Back in the Saddle

Obviously an overused idiom but I'm not feeling particularly clever at the moment...

The end of last season was not enjoyable for some reason.  Although I was able to accomplish my goals for the season (MABRA criterium champion, upgraded to 3) and more, I still felt somewhat unhappy about the bike.  Not sure whether it was burnout or simply boredom, but when work dialed it up to 11 it shattered the last part of my season and winter training.

Fast forward a couple of months and things are looking better.  After training camp and one race in the legs I'm actually feeling like this season might be salvageable.  Although originally my goals for this year would be to make category 2, over winter they just turned into "build for 2012".  However, my last few weeks of training are making me think that although cat2 might be a stretch this season, hopefully something better than just "riding around" is achievable.

First some numbers:

Feb 25rd 2011
CTL: 32.1
TSB: 19.9
FTP: 240
Weight/BF: 160.5 lbs, 22%

March 27th
CTL: 77.7
TSB: -43.7
FTP: 260
Weight/BF: 153.0 lbs, 16.5%

Although I haven't been putting in a ton of hours, I've been much more structured this season with the intervals and it seems to be working.  Last season I did a lot of my training while commuting, and although I tried to work in intervals, I think I ended up with lots of junk miles, long hours on the bike, and lousy recovery and adaptation.  This season I'm lowering the hours on the bike but making most workouts structured.  My bread and butter right now is 6x5'x'1 @ 108% and 5x5'x5' @ 115% intervals.  I'm really hoping the 6x5'x1' pay off, I did it a few times last season and always felt stronger on race weekends following that regiment.  The explanation for these intervals is here:

"The goal is complete slow twitch fiber recruitment. I assume that results in the greatest gains. Simply put, the effort sustainable for 20 minutes straight (let alone 2x20) is below the level at which maximal slow fiber recruitment is achieved, while still adding extreme levels of fatigue. A more effective method is to use shorter intervals at slightly higher intensity, with shorter recovery between intervals. 105-110% FTP seems to be about right based on what I saw. Intervals should be in the 5 minute range. We did 8 of them, with 1 minute recovery between each. The number of intervals is what should increase, not the length of interval. The first two or three feel ok (as the first 10 minutes in a 2x20 would), the last ones get hard. You will work you over every bit as much as a 2x20 or 3x20 session, but apparently with bigger gains. 

Now the numbers: I saw two studies, the first putting cyclists through 14 weeks of 2x20's. Total gains: 2.2% at threshold. The second had cyclists do only 7 weeks of the shorter intervals and saw a 7.9% increase in power at threshold. That's pretty huge. The fact that it was this particular guy showing me the studies and advocating the approach pretty much sealed the deal for me. He said there are others but he only had the two on hand."

The intervals were later modified to 6x5'x1' and I know why, usually that 6th interval drains the tank.  If I can do more I will, but 6 seems to be a good number.  The physiological reason for the success of these intervals as FTP trainers is based on the 1 minute recovery, not enough to recover your anaerobic capacity but enough to keep draining your aerobic and pulling your threshold up.  I plan on using these along with SST @ 92% and 2x20s at FTP to keep bumping the threshold up.  My VO2 workouts (5x5'x5' @ 115%) are working great in the sense that I am able to nail them and still feel like I could do more, recovery is quite good.

Oh, and as a last thing, I am doing Crossfit 2-3 times a week and I think that is helping a lot with the VO2 stuff.  I think I might write down some stuff about how that is going as well.