Weight program: Introduction Week 2 of 4
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 20min warmup, 40min @ 90% FTP, 10min cooldown
Wednesday: Weights
Thursday: 1:00h Indoor Z2 ride
Friday: Off
Saturday: 1:15h Indoor Z2 ride
Sunday: 1:30h Tacx Z2 ride
Total Bikescore/TSS: 210
Total Training Time: 4:30h bike+1:15h Weights
Weekly Summary
After the initial soreness from starting my weight training was gone, it was business as usual. My work hours had to be shifted to 11am-7:30pm for some job related training, so my usual rhythm was thrown off center for a bit. It was a deceiving impression that I had enough time before work to eat breakfast/shower/etc, so more often than not I was running to catch the metro and be at work on time…oh well it keeps things interesting.=)
Other than that…a pretty uneventful last week, I felt remarkably strong and recovered, nothing to complain about. In addition the winter offensive of germs and flu viruses has started all around me, so I gotta be extra careful not to get knocked out for a week or so!
Notes to self:
- Don’t touch my eyes
- Don’t touch my mouth and nose
- Wash my hands often
Soreness be Gone
Three days and a Monday and I was back to doing my long FTP interval. I didn’t know what to expect since my legs were a bit stiff. Even though 40min is a long time to go and starting conservative is a must, after 10min my legs just wanted to go harder so I let them. Same thing happened on Thursday!
A Track Bike
One of my goals for 2014 is to try my hands at track cycling and see where I stand at the 4000m individual pursuit during the 2014 National Championships. The velodrome here in Sofia is outdoors, so I won’t be able to use it until mid-March…optimistically. Therefore while it is winter and I am not training crazy hours, I have more time on my hands and I have been checking things, bikes, etc. out.
As expected, if I want to do it right, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to track cycling, especially the individual pursuit. I am going to launch a section of this website called The Track Corner, where I will post useful information regarding training, equipment, etc.
Speaking of which… my HED Stinger disc wheel might not be track convertible like I had hoped, so I will have to sell it and get something that is both road and track compatible (probably a Corima disc). In addition my road SRM most likely won’t be the most optimal crankset for the track. I cannot afford NOT to have power data, so I am looking at switching to the Stages Power Meter. It is a non-drive crankarm, so I can use a Dura-Ace 7800/7900 cranks with a big chainring on the inner position on the track and my currently ‘spare’ Dura Ace 7900 crankset on the road. A positive ‘benefit’ is that I would be able to upgrade to the Dura Ace 9000 crankset I have been lusting daily for the last 3-4months. That way I can use 52/36 rings for training, 55/44 for TT, 53/39 for racing all on the same crankset!
All those ‘problems’are just the tip of the iceberg, better realize them now and not a week before the championships=)
Therefore stay tuned for The Track Corner!
The Dream is Alive!
Picture: Source
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2 replies on “Weekly Summary December 9 – December 15, 2013: Soreness be Gone and The Track Corner”
Hello Nikola,
I was wondering if you could advise some specific training for the 1km/3km – pursuit on the track. I’m thinking for 1km doing some intervals on the tacx which are 2 minutes maybe Z4 and for the 3km pursuit – 5 minutes FTP . What do you do for these events? I’m still doing in the weekends endurance in Z1/Z2 but I have a few meetings where I want to be good.
Thank you!,
greetings Koen
Hi Koen,
You seem to have the right idea. In a nutshell you should do workouts that mimic the ‘stress’ of the events you will be doing – specific training. 1.5-2min all out efforts for the 1K and 5min at VO2 max for the 3K; I say VO2 max for the longer event since it is essentially still an all out effort so you want to be able to produce the most power there, without burning up to much at the start. Therefore pacing is important as well. There is an article titled “Determination of Optimal Pacing Strategy in Track Cycling with an Energy Flow Model” that was available for download if you Google it where the authors test different pacing models for the 1k and 4k track events. Surprisingly to me they found out (and confirmed it with recent actual performances) that for the 1K you should start as hard as you can and just hold it till the end; for the 4K, hold the all out effort for 10-12seconds at the start and than settle at a sustainable high pace. In both cases you will fade towards the end, however, you will produce the fastest average speed and ultimately fast time. Which brings me to my next point…
Racing on the track is a slightly different animal so you need to do some race specific efforts on the velodrome to experiment with gearing, standing starts, holding the black line in the banking (harder than it looks…). You don’t necessarily have to do the full 1K (3K), just 1/2 the distance will be sufficient but you should practice ‘track specific’ skills. For example 500m with standing start or 1.5-2K with a standing start.
As far as being in top form for certain events it is in a way a sacrifice. You have to plan accordingly – have an easy week and a day off 2 days before your important event with some short race specific efforts the day before it. For the other meets that are of lower priority, you will simply ‘train through’ them (you will be slightly tired). Why is it a sacrifice? When you train less you lose condition/fitness, however, your body recovers and you gain freshness. Unfortunately fitness is not a simple on/off switch, so you have to plan and periodize.=)
Let me know if you have further questions apologies for the delayed response.
Good luck on the track this winter; I am slightly jealous you have an indoor velodrome nearby!