Ed Laverack’s “Comeback from the Virus” Diaries: #3 – Consistency is Key

February 3, 2021

LAST UPDATED February 2, 2021

I am now three training weeks into my comeback from Covid-19, and I have managed to maintain consistency throughout this short period of time. It may sound cliche, but consistency is truly the key to building any type of fitness or recovering from any type of injury or illness.

That is not to say you need to train every day to achieve that consistency – it is important to factor in rest days for recovery, and to allow training adaptations to take place.

Over the last few weeks, I have factored in one complete rest day a week (where I have taken time off the bike completely, occasionally with some low-intensity active recovery such as a walk or stretching), and one easier day, which usually falls in between 2 × 2 day blocks. Most of my riding is still focused on zone two training, with the intensity coming naturally on Tuesdays and Saturdays with Zwift racing and training sessions. The general idea is to keep my hard days hard and my easier days steady to allow for recovery and adaptations to take place, whilst keeping my riding volume load high.

Last week I took part in the Team Time Trial round of the WTRL racing league with the Wahoo LeCol team, where we rode our best Team Time Trial performance of the series. I was allocated 45 second turns on the front at around 350 to 400 W (around 6.5wkg) and as you can imagine, this proved to be a great training session for me as I tried to stay with my teammates. It definitely spiced up the race for all of us.

Training wise, I had a slightly lower volume week this week, accumulating 663 TSS over 10.5 hours. On Thursday I selected a race in the steep streets of Bologna in order to test my fresh five-minute power. This was more for fun rather than anything else, but it would also prove to be very useful to compare against my previous best over a shorter duration that is much more anaerobic. It resulted in my second-best 5min power on Zwift (22w lower than my PB) and left me wondering just how that is even possible!

On Friday I topped off the week with a long outdoor ride that lasted three hours and on Saturday I tried my hand at a longer race in the morning, before attempting the #EdHeads organized training session in the evening. With only six hours of recovery in between the two sessions, it provided a handy way of upping the overall load without having to do it all in one lump. I am a particular fan of ‘double day sessions’ for this exact reason and have always found the fitness and power benefits significant.

I am a little biased, but I am really enjoying the sessions that I have created for the WTRL racing league. This session in particular really prepared us for the race last Tuesday where we finished on top of the big Innsbruck KOM. I set myself a target of a top 20 and rather surprisingly I almost got a top 10, climbing for 15 minutes at 350 W (5.7wkg). I gave it everything and following this race I realised that I would need to complete another FTP test (as did 700 others who are watching the live stream!).

I attempted me FTP test slap bang in the middle of a block, meaning that I was not too fresh, or too tired – this turned out to be an optimal day to complete the test. My results were 333 W FTP. So in the space of 22 days my FTP has regained 24 W.