{"id":18287,"date":"2015-01-28T14:49:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T14:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18287"},"modified":"2015-01-26T14:50:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T14:50:09","slug":"pushing-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/01\/pushing-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing my Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m doing my best to stick to my new plan of increasing my training a little as the race season gets ever closer.<\/p>\n

As well as my large scale annual periodisation in which\u00a0I’m trying something new<\/a>, I also have a meso-scale pattern<\/a> within my training where I do a 3 week cycle. This consists of a low volume and intensity week that I like to think of as a rest or recovery week. I’m saying ‘I like to think of it’ that way because to many people 10\u00a0hours of training comprising 3 swim sessions, 4 bike session, 3 run session and two trips to the gym would be far from resting, but it’s all relative. Relative that is to the week that follows it which is my ‘medium’ week where I do\u00a0a similar number of sessions, but the duration and intensity is a little higher. If you haven’t guessed the pattern yet, then the\u00a0third and final week of my 3 week cycle is a ‘high’ week where duration and intensity is pushed just a little higher.<\/p>\n

Following the Plan<\/h2>\n

The cycling aspect\u00a0of my\u00a0plan at the moment involves following the low volume 40k TT plan from TrainerRoad<\/a>. It’s nice following a plan someone else has written, it keeps things varied and interesting and saves me having to think about it. I just see whats on the agenda for today, fire it up, jump on the turbo trainer and do as instructed. I picked a plan that would fit in with my overall plan and this one does so well as it too has a 3 week meso-cycle.<\/p>\n

The first few weeks generally consist of 4 rides per week, with a supra-threshold interval session, a muscular endurance session, a tempo session and a recovery ride.<\/p>\n

Hitting the Limit<\/h2>\n

Last week was a high week and all was going well. Despite having a busy week at work and home along with lots of busy evenings and late nights, I had managed to fit in all of my sessions. That was until Friday afternoon after a day at work when I was supposed to do the muscular endurance ride when I got in. As with the other TrainerRoad sessions there\u00a0was a weekly progression with these rides.<\/p>\n