Using a 'building power' cycling programme to train for an olympic?

Couple of points,
By definition, if your FTP is improving your 40km Bike time is improving.
Sometimes when you do the same thing over and over improvement slows down. Sometime the stimulus needs to change. But if you contineu to improve, go for it.
Training load is the biggest contributor to improvement. Since load is made of intensity and duration. If you decrease intensity you will need to increase duration.
Your training should become more specific to your race distance as you get closer to the race. This time of year is great to work on things like VO2max, strength, etc.
Adding endurance intervals during sessions adds up over time.

Thanks for the response!

Coincidently the power building programme I've been following is your one from Shane and Marc's power group. Have really enjoyed following it so far, about to start week 10. What has me confused is I can manage the threshold sessions such as last weeks where the main set was as follows

15:00@95% FTP
5:00@60%
15:00@96% FTP
5:00@60%
15:00@97% FTP
5:00@60%

but when it comes to do a session like one from a previous Olympic programme I followed - 70mins cycling consistently at between 80 - 85% I always really struggle. It's maintaining a sustained effort for a long time without any recovery period that is the issue.

It's currently summer where I live so in the middle of race reason now and will be training for an Olympic event once I've finished your programme. When you say 'Your training should become more specific to your race distance as you get closer to the race' 2 questions come to mind, what is race specific training for an Olympic and how close to the race should you start to specify?

Huge thanks for any help

Ha, that's funny that you stumbled on that program

I personally would be training specifically for a shorter event 6 to 8 weeks before the taper of the event. But I would have started maybe 20 weeks out and had done a couple of blocks before.

If you redo that program maybe add the sweet spot workouts which will give you longer intervals, shorter rest, still at a pace similar to your race pace.

Long rides, even aerobic have value and are nice to do.

Depends on your goal.
I tend to follow the thinking of Joe Friel.

If you are around an hour for the Oly ride, focus on muscular endurance and aerobic threshold.
Getting closer to race day (2 to 3 weeks out) one ride per week with intervals around 10 to 15 minutes each for a total of 60 minutes at zone 4 power. Work up to that, don't just jump into it.
One ride per week around 60 minutes at Z2 HEART RATE.
Your race goal is just below FTP.

Make sure you get a day off or VERY easy spin in Z1 power after the Interval day. No hard runs, no weights, etc to allow adaptation to occur.

"Your race goal is just below FTP"

This is the part that has me stumped - only in my dreams could I currently ride 40km just below FTP. Trying to figure out if I'm lacking something specific -my guess is muscular endurance or if it's a mental thing where I can do hard 15 min interval sets knowing there is a short recovery period before the next one.

You will want to work up to those intervals. I would not jump into them day 1 at 15 minutes.
Start with 6 or 8 sets of 2 minutes with 30 seconds easy.
Week after week, add 30 seconds or a minute to each, while adding 15 to 30 seconds to rest time.

Eventually you can get to 15 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.

Just takes time, consistency and motivation to stay after it.

the OP did say this a few posts back

Don't discount the amount of fatigue you are carrying when you say you can't dream of riding those longer intervals. I've noticed a significant difference from workout to workout just based on recovery. With a proper taper maybe 85-90% for 60-70 min won't be that tough. If you are nailing 15min sweet spot intervals I think you are right on track for an olympic distance race. Keep following your plan.

That's a good point thanks. It also raises another point I wanted to ask - what exactly is the ideal effort level to aim for, for an Olympic. If it's just below FTP as one poster has said wouldn't that be around 95% plus? Thanks

That depends on how accurate your FTP is set. Many people use overstated FTP values. If you go 90% of an overstated FTP you will run into trouble.
Once your FTP is properly set it will depend on your fitness level.
My best Oly traces with a proper FTP and good training volume were 92% which led to a good run. Higher than that impacted my run a lot.

Same deal with HIM. Some say 80% of FTP, but if your FTP is overstated or your fitness isn't there to support it, you'll not run well. It's all about finding that balance of bike effort and optimal run performance. It also depends on how long you plan to be on the bike, but that is more a HIM and IM issue.




Edited by marcag 2019-02-19 9:12 AM