After doing IMNZ earlier this year and suffering a bad hamstring tendon injury, I've stopped riding/running since March and have been lifting weights in the gym 5 days per week. I'm actually about to do a physique competition in just under three weeks, after putting about 10kg of mass on (approx 5-6kg of lean mass) post Ironman.
Anyway, I've been thinking about the standard approach to endurance training - more volume is better - type of thinking. I've decided to do a small self experiment using only 3 days per week of sprint interval training to prep for a two day long bike ride with friends up some big mountain passes. The two days are about 130-150km each and contain around 3,500m of climbing each day.
I will have a total of 9 weeks from the finish of the physique competition to the weekend we go away for the ride. I'll do a 20 minute indoor power test the first week and another one the week of the ride, 9 weeks later. In that time I'll be following the below training protocol, which I have read up on in a number of research papers.
Mon/Wed/Fri: 10 min Z2 warm up, then 4-6 x 45 second all out sprints with 4.5 min recovery between, 5 min Z2 cool down
That's it, no long rides, just sprint intervals. I'll also be keeping on with 5 weight sessions in the gym per week.
Any bets on 1) what sort of power improvement I'll see from week 1 - week 9 of the training, and 2) how I'll fare on the two day ride?
Longer term if this works, I'm thinking of extending the mini experiment to a longer term one. Incorporating running and swimming and aiming for about 6 months of this and doing a 70.3!
Anyway, I've been thinking about the standard approach to endurance training - more volume is better - type of thinking. I've decided to do a small self experiment using only 3 days per week of sprint interval training to prep for a two day long bike ride with friends up some big mountain passes. The two days are about 130-150km each and contain around 3,500m of climbing each day.
I will have a total of 9 weeks from the finish of the physique competition to the weekend we go away for the ride. I'll do a 20 minute indoor power test the first week and another one the week of the ride, 9 weeks later. In that time I'll be following the below training protocol, which I have read up on in a number of research papers.
Mon/Wed/Fri: 10 min Z2 warm up, then 4-6 x 45 second all out sprints with 4.5 min recovery between, 5 min Z2 cool down
That's it, no long rides, just sprint intervals. I'll also be keeping on with 5 weight sessions in the gym per week.
Any bets on 1) what sort of power improvement I'll see from week 1 - week 9 of the training, and 2) how I'll fare on the two day ride?
Longer term if this works, I'm thinking of extending the mini experiment to a longer term one. Incorporating running and swimming and aiming for about 6 months of this and doing a 70.3!