@TimCusick @KathyWatts1, Thank you for your feedback over the past few months.  I'm at GMSR and putting as much as I can to use and will trustfully attain better results than 2 years ago! 

Question, I'm looking to this fall to really prepare for the California road season which starts mid-January, with the "A" races from end of March through April (Chico and Sea Otter Classic). 

If I'm able to really block the time necessary and begin training during the 1st week of October, what training plan would you suggest? 

I'd be coming in with a solid base from the summer and taking a couple of weeks off mid September to beginning of October.  I'd be initially looking to raise my ftp by 7.5 - 15% (w/kg) while adding strength by mid-January.  I think this is a realistic goal, and should get me competitive in the 4's and possibly sniffing at some top 10 finishes.  I'd then use the next 2 - 3 months to peak in March / April.

I welcome your suggestions, thank you,

Scott 

Scott, 
Good Luck at the GMSR!  I think your plan of taking a few weeks off in September and starting Oct 1 is great.  Our most popular Full Season Plans are the best!  1.4 (coggan classic levels for road) and 2.4 (ilevels with WKO4 or 5 for road) These are 26 week plans with the first two weeks as a warm up (assuming a few weeks off) This will land you in mid April with your first peak.   We also have masters 3.4 and 4.4 plans in this catagory but doesnt look like you are 50 yet:).  
Just give us a shout as to which one you want.  

Thank you @KathyWatts1, I’ll take the above under consideration and will follow up by email in the coming weeks. I may ask to load the sub plans individually (that is, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3) to break up the goals. For me loading a 26 week plan is psychologically daunting as I found out earlier this year. 

Hi @KathyWatts1 and @TimCusick
Just looking to start a training plan for the winter.  Racing at the end of March for the start of the season.  Anything you have I would really appreciate!

Thanks for the help

EP

Hi @ErikPfiffner! We'd love to provide you a plan, and we've actually put together a form that will give us a lot of information to recommend the best plan for you. If you have a few minutes to fill it out, this will really help us hone our recommendation; click here to get started: https://forms.gle/i9mBY8mxZDr3pccL8. 

Thank you @debimartin !!!

Submitted the form

The New Year is upon us and John Olsson and I thought it would be a good time to have a club wide discussion about training plans to prepare for racing and having competitive fitness in the Spring. Let's get some discussion going about what seasoned members do in the winter and have members post their questions about how best to prepare for the Spring. 

There are a couple of topics here that anyone can contribute their thoughts: 

What are best practices to develop a strong base?

How do seasoned members structure their winter training?

How do you choose a training plan to build your base?

First a few notes on base training:

Basically you want to build a strong aerobic foundation. Some of you may have already started base training in November or December. Most coaches believe that the longer and deeper the base the higher the peaks during race season. At the start of the base building season you will be working aerobically with very little time at or above your threshold. As the base training continues you will begin to add above threshold efforts at the same time that your threshold will be rising. Eventually, you will hit a build phase that will incorporate anaerobic efforts to this base. 

The above description is oversimplified, but here are a couple of points to remember:

1. It is easy to get excited and push too hard in January and February. Unless you are looking to peak for early March races, get yourself a training plan, figure out your training zones, and maximize your time the zones prescribed by the training plan. Don’t kill it in January and be burnt out in April. 
2. Be consistent with your training. Better to train 3 times a week that to put in huge hours on occasional weekends.
3. Have fun on the bike. Have a gravel/cx/mtn bike? Ride off road! Try Swift. Borrow some rollers and work on balance and core. Discover new roads. Have fun riding with teammates
4. Crosstrain to build aerobic fitness and core strength
5. Discuss your training plans and questions on the forum and group rides. We can all learn from each other and there is a lot of accumulated wisdom among club members 

Tim posted an informative video about building Aerobic base here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhz_XOhJIso&feature=emb_logo

How do you get a subsidized plan through the club? 

Kissena has a contract with Tim Cusick of Veloscious Coaching to provide us with high caliber coaching plans to suit your goals. I list some common road plans as I assume that road racing is the primary discipline of most members. Alternate training plans are available if your primary focus this time of year is gravel, mountain bike or gan fondos. 

The main (and longest plan) is the Full Season Road Plan which aims for about 10 hours per week. If you don’t have that kind of time check out the Time Challenged Cyclist Base and Build Road plans. In either case I’d recommend the Coggan Classic zone plans as these give you the structured workouts that load to your Wahoo/Garmin as well as Zwift and other indoor trainers. 

The full list of plans can be found here 

Tim posted a detailed video of HOW to sign up and use his plans here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=254&v=FDEoVtm7o08 

The cheat sheet for how to download plans is here: 

What do I do?  

To kick off a discussion among members I'll give what I do as an example. I should add a caveat that this is what works for me. Others may have completely different approaches that work for them

I took some time off the bike in December after a full season of Cyclocross racing to let a shoulder injury heal. Now I am starting to build a base so I chose Tim’s Full Season Road Plan. Because I have some decent fitness from cross season and want to have some intensity in my training (the Build period) in April I decided to skip the first 4 week base block. In other words I loaded the plan in TP to start week 5 of that plan Monday. 

Any training plan is just a guide. I can’t follow them religiously. My main workouts are Tuesday and Wednesday as well as weekends. I usually do an easy ride on Friday. I try to get one or two gym/yoga/core workouts on Monday and Thursday in the winter. Because I don't live near PP or CP, I can't join the weekday morning rides in the park. If I did, I would incorporate those rides into the plan (or vise versa).

I recommend testing once every month or two so you know if you are training in the appropriate zones. I did some testing this week and my FTP is about 30 watts lower than it was a few months ago. If I hadn't adjusted my training zones this coming week I would probably have been inadvertently training in too high a zone. Make sure to test yourself

What do you do? It would be especially helpful for newer members to hear from seasoned members. Chime in!

Thanks, Patrick- This is great, I'm looking forward to 2020! 

I completed the survey, and Kathy had recommendations on a plan with modifications based on my goals (peaking end of May). I selected the Full Season Master Road plan, skipping some of the early weeks as I, too had some good fitness coming off a full CX season. I started the plan on the 31st after two weeks off(ish). I'll be doing some testing after next week.

I've already noticed a need to watch those zones, and I actually think indoor training with both Zwift and rollers will help with that. It's so hard not to push on those favorite Strava segments and with other riders. I used to train with heart rate only (before power meters!) so keeping an eye on my HR too, helps to keep things reigned in.

While I'm struggling a bit with the strength/core portions of the workouts, I think I just need to figure out how to make this routine. Maybe I do them in the morning when it's too early and disruptive to be on the trainer, noise-wise. An added benefit is it keeps me waking up early for when early sunrise and warmer weather come around.

On preparing for cyclo-cross racing, a 'series of unfortunate events' allowed for a two-week break right before starting the CX season, which was a great thing because I felt well rested at the start. Questions for later, perhaps, but curious how others are preparing for and maintaining what are essentially two racing seasons each year.

I'd like to add a few points...

First, many winters past I have given a Basic Training Talk, which is for everyone, but geared toward newer riders.  You can read about it here:  https://forum-archive.kissenacycling.com/discussion/1046.html  Comes with a handout.   

I'm happy to do it again.  Just need people to go to the thread and express interest.  Just need a place to talk and probably 1-1.5 hours of time.  Happy to try to answer every question you have.   

Second, if you don't want to think about how to structure your training/riding, an off-the-shelf plan is an easy way to get stronger/faster.  It's a great benefit from the club.  You just need to be honest about where your fitness level is in terms of power and/or heart rate and honest about what kind of time you have to execute the plan.  Ambition is good.  Too aggressive a plan or too high levels can wreck you for weeks.  

Third, gym work/core strength/yoga.  It can really help.  The issues are both how to fit it in and how much you really want to do it.  Among the reasons we ride bikes is we don't really like the gym.  

While I am doing some core exercises once or twice a week depending on the time of year, I'm doing a plank just about every morning--two minutes, then a left side plank for 25s and a right side for 25s.  Three minutes well spent. Typically just after I wake up.   

one way to look at all this nonsense is that it's a way to better understand yourself--both your mind and body.  And the better you get at that, the easier training gets.  Life possibly gets easier, too.  

What I do...

Oy, this has changed over the years.  In college, my focused training would be the gym twice a week in November and December.  Then, in January and February, my focused training would do intervals tuesday and thursday (typically 1-5 minute hills in some form) and then ride 100 miles every Sunday.  There was a spell when I used to ride a fixed gear outside from the day after Thanksgiving to the last week of February (racing starts first week of March).  Very little was structured, but living in North Jersey, there was plenty of power work grinding up hills and speed work, riding 130rpm down.  Because I'm a glutton, I also rode around with a 5lbs weighted bottle in one of the cages.  And I've done many other things since.  One or two winters, I tried riding aerobically as long as possible, doing as many rides as possible at 140-160bpm (this was before power meters), never going under or over, on the theory I was building up my aerobic engine without digging deep.

More recently, I've been racing cyclocross into December, so I don't do focused training in December.  But in January, I typically do my high-intensity intervals running, as I've kept running since 'cross season.  in February, I drop running.  My other rides are dependent on the weather.  If the temp and time conspire so I can ride longer outdoors, I do and go for a sweet spot type ride.  If I can't ride outside, or only have an hour and its cold and I want intensity, I ride rollers with resistance, varying the workouts so I don't dread them.  I've got four or five VisionQuest DVDs that I follow along with, mix that up with some 20m tempo intervals, 5m on 1m off threshold intervals, 30-30 VO2 max intervals, plus a few sprint workouts of my own.  When I need an easy day and am stuck inside, I work on my cadence, keeping the gears low and varying cadence--sometimes I do 1m at 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 and go back down to 80, and up and down and up and down.  Sometimes I do 3m at each of those up and down.  Got a few others as well.  I also always ride long at least one day on the weekend.  Two is better.  I used to always do two long days, but life has changed, and that's probably a good thing. While I have power goals, and am bummed if I don't hit them, I'm also paying attention to weekly time and Training Stress Score (TSS, a metric that is figured by interpreting power meter data).

I'm a big fan of power meters and good interpretative programs.  While you should do some reading to understand how best to use both, just having a consistent PM and is great for executing a coaching program.  Accumulating data while you're using it and then learning some basics can often reveal what works for you.  At a certain point, you can get knowledgeable enough that the program serves largely as validation for what you've been feeling.

I've tried many different training plans over the years.  It's really good to keep an open mind and try new things.  You'll learn from both the things you like and the things you don't like, the things that work and the things that don't.  You kind of need to know all four in order to get better, and the more you know, the easier it is to find or devise plans that work for you.  

This year, I'm considering a Velocious plan for the beginning of the year.  I've been happy with what I've been doing in the winter, last year notwithstanding, but learning a few new tricks, having someone else doing the devising, can be good.  

to me, it seems there are lots of different ways to get to roughly the same place in terms of fitness.  The key is being happy about the way you get there.  To be good at bike racing, you need to be happy about the process for the result to feel worthwhile.  If you're hating the training, racing well won't matter and you probably will give up before you reach your goals.    

Love this conversation!

Going back to last summer I did one of Tim's plans and found I enjoyed it quite a bit. It goes back to my days of playing soccer when I personally need a coach or a captain telling me what we're doing for the day and what we expect to get done. I also started to wake up and workout in the morning before work. This lets me have a solid 2 hour period of time where most people aren't awake (i.e. no emails/texts/calls/etc. to distract me) so I can really drill down on the bike. (This was a big thing that took me time to learn that I needed, but once I put the pieces together it's been one of the best improvements in training I've made. The take away (as has been said above): figure out what you need to be successful) 

I've been doing the Season Long Plan from Tim for about 9-10 weeks now and I've found it's a very good fit for me. I had taken the tail end of September and the early part of October off the bike and I had lost a good bit of fitness, so I started from week 1. It's a lot of endless Z2 and Z3, but it has a good crescendos in the training load, followed by a recovery week, so the feeling of burning out stays far away. It tests you every 5 or so weeks so you have a good running list of data points to view improvement (or if no improvement, look back and see where you can do better). 

I've also found that Zwift is another great tool that works really well for me- it gives me something to look at when I'm riding, every now and then someone will crack a joke and it let's you work on your mental fitness. My body does not like to be on the trainer for more than about an hour and 45 minutes (something of a mental block where a switch flips), so I've been slowly trying to add a few minutes here and there, get off and do a quick stretch and then get back on and keep going- I think this will end up proving invaluable on a long climb where your'e just suffering away.

The last big thing I'm focusing on this winter is my diet. I generally eat pretty healthy (lots of fruits and veggies, lean proteins), but I have a deep love for pastries, pizza and bagels. To not totally deprive myself of these, I've been using these as incentives and treating myself for the small victories- made it through a long hard week, have a scone; set a new PR on Alp du Zwift, grab a slice. Otherwise, I try to focus on keeping my carbs simple and low residue before harder days (i.e. rice) and avoid those that are high residue (i.e. beans and legumes), get good healthy fats (lots of avocados) and getting enough protein (I typically try to do 2-3 meatless days a week and found I was not getting enough protein on the whole).

This is what's been working for me, but the big thing is to do what you need to want to get on the bike and enjoy the time you spend in the saddle. 

LIke @Matt Budofsky says above our Tim Cusick's Full Season plans are designed to ramp up slowly for those that have taken a break from cycling and need a few weeks to get back in the saddle. We have a new series of Base Building Plus training plans that are only 12 weeks and would be perfect for alot of you out there who are already riding regularly but need some focus and they come in different volumes.  These plans work well on the trainer and are all "structured" so can be uploaded to Zwift, Garmin or other.  Being that they are only 12 weeks they ramp up quickly...so might be too much for some.  

All-New Base Building Plus Training Plans

Thanks!

I am very happy that this conversation is happening. 

This coming season I swore myself to have a plan and stick to it. I really enjoyed cyclocross and want to make it the focus of my season, I would also like to race all the way till the end of December and noticed that it could actually be a challenge to stay motivated that late in the season.

For that reason, I don't think I want to do anything too structured until the beginning of March. So here are my thoughts, I'd be very interested to hear your opinion. I chose to follow Tim's Full season plan.

From now to to the beginning of March, I will loosely follow the Base 1 of the plan. Doing Endurance on rollers twice a week, doing strength the same days. I will do a long ride on the weekend and also run twice a week as I don't want to spend too much time on the trainer that time of the year.

Then after March I will follow the plan meticulously from Base 2 all the way to Base 4, maybe I'll have a little difficulties doing a second long ride on the weekend. I was wondering if that ride could become a two workouts day (AM and PM). It would be more compatible with family life. Another difficulty I need to figure out is how to do strength year round? Which day do you do it? Obviously not on an interval day but I also noticed that it leaves my legs very heavy if I do it a day before my intervals.

We are now in June. I may want to do a couple of road races just to get a feel for it. Since I am lacking aerobic and I don't have any race priorities at that time of the year I was thinking about doing the Base 4 again. 

Any thoughts? Does it look like too much base training? I assumed that there was no need to go into a Build phase if I didn't have any race planned until September but I also thought that I could not stay too long without structured training and not lose fitness ( I am over 40). 





 
 

 

Team - been following this thread and think a very healthy discussion. The reality is I see a lot of people turning part time racing into a full time job.  Yes, strictly following a training plan will make you faster then loosely following a training plan (which will probably make you faster then no plan at all) but also, make sure you keep it fun.   

PatrickGrehan said:

How do you get a subsidized plan through the club? 

Kissena has a contract with Tim Cusick of Veloscious Coaching to provide us with high caliber coaching plans to suit your goals. I list some common road plans as I assume that road racing is the primary discipline of most members. Alternate training plans are available if your primary focus this time of year is gravel, mountain bike or gan fondos. 

The main (and longest plan) is the Full Season Road Plan which aims for about 10 hours per week. If you don’t have that kind of time check out the Time Challenged Cyclist Base and Build Road plans. In either case I’d recommend the Coggan Classic zone plans as these give you the structured workouts that load to your Wahoo/Garmin as well as Zwift and other indoor trainers. 

The full list of plans can be found here 

Tim posted a detailed video of HOW to sign up and use his plans here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=254&v=FDEoVtm7o08 

The cheat sheet for how to download plans is here: 

I'm getting a "404 Page not found" error when going to velociouscyclingadventures.com/kissena, is there another way to get the training plan?

@DiegoSanchez
Fill out this link to receive a plan from Velocious

They will then guide you to the page for your workout plan with a code.

I am currently enrolled in a base building plan.  Feel free to reach out if you need any help!

Best,

EP

Hi everyone! Just wanted to chime in with the link to requesting a plan from Velocious; click here for all the info: https://www.velociouscyclingadventures.com/kissena. 

@ErikPfiffner how do you like the new Base Building Plan?  It works great on the trainer and for those that like Zwift, there is lots of variation to keep from getting bored.  

@KathyWatts1 I enjoyed the Power Tempo Workout the other day! Great plan thus far - I like how the weekends are more or less open to outdoor long endurance rides (weather permitting).  Plan integrated seamlessly from Training Peaks to my Wahoo Trainer, really enjoying it.  Thanks again!

Hi @TimCusick , @KathyWatts1 , and @debimartin !

I had a question about the NP Sprint Test. I did it for the first time with a power meter (my Kickr Snap) this past weekend and wasn't quite sure what I was trying to max as per Tim's reply on the last page.

The directions say to spin up to 120+ rpm, but then what? Should I try to max cadence while applying consistent power? Or am I trying to to hold a max power effort for the length of the sprint or trying to keep increasing power? I noticed that I would get up to 400 or so watts as I was increasing my cadence, but then the power would drop off quite a bit, down to 320 or so as I tried to maintain that cadence. 

Sorry to be slow on the answer...the NP Sprint test is about a 5 second best ...it is difficult to do on the trainer...as sprinting is about power but also about form and position on the bike.  

Hi, Kissena members...we welcome you to join Velocious nutritionist Namrita Brooke for our Weight loss Challenge!  New recipes and menu plans, private Facebook group for support, lots of sharing ideas and ways to stay on track...Starts Feb 16th $99.00 for Kisssena members only $89.10  ... @eloy, @PatrickGrehan and others Join us again and head out into race season, lean and mean!
https://www.velociouscyclingadventures.com/nutrition-challenge 

gonna join the challenge! @KathyWatts1 how do I get that special members only price?

planning on joining as well

Just enter the code NUTRITION10 at the time of purchase! 

Kissena Group Training

You all should have gotten an email this morning regarding the upcoming Group Training Plans. The diagram below visualizes the different paths you can choose come March/Apr. Start thinking about which route you want to take. When the weather gets a bit warmer we will be having weekly team training rides.  

Reach out to me or post here if you have any questions about transitioning into one of these training paths. Codes for the training plans will be going out to everyone soon.