. It will mostly be Level 2 & 3 but I will also dabble with tempo and FT work for maybe 1 session a week each.

Vo2 max phase- This is the controversial area of my plan. I will focus on vo2 BEFORE I take on FT. After reading Coggan and Allen's book I decided to take on vo2 BEFORE FT because vo2 sets the limit for Aerobic Capacity. So If I can sinificantly raise the vo2 bar I will have more ground to improve on when I hit FT. My coach also strongly believes in this theory.

Functional Threshold Phase- Functional Threshold and low weight in this circumstance WILL be the deciding factor up Baw Baw so this will be a critical phase thats why I only want to start full on FT training AFTER I have a lot of miles in my legs and a high aerobic capacity to work up to.

Mixed Phase- Basically I will start a lot of high speed workouts eg. L6 & L7 stuff aswell as trying to retain gain fitness in L4&5. Longer rides maybe once a week but thats it, I think ur better off getting L2 &3 out of the way early so u can focus on the REAL intensity's later on and not have to keep revisiting the base phase! THAT is the real advantage of doing a BASE phase IMO.

taper phase- Cut out ALL unecessary km's and try to build on the top end anaerobic speed aswell as maintaining L4 & 5.

Throughout the whole plan I will do a atleast 1 neuromuscular power session a week and build it up throughout the different phases. Also a higher than average amount of my km's will be in the hills as there is also two Hilly stage races in close proximity to baw baw. HILLS GALORE!

PS: What phase is best for losing weight IYO?

Basically I am not asking you to critique my whole training plan but give me your opinions on what order the levels of training should go in! After reading on these forums I now understand I am a little "old school" compared to others but for this year I will try and take the modern approach without a PM unfortunately .

Yes ric that means I WONT touch a dumbell for atleast another 10 months (I actually really hate weight training, I think its boring and it makes me really sore )

 

[whoawhoa]

Heading into a 16 week plan to hopefully get me up to good fitness so I can compete well in a 100km plus classic that ends in a HC climb (Baw Baw Classic). After this plan my training for the next month or so won't be very structured and it will look like race, recover, prepare for next weekends race repeat.

Here is my order of intensities for my preparation. BTW understand that I have a had month off the bike where I have mainly just tried to X-train when I feel like it and live an active lifestyle (mentally I needed the break big time).

All professional coaches on this forum obviously don't need to reply, if I wanted to hear your thoughts on this I am willing to pay for it not scab on a forum .

This will be the plan I give to my personal coach after he reads my plan he will look at it and dabble with it to suit him. Or he may infact totally overhaul every idea I have which is cool aswell but we tend to be very like minded on most things.

Prep phase- Get my **** into some condition before I hit Long Hard training weeks!

Endurance Phase- I guess you could call it "base" but its a more modern type of "base" training I think ric calls his base a similar type of base as what I am doing. It will mostly be Level 2 & 3 but I will also dabble with tempo and FT work for maybe 1 session a week each.

Vo2 max phase- This is the controversial area of my plan. I will focus on vo2 BEFORE I take on FT. After reading Coggan and Allen's book I decided to take on vo2 BEFORE FT because vo2 sets the limit for Aerobic Capacity. So If I can sinificantly raise the vo2 bar I will have more ground to improve on when I hit FT. My coach also strongly believes in this theory.

Functional Threshold Phase- Functional Threshold and low weight in this circumstance WILL be the deciding factor up Baw Baw so this will be a critical phase thats why I only want to start full on FT training AFTER I have a lot of miles in my legs and a high aerobic capacity to work up to.

Mixed Phase- Basically I will start a lot of high speed workouts eg. L6 & L7 stuff aswell as trying to retain gain fitness in L4&5. Longer rides maybe once a week but thats it, I think ur better off getting L2 &3 out of the way early so u can focus on the REAL intensity's later on and not have to keep revisiting the base phase! THAT is the real advantage of doing a BASE phase IMO.

taper phase- Cut out ALL unecessary km's and try to build on the top end anaerobic speed aswell as maintaining L4 & 5.

Throughout the whole plan I will do a atleast 1 neuromuscular power session a week and build it up throughout the different phases. Also a higher than average amount of my km's will be in the hills as there is also two Hilly stage races in close proximity to baw baw. HILLS GALORE!

PS: What phase is best for losing weight IYO?

Basically I am not asking you to critique my whole training plan but give me your opinions on what order the levels of training should go in! After reading on these forums I now understand I am a little "old school" compared to others but for this year I will try and take the modern approach without a PM unfortunately .

Yes ric that means I WONT touch a dumbell for atleast another 10 months (I actually really hate weight training, I think its boring and it makes me really sore )

It makes sense to me. Doing the v02max phase first makes sense because
1) You'll have had the l2/3 phase to increase threshold already.
2) Your goal race centers around threshold.


I would be careful with the "mixed phase." You don't want to experience a backside in FT if you're training for a hillclimb. Maybe just do one day/week at higher levels and the rest should be l3/l4.

 

[Jono L]

Heading into a 16 week plan to hopefully get me up to good fitness so I can compete well in a 100km plus classic that ends in a HC climb (Baw Baw Classic). After this plan my training for the next month or so won't be very structured and it will look like race, recover, prepare for next weekends race repeat.

Here is my order of intensities for my preparation. BTW understand that I have a had month off the bike where I have mainly just tried to X-train when I feel like it and live an active lifestyle (mentally I needed the break big time).

All professional coaches on this forum obviously don't need to reply, if I wanted to hear your thoughts on this I am willing to pay for it not scab on a forum .

This will be the plan I give to my personal coach after he reads my plan he will look at it and dabble with it to suit him. Or he may infact totally overhaul every idea I have which is cool aswell but we tend to be very like minded on most things.

Prep phase- Get my **** into some condition before I hit Long Hard training weeks!

Endurance Phase- I guess you could call it "base" but its a more modern type of "base" training I think ric calls his base a similar type of base as what I am doing. It will mostly be Level 2 & 3 but I will also dabble with tempo and FT work for maybe 1 session a week each.

Vo2 max phase- This is the controversial area of my plan. I will focus on vo2 BEFORE I take on FT. After reading Coggan and Allen's book I decided to take on vo2 BEFORE FT because vo2 sets the limit for Aerobic Capacity. So If I can sinificantly raise the vo2 bar I will have more ground to improve on when I hit FT. My coach also strongly believes in this theory.

Functional Threshold Phase- Functional Threshold and low weight in this circumstance WILL be the deciding factor up Baw Baw so this will be a critical phase thats why I only want to start full on FT training AFTER I have a lot of miles in my legs and a high aerobic capacity to work up to.

Mixed Phase- Basically I will start a lot of high speed workouts eg. L6 & L7 stuff aswell as trying to retain gain fitness in L4&5. Longer rides maybe once a week but thats it, I think ur better off getting L2 &3 out of the way early so u can focus on the REAL intensity's later on and not have to keep revisiting the base phase! THAT is the real advantage of doing a BASE phase IMO.

taper phase- Cut out ALL unecessary km's and try to build on the top end anaerobic speed aswell as maintaining L4 & 5.

Throughout the whole plan I will do a atleast 1 neuromuscular power session a week and build it up throughout the different phases. Also a higher than average amount of my km's will be in the hills as there is also two Hilly stage races in close proximity to baw baw. HILLS GALORE!

PS: What phase is best for losing weight IYO?

Basically I am not asking you to critique my whole training plan but give me your opinions on what order the levels of training should go in! After reading on these forums I now understand I am a little "old school" compared to others but for this year I will try and take the modern approach without a PM unfortunately .

Yes ric that means I WONT touch a dumbell for atleast another 10 months (I actually really hate weight training, I think its boring and it makes me really sore )

Hey what grade are you racing at Baw Baw?

 

[SolarEnergy]

All professional coaches on this forum obviously don't need to reply, if I wanted to hear your thoughts on this I am willing to pay for it not scab on a forum

A season should go from general to specific. By specific I mean main fitness components involve in racing.

You seem to integrate this important principle very well in your plan so I'd say you're on the right track.

If there's one area where I might disagree with you (ever so slightly) is the emphasis you're planning to make on L6-7 in the last phase prior the taper. I'm not saying your wrong and I'm right. Just that I'd do things little differently.

Unless L6-7 is a key component in your racing season, or unless it's a weakness on which you intend to work, I'd be careful in allowing sufficient ressources to L4-5 during this phase, while padding with L6-7 ish stuff (instead of focussing on L6-7 while maintaining 4-5).

After all, it's only a 16week long plan. Allocating 2 months of L4-5 development prior the taper may be better than allocating 1 month of L4-5 followed by 1 month of maintenance.

Anyway, my 2 free pennies.

 

[dm69]

A season should go from general to specific. By specific I mean main fitness components involve in racing.

You seem to integrate this important principle very well in your plan so I'd say you're on the right track.

If there's one area where I might disagree with you (ever so slightly) is the emphasis you're planning to make on L6-7 in the last phase prior the taper. I'm not saying your wrong and I'm right. Just that I'd do things little differently.

Unless L6-7 is a key component in your racing season, or unless it's a weakness on which you intend to work, I'd be careful in allowing sufficient ressources to L4-5 during this phase, while padding with L6-7 ish stuff (instead of focussing on L6-7 while maintaining 4-5).

After all, it's only a 16week long plan. Allocating 2 months of L4-5 development prior the taper may be better than allocating 1 month of L4-5 followed by 1 month of maintenance.

Anyway, my 2 free pennies.

Thankyou very much 4 your thoughts, Good point about the L6/7 work at the end of the plan. I guess at the end of your training phase you want to be doing very doing specific workouts for your event. Maybe I am just used to preparing for flat one dayers where the race can be run and won in the last 50metres. Maybe I will just dedicate one session a week to L6/7 from the start of the plan to the finish. After these three big meets maybe THEN I can start doing more focused L6/7.

 

[dm69]

Hey what grade are you racing at Baw Baw?

No Idea. Hopefully I get handicapped nicely . I should wear a fat suit for the handicappers so they dont see my scrawny build.

 

[SolarEnergy]

After these three big meets maybe THEN I can start doing more focused L6/7.

Very good plan. I wish you the best for 2007.

 

[Jono L]

No Idea. Hopefully I get handicapped nicely . I should wear a fat suit for the handicappers so they dont see my scrawny build.

Yeh they'll be some seriously skinny buggers at Baw Baw! I'm one of em Did you race Mt William or Tour of Bright? They were both very tough, specially Mt William

 

[dm69]

Yeh they'll be some seriously skinny buggers at Baw Baw! I'm one of em Did you race Mt William or Tour of Bright? They were both very tough, specially Mt William

Nope! I have no idea what I am in for. I climb well but I think baw baw will be a different kettle of fish. Next time I am near baw baw I will have to do a reconaissonce ride.