February progress, endurance power gains

My February Zone 2 project metrics show some progress, but my training volume was slightly down on January. You can find the details of my training plan here, my goals and metrics here.

Capturing the metrics forces me to reflect on progress, what I’m doing well and what isn’t going to plan, keeping me honest. Some of the key insights from February for me are:

• My volume didn’t increase, it actually decreased slightly. This isn’t ideal as I have my first long distance ride of 200km planned for March. This was down to having 2 weeks in the 4 where I did very low volumes as I had two long weekends away in the month. I did some static cycling and running to make up for the lack of volume, but that can’t replace the higher volume hours I get outside.
• My Zone 2 training progress plateaued in January. In February I increased my turbo workout from 155 watts to 175 watts. This had a great effect increasing the power. Initially my heart rate was higher but it dropped within a week to give similar averages I’d been experiencing in January. This means I’ve basically increased my power output at my endurance heart rate. This was my biggest gain in February and gave me a real boost in training.
• My VO2Max slightly decreased in February. This is based on the estimate in Garmin Connect, so not completely scientific. I’m still in base building mode so not really worried about this. It is still higher than the baseline set in December (Vo2Max of 45 in a lab text – see full results here). I’m confident that this will increase as I move in to the next phase in April when I expect to increase the number of harder, high intensity sessions.
• I struggled with strength training in January. Probably because I hadn’t done much in years, so needed to figure out what worked for me and get my body used to doing weights again. In February I feel I’ve now figured out what I need to do. After some experimenting and listeniong to a lot of podcasts about strength training, including this one from Huberman Lab with Dr. Andy Galpin, which I found hugely helpful. I’m focusing on large compound exercises, 12 to 15 reps, and full range of movement. For example in the squat going all the way down. This means less weight, but I believe will build better strength for endurance.
• My weight has increased a little to 93Kg. I’m putting this down to the strength training, but don’t have accurate measurements for body fat or muscle density. So am speculating on that on.

February was mixed for me. My volume was below where I wanted to be, but I have increased my power in my Zone 2, endurance. This should improve my endurance performance, which is my ultimate goal for this year.

In March I have my first 200 km endurance ride. I’ll need to lower my volume in week 2 of March and see how much I need to recover in week 3, which will all help understand how I need to plan the coming months.