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You can find Part One HERE and a copy of my Public Training Log HERE

14 weeks along => lessons from the first block of training

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The Toughest Part is not-loading!

Loading remains easy, fun and straightforward.

Recovery remains a challenge.

• Mentally, when not-training.
• Physically, when I over-do-it.

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Previously

Training with little kids in the house => In my late-40s, I used a low-standard deviation training plan. Very simple strategy!

• Something every single morning – tick the box
• Second session in the afternoon, if time
• Longer when I get a chance

Being “consistent and undertrained” supported my mental health and lowered my life stress.

This was essential with preschoolers and toddlers around the house.

Also important if you want to succeed at work, or have high life stress.

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Currently

2022 & 53 yo => a performance mindset

The goal is to stress, then absorb, then stress again, then absorb again.

“Training for adaption” increases total stress burden.

What have I done to balance this increase in stress?

1. Sleep – still rolling no alarm
2. Metrics – dynamic loading helps
3. Less Travel – sleeping in my own bed as many nights as possible

An example, combining all three…

• My wife is taking the kids on a trip over Labor Day
• At first, I thought I would do my own trip
• Then, I realized a staying at home would be superior

My #1 personal goal is “get fit” and there’s no better place to get fit than Boulder in early-September.

Why add stress?

If I want to perform in any one area then I need to remove stress from multiple other areas.

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Don’t Tinker – Let It Roll – Give Fitness Time to Develop

Mid-July, things were going well and I started stacking hikes with bikes. Total output on those days was 3,000 to 4,500 KJ.

Very quickly my metrics tanked!

AC wrote a useful article – Think in terms of three types of days:

1. Loading
2. Unloading
3. Duration

Where I went wrong was pushing duration AND load on multiple days.

Too much stress, too quickly (TSS was 3-5x CTL for the technically minded).

Related, being human… I share the urge…

• to progress every session
• to increase intensity when my heart rate is up
• to set personal bests

Three things have helped me have fun, while not blowing myself up…

1. Set a HR cap for each of Stamina (135 bpm) and Threshold (150 bpm)
2. Set a time-at-intensity cap for efforts above Stamina (10% of total load)
3. Publish what I did, weekly

Reduce the scale of self-inflicted wounds.

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Variation

I bought myself a Kickr-Bike.

Love it and realized that my previous riding had been very low variation, possibly too low.

The Kickr, combined with the Zwift platform, gives me natural variation based on the course I select. I’ve been mixing flat, rolling and climbing courses.

I’m going to extend stamina by adding more flat/rolling riding.

I am always tempted to add climbing but that tends to be higher torque & intensity – could lead to repeating my error of stacking load & duration.

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What’s next?

1. Extend my comfortable stamina durations
2. Add a bit more Severe Domain work (VO2, bounding, sprints)
3. Increase my run frequency

Keep What Works