Hi Coaches, I’ve currently just finished 3week volume block (60hrs-1950km-3300TSS) I’m smack bang at the start of the criterium season, have a State Champ hill climb in late January and want to finish my race season strong with a result at Peaks Challenge Falls Creek Granfondo early March.
My biggest question is can I peak for the Hill Climb and the Granfondo with racing the Crit season?
I’m a punchy climber that does well on technical Crits and also has the fitness for the longer Fondo days. I used your advice this season to the letter from base build to where I am now and the programme has not let me down. Finished agonising close to my goal of a Top 10 at the Haute Route Alps but feel my fitness and FTP has increased since then and I hoping the Fascat team can guide me through my last 2 objectives of my season.
Many thanks
Mitch
Awesome - sounds like you’ve been #FtFP’ing 
I think so especially using TSTWKT or the PMC Chart in TrainingPeaks:
You can race crits but for training focus on Hill Climbing Intervals to increase your climbing power. Use the PMC chart to decrease your CTL to maximize your TSB (your form) on race day.
Good luck!
Arrrh yes, so I’ve been keeping an eye on my performance management chart but I don’t think I had that charts parameters quite dialled. My ALT was set at 7 and being 35 I dialled it back to 4.???
I signed up to Fascat Coaching Subscription I was wondering if a coach can have a quick look at my TrainingPeaks. I have fascat set as my coach on TPs.
Maybe advise a plan or training strategy based on my current level with me A event being a 7hr Granfondo start of March.
paging Coach @Jake - it was his birthday this weekend so give him some time to recover from the weekend of TSS (& cake)
Too easy!
Many thanks
Hey Mitch,
Happy to help you out!
So looks like you have had a nice build of fitness the last month and put in a big block of training before the crit season. This is great! CTL went from 97 to 124. Now 124 is a very good size workload! Basically the amount of training a professional will do. You had a similar build before Haute Route as well. Before that you got up to 118. But now having that in the bank you were able to build on that and get up to 124.
So you have really good fitness. You can do shorter rides, more intense and more recovery! More of race and recovery type of training.
So criterium training and fondo training is different, however what is great is the fondo is not till March! So you can focus on interval training and criterium training at the moment. You have been doing good with the Phils strava plan which give you Vo2 and Strava Hunting which is good for the Hill climb championships.
My suggestion would be doing the interval criterium plan. You don’t need to focus too much on building CTL right now. How often do you plan on racing? Since you have good fitness and for a good 6 weeks I would plan on doing rest two days before, just openers the day before and then race. This way you are going into the races fresh, especially before the Hill Climb Championships.
You could also look at the road race in season plan. Don’t have as many criterium specific intervals, but does give you the race weekend set up with rest and openers. Also some good intervals in there for the Hill Climb Championships!
If you want to put one of these plans in your TrainingPeaks and your race dates I can help rearrange a few of the workouts to make sure you have it set up well. That’s a perk of the subscription.
Then after you finish that you should switch back to focusing on building CTL and aerobic fitness before your Fondo. I would recommend our Fondo plan of course.
This is when you want to ramp your CTL up during these first 4 weeks and bring it up towards peak of the year. Here you should do some long weekend rides that simulate your fondo and you will get that on some weekend rides. The tricky part is if you are still doing crits on the weekend. You may need to skip one or two to put in these long simulation workouts and build CTL. Training through a race weekend. It’s all about prioritizing. Again once you get closer to this time hit us up again in 6 weeks and we can make more adjustments to your training plan.
Thanks Jake,
So I plan on racing every weekend I’m off work and sometimes double race weeks or weekends, not to much of those maybe 2.
When you say take 2 rest days before Crit race would that be Off Friday, Openers on Saturday and race Sunday? Or Off Thursday and Friday Openers on Saturday, Race Sunday?
I think I’m leaning towards the Inseason road race plan to learn how to properly be prepared for racing and recovery. If I go ahead and purchase the plan I’ll add it to my calendar and put in my race days and possible double race weeks.
Thanks
Mitch
Sorry also Jake I forgot to accept the 2 plans via email I purchased December 2 and now the key has expired, what should I do from this point?
Many thanks
Mitch
Hey Mitch!
I will resend your plans to you now! You have 72 hours to accept. No worries.
Yeah the race and recovery plan sounds perfect for you right now. You would only have one day off and by the sounds of it, that would be Friday and openers Saturday. That will work well for you!
Hey Jake, so I’ve just got my work roster for January and it’s not great.
Turns out I won’t be able to race Crits till after the Hill Climb Champs. So with being said should I do a different plan to target the hill climb event.
Will the lack of hard racing effect my ability to go with hard moves in the granfondo event in March?
Thank
Mitch
Hi Mitch,
I would recommend the sweet spot 2 plan before the gravel grinder plan.
So just try to continue to ramp your CTL up. Get in some good big weekend rides with a load of sweet spot. Then you will get in more intensity when you do the gravel grinder plan with some Vo2 max and threshold work.
You will be ok without the lack of racing for the Fondo. Which Fondo is it? A criterium would be harder to race without much racing in the legs if others have it. But jumping into a fondo shouldn’t be quite as difficult. Do you have any group rides you could do leading into the event? That could help.
Hey Jake,
Brilliant, I have the 18 week Sweet Spot plan I take it I can apply it to my calendar 7weeks in?
The Fondo is Peaks Challenge Falls Creek in Australia.
https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/rides-and-events/peaks-challenge/routes-and-prices/
Looking to be in the pointy end, last years winner time was 7:02:58. Ben Dyball has since been picked up by a WT team but a target of 7hr15 seems possibe.
Thanks
Mitch
Yeah start 7 weeks in. That would be perfect! Just want the most sweet spot. You’ll get the threshold and occasional Vo2 work in the gravel plan. So the sweet part if that sweet spot plan is starting in week 7 for you.
Hey guys, this is probably one of the best threads in all of the Forum, thank you!
Hi Jake,
So quick update…
I’ve completed 3 weeks of SST with a further 3 weeks to go before switching over to Grinder however the State Champs Hill Climb is in 3 weeks and the calendar has a lot of recovery and not much high intensity in it.
Good news is I just hit a new 20min Power PR two days ago although the climb in the Champs is only a tad over a 8min effort. I have managed 400w for the climb twice this year but that was in week 5 of Phil’s Strava Segment plan. I don’t feel I need all this recovery some yes, over the next 2 weeks and wonder if I should sprinkle some 3-5 minuters into my training over the next 3 weeks? Segment below is the climb.
https://www.strava.com/segments/818682
I have the 4th best time on Strava currently and the top spot is a WTP, sub 8 minutes is the dream.
Cheers
Mitch
Hi Mitch,
This is the problem with Training Plans built to work for most.
I’m assuming one of those weeks is a regeneration week which you will need. My suggestion is to take your Saturday workouts and make those race specific. Especially the ones 2 - 3 weeks out, so this weekend and next. This week you could do 2 sets of 2 x 4 minutes Full Gas with 4 minutes off between and 8 minutes between rest. Then next week when you are two weeks out just do 2 x 8 minutes full gas and take full rest between 16 - 20 minutes. Do these while fresh early on in the ride. You could still complete a bit of sweet spot after them, but not as much since you will have made some pretty hard efforts!
Good luck and let us know how it goes! And sorry to hear about and seeing the bush fires. It’s terrible!
Hi Jake,
Ok here’s the breakdown of the State Hill Climb Champs.
Goals were as followed
405w for 8.30 / weight 62.5kg / Top 3 Elite Men Win Masters 30yo+
Achieved
392w for 8.45 / weight 61.8kg / finished 3rd Overall and was Winner of the Master Category
Funny thing my w/kg were the same as the Elite Men’s winner for the climb 6.32w/kg. The top of the climb is flatter and he held 430w @68kg, I lost 12s to him on the 2nd half of the climb which in the end was the winning margin.
Wind conditions were a strong Easterly making it a 20km/h cross/headwind.
Overall very pleased with result, not a power PR but I got close and I was 3kg lighter than previous power PR which gave me a w/kg PR.
I keep my training sessions short and intense the week of, with 2 days completely off the bike 1 after the hardest Crit races I’ve been part of on the previous Sunday.
Any feedback on my final 2 weeks before hill climb would appreciated.
Did my best to ftfp but with the 2 “A“ events needing there own attention not as much Green in the final week.
The winning in the kitchen strategy was one I had in place from December, coming from 65.2kg down to 61.8kg with a grocery budget of $500 extra dollars for the 2 months meant I didn’t have to spend $1000’s on components to make the bike lighter. I purchased a Skinsuit and aero socks that was it.
Rider / Bike / clothing weight came in a 69.3kg.
Now here is a big question, I would like to be this weight come Peaks Falls Creek Challenge, so I know that staying at this weight for another 6 weeks is probably not wise especially with the extra workout in training orrrr is it? I’m not 100%.
Also what training plan was it you were recommending? Grinder? Or Crusher?
Thanks again
Mitch
Congrats Mitch! Great ride! It’s all about the power to weight ratio. Being lighter sometime it’s harder to put out the same power but if you are putting out more power to weight you are doing it right! It makes a difference.
Your lead into the criterium and hill climb was great! You hit your peak CTL two weeks before the criterium and three weeks before the hill climb. That is what you want to do before an A event. Then you just taper into each event. Your TSB was +9 before the criterium and +26 before the hill climb. That is great! So you went into each event fresh! But you did have plenty of work during the week to keep sharp and from going flat. So it was nicely done. Not sure a 5 hour ride the week of the crit was necessary, but it didn’t seem to effect you too much.
As far as weight moving forward. The best thing to do is stay where you are. 6 weeks is not a lot of time to let your body fluctuate up and down. Sounds like you have been winning in the kitchen so this just needs to turn into habit and a lifestyle. Sure you will have your days where it doesn’t go perfect, but for the most part just stay on track. In the true offseason you can have same leeway but it’s work to get back.
What is the Peaks Falls Creek Challenge? Most likely that would fall under our gravel grinder plan. Crusher is a mountain bike plan. So go with the Grinder plan.
Hey Jake,
Peaks Challenge Falls Creek is a 7-8hr road Fondo taking in 235km and 4,400m of elevation.
I couldn’t find the Gravel Grinder plan.
Cheers
Mitch
Yeah I would still recommend the gravel plan as those races are more similar to what your will be doing. You can do your simulation rides on the road and a route similar to the course you will be riding on