Saturday, February 10, 2024, 1:27:20AM EST
It’s been almost a month since my 2024 recommitment to getting back into “high-performance” shape (a favorite term from Joel Friel). As usual, I have obsessively researched what works best and (re)read The Cyclist and Triathlete Training Bibles as well as Racing Weight from Matt Fitzgerald. Here’s a summary of the biggest discoveries and changes to my plan:
Having been focused on endurance and cycling since I was 10, I can honestly say these are the biggest discoveries I’ve made since then. Being able to really push myself, either for longer rides, or shorter rides with higher intensity and have two full days to recover between each “break through” workout has accelerated my fitness in ways I have not seen before. The secret is pushing the body past its limits on BT days and letting it adapt and grow during the recovery days following. I’m also free to do whatever BT workout I want. If I feel like I need to be able to go longer I will do more long-distance BT stuff, but if I want to race in Zwift I can do threshold stuff. I’m never out of sync with my fitness. I set the TSS on the BT day progressively greater and dial it in based on how well I recovered on the two R days between each. Here’s a breakdown of a full 21-day cycle:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TBT | R | R | BT | R | R | BT | R | R | BT | R | R | BT | R | R | BT | R | R | R | R | R |
The micro-cycles are all BT-R-R, very easy to remember. On the first BT I do an FTP test before the break-through session. (I’m up to 241 FTP from 230 when I tested last month.) After the last micro-cycle there are three additional rest and recovery days before the next cycle begins.
The beauty of this system is how easy, organic, and adaptable it is. I cannot overstate how much this relieves the mental stress associated with training plans I have done in the past. The days don’t matter, so if I get sick, or have over-trained, I just pick up where I left off without it blowing my entire written weekly plan away. Gone are all the calendars and obsessive scheduling something on a particular day. If a group ride doesn’t fit into the schedule I take an extra or one less recovery day so that it fits in and adapt the micro-cycles to fit it by adding two recovery days after it.
TSS (Training Stress Score) is the special-sauce of this system. It is a power-based way to know how much stress I am taking on during BT sessions so that I can reliably know I will recover before the next one. Strava, Zwift, Garmin Connect, and TrainingPeaks (the inventors) all provide this number to every single training session. TSS has really revolutionized training in general by getting rid of time or mileage as a measure of training. Want to do some bikepacking on gravel? No problem. Want to go really fast on 25c tires and a carbon-frame? Fine. What matters is the stress of the activity, not how far or long or what gear or clothing I’m wearing.
Currently, I’m testing a progressive increase in TSS on the BT days throughout each cycle (123456) but I want to test the reverse as well (654321) as descending micro-cycles (635241). The 21-day nature of the cycle makes it ideal. I have a hunch that it doesn’t really matter. In fact, if for some reason I wanted to combine two BT sessions into a single very long and hard day, all I have to do is subtract from the next BT scheduled session.
Everyone will have their own TSS numbers, but one very specific number for me is 50 for any and all recovery days, never more. Keeping this strictly 50 has really worked for me. It’s probably related to how much sleep I get (about 10-12 hours a day) and my age (56). If I don’t hold off on recovery days I just don’t progress and my body fills with Cortisol and drops T levels. I can feel it when it happens. 50 TSS is two-hours of riding at 50% FTP so I still maintain fitness and get to do something on the days “off.” In fact, in this system I don’t have to take an entire day off doing nothing at all, if I don’t want to. It is just absolutely critical that I don’t throw in a sprint just ‘cuz on a recovery ride, ever.
Here are my numbers mostly for indoor training purposes:
I really don’t track the other zones as much. I just make sure to include some racing and club riding that is going to push me in an interval way. It’s more fun. If I know the continuous amount of output is some fraction of an hour I can judge that best by watching my watts per kilogram while riding. It helps to back up the feel I have for just how hard I can push for that hour. Having the Zone 2 number is also critical because pulling back to that I could bike all day if I had to and am taking in enough carb. Speaking of carbs…
I make my own sports drink with sugar (fructose and glucose so two paths to entering systems) or Karo corn syrup (not high-fructose) and a electrolyte powder with just 500ml filtered water (one regular-sized water bottle). Taking in carbs with water works the best to getting that glucose to where it is needed the fastest. Any concentration of carbs over 80g/500ml slows down absorption way too much for me. This works out to two regular-sized water bottles per 2-hour ride (pretty much every ride I ever to is at least 2-hours long these days). On longer rides, I take my homemade sports-drink powder in the proportions needed for a single water bottle.
The most important discovery I have made by drinking that many carbs during a ride is that I am not monstrously hungry when I finish. I might not lose weight at the pace I did before, but it is more sustainable long term. Plus, my workouts are so much higher quality when I have enough carb. I do have to be careful not to take in any sweet carb drink before I’m sweating and my body has switched over to workout mode or it really spikes my insulin and my body immediately bloats out.
Wednesday, January 17, 2024, 8:03:10PM EST
Another update. I ended up gaining weight and losing fitness in December while I chased the futile dream of becoming a digital nomad by bike, buying tons of gear, testing it, and getting into bikepacking. I’ve since come to my senses and am back to a regular weekly routine broken up by a “rest” week every month that includes a three-day, medium-budget bikepacking adventure somewhere interesting as a reward for all my hard work.
In addition to the following I’ll be getting up at 6:30 to do a 20 minute super easy wake-up ride plus 20 minutes of basic yoga every morning as soon as I step out of bed to take advantage of morning fasted state. This has always worked really well. Before I did it with barefoot running and yoga, but the bike is just ridiculously easy to do as soon as I wake.
| : Day : | : Description : |
| Mon | Recovery - 2 hours |
| Tue | Zone 2 - 2 hours |
| Wed | Zwift race - 1-2 hours |
| Thu | Recovery - 2 hours |
| Fri | Zone 2 ending with sprint/power intervals - 2 hours |
| Sat | Recovery (outdoor bike maintenance and setup) |
| Sun | Century - 6-9 hours |
I’ll do as many of the rides as I can outside. The only time I will ever be riding in the rain is for the outdoor century once a week to get used to riding in the elements. Plus, I will just have the waterproof action camera for that stuff. I plan to live stream at least every other day.
Saturday, November 11, 2023, 4:55:17AM EST
2023 has been the year of physical recovery. I let my obsession with code in 2022 destroy my health and it has been a very rough road back. I’ve lost 21 kilos since February but have another 10 to go before 2024—especially since I’ve registered for Assault on Mt. Mitchell on May 20, 2024.
Since the day light at the end of the day is gone, I’ve added daily yoga back to the mornings. Every day from 4-5am with pushups and bicycle situps added to the half-primary routine with a shorter Savasana at the end. I’ll slowly build up to doing jump throughs, but the goal is flexibility, organ health through compression and inversion, and some core and upper body strength (which the bike does not do).
Riding bike daily from 4-5:30 outdoors doing an adaptation of my normal DCH 52k Loop.
The long, early bike rides on Sunday should condition me for doing exactly the same thing on May 20th. I have to adapt to the cold (and potentially rain) and prepare the right things to wear at that time of day. I’m thankful to be in North Carolina where the weather actual allows riding all year. Sunday rides are all Zone 2 with an occasional hill push but the goal is easy miles.
This was in 2021 or so
This is my current schedule. I’ve adjusted it over the last few weeks as my strength and stamina has improved. I’m hoping to get around 27m in the Turkey Trot 5K coming up. I’m 54 an still want to put on muscle from my running, not shred it off. But I still have body fat to lose.
Temp runs cover lower body (for me) so strength training is all upper body.
| : Day : | : Description : |
| Mon | Run, Slow, Base Endurance, 1m/30s (~60m) |
| Tue | Strength, Upper Body 3m between sets (~60m) |
| Wed | Walk, Recovery (~60m) |
| Thu | Run, Fast, 5K Tempo Glides 2m/1m (~30m), Race Day |
| Fri | Strength, Upper Body 3m between sets (~60m) |
| Sat | Run, Slow, Base Endurance, 1m/30s (~60m) |
| Sun | Walk, Recovery, Someplace Fun (~60m) |
After the upcoming 5K I should have the base fitness to add 20-90 minutes of morning Ashtanga Yoga back to the list. I’ll have to adapt it to running recovery and remember to not overly stress hamstrings especially.
After that I just need to sustain it until I’m 100 and not waver. When I was at my peak I was doing Ashtanga daily, running every other day, and at least 90 minutes of stand-up paddle-boarding twice a week. Not shooting for that again, but I do hope to add adventure cycling back in as well to supplement the running with leg strength training. The most important muscles to build up before heading into 60+ years are the gluts and legs. They provide stability and lower back support. After a certain age you pretty much no longer have the ability to build new muscle, so better pack it on right before you get there. Just ask Mick Jagger.