It’s a Great Goal

Sa Colobra is a great climb. And it’s a great goal when you’ve done something before, and you think:

‘You know what, I want to go up that faster next time!’

I personally think it’s a great way to set a goal. Especially in this case where the first attempt was just over an hour (1:02.47), which was done in 2017, before I started coaching him. So 6 years on, age 57…what’s the plan coach?

Where to Start

With a goal in mid-March, starting training in late October gave us plenty of time to implement a nicely periodised plan. He’s an athlete I already know, having trained them for a few months last year for a trip to the Alps (see here to see how we got their FTP from 145 – 225).

I don’t usually test someone who’s had a big break in training. Better to get them doing some basic training and working on frequency, consistency and gradually building volume…better to test when these are already in place. However, it was clear from the data that we were starting from a slightly higher FTP than last time (about 170).

Just as we were reaching the point of increasing intensity and pushing on a bit we had a couple of setbacks!

Not all Plain Sailing!

Obviously, it would be great if life was easy and you write a great plan, and the athlete can follow it along with no issues and no interruptions.

However, this is pretty unlikely. Even with a pretty smooth base, build, peak…you always have to adapt things a bit.

On this occasion, we had a particularly tricky winter with a couple of illnesses that really knocked us back. Every time we got back on track, we were hit with a bit more illness. Never anything particularly severe or prolonged, but certainly enough to set us back.

This was really frustrating for us both, and with another illness forcing a bit of a re-start in early January, we were getting close to having a conversation about managing expectations.

How to Manage the Set Backs

You can’t bury your head in the sand and assume you can just keep building when you have setbacks.

‘You have to Start from Where you are!’

In this case, since it was an illness, it means taking a few steps back and building back slowly. If you try and push on, you are likely storing up issues that will bite you closer to your goal…NOT GOOD!

Finally, by mid-January, we were on track, and as it turned out, we would now be able to push right through to the goal in Mid-March…though I didn’t know that at the time and it was a little nervy!

A Typical Week

We’re not talking about pro athletes doing 25 hours a week on the bike. With a job and family, we are really looking at the time-crunched athlete and so making the most of this time is a fundamental part of the process.

So how did we make the most of our time, here’s a typical couple of weeks:

These from mid-late Jan:

As you can see, typically doing about 3 hours on the bike, mainly low intensity, with some time spent around LT1 and some over-gear efforts mixed in.

These from mid-late Feb:

You can see the progression. Now doing 3-4 hours, but with some intensity mixed in. Typically, we did one shorter, sharper interval session, with intervals around 300 Watts for 2 mins. Then one session with lower power, but prolonged 8-12 minute intervals, progressed over time.

Difficult to get longer than 90 minutes on the bike due to his dislike of cold/wet weather…which is fair 🙂 But we did a long, easy turbo of 90 minutes most Sundays.

Intensity Distribution

I don’t plan a specific intensity distribution…but I do like my athletes getting plenty of Z1 in. Here’s a typical week:

Finally

I do regular sub-max benchmark tests along the way to see how we are doing. Here are the results from this period of training:

OK, I confess one was a Max Test…but I wanted to see where we were 🙂

FTP – 246

Sa Colobra was planned for day 2 of the trip, with day 1 being an easy trundle to the Light House at Formentor…great planning.

However!

Due all the snow and storms, the road to Sa Colobra was closed when we got there:

Re-planning new route…no Sa Colobra today!