Recovering from March Crash + April surgery - cleared to ride outside - which plan should I start back up with?

Training Plans
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Frank - I got crashed out of Shasta Gravel back in early March and since then I’ve been in and out of a sling, had a major shoulder surgery, and now almost have full range of motion . Since March I attempted your indoor plan (too hard one handed) and have been zwifting with one hand and finally both hands over the past six weeks in an unstructured fashion as I kind of lost motivation since I knew I wouldn’t be able to race this year and got deferrals to next year for all of my gravel races - well except for SBTGRVL and Grinduro - they are so corporate now they don’t care about amateur racers - it’s all about the media and letting former dopers race but that’s a topic for another day.

So I got the greenlight to ride outside on Friday and got in great road rides this weekend in Napa and Berkeley 75 miles w 3K climbing for my first ride and 65 miles and 5.3k climbing today. Not used to 4 hour rides but I didn’t totally suffer and my numbers are within range from where I was back in March. I cannot race gravel this year but can ride road and will basically use August to January to get ready for the Grasshopper Adventure Series and Spring/summer Gravel races in CA, CO and OR and run thru Mammoth Tuff in September 2023 and Levi’s Hammer Rally in October.

I have purchased so many of your plans (have the SS plan from 2020):slight_smile: Can you please suggest what plan should I start back up with this week? I’m looking for the next few plans that will take me up to the first Grasshopper Gravel race which will probably be in late Jan or early Feb. So basically Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan and then in Feb I’m assuming I move into in-season gravel? I appreciate your help and expertise navigating this!

I hope you are having a fun summer in Boulder.

Cheers,
Mark

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Hi @mark.newton - glad you are back and ready to ride

Building back your Aerobic Base is ideal. Our all new 16 week Sweet Spot “Base” Plan for 2022 has been optimized and improved - not sure if you have that one?

This will get you to the Grasshopper and then you can do your gravel plan leading into those.

  1. It combines workouts from sweet spot parts 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and includes some of our signature wintertime intensity workouts (completely new).

  2. The Periodization is different, following 3 weeks on, 1 week off for four mesocycles

  3. Choose the “Basic” or Intermediate versions for 40 & 50 & 60+ Masters Based training

  4. There is field test in the middle of the plan to update your zones, as well as ones at the beginning and end.

  5. It has added Sweet Spot TSS Rides that can be done indoors or outdoors on a group ride/solo + includes Zwift instructions.

  6. New training tip content with Video Demonstrations added.

Hope that helps and let us know if you have anymore questions! :muscle::rocket::leopard: If you want to tell us what you are training for and when that is, we can perhaps be more specific with our recommendations!