Getting Back Into Training - Phase 2, Week 1

Three weeks of Phase 1, a deload week, and then Phase 2 began.

Phase 1 wasn’t about getting fit.
It was about rebuilding something far more basic.

Most of the focus was on Zone 2 riding and smoothing out my pedal stroke. Nothing flashy. No chasing numbers. Just time on the bike, breathing under control, and relearning how to pedal without constantly fighting myself.

Zone 2, for anyone not deep into training terminology, is simply steady riding. You’re working, but you can still talk in full sentences. It often feels almost too easy, which is usually why people underestimate how important it is.

That phase did what it was supposed to do. Not quickly, and not dramatically. But it set the base.

The deload week

Deload weeks aren’t just about doing nothing.

Most of the volume stayed easy, but I added one light interval session mixed with Z2. The goal wasn’t to push fitness. It was to test something specific.

I wanted to see how my body handled higher cadence and harder breathing, and more importantly, how quickly it could settle again once the effort stopped. That ability to recover while still moving matters more than most people realise.

VO2max sounds technical, but it simply refers to riding hard enough that breathing becomes the limiting factor. The test wasn’t whether I could go hard. It was whether I could calm things back down afterwards.

Entering Phase 2

Phase 2 doesn’t mean abandoning the basics.

It’s built around two types of interval work, lighter efforts that provide nervous system stimulus without much fatigue, and harder sessions that test how well that stimulus can be absorbed and recovered from.

The practical change is simple. Interval sessions increase to two per week. Everything else stays largely the same. Most of the riding is still done at Z2, carrying over the work from Phase 1 rather than replacing it.

First high-intensity session

Last Saturday was the first proper high-intensity session of Phase 2.

The workout was something called The Wringer. The name sounds dramatic, but the structure is straightforward. You repeat short efforts over and over, with limited recovery between them. The idea is to see how well you can maintain control as fatigue gradually builds.

There are twelve efforts in total.

Around the fifth effort, I could feel power starting to fade. Not a blow-up, and not a failure in the usual sense. I completed the entire session, but that point marked where things became noticeably more expensive. The legs kept turning, but the cost was clear.

The reason was obvious. Not enough depth yet. Not enough recent exposure to this kind of stress. No mystery, no excuses.

That’s still useful information.

Because of that, next week I’ll swap that session out for The Gorby. It’s a different style of interval workout, longer efforts, fewer repetitions, and more controlled intensity. Same purpose, just a better fit for where things actually are right now.

Where this leaves me

There’s still a long way to go.

It also feels slower than I’d like, even though I know that’s exactly how this process works.
Coming back after a couple of years doesn’t move in straight lines.

Still, this is the work.
And there isn’t really an alternative.

So you show up, take the information the sessions give you, adjust, and move on to the next week.

That’s Phase 2, Week 1.