[spgoldman]

been a soild 4,5 weeks. Ran a good 3 weeks of training, lots of strong 2 1/2 to 3 hour rides. lots of good recovery. lots of spinups, agility stuff. Then been on the soccer field coaching my sons teams. he's on 2 squads, so we have about 6 to 7 sessions of about 90 minutes to 2 hours each week. Showing them drills, agility cones, playing both sides during scrimmages. not full out, but its jogging and running and moving and grooving for an extra 8 to 10 hours each week. i love it. definately getting me fit, and its just soo much fun teaching the 10year olds how to get better.
thats my background. played and captained my hockey and soccer teams in highschool and then college.
i jsut love it to death. some of these kids have such bad habits in terms of prep, training, nutritiion.
its a traveling advanced squad so we can teach them skills and also stuff that will serve them for years to come in all their sports.

been hitting the 5am rides. in a good groove. its a good bit colder at that time than any other time. regularly down near 33, 32 degrees. today we saw ice. wild.
we're riding a lot of tempo, 250 to 280, 290 watts. trying to take out the highs, take otu the lows. occassionally pushing up above that. nothing all out.

my personal take is that my endurance is as good as ever. i think its not necessarily the good training but the aggregate of training in those ranges over the past few years. it builds that base deeper and thicker each year, and you lose less and any effort builds it out more...i think.
thats why you read ned overend talk about how he doesnt do THAT much over winter because he has a huge base after years and years of training. yet, he also does mtbiking, xc skiing and lives int he woods. and he's a freak.

so with the nice weather last week, took it to 4 weeks straight. a bit tired but it was warm and dry so no harm. i like sticking to the 3 on weeks, 1 recovery week. pure periodized structure. so rested a few days that cooincided with last weekends rain. a few openers this week and then TEST

hate that first test. you never know. did i lose it? am i fat? do i suck more than usual?
overall, went well. Coach Pete estimates FTP in that 330 range, about even with same time last year (last year was a huge winter with great great fitness) so with more recovery im about the same if not a bit higher up and very well rested. basically same fitness with a much much lesser CTL.

so, we're on track. now we get going again, 3 hard weeks of base and then we start build. thats when it starts to sting.

below i cut/pasted pete's analysis of the data from yesterdays test. all i did was a ramp test and then a aerobic tt effort (not a full tt but 10 hrm beats below tt heart rate)....


CTL - 11-2008 = 82.5
CTL - 11-2009 = 68.5

ATL - 11-2008 = 76.6
ATL - 11-2009 = 71.2

TSB - 11-2008 =+17.5
TSB - 11-2009 = -2.6

Best 20 min - 11-2008 = 317 w @158bpm with a +3.69% drift
Best 20 min - 11-2009 = 313 w @160bpm with only a 0.62% drift

While technically last years numbers was a tiny bit higher you did it with far less CTL. I think the lower load is helping your HR. Very little DRIFT for the 20 minutes so while the watts were 4 watts less your ability to HOLD it was much better. That drift translates into a one beat drift for similar power over one hour where last year your HR would have been over 5 beats at the same power.

Very solid at 330 watt FTP right now. As you can see from the Chart 250-275 watts is a really nice Sweet Spot. 300-310 watts if the upper end Intense Sweet Spot. For good fat burning 230 watts is great.

We are still in Base 1 for another 3 week cycle. Same thing but CTL will begin to rise slightly by the end.

Peter Cummings
Plan2Peak.com
USA Cycling Licensed Coach
USA Cycling Skills Certified
ACSMCertified
(716) 982-8061
Skype - Plan2Peak