Training Advice to change plans

@ManofSteele Thank you for your advice, i hope that all my questions don’t frustrate you. I appreciate your advise . Kind Regards

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Not at all! I’m here to support our users! :slight_smile:

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@ManofSteele thank you for being so helpful. currently i am trying to put a-lot of xert indoor training durring the week. It is very hard to do some off the bike exercises. i hardly do any. I should however start. with weekly exercises I also do some 4 hr MTB zone 3 rides on the weekend with no power meter. this feels very hard, especially to keep up with my mates on group rides. which i now start to doubt my bike setup. i am using a 36T on the front and climbing has become really hard. with my goal in mind very there might be some tough climbs. any advice on this

Hi Kevin,

I’m no expert, but have some suggestions.

If you could previously keep up with your mates but finding it hard with the extra training, consider doing a couple of “easy” training days before the MTB ride. Maybe active recovery or skip it altogether. Hopefully then you’ll be raring to go when it comes to riding with your mates and able to ride harder and get more out of it.

It’s hard to say what chainring is right for your terrain without knowing the gradient, wheel size, torque and what cadence you find comfortable. But I guess a rule of thumb would be that if you’re regularly forced to a very low cadence which is either hurting your knees or reducing your power output, then you probably need lower gearing.

@jamesgbradbury because of my goal my athlete type is set as a GC specialist, even on taper the recommendation is very high. Now it could be because of the extra training that have these effects. i usually train 4 days a week and then 1 day off and then a long ride which i usually try to keep at zone 3(hr)

The event has an elevation gain of about 4000m over 372km…

i have a 29er

I have been using the 36 in the past. now not for that this distance. as i said it just got me thinking

And your cassette? I have a 36 (front) and 32 (back) as smallest gear, which is enough to climb a wall, they say.

It really isn’t, but anyway :joy:

If I read your story, I’m thinking you might be on the brink of over-training (or under-resting)…

And 4,000 meters is not the problem on a 372 km ride, but what matters is how that is spread over the course.

Does the Xert Player’s Cadence Optimizer currently indicate 70-80 rpm as your most efficient range based on wattage?
Or do you mean your normal cadence floats between 70 and 80 on rolling terrain?
What does “It is very hard to do some of the bike exercises. I hardly do any.” refer to?
Provide an example of a failed workout and indicate your indoor training gear.
As you are probably aware no power meter on long hard rides puts you at a disadvantage with XATA and your fitness signature even if HRDM is enabled.

Are you recording these sessions in the system anywhere? Either via a manual entry or using HR derived analysis?

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i have a 51 at the 11-51 cassette at the back, yes the 4000 meters are spread over the course as 100 m in the first half with the rest spread over the second half and 3 rd half of the course with some really tough climbs on the 3rd half of the course.

i might be overtraining durring the week and thats why the legs feel tired over the weekend. i normally rest for two days in the week currently on a Sunday and then Friday.

i am trying to ramp up the training inorder to increase the training load in order to push harder

as i going into the build phase i changing also my improvement rate from week to week depending on the amount of time i spend per week.

i have up my protein intake aswell in order for my muscles to adapt, maybe i should try and up it abit more

All the rides are being recorded, on the weekends i only use a heart rate monitor but hardly watch it durring the ride but try and keep it under control. my week would look like
monday 3 x 20 at 90% extended
Tuesday a HIT training ride
Wednesday a 4 x8
Thursday hour of power
friday rest
saterday mtb with atleast 100m elevation zone 3 hr
sunday rest

@ManofSteele @jyhudon Hope you Guys are good. I have more question. as you guys are familiar with my Goal and always so helpful

But I do welcome advice from everyone.

As I about enter the build phase . I need some advise. I read some where about doing to much Threshold intervals
as previously stated and with your advice.

I have doing
3 x Threshold burst
HIT
Randomly even higher intervals . I also let xert advice me

On Weekends i do 4 or 5 hr endurance rides which i wil increase to 6 to 8 hr in the build phase.

so please be so kind and advise me on going forward.

@Tafisch You are doing great. First, I am not sure it is necessary to ride 6-8 hours. the most important is increasing you load steadily without getting too tired. In the build phase, you could 3x30min intervals at 90% threshold during a 3-4 hours ride. Do this once a week, in addition keep following xert advices, it will make you ride at 20 min focus and 10min focus towards the end of the phase. So to summarize;

Keep increasing the load steadily
on the week end, 3-4 hours ride is sufficient if you incorporate quality like 30min at 90% TP
Once a week, train at 20min focus
Once a week train at 10min focus

Hope this help

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Not a coach and don’t have a full view of your training history / progression, but from reading your posts (including past ones re struggling to keep up with friends on the MTB group rides) I wonder if you already have too much intensity / not enough recovery? Especially if your long rides are zone 3 (assuming that means tempo to lower sweet spot), in addition to 3 or 4 higher intensity rides a week (including threshold, bursts, 4x8min and HIT sessions)? Suspect most would struggle to do more than two quality high intensity sessions a week for very long… I wouldn’t expect Xert to prescribe much intensity during the base phase… is that what XATA has been recommending? You are arguably already riding a (tough) build phase… So not sure what will change as you ‘transition’ to be honest

Are you still tired or now feeling fresh? Are you improving fitness? Are you able to go hard for each of your high intensity interval sessions? If not, maybe consider a little more Polarisation… or even a rest / easy week… but if feeling ok and you can handle what you’ve been doing, I’d rather continue as you’ve been (but extending the longer rides, or maybe adding or lengthening the ‘lower’ high intensity intervals to increase TL) than try to do even more intensity sessions per week

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@wescaine firstly thank you for taking time to read most. I do try and manage my fatigue levels with either elevate or intervals.icu. Although it not the most accurate but it comes pretty close.

I have two days off in the week, which i recently change to a Monday and Friday. I also trying to incorporate some of the bike exercises in order strengthen my core ect.

@wescaine I would also like you suggest some workouts. the question was merely so that i don’t get bored with the same workouts over and over again .

I have the 3 x 20 fix every Tuesday and then let xert recommend the rest. Sometimes i add other Hop on, Hop off or a 2 hr extended workout.

between 5 and 6 hours durring the week and trying a 5 to 7 hr over weekends.

Thank you @jyhudon, the long rides over weekends i keep it simple. Just ride… just not over zone 3 on the heart rate.

20 min focus would be the 3 x 20 right
please give me some sample workouts for 10 min focus

Thank You

Ok, good that you are managing recovery - fairly common not to, hence my post…

In that case I would just filter the workouts (in recommended workouts section) for the focus and difficulty you want - I guess climber is what you are looking for. But also endurance focus with high difficulty should do the trick with longer efforts at or a bit above threshold… should be more interesting than straight threshold intervals every week

XSSR Workouts are interesting variations and use the principle of front loading intensity for each interval, which some studies have shown improve adaptations vs constant power intervals eg.
Smart - 4x8min at 150 xssr
Closer 170 (or closer 200 short)
Gasoline

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@wescaine Thank You, my Athlete type specialist. and the focus normally change automatically. Is this because of the training score xxs point or does it change from week to week.

Both…
Week to week as you progress through program phases, you get closer to your final target focus over time
Day to day in XATA based on training status / form / freshness, which is driven by XSS… if fresh or better it’ll recommend in line with the target from your program phase above… if yellow it’ll recommend long focus / low difficulty endurance activities

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Hi Guys,

If possible please recommend what workouts can i replace the 3 x 20 with Threshold burst with.

The 3 x 20 Threshold burst used to be 1 h57 and i have hit period where i need to my weekly workouts in an hour or so. looking for something that have the same intensity.

Kind Regard

Why don’t you create a workout to suit your needs?