Over the last week, I've been looking deeper into analyzing past training years, seeing what I did right and what I could have done better, and looking at the training demands of the events I have coming up.
Newsflash: the training will be different.
Previously, I was training for relatively short events, with the longest ones about an hour, but most of them 35 minutes or less.
Training for a roughly-4 hour event with two major efforts of about 25 minutes (in the first hour) and 35 minutes (in the last hour), needs to be different, so I have a LOT of habits to break.
Without thinking, I shift up and hit hills as hard as I can, going anaerobic for a minute or so, then settling back in. I need to stop that (at least for now), and focus on keeping a steady pace. That means downshifting and riding up the hills however slow I end up going at the target power.
One of my new markers is time in zone... I am going to be working on spending as much time in zones 2, 3, and 4 as possible, between 66% and 99% of functional threshold power. Of course, I'll always have some time coasting into stop signs, and hills that are too steep even in my lightest gear, but I'll be paying more attention to keeping it in-zone.
Eventually, I'll be aiming to build up to 2 or 3 hours "in zone", which when you add in the time coasting and such, it could be a 4 or 5 hour ride. Ouch.
With the software I'm using, I can get reports on my rides and see how much time in zone I'm getting, and it scores rides accordingly.
That's really what foundation training is, apparently. It's not all "easy riding." It's just sub-threshold riding... and believe me, holding 90% of threshold for a long time is WORK!
