5 min FTP intervals have been my bread and butter this season.
From spending most of the early season noodling around in Zone 1 with a traditional periodization program, I’m seeing greater benefits doing intervals almost exclusively. Anything over 3 hours kills me, but I rarely ride that long.
Hey, thanks for all of this. I did some structured training a long time ago, but assumed that whatever was current then isn’t now. I’ll give these different programs a shot.
If nothing else, I’ll be able to cargo bike my kid to school slightly faster after a few months of all of this.
reminds me of this:
[quote=iwillbe]Hey, thanks for all of this. I did some structured training a long time ago, but assumed that whatever was current then isn’t now. I’ll give these different programs a shot.
If nothing else, I’ll be able to cargo bike my kid to school slightly faster after a few months of all of this.[/quote]
If you want some detailed plans and have at least 5 hours a week to ride, consider a service like today’s plan (http://www.todaysplan.com.au). They offer generated training plans based on your input of a goal and your availability. You’ll need a HR strap for pacing. It’s a good way to get some good structure at a price far, far below that of paying a coach and it’ll keep you doing somewhat diverse workouts.
[quote=aerobear][quote=iwillbe]Hey, thanks for all of this. I did some structured training a long time ago, but assumed that whatever was current then isn’t now. I’ll give these different programs a shot.
If nothing else, I’ll be able to cargo bike my kid to school slightly faster after a few months of all of this.[/quote]
If you want some detailed plans and have at least 5 hours a week to ride, consider a service like today’s plan (http://www.todaysplan.com.au). They offer generated training plans based on your input of a goal and your availability. You’ll need a HR strap for pacing. It’s a good way to get some good structure at a price far, far below that of paying a coach and it’ll keep you doing somewhat diverse workouts.[/quote]
Oh, thanks for this, it looks as if it might keep me focused. I’ve got just about five hours a week for cycling, and luckily have access to some pretty underpopulated roads starting about ten minutes from my house. Paying for the “I train myself and want to manage my own training” seems like a reasonable approach to all of this.
Honestly I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen more “algorithmic coaching” systems popping up online. It seems like, with the access to and the level of analysis for data these days, it wouldn’t be a huge (read: well beyond my skill set) endeavor to develop a platform that could analyze ride performance and populate workouts based on previous activities.
I found a coach helpful for keeping me structured, partially to maintain sanity during the rides and feel “fresh” on the same roads day after day… but another part was the dread of a red workout popping up on TrainingPeaks.
Are you using heart rate or training off perceived exertion level?
I have used HR in past, and it sounds as if I will need to do so again if I’m going to use any coaching software (or get a power meter).
If there were a way to do useful structured training without quantification, I’d be into it - using perceived effort keeps things qualitative, and in past I have fallen into deciding if a ride was good or not based on numbers, rather than on the enjoyment of the time spent. It didn’t ruin cycling for me, but it definitely made it not as fun as it is otherwise.
So yeah, probably heart rate, once I find my monitor.
If you find and doing overly structured heart rate training is killing the fun but still want to ad some structure, you could do a couple rides every so often with heart rate to calibrate your perceived exertion and then do the structured workouts using PE as a general baseline. Don’t feel obligated to commit whole hog to hardcore roadie training if it saps the fun out. My training the last year was largely “ride kinda hard on the flats” and “ooh a climb let’s go hard up that” intervals. I enjoyed it a lot more.
Also having riding partners on a structured plan that you ride along with can be fun too.
Related, but the stages link training platform is powered by today’s plan, so it will offer similar services, plus some additional features. We aren’t packaging the subscription and training plans separately though, so the pricing structure will be different. It’s live on beta if anyone is interested in checking it out, but no pay services yet.
i’d skip the heartrate and stick to p.e.
also:had some good results lately. came in 15/3000 in a big gravel race over here, then 5th on sunday, my best result in a cat1-2 road race. recent ftp test reveals 349w. chasing that cat1 upgrade.
[quote=Roundabout]If you find and doing overly structured heart rate training is killing the fun but still want to ad some structure, you could do a couple rides every so often with heart rate to calibrate your perceived exertion and then do the structured workouts using PE as a general baseline. Don’t feel obligated to commit whole hog to hardcore roadie training if it saps the fun out. My training the last year was largely “ride kinda hard on the flats” and “ooh a climb let’s go hard up that” intervals. I enjoyed it a lot more.
Also having riding partners on a structured plan that you ride along with can be fun too.[/quote]
Good point:
I can get my intuitions about perceived effort periodically checked by HR use.
I totally admit that it’s my personality, not training in the abstract, that’s at issue here. Most people can probably do some light quantification of their workouts without getting all weird and spreadsheety, I just tend to really home in on any kind of improvable personal metric, to the exclusion of, you know, fun.
people got really fast before all the metrics we have today. i’ve gotten gadgets and coaching and i find it helpful, but even still i think my progress would stagnate without making sure i show up to fast group rides on the regular that have faster wheels i can chase recklessly. no computer screen motivates like that for me.
PR’d a local bi-weekly hilly practice TT this week by :30 on a windy day, and would have had another :30 up on it had i not had to deal with some vehicle traffic. FTP is creeping up awfully close to 4.5 w/kg - looking forward to putting it to use in a few more XC races in the next month. maybe i’ll hit up a road race or two…
fug yeah, scott!
you’ll wonder how you ever rode a bike before.
So I’m doing this Lapathon thing for the youth program at the track. I hadn’t been on a track for many years since yesterday, when I rode 50 miles on the road, came home to switch bikes, and rode on the track for an hour (probably a half hour; some friends were there and I was being social)
I tried to go out at a sustainable pace (what felt like 15 mph) and ended up doing mostly ~22mph laps without going too hard. Then I rode home. It was fine; I felt like I could have gone for a long time. Do I need to go out and ride that bike for more than an hour before this event on Saturday, or am I good?
[quote=Bahamontes]So I’m doing this Lapathon thing for the youth program at the track. I hadn’t been on a track for many years since yesterday, when I rode 50 miles on the road, came home to switch bikes, and rode on the track for an hour (probably a half hour; some friends were there and I was being social)
I tried to go out at a sustainable pace (what felt like 15 mph) and ended up doing mostly ~22mph laps without going too hard. Then I rode home. It was fine; I felt like I could have gone for a long time. Do I need to go out and ride that bike for more than an hour before this event on Saturday, or am I good?[/quote]
What’s are the details of the event? How different is the fit between your road bike and track bike? Sounds like you’ve still got the endurance for it at least a few hours of riding, I’d probably just make sure nutrition the night before and during the event are on point.
I mean, you’re not gonna gain any fitness in the next week, so it’s best to go in somewhat fresh.
Only thing to watch out for is that spending too long in the drops is likely to destroy your hamstrings, so make sure to change up positions, use the tops, get out if the saddle, etc. if this is an all day laps kinda event.
Good advice; thank you.
The event is 6 houra with a one hour break to spiel about the youth program and the late namesake of the event. There is a 200 lap max on a 1/5 mile track. I’m hoping to be maxed out by the break.