4x5’s have been doing it for me. You need repeated hard efforts.
shoot for a set with 90,95,100,105,110% FTP for the first one. adjust as necessary. These days i’m going right to 100-105% and tuning it up a few % each interval
starting out I did equal rest in-between intervals, so 4 min break. Now I start with 4 min, then reduce by 30 seconds each interval. It’s brutal but effective.
Eh, you can look at it from both angles. Do 20-40 minute SST efforts (zone 3.8-4.0 ish), but alternate those in with vo2 efforts on other days. Vo2s can be anywhere from 3-5 minutes. 2 sets of 4x3m is a pretty solid effort and you should be able to work your way up to around 120% for 3m, but start around 105% for the first one of each set, then the next week do 2 x 4x4m to increase the difficulty. If you move up to 5m, I’d do less reps.
I’m going to try 2 sets of 4x3 with 5 minutes between today.
My interval workout right now consists of 10 x 5 minutes, 2.25 min at 130-150% FTP and 3 minutes rest. I’ve been increasing the 130% to 150% FTP part by 15 sec every couple weeks (I started at 1 min). Good or bad? I am pretty wasted after this workout.
Oh and I believe this is Week 11…only one missed workout so far. Next week I get to REST and hopefully ride outside.
I’m getting stoked for Valley of the Sun. Feeling more comfortable on the TT bike and power is coming along well. Going to head out to the island today at lunch and do some efforts with skin suit and disc wheel to check on all the gear and see how fast I can go.
[quote=NOVELTYNAME]
are you eating enough dark greens?[/quote]
I’m eating I guess an average amount of greens? I also eat red meat pretty regularly.
Recumbentist, what are you trying to work on with those intervals? I think overall volume and training load is more important than what specific intervals you do, but there are certainly some intervals that can help you fill out some weaknesses. Are you tracking your CTL/TSB? This season, I’ve been doing 1-2 big, long days on weekends to get the TSS up, couple of rest/easy days during the week, and then shorter high intensity intervals Tue-Thurs. The Tues-Thurs stuff is usually a mix between sweet spot work (90% of FTP) at about 40-60 mins in a workout broken up into sets of 15 or 20 mins usually, 30m if i’m time crunched and feeling good, anaerobic capacity stuff (e.g. 10s all out, 20s rest, repeat 4x, or 30s all out, 60s rest, 4x, for a couple sets of each), or vo2max work (5 mins @ 120%, 5 mins rest, repeat x5). The details of the specific intervals can vary based on what you see as your weaknesses. In particular, Vo2 max work tends to compliment the tail end of some heavy threshold work nicely.
I really feel that the most important part is the gradual build up over a few months though. Here’s my PMC from this season so far. The blue line is overall fitness.
Also testing often is important, at least once every couple of months.
Pretty sure Ferg is going to be working up his CTL regardless as he’s increasing intensity. I don’t think focusing purely on volume/increased CTL is necessarily a good thing if you don’t have a good amount of historical data to know where your limits are in terms of training load/intensity levels.
If ferg was riding mostly outside, he could probably get his CTL up to a higher level, but if he’s doing all winter indoor trainer rides - his CTL might not make it above 40 -50, but he’s still getting good work in that will easily convert into riding at a higher intensity once he starts riding 4-5 hours outside. My guess is that with his history of long endurance rides, jumping back into long days isn’t going to be difficult at all.
I’ve only had data to track my last 3 1/2 years of riding, but if there’s one thing i’ve learned in that time - i can be just as fit on 8 hours a week riding as I am on 14 hours of riding if I use my time on the bike wisely.
Huh. I’ve found the opposite to be true for me. I plateau a lot sooner on low volume, but respond really well to more. I wish I had 20 hours a week to see what that’d do for me
I really appreciate the advice, this is the first year in 8 years of riding that I’ve been training formally. I haven’t been tracking CTL, but I have been tracking weekly TSS, which I think is pretty much the same thing?
All of my training this winter has been indoors, except for one short ride on an upright bike as a neck test. I normally ride all winter, but I’m really afraid of what would happen to my neck if I crashed right now.
My current schedule is 5 days a week, 7.5 hours total on the trainer. I think that’s all I can take, not from a training stress standpoint, but also from sheer fucking boredom. I also dog walk just under 2 miles/day, 7 days/week.
So it’s:
Monday: 1 hour, 10 5-min intervals at 2.25 min at 140% FTP (or higher, I just go as hard as I can) + 2.75 min rest
Tuesday: 1.5 hours, usually 8-minute intervals at just above FTP with 5 minutes rest between
Wednesday: 2 hours at 70%, 80%, 90% FTP and back down, repeat until end
Friday: 1 hour spinning at a reasonable resistance, 2 min each at 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 rpm, repeat until end
Saturday: Same as Wednesday
Three-week cycle followed by 1 week “rest”. Ironic quotes because I usually do something stupid like hike to the top of the Shawangunk ridge 2-3 times. Includes some recovery rides, no more than 3 hours total on the trainer through.
After every workout, I drink a chocolate Gu powder with a banana and a couple large scoops of peanut butter in whole milk.
I think that’s all the details of my current exercise schedule. Although I do want to hit a 4-hour century, frankly I’m not a racer, so my main goal with all of this is to make my usual Saturday/Sunday 80 to 150-mile long slow distance rides even more enjoyable. I ride for adventure, not to beat anyone.
I’m assuming that was supposed to be in this thread and not the bike shop one
I don’t lift during the season typically. It takes too long to recover from IMO and makes my watts low. During the off season, I did 2 months of lifting once a week, combined with big gear work on the bike. Usually Sunday was big gear, Monday was weights, Tues and Weds was recovery. Coach had me doing mostly cycling specific lifting this year: single leg press, barbell squats, weighted situps on an incline, but I also threw in some upper body stuff for kicks.
Yeah, weird. Thanks–so once weekly is enough? What does a typical full week look like for you with one session of weights? Are you riding 5 days + 1 day of weight lifting? Or should I replace 1 day on the trainer with weights?
All of this would be only in winter–in the summer all I care about is getting as many outdoor miles as possible; fitness is incidental to the miles I’m putting in for fun.
I was riding 6 days, but two of those were active recovery pace
it’d be weights monday, tuesday & weds active recovery, thurs & fri 1-2 hours z2, sat threshold work mixed in with a 2-3 hour ride, sun big gear work mixed into a 3-5 hour ride
I did the Valley of the Sun Stage Race with 4 teammates
Things started off pretty well with the TT. I didn’t drink enough water before my start, and didn’t bring a bottle, but I somehow managed to average 316w and 27.2 mph. This was good for 8th in the cat 3’s, and put me in the top GC position from our team.
The road race the next day was looking grim. Forecast was for heavy rain and wind for most of the afternoon. After the neutral roll out, no one really wanted to do any work, and everything was bunched up, wide across the road. With the strong crosswinds, the situation felt a bit sketchy. A couple of my teammates took me up to the front and moved over just enough to shelter me from the wind but not give the rest of the field much room, and just sat at z2-z3 for a while. The first time up the ~5 min climb, the pace felt somewhat challenging, but that may have just been that ‘first effort of the day’ burn. I managed to hang on without having to dig too deep, but there were definitely a few efforts being made at the front. The descent felt fairly safe, and no one seemed to want to go around the sheltered side, so I took advantage of that to move back up towards the front. I hit the turn at the bottom in front, but almost forgot about the slick cattle guard at the bottom, so I had to go wide and scrub some speed to get over it safely. Then, as I was filtering back through the pack a bit, two guys passing me start squeezing in, and I crossed wheels with one of them. Luckily I was able to push off and regain balance by unclipping for a second, but that had me shaken up for the next few minutes. Again the pace was super slow, so I just tried to stay near the front as much as possible.
Eventually, the pace rose for a little bit and there was an echelon going, but we found ourselves just at the end of it guttered up against the center line. I suggested a second echelon, which soon became the main echelon. My two teammates rotated at the front and drove a decent pace, while I sat neatly sheltered between 3rd and 4th wheel. The 2nd and 3rd times up the climb were pretty tame compared to the first, and I didn’t really have much difficulty. Unfortunately, on the descent just after the start of the second to last lap, I got a rear flat. One of my teammatesoffered me his wheel, but I stupidly declined, thinking that the 11 speed wheel wouldn’t be rideable with my 10 speed setup. I figured I’d wait for the wheel car and grab a 10 speed wheel, but it turned out that he was helping another rider that flatted a bit before me, and didn’t show up until a couple minutes later.
Once I got rolling again, I drafted the wheel truck for a minute or two before he took off, and then I chased with all my might for two rainy and windy laps. I really had hope for the first lap or so, and even saw the tail end of the pack near the top of the climb as I started it, but after I got up there I didn’t really have any hope of catching back on. I was still determined to finish the last lap strong and hold on to as much time as I could. I picked up the other guy that flatted before me, but he didn’t want to do any work, and eventually dropped off of my wheel as well. Then I came up on another guy, told him to hop on the train, but dropped him at the start of the climb. I powered through to the top and ended up finishing 4:46 behind the front of the field. Unfortunately, I left my Garmin at home and my phone’s Strava autopaused 6 mins in and never came back, so I’ll never know what sort of effort it was, but I definitely left it all out there.
Near the end, I ended up catching one of our women’s 3 riders, and she asked me “How Far?” I was a little confused at first and said “Uhh, I think its like 1k to the top from here.”
“No, how far back are they?” she asked me. I looked back and saw no one, and let her know, and cheered her on. I thought that was pretty cool to witness that riding along side her
I was pretty upset about making a bad call re: the wheel and erasing our GC chances. Luckily my teammates are super cool and made me feel not as bad about it. Also some upgrade points would have been cool.
The crit was ‘meh’ for me. I’ve definitely lost my cornering mojo since last season, and was being kind of wimpy through the corners for most of it. I tried a couple of attacks and won a prime, but was quickly brought back each time. I started getting some confidence back near the end, but with 2 to go I got pinched towards a curb and had to hit the brakes and lost 10-15 spots really fast and was never able to make them back up. One of our guys dropped a chain and crashed in the final sprint, got a broken helmet and some road rash
I think this was at the end of my 2 lap chase
VOS is usually a shitshow for me. I’m glad you made it out unscathed.
Also, as your team’s GC leader, you ALWAYS take a teammate’s wheel. ALWAYS.
Yes, that has been ingrained in my head now by just about everyone. I mostly knew it as well, the bit that threw me off was I didn’t think 11s would be rideable on 10s
[quote=Recumbentist]I really appreciate the advice, this is the first year in 8 years of riding that I’ve been training formally. I haven’t been tracking CTL, but I have been tracking weekly TSS, which I think is pretty much the same thing?
All of my training this winter has been indoors, except for one short ride on an upright bike as a neck test. I normally ride all winter, but I’m really afraid of what would happen to my neck if I crashed right now.
My current schedule is 5 days a week, 7.5 hours total on the trainer. I think that’s all I can take, not from a training stress standpoint, but also from sheer fucking boredom. I also dog walk just under 2 miles/day, 7 days/week.
So it’s:
Monday: 1 hour, 10 5-min intervals at 2.25 min at 140% FTP (or higher, I just go as hard as I can) + 2.75 min rest
Tuesday: 1.5 hours, usually 8-minute intervals at just above FTP with 5 minutes rest between
Wednesday: 2 hours at 70%, 80%, 90% FTP and back down, repeat until end
Friday: 1 hour spinning at a reasonable resistance, 2 min each at 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 rpm, repeat until end
Saturday: Same as Wednesday
Three-week cycle followed by 1 week “rest”. Ironic quotes because I usually do something stupid like hike to the top of the Shawangunk ridge 2-3 times. Includes some recovery rides, no more than 3 hours total on the trainer through.
After every workout, I drink a chocolate Gu powder with a banana and a couple large scoops of peanut butter in whole milk.
I think that’s all the details of my current exercise schedule. Although I do want to hit a 4-hour century, frankly I’m not a racer, so my main goal with all of this is to make my usual Saturday/Sunday 80 to 150-mile long slow distance rides even more enjoyable. I ride for adventure, not to beat anyone.[/quote]
just make sure you add some diversity and don’t just repeat the same cycles for months on end, otherwise you’ll really get stagnant and stop improving. it’s important to cycle in heavier and lower weeks, as well as switch up the types of workouts you’re doing.
a lot of people who don’t compete have the bad habit of riding at the same level all year, so they’re fit in the winter, but they don’t get stronger in the summer. i used to ride with people like this, they’d crush me in the winter, then i’d be way faster than them in the summer. i think even as a recreational cyclist it’s good to have that virtual off season and “peak” whenever your main ride is, so just keep that in mind that you probably won’t be making a lot of gains if you just ride 7.5 hours every week for the next 4 months. i’m sure once the weather turns you’ll get some more outside time in that will add diversity, but don’t spend too much time repeating the same stuff.
[quote=crabbi]sup with this thread?
let stalk making bikes go fast[/quote]
o, hi tread!
i’m working on the going fast part
Did 3 crits yesterday, e3/4, e3, and p123
Attacked ~1.3 laps out in the E3/4 but got caught at the final corner
Was super active in the E3 and joined in a few break attempts. Missed the start of a break with around 15 mins to go, noticed it was starting to rain and decided to bridge up. Sprinted away from the pack and bridged for 2 laps before latching on. Felt pretty fresh and worked as much as I could in the break. When it looked like we were going to stay away, a couple of the guys in front of me sat up to start the cat & mouse, took that as my moment to attack, just barely held it to the line (had to squeeze through two riders at first so I hesitated a little more than I’d have liked)
Chilled in the pack with the P1/2/3 since it was my first time in a pro field. They were corning much faster than I’m used to. Lots to learn.
Awesome, Matt! I was planning on heading out there, but I was a little too hungover from birthday festivities.
I don’t know if I should be posting in this thread at all, but I’m happy to report that 13 weeks on a recumbent trainer did indeed make me objectively faster on an upright bike ridden outdoors.
Completed a 70-mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing with an on-bike average of 17 mph, although the last 10 miles I was thinking about calling an ambulance or at least a cab to take me home. My neck was fine, but I had pretty severe muscular back pain–presumably because those muscles had been little used for 6 months while my neck was healing.
Onward and upward! As long as it is above freezing this weekend shooting for an 80-mile 7000 feet of climbing ride. I am really surprised that I am recovering this quickly from 6 months off the bike.
4 months off the bike. did a quick 20 minutes at lunch. nearly barfed, 155w average.
