Submit Podcast Q&A #13 questions by Noon Oct. 28th to win!

HellloooOOOO FasCats! Its time for Q&A #14 - we are going to give away a GU Energy Prize Pack along with a FasCat T-shirt and Jersey!

We’re here to answer all the questions you may have including the nitty gritty on off season training, sweet spot, and Winning in the Kitchen.

Here is episode #12 for your listening education :wink:

We will be recording the Q&A Podcast next Thursday, the 29th so submit your questions in this thread (or send an email to help@fascatcoaching.com if you want to remain anonymous) by Wednesday the 27th at noon! We are looking forward to answering all your questions!

As usual we have a prize for the most thoughtful answer… this time We are giving away a GUEnergy prize pack along with a FasCat T-Shirt and Jersey! (shipping in US only, sorry)

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Proposed question:

I’m just over 50 years old and I’ve been riding for 4 or so years, and have got myself to an FTP of just above 3 w/kg. I would love to get better, although I’m currently working through a minor back issue. As I get better, my question is this:

Just about every training plan I see for progressing involves 5-6 sessions a week. My job simply means that I can only do 3: one long one (up to 5 hours saddle time) and two short ones (90 minutes saddle time each). How do I adapt a standard plan into my schedule for maximum effectiveness?

Thanks,
Neil

Weight lifting plan: push myself or FTfP verbatim?

Last year was my second year doing the offseason weightlifting plan. I was familiar with it from the previous year, and the whole plan felt a LOT easier the second time around. I set my 1RM amounts (and they felt legitimate) and calculated all of the repetition weights accordingly.

About halfway through the plan, things were feeling pretty easy! I decided to keep the number of reps the same but up the weight incrementally for the hypertrophy and strength phases.

It felt a lot like setting a PR up a climb - I wanted to see just how much I could lift (without getting injured, of course)! At the end of the strength phase, I could easily do multiple reps at 40lbs more than my 1RM on squat (225 -> 265) and 50lbs more on the leg press (285 -> 335). It was fun and provided a little extra motivation too.

My question: was that a good idea? Would it be more beneficial to exactly FTfP even if it felt easy, or was I justified in ramping things up while I felt good?

Thanks!
Rob

Indoor trainer sessions: As we approach winter I will be doing more of my training inside more inside. Looking a head there are a lot of 1hr interval sessions. Is there a need to fuel at say the half hour mark with a gel for these sessions or if I am winning in the kitchen should I be covered? I typically hit intervals right out of bed after some coffee and have a banana while I am warming up, would this be fine for those sessions?

Post ride meals: Should post ride/workout meals contain mostly proteins and carbs or should fat also be included in these meals? There seams to be a lot of different takes on this subject.

Edit*: My questions were answered in the weight loss meal plan. The plan is fantastic and like Frank said in the podcast, Lacey has done the heavy lifting!

I had a TT fit with a new fitter recently who recommended I do neck strengthening exercises to be able to hold a ‘turtle’ position for extended lengths of time. Do you have any advice on this or could you point me in the direction of some resources?

Hydration: How much, how often, mixes, no mixes, carbs, electrolytes, etc. We have gels, blocks, bars covered pretty good in the, “what to eat on the bike episode”. You guys also talked a little about hydration but I think expanding on that will really round out “winning on the bike”.

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Thinking about the winter lifting session: (1) almost all gyms are closed, (2) can’t afford to/don’t want to buy a home set-up; BUT (3) I have access to a gym with a smith rack and leg press, and some other stuff. I know you highly recommend squats on a regular cage, but is the smith rack a reasonable alternative? What are the downsides to the smith rack?

Gravel Racing for a busy professional:

I’m a 36 year old nurse working full time and in school to become a Nurse Practitioner. Balancing work, school, and family has been challenging but by following your training advice and working out early in the morning I have been able to carve out 8-10 hours a week to train. I live in the Desert in Socal and regular road racing events are 2-3 hours away which with my limited schedule makes moving up in categories seem impossible. I have been thinking a better use of my time would be racing gravel this season. Based off my hours available to train can you make a recommendation for how many events I should do in a season and the length of gravel event that I would most likely be competitive in? Thanks for all you great advice!

David

These are all great - thank you - keep them coming - you have until next Wednesday at Noon to get them in. Have a great weekend!

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For a Training Plan athlete, what’s the best way to approach a vacation or travel week where a bike isn’t going to be along? I’ll be on a trip in the middle of Sweet Spot 2- I’ll get my weekend rides in on both sides, but lose my 3 midweek rides. Should I just push the plan out a week, repeat the week before, or make that a recovery week and tweak the schedule to match?

Here’s a good one that’s been asked a few times in different threads about meal plan measurements:

With the meal plan are the ingredients only measured in cups or also in European grams an milliliters? I live in Europe and I’m not familiar with American servings.

For the meal plan, most of the ingredients are measured in cups. Adding the metric equivalent to each ingredient would cause the recipes to look overly crowded/confusing. However converting the recipes to metric is pretty simple.

You can find a ton of conversion charts, but this one is pretty straightforward.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions. I am more than happy to help!

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Looks like that chart isnt showing up on Frank’s comment. Here is what it is supposed to be.
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Submitted Via Instagram:

If it is a nice day out and you are feeling good, can you spend additional time on the bike in zone 2 and still #ftfp?

I recently purchased and started the 32week training plan (began September 1st). I have been ftfp’ing until the 6.5 week mark where I injured/aggravated my low back. Possibly it was because of the weight lifting, possibly it was because of a million other things, I’m not sure. I do have years of gym and weightlifting experience but I’m 43yr old and haven’t lifted weights in over 6yrs. The weightlifting is the main variable that is different in my training this year. For what it’s worth, I have never injured my back and do not have any reoccurring back problems. I tried to make a quick come back after 3 days of rest and made things worse. So now I find myself almost 2 weeks off course and I’m wondering what to do next. I am healing nicely and will be back on the bike by the end of this week but I am not going to be continuing with the weight lifting. All that said, I’m looking for guidance on how to get back on track? Should I skip ahead to the Sweet Spot portion of the plan, start over…?

Any advice/direction/help would be greatly appreciated.

The podcast is great, I look forward to each new episode!

Hi, I’m a 35-year-old male with an FTP just under 4 w/kg. I am on the 32 wk training program and I have done some structured training over the previous winter, however, still feel pretty new to it.

I have a harder time than I think I should in my zones. As an example 2h of zone 2 is a struggle and even race files from last year don’t show a NP higher than zone 2. My peak 60min is also near zone 2 and I do not believe that I could rode my FTP for a hour to save my life. I’m worried that I test well or my 20min of suffering is really good compared to the rest of my curve. I am managing to get through the training now however looking ahead I’m quite apprehensive.

What should I do? FTfP and see when I fail or lower my FTP for the training and if so how much?

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When should you stop doing repeats (intervals) ?
Can you do too many intervals where its not helping you anymore?

Submitted via Email by Roston:

I’m looking into starting the 32 week resistance + sweat spot base, But I’ve done some research and every thing I read says I need to maintain the resistance training or else the benefits will go away, so could I get some information on when not continuing the resistance training how the muscles will be maintained. I know from listening to the podcast that you’re plans are well thought out to the detail, I would just like to clear this question up. Thanks!

Thank you to all who submitted questions to AskaFasCat #14 - the episode is LIVE and we included a transcript of the pod here:

Nat Orpen-Palmer and @ridebikeseatfood are the winners! But every question was a great one - thanks again for asking, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to help you ride your bike faster :pray:

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Awesome as usual! Thanks for answering my questions!

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