Cycling program v4.0 2011-2012 (Page 18)

Question for Jorge,

I'm going to be travelling to visit family for the holidays and will be away from my bike for a week (8days).  What are your recommendations regarding the plan?  I don't think I'll have access to a bike (trainers, stationary, etc) so I'm planning on just running and hoping to get a swim or two in.  Should I just pick up with the plan where I left off when i get home?  Thanks!

Yeah...unfortunately I have the same questions.

Yeah I would do that. In a week you shouldn't lose much fitness; starting where you left off should be fine. When in doubt, you can always repeat the last week and go from there!

Don't feel too disappointed! It is hard to tell what's your level starting the plan but the minimal improvement could be due to a a few variables:

1. learn to do the test properly - meaning your power curve pretty flat for the entire test or it is slightly lower at first and slightly higher at the end. Check you curve (or post it here) and we can compare. 

2. Properly fuel before and during the test - the 20MP is a pretty intense effort; if you are not properly fueled your results can be negatively affected.

3. Test rested - make sure you are as rested as possible before these tests, specially the 20MP.

4. Cooling - make sure when you test indoors, you have enough of a cooling system with fans, windows, etc.

In addition, if you are around week 7 of the plan then for some people it will be normal to not see as much improvements on your 20MP as the 1st portion was more geared toward improving the 5MP. Sure, most people will see gains on the 20MP just by increasing the 5MP but sometimes that is not the case. I am one of those who benefit less when doing VO2 max work, but as soon as I start focusing 100% on 20MP or CP, my power starts going up. 

So if you tested correctly and only saw minimal improvements, then don't feel disappointed just yet; the next half of the program should fix that! keep the consistency and hard work

This is SO IMPORTANT!!! I got poor sleep the last two nights, and it showed this morning.  EPIC FAIL on the 20 min. test, barely held it above my CP value (my power was steady at my 20MP for the first 10 min, then turned into a steady decline I couldn't recover from).

One more data point proving that rest and recovery is just as important as killing yourself on the bike.

Test complete.  Complete fail.  Lost 20 watts from last month test.  May have been tired from a couple night shifts at work.  Took a couple days off training to rest for test and that may have back fired, previous test I had trained pretty steady right up to test day.  Back to the drawing board! 

Just finished my second 20 min. test. I set this up on the computrainer as a "race against" my last test. Started out at just below what my first test average was and built from there. 
The last two minutes I stared the clock down hoping it would tick faster. There was nothing left in the tank when I finished and think I found a new max h/r.

Results were 201 (1st)  211 today. 

I am doing the heart rate version. When I test again should my LTHR be higher or lower? It is hard to track my progress using just heart rate compared to the other plan. How can I measure results to see how much better I am getting. I am on Week 5 now.

I don't think you need to worry about your HR during the test. As for tracking whether you have improved, the only thing you have to go by is how much your average speed has changed.

So I am a little late to the party, but figured I would jump in. Once end November got here I realized that it had been over a year since I had been on my bike. My last go at thre bike was when I DNFed a HIM after 20mi on the bike, due to mechanicals. That DNF was Nov 14th 2010.

I pulled the bike out and I have gotten in 5 rides, 2 outdoors and 3 ~50min spins on the rollers. Today I decided to jump to day 15 of the program (power) and go with a 20min test. I am going to try and follow the program, although I know some week swill be tough to get 4 rides in, but I should manage 3 every week.

Hope I see some of the improvement alot of folks are seeing already. Good luck to all and thanks to Jorge for putting this out there.

12/14     20min Test  Avg 256w 3.75w/kg

So you've had 5 rides in the last year and are throwing down 3.75 w/kg.  That's awesome.  What were you doing before you took time off?  

If you have a speed/cadence sensor on the rear wheel you will be able to measure speed.  This will not be accurate to outside speed, but can give you a benchmark from which to measure your progress.  

Is anyone balancing Barry P's 3:2:1 run and the winter cycling program.  What does your weekly structure look like?

Thanks

I am doing something similar.  I didn't start our with 3:2:1 but I have been doing it lately as Jorge's program starts to ramp up and it feels like the short runs are needed.

 I run 6 days a week, swim as much as possible, and do workouts 1 and 3 of Jorge's Winter Program.  This is what my workout looks like.

M - Run, Swim

T - Jorge's workout 1 , Run, Swim

W -  Run, Swim

T - Jorge's workout 3, Run

F - Run, Swim

S - Long Run

Su - Off

From Dec 2010 through May 2011 I was running some, so not totally couching it. Moved near the beach in July and started  bodyboarding about 3x/week when there were waves. In November I started to run again and then at the end of Nov I pulled the bike out.

I saw that USAT Long Course Duathlon Champs (June 4th) are only about a 6hr drive from me, so that is what spurred the decision to dust off the bike and try to get back to training.

Good luck with the juggling act, I hated to do it but I had to stop the 6x running because when combined with Jorge's plan and swimming, it was starting to take too much time away from my other life commitments.  Hopefully I can get back into it once the "real season" begins.

Here's what my schedule looked like while it lasted:

Sun: Rest (or you could do Day 4 of Jorge's Plan)

Mon: Swim, 3x Run

Tue: Jorge Day 1, 1x Run

Wed: Swim, 2x Run

Thu: Jorge Day 2, 1x Run

Fri: Swim, 2x Run

Sat: Jorge Day 3, 1x Run

Jorge's Day 1 for the week can be pretty intense, so if you want give your legs a break you could adjust the run program to make Jorge's Day 1 your rest day on the running plan.  Depends on whether you're OK working out 7 days a week.