Winter Cycling Plan Official Thread (Page 15)

• the sessions in Zone 5 VO2max were great and left me with "tremors" on my legs the 2x5' and the 5x3' are sessions I will remember. But still a bit far from what Coggan suggest on this Zone 5 sessions examples (they last more...)
• my 4th weekly session is indoor and lasting between 1h30 and 2h30 always because I can't get out here. Temperature is quite low. What I am doing is to keep high quality alternating 10' Ironman pace (70-75% FTP) and 5-10' Half Ironman pace, continously (80-85%)
• I see zone 3 sessions still pretty short but probably you are going to increase the length over time
• I guess you are ignoring Zone 4 sessions because it is VO2max focused for the moment, correct?

Ok folks, week #7 is up: http://jorgepbmcoaching.blogspot.com/

We are shifting gears; after completing round no. 2 of testing we now begin focusing on improving our 20 min power. We'll still do some VO2 max sessions this week plus tempo and long ride and in coming weeks will switch more onto our power threshold why should we work in improving our 20 min power? Well I was going to work on a detailed post for my blog but I found this article online which nicely explains the reasoning and science behind it. It also points out why working on what many athletes/coaches refer to 'base' training might be an ineffective way to train especially for those of us with limited training time.

Anyway, also pay attention to the notes and have fun!

Humm  I feel stronger and am looking forward to riding....but I seem to be stuck around the same mph avg.  I've been trying different gears and cad's and drinknig water / carbs stuff.  Any comments or pointers from anyone so far?  Missing data was learning the new meter buttons

Excellent question Sharky, I will respond tomorrow I promise!

The tests – why do I choose a 20’ and 5’ tests? The reason behind testing this duration on your power curve on different days is to attempt estimating 2 things: 1) 5’ is closely related to your max aerobic capacity (VO2 max) and 2) the 20’ test while it is a more intense effort of our maximum lactate steady state (MLSS) still it is long enough to give us a pretty good picture about it. Using both we can determine what’s our current fitness potential (ceiling) set up by your 5’ power and also to give us an idea how metabolic fit are we or not. Following the Hunter Allen method (doing both back to back) while it might allow us to estimate functional threshold power it doesnlt give us 2 datat point to set up a) our potential (5MP) and b) how far or not we are from that potential today.

Think if the 5’ test as the ceiling as to how much you can improve your 20MP which ideally setups your limitation, IOW with consistent training you could expect bring your 20MP closer and closer to your 5MP which eventually will plateau as you’ll hit your VO2 max limit. However most of us AGers haven’t done adequate training through years hence we are far from getting close to our potential. In many cases since we are not as fit close to our potential the 5’ test is more representative of our VO2 peak (rather than max) which just means how hard we can push ourselves aerobically though since we are not fit enough yet we are not pushing to the point we are reaching our max aerobic capacity. For that reason it is normal to see improvements in our 5’ min power which is of course good news.

The CP model – I like to use this model because it can rather accurately predict what’s our power close to our MLSS which among other things is defined as the highest steady state exercise level one can maintain while also maintaining an equilibrium between the elimination of blood lactate and the diffusion of lactate into the blood. MLSS is an excellent tool for assessing fitness level, predicting endurance performance, and designing training programs, That said the model has it flaws and it is not perfect; it assumes we can go over long periods of times without fatigue which as we know that is not the case. Also it assumes the max efforts are well executed and 100% representative our current fitness.

As we know any time we are exerting ourselves we fatigue through a series of physiological processes hence when the model is used to predict for efforts over 60 min it begins to lose accuracy. However for efforts up to 60 min it can be rather accurate which is a convenient way to predict an athlete’s 60 min power without actually having them do a full on 60min effort. Still even though the model can provide us a close estimate of our metabolic fitness for a 60 min effort I still suggest testing this at some point to see how close you are to your potential or not.

The other issue with the model is that it assumes an athlete will test under optimal conditions, IOW the data obtained from a test is accurate and 100% representative of our current fitness and as you experienced on your test that is not the case. If you don’t test rested/fueled to provide your very best max effort your result won’t represent accurately your current fitness and the estimates from the model will be off

As you can see with the model if your spread between your 5MP and 20MP is big then the 60 min power estimation tend to be lower; i.e. if your 5MP is 300w and your 20MP is 220w (239w CP60) then this indicates that while your max aerobic capacity is pretty good and you are able to push yourself rather intense up to 5’ your MLSS on the other hand is not as good and you lack the specific fitness hence even though you have the potential to increase your 20 and 60 min power closer to your 5MP, currently your fitness is not there hence your lower number.

OTOH, if your 5MP and 20MP this can mean 2 things: 1) that you haven’t trained enough to maximize your 5MP (your have achieved your peak rather than your max) or 2) you indeed have almost reached your VO2 max power (no more room for growth) and you have done a good job improving your power threshold to the point is near that VO2 max. This is not something common among AGers and we usually have lots of room for improvement.

Always remember to test rested and be ready to provide your very best effort so you can produce a true 5 or 20 max power and 2, remember that the 5MP is your current ceiling for improvement which means you can expect to increase your threshold power close to that *if* you do the training. In your case with a 5MP of 376w it means you have lots of room for improvement to get your 60CP, much higher of the current 304w. Though it is normal to see a big increase in your 5MP because we have been working on that aspect 1^st on the 1^st 6 weeks of the program. We just moved into maximizing 20MP and then will move to improve 60 min power (aka FTP)