May Reflection of Training Goals

(click to enlarge)

The above image is my typical planned structure. This is my goal to hit each week, but life interrupts that goal at times and other times fatigue or weather can impact that plan. However, it is good to have something laid out to try to follow for consistency sake.



My general calendar for cycling training during May from WKO+
 

The month of May had a few things come up that is out of my structured plan. My workload increased with working more overtime and we went on vacation so I used that week as sort of a rest week. I still trained while at the beach on the condo balcony, but I dialed it back to a much lower level of intensity.





Monthly view from WKO+

 

 

 



Performance Manager Chart - Red line trending upward


 

From the Performance Manager Chart the view shows my inconsistency in training in consecutive days with fluctuating effort levels, but for a recreational cyclist with a lot of other obligations in life I am just happy to see an upward trend.

Personal spreadsheet to track specific goals like time trained at level

This is probably my favorite thing to track to keep me focused on a specific goal for 2014. In 2013 I was mainly focused on bulk training (yearly hours and miles totaled) and also part of the lack of training in higher intensities were a lot more hardships. I had a back injury and spasm, it rained a whole lot and there were other issues that had me at a point where I was just happy to get in the training time. This year I have turned my attention toward improving the quality of time trained. This chart has helped to focus on improving effort at training levels (Coggan's Levels) from L4 and higher.

In order to train more consistently (back to back days) I feel like staying in L4 will allow me to train a little harder and progressively, but also allow me to recover enough to hit it again the next day. On Saturday I change over to more of an endurance ride (L2) and go for duration and also it gives me a mental break away from those indoor weekday intervals. Saturday serves between training and enjoying the recreational side of cycling. I also have to be careful about attending groups rides because I am normally worn out and going to an aggressive group ride can put me into a recovery hole and interrupt following training days. On Sunday I enjoy going out for about a 2 hour ride at Tempo (L3) and Threshold (L4) or SST (sweet spot training) where I will have good blocks of effort at level.

So that is it for May. With vacation / rest week thrown in there my time at L4 is down a bit, but I am back on track now and hope to finish June with hopefully 600 minutes in L4.