Week in Review December 5 – Dec 11, 2011


Week Four of Base Miles (Recovery Week)

Performance Management Chart last 28 days

Ending—Dura—–Dist—- Weight— HR— TSS—- kJ——1min—-5’w—-20’w— 60’w 

12/11—–14:24—–237——-155——-143—–516—-7577—-347—–281—206—-179

12/4—— 11:18—–207——-155——159—–529—-7167—-337—–279—-239—–204

11/27——8:39—–151——–155——-157—- 427—-4970—- 466—- 317—-211—-188

11/20——6:14——-99——-155——-154—- 292—-3458—- 468—- 286—-213—-180

This concludes my fourth week of a three-week build and one week recovery period.  This week the focus was on maintaining the fitness gained in weeks one, two and three.  I rode easy this week so that I would achieve full adaptation from week three.   While my hours and mileage were more than last week the intensity was still low.  You will notice a significant portion of my hours was spent in the Endurance Zone (lighter Green).

Notice in the graph above how week four has a significant portion of the overall training time in the lower two categories (Blue and lighter Green) My endurance zone is between 165-223 watts.  I feel comfortable riding at that intensity.

Above is a graph depicting hours ridden with Bars and mileage ridden by the Line.  The increase over the last four weeks has been moderate and consistent.

Above you will see how even though I did more mileage on my fourth week my IF (Intensity Factor) is much lower than any of the previous weeks. This type of building takes discipline and training with a purpose. My SRM Power Meter is the best tool for proper pacing.

Nutrition and rest are two very important components of a successful training program.  I use AminoPure after every workout.  It ensures I maintain good health as it boosts my immune system and helps me recover quicker.

I also increase my protein intake to ensure good muscle recovery for the next day’s training effort.  Interphase from Sportquest has 34g of protein with only 190 calories.  If I have been training really hard I make a smoothie before bedtime so I can sleep through the  night.

I rode five straight days with no rest days for a total of 14 hours 24 minutes and 237 miles. A little more than three additional hours and 30 more miles than last week.  Training Stress Score was down from  529 to 516 and kilojoules was up from 7167 to 7577.  Remember the kilojoules is closely related to calories expended.  Notice how on the Performance Management Chart my Acute Training Load (stress over 7 days)  is up from  72.6 to 79.5 and the Chronic Training Load (stress over 42 days) was up from 39.2 to 47.9.  Two items of notable mention:

1.  A good 4.5 hour endurance ride in San Diego

2.  Followed by another good 3.5 hour endurance in San Diego

Just for fun how about these statistics for the last four weeks of training:

I rode 737 miles burned 24,000 calories,  43 1/2 hours and averaged just over 17 miles an hour.  

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Recap of Four-Day training block


I woke up this morning with stiff and achy legs– but a good ache.  Some of it in part because of the four days of riding.  I also attribute the dead legs to the sprints and 30 second efforts I did at the end of my ride on Saturday.

I’m happy with the numbers I put out over the last four days.  It will take a couple of days to recover fully from my efforts.  I should come back strong and rested by Tuesday.

All for now!