Over the next 6 weeks we will be getting Lizi to document what it takes to become a World Champion and keeping up to date with her training schedule.
Week 2 – Overload phase
This week the focus in my training is Overload. Effectively this means another week of high mileage, but with an increase in intensity before my recovery week, to instigate the supercompensation process.
Training this week includes Zwift racing with Wahoo, alongside a significant amount of volume training mainly on the road.
My training highlight – ‘Workout of the Week’ – was Thursday, with a V02 max effort session on Zwift. The session aim is to improve lactate clearance; which is how quickly the body recovers from an effort.
2 hours total Workout time:
- 6 min Warmup @80-90rpm
- 10 x 2 mins at 105% FTP with 1 min rest bringing cadence up to around 95-100rpm
- 5 mins easy @70-80rpm
- 20 x 1 mins at 105% FTP with 1 min rest 95-100rpm
- 5 mins easy @70-80rpm
- 5 x 4 mins at 105% FTP with 2 mins rest @95-100rpm
- 6 min Cool down (2hrs)
This session is essentially a combined total of 1hr at 105% of your FTP within a 2-hour window, which is a great Aerobic Threshold workout – the glass ceiling of performance which everybody wants to smash through!
Repeating these intervals over and over will improve lactate clearance – which is important for hilly road races – The ability to recover before going deep whenever there’s a steep gradient. It gives you the opportunity to breakaway, because this is where the peloton draft is reduced.
As long as you’re in a good position at the start of a climb you can devastate the peloton by driving the strength of the pack, which either drops weaker riders or tires them out (with increased lactate).
This is a great session whether you are training to compete or training to improve fitness, and I would normally do this session once every couple of weeks throughout my training cycle. Next week, I will be in a recovery phase with the UCI World Indoor Championships on the horizon and only 4 more weeks of training to go!
Watch this space on Thursdays, as I keep you up to date with my commitment to my progress ahead of the UCI Indoor World Champs..