Yeah, week 7 was super painful for me, just hearing the names of those workouts has brought back some memories 
Spaded Sweetie in particular wrecked me.
Personally Iāve decided that I need more recovery than a schedule like week 7 of BMU takes, so if I ever do BMU again, Iām going to put in a bit more recovery time now that the programs are more flexible.
Agreed, for me I only complete the earliest weeks in an actual week. Once I get past the first rest week a āweekā is more like 9-10 days. But Iām 53 and also riding outside on top of doing BMU so thatās my excuse.
Hi again. Week 4 done and dusted. Purple unicorn was tough indeed (I couldnāt achieve that last interval cadence goal, I was completely empty), but I found amalgam worse. Iām quite happy I didnāt have to decrease FTP so far, so I assume I had it right from the beginning.
This fourth week also allowed me to ride outside twice, thankfully.
Cheers!
Week 8 done. Bricolage long but doable. Was a bit worries about the 2x10ā@FTP as I had to drop intensity last time I did that (way back in Amalgam) but was fine. Dreading week 9, especially as volume of outdoor riding is ramping up now the weather isnāt quite so dire.
Led a club intro ride on Saturday and was considering my life choices after an hour on the front in driving rain and single digit temperatures. New riders seemed to have fun though. Re-scheduled the coffee break to be at the end rather than halfway through as nothing worse than getting toasty and then having to go back out for another 30km of rain and cold.
Amalgam just seems like a mistake. I donāt understand why there is a 2x10ā@FTP so early in the programme. Iāve never managed to finish it cleanly, always die in that last FTP interval.
Started week 9 (the hell week). Thought I would take it easy and start with Malevolent. Well named. Had to do the last two overs standing as otherwise I would have death spiralled. Outdoor easy ride today and then either Circus or Melange on Thursday. Fun!
I just finished week 7. I got my bike fitted within week five for some stiff neck and those tweaks (one of them moving my shoes forward so I started pushing the pedals before) made me feel stronger. I managed to do Kirizuma, LOX and Spaded Sweetie on consecutive days, which quite surprised me because I expected fatigue to pay its toll. I found them just challenging. I put a rest day and took on Cucumber. That one was real business and had to dig it deepā¦
I have been tempted to raise FTP because of those sensations, but I will leave it as it is and do a ramp test at the end, considering more weeks from hell await
I did Bricolage today scared by those 2x10min FTP intervals that reminded me of that Amalgam early pain (Amalgam features those two efforts as well). It turned out that I found Bricolage easier than Amalgam back in the day (my heart rate has lowered as well today) ā¦ all this training is paying off
Exactly the same here!
As @Nick_Strugnell said, malevolent and circus are in a different level. I failed absolutely to malevolent (the ERG mode smashed me over those last intervals, I ended nowhere near the cadence goals) and it has been the worst workout by far. I was able to complete Circus achieving cadence goalsā¦ but in no way found it easy, quite the contrary I was hoping it to finish right from the second set of intervals. It pushes you to the limit
Finished all the efforts of week 11 yesterday.
I dreaded weeks 10 and 11 more than I should have. They were hard, but definitely not undoable.
The only difficulty I had with the program is on week 7 I was severly overtraining (well not recovering enough) and had to spread out week 7+8 over a total of 3weeks, so one additional week.
The only difference in the latter half of the training plan is that I started to properly fuel during the training sessions. Before I was only doing water + some recovery food/drink after the session.
Iāve posted it here in the past. But I did a new FTP ramp test + bechmark around week 4. So this might also add into the accumulated strain on week 7/8.
This week is the final week with some recovery and retesting, so hope Iāve atleast managed to increase a bit more than the re-test I did in week 4.
retesting done, so final result for the 12 weeks (done in 13weeks):
Result:
FTP pre-plan: 180W
Weight pre-plan: 86 kg
2.09 W/kg
FTP week 4 (setting for week5 +): 210W
Weight week4: 84 kg
2.50 W/kg
FTP post-plan: 247W
Weight post-plan: 81 kg
3.05 W/kg
note: first FTP was a 20min one
other 2 are ramp tests, so thereās a slight increase due to that as well.
Solid gains 
Now: rest!
Amazing results well done!
Completed Aspire Today after Tenacity a day before yesterday, oh boyā¦
Tenacity was very manageable but that 3rd interval of Aspire I had to drop 15% intensity in the last 8 minutes out of 20 of that set otherwise I would have gone into a spiral death , The last interval was manageable tough after the 5 min recoveryā¦double 2H sessions a day apart, I feel the power.
Today was my 3rd attempt of purple unicorn. Not in a row, successfully did workouts in week 5/6 that dont feel very hard. Yellow unicorn was fine for me.
First attempt failed on second set. 2nd attempt i went in mentally stromger and it tapped me out at begining of 3rd set. Today I said I was riding the time. Had to drop power to 95% mid 3rd set and take about 2 mins of extra breaks during the sets.
Near threw up afterwards, lots of shaking. This one, for some reason, is rough on me.
Iām calling this one done. Lol
Finished Week 7 today, and it was definitely the toughest week yet. I tackled Kirizuma first and was so proud of finishing it, that I made the mistake of doing Cucumber the day after- unfortunately I then had to pause and extend a rest period by 2mins, and then also turn the intensity down to 90% for 10mins, but I did crank it back up to 100% to finish it off. I did a lot of mental prep for LOX because I had found 15.9 so challenging the week before; the mental prep helped a lot in completing it. In weeks 1 to 6 I had been averaging about 40mins of bodyweight workouts (2 workouts) a week, but I felt the training load was too high in Week 7 to do any body work. Giza was a nice end to the week and my legs felt good so I tagged on a 80min Z1-Z2 Group ride with Bernie.
I am really looking forward to the recovery time in Week 8. The weather has improved, so I will probably substitute a mountain bike for Hang Ten.
Week 9 looks absolutely brutalā¦
Well done on nailing Kirizuma. Bit of a beast, that one.
Watch out for Malevolent.
Mosaic was the least enjoyable workout of my life. It had me questioning my choices
I nailed the VO2max intervals, but was harder than LOX because of those Z2 breaks instead of Z1. I stopped hitting the standing/cadence targets sometime during the 2nd āflavourā and had to add an extra 3 mins of recovery to the second Z1 rest. During the 3rd flavour I just focused on keeping my legs turning over, but still had to turn the intensity down to 95% for the final 12mins of the 36min interval.
I had to lose my jersey during the 2nd flavour, and by the end, my bib shorts, socks, and shoes were as if I had jumped in a stinky lake.
Iāve learned a lot from this thread so thought Iād post my experience. Finished BMU yesterday and bumped my FTP up by 10 points and got moved up to C, which feels like a victory just days before my 68th birthday! (I donāt race, so donāt see a downside.)
I agree with all those who felt that the warmups started way too light. Iād have preferred starting at 50%. I was able to finish everything, with two exceptions. I flaked out on the final interval set in Aspire, largely because I was at the summit of the Alpe and had just gotten the Tron. And I found spinning at 105+ at or above FTP for extended periods of time difficult. But BMU definitely helped with my cadence.
Iām looking at a month of travel, then will look for another plan to build me BACK up. 