SBR "U" (Page 66)

that's right, Kim - I completely forgot about your injuries last year. Your FTP must have Been through the roof once you finally recovered!

LOL - too true! That's one of the reasons I got out of bike racing (the primary reason was that I was not very good at it). Trouble is at I seem to crash as much now as I used to way back then!

In the comments he actually recommends a more "well-rounded" plan and even provided a link to such, I think. Remember this isn't a training block intended to get an athlete to peak, it is specifically geared toward cyclists with at least 5 years of hard training under their belt and who have "plateaued" or "stagnated" and want to jumpstart their progression. Seems like the goal is to really raise the floor more than the ceiling, so to speak. In the comments he does make it clear that it is sort of all-or-nothing. In his mind there is something specific as to the 8 weeks, the order and quantity of workouts, and the intensities. He does state that if an athlete cannot hit the intensities then they need to increase their rest intervals until they can, or if they still can't they need to stop as the workout no longer is producing the desired training stimulus and response. Basically when people asked him "how can I do this block and still do 'X' training, he basically says you can't, you need to stop doing 'X' training for 8 weeks for this to be successful. He did respond to a triathlete and said that it would be a good block for long course athletes to take on, however. My guess is that it would take a very highly trained triathlete with a lot of confidence to do such a singularly-focused block in lieu the more balanced approached we are used to. 

Perhaps most importantly however I would also imagine that it is safe to guess that the reason most of us triathlete types have plateaued on the bike is because of the other swimming and running we do rather than a failure of the training and response mechanism. In other words few of us are anywhere close to having the actual issue he is trying to address with this training block.

Would a triathlete get any benefit from doing a modified version of this?  Something like three VO2 rides a week, but keeping the weekday rides to less than 75 minutes, with running/swimming in place of the easy riding days? 

My bike power has stagnated (actually, dropped....) and I'd like to do something to get through this plateau without dropping the swimming and running altogether.  I'm currently on the bike 5x a week with a VO2 ride, a threshold ride, a hard group ride, and two easy Z2-type rides....swimming 2x a week and running 5-6x a week.

I did a block this past winter where I did 3x bike per week with two of them VO2max'ish type of thing (one true vo2max and one above that - short, very hard efforts) and one threshold.  I saw some pretty decent gains from that, more than I have in previous winters.

That article was a little funny when it talks about doing those workouts on the road.  Hah.  I can't imagine riding that kind of workout anywhere except the indoor trainer.  It'd be too hard to stay safe from traffic and other obstacles when you're doing those kind of sets.

Think of the Power group, and the TT profile workouts espeically. Thought that was 2 VO2 to 1 sweet spot (roughly)? That is a more toned down version of this. A couple of the rides do have some fast work in them, but it's also lower volume with larger recovery. I guess sort of like strides for running, but may be a touch more advanced. Without rechecking to verify, I thought something like Friday had a few 30-60" hard sections that also had several minutes between each. Not really *that* different from how strides go.

yeah, still need to go through the comments. Remembering the intention is a good point to bring up. Also on the latter points, especially the specifics of the intensity. I'm still surprised at times how many people hang around and still don't get that. It's not always harder is better and you don't really salvage a VO2 specific workout by working in sweet spot. It happens at times, but you really want to figure it out so that you can work at the appropriate intensity. Especially important when trying to break out of a plateau. Someone coming in could improve doing most anything, but at the plateau you have to drive the response of what's holding performance there. It might be more in general, but could more of a specific aspect.

With Nicole asking how much to do, I'm remembering from Skiba's work (and some other) about doing so many VO2 sessions in a week. He had found that doing 3 didn't really add anything over 1 or 2, so it would be best to limit things to that. I don't think that makes this workout block "wrong", but may limit the applicability of it some more.

I'm going to assume that the anaerobic intervals being referred to in this thread that Marc was a part of, are of much higher intensity/shorter duration than what is being proposed on the Hunter Allen blog?

ETA the link...

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/_do_what__to_improve_anaerobic_power__P5541606

The focus of what Marc is looking into is different than the heart of that block of training even though all of this is very hard work. There is anaerobic work going on in the block, but the sets are largely around developing VO2 max so they are emphasizing mid to high Z5.

So, this has nothing to do with vo2 max, FTP or anything but I wanted to share this weekend's adventure. Or at least what a friend/teammate and I are going to attempt:

We are going to run around Mt. St. Helens. There is a loop trail that hovers around  4-5K'. The total trip will be something like 35 miles and 6K elevation gain but it will likely take 10-12 hours because of some sections of rock hopping/un-runnable terrain. 

It should be a good one! 

With that elevation, climbing, and terrain it sounds like you would want a healthy VO2 max! 

Wouldn't that actually be SO2Max? ;^P

Very cool Salty - but I didn't know they had bars on the mid slopes of Mt. St. Helens? Seriously - can't wait to read all about it - good luck and keep us posted!

Yeah, that looks incredible!  Good luck!

I thought beer was one of the ten essentials? 

Always be prepared.

And I thought this was the purpose of you getting other people out there?

When I was a kid, I lived under the plume when Mt. St. Helens erupted -- I was in Vancouver, WA.  It's always nice to see how much it has recovered over the years.  I remember so much of the area being destroyed.  Spirit Lake, gone.  We had ash a couple inches deep covering our streets and we couldn't go outside without masks.

I'll see if I can dig up some old photos when I get home.

USAT AG Draft-Legal Championship Registration just went live - I know it is crazy as I am such a good swimmer, but I just registered for a spot before they are all gone.

Anybody else interested?

Cleremont, FL, November 7

http://www.active.com/clermont-fl/triathlon/races/usat-draft-legal-sprint-triathlon-2016-world-championship-qualifier-2015-15979555

um

I know - completely ridiculous, right?

...but at least it is not like I will be running around some exploded volcano or anything.

I mean it will just be a bunch of 45-49 year old age group triathletes riding in a tight group really fast. What could possibly go wrong?

And OK, I actually suffer no delusions that I would be in any group - I am pretty sure that for me it will be sorta like every other triathlon I have done, except that the guys up the road in front of me will be drafting legally.

And I will be on a road bike.

With the HIM in 2 weeks time I'm going to assume that my last long run was today - 90min on the treadmill.  A few months ago I wouldn't have dreamed of spending that long on one these machines.  But the weather dropped to 7C with wind and rain, and after a 25C bike ride yesterday i was not going out in the cold.  Turns out that run capped my biggest run month in over a year, and I'm still not at 100 miles for a month.  Think I'll need to increase the run frequency if I have any thoughts about a marathon in the fall.

We had that same temperature drop roll through here today.  

I can't imagine doing 90 mins on the treadmill!  Ours is currently in a state of disassembly - it has a bad bearing in the rear roller and makes a terrible racket.  I can't find a replacement roller anywhere (company went out of business a few years ago) so now I'm trying to get just the bearing out and replacing it.  It's a pretty standard part if I can get it out.

How are you feeling about the race Neil?  Which one is it?