I haven't really been cycling a great deal during October and am now taking a 3 week break before I start my winter 4 month plan. Last winter I was riding ~ 5 - 7 hours / week and did a couple of mini cycle tours during June where I was cycling 70 - 90 miles.
What I am trying to understand is how do you gauge training volume to begin with. I had my eye on a Tacx training plan which begins with 5 weeks doing more tempo related stuff before moving onto higher intensity stuff in the second 5 week block. It starts with 7 hours / week, but I wonder whether I should cut this back given my reduced volume over the last 8 weeks to say 5 hours / week and then start slowly increasing the ride duration with each week. I don't mind if I end up doing 2 months of foundation work as I want to be really fit and ready for long tours from May onwards.
I just need to be mindful of hitting it too hard to start with and finding I end up missing sessions due to overload and fatigue.
I haven’t really been cycling a great deal during October and am now taking a 3 week break before I start my winter 4 month plan.
Taking a 'break' sounds just plain daft, and surely will just make your 'plan' so much harder - why not just ride your bike?
Taking a ‘break’ sounds just plain daft
In my experience not at all. The professionals all do it, and although you might scoff and point at the ridiculous mileage and intensity they do, they also don't have 'normal' lives to try and juggle.
I wish I'd taken a break earlier in the year as I've been trying to ride through lots of wee niggles which have just culminated in a debilitating upper back spasm, more or less literally on the eve of the first race that I'd been training for!
OP - if you're thinking of doing 2 months 'foundation' work with a view on big tours next May, I'd say take a wee break if you've got any aches and pains that maybe need rested (sometimes just a build up of fatigue e.g. in hips or low/upper back) then maybe get into a good strength routine for a month or two before really hitting the trainer. I don't know what age you are but I'm 38 and it has been made painfully apparent to me that I need to make strength and conditioning a MUCH bigger part of training in order to be ready for some ambitious summer miles.
Other than that, yeah, just build up your miles slowly in the first few weeks, especially if you've not been on the turbo for a while as I find the first few sessions on the turbo every autumn cause a few knee twinges until they get used to the different style of riding.
In my experience not at all. The professionals all do it, and although you might scoff and point at the ridiculous mileage and intensity they do, they also don’t have ‘normal’ lives to try and juggle.
I thought the comment was more aimed at the fact that if the OP has not done a great deal of riding in October anyway, why would you then take a break of a further 3 weeks and run your fitness down even more? That's how I read it anyway.
I just need to be mindful of hitting it too hard to start with and finding I end up missing sessions due to overload and fatigue.
I find if I've not done much riding, I'm not really capable of "hitting it too hard"! I basically just slog slowly through a few rides and ride myself back into things.
I thought the comment was more aimed at the fact that if the OP has not done a great deal of riding in October anyway, why would you then take a break of a further 3 weeks and run your fitness down even more? That’s how I read it anyway.
Aye good point, and I'm supposing everybody is the same as me e.g. limping into winter riddled with over-use injuries 😁
I don’t know what age you are but I’m 38 and it has been made painfully apparent to me that I need to make strength and conditioning a MUCH bigger part of training in order to be ready for some ambitious summer miles.
Other than that, yeah, just build up your miles slowly in the first few weeks, especially if you’ve not been on the turbo for a while as I find the first few sessions on the turbo every autumn cause a few knee twinges until they get used to the different style of riding.
Good point regarding the strength and conditioning. Before the March closure of gyms I would be going 1 - 2 times a week and doing barbell squats and deadlifts, but when they closed I never returned. I just need to get the membership sorted and get back on it. Trouble is, that is going to take a softly / softly reintroduction as otherwise I'll have the most evil DOMS.
I think I'll start with 2 * 1 hour sessions in the week and a 1.5hr and 2hrs Sat / Sunday ride that should be ok for 4 weeks before upping the duration and intensity.
