Increase your Cycling Power over the winter = Faster times on 2009 (Page 7)

I'm in too!  I've got a powermeter and a new roadmachine so sign me up.  Man BT colors are going to be at the front of every bike split across the country if this keeps up! Thanks Jorge.

Andy,

I'm going to try the program, with trainer and HRM. 

Ok peeps, this is how it is going to work. In order to be respectful to the other coaches on BT and the plans offered in this site, etc. this was moved to the mentor thread. Please save the link on your log or just got to my log and you can find it on the top.

The way I am going to deliver the training plan is going to be through my blog located at: http://jorgepbmcoaching.blogspot.com/ where I will post the sessions for the given week; one plan for those training with a power meter and one for those training with HRM or RPE. This will always be at the top of the blog and also on the links to the right under training plans I am going to post Q&As, how to do your tests, calculate you training zones and all the necessary information for you to follow the plan.

In terms of questions, use this thread to fire away any questions you might have. I will review this thread every day and try my best to keep up and answer. As you know the response is been amazing and I am happy I can help such a big group, however if it takes me a bit to get back to you please be patient. If any of the more experienced posters knows the answer to certain questions please don’t be afraid to jumping on and help! Please only this thread to questions

We won’t do the 1^st round of tests until week # 3 for that reason the first few weeks you’ll do the sessions based on RPE or your most recent HRM/power training sessions and just adjust accordingly. We just want to easy up into the plan and get you ready to push so don’t stress much about it for that time. Just do the sessions and be consistent.
For those training with HRM and RPE it is important for you to have a trainer or a loop/road in which you can test under the same conditions so we can track your improvements over the plan. You are going to need a cycling computer to measure speed. Testing on the trainer will be better as you can control and test under the same circumstances anytime.

Finally I was thinking of ways in which we can keep each other motivated and help us stay focused through the plan and the winter. Maybe we could start a thread on the challenge forum and form teams or something and see which team has the greatest improvement over the duration over the plan. The group with a greater % of improvement will be the winner and we could think of something as a price. That’s just an idea but I am all ears for better suggestions, whatever it takes to help most of you stay on track and become stronger cyclists over the winter!

I posted the plan for the 1^st week already plus notes info:
·               Week # 1 training with power meter
·               Week # 1 training with HRM/RPE
·               Notes about plan and how to read the plan (sessions)
·               Training zones and terminology

Keep in mind the sessions might seems a bit complicated at 1^st but it is very simple. You will always have a warm up, a main session done in sets (intervals) and a cool down. Sessions are set by time same as intervals which usually are either minutes or seconds and the intensity is always a % of your Threshold. Rest intensity and duration for each interval is always between parentheses.

Wow! Thanks Jorge! I was confused at first but then I saw the terminology explained...much better.

I assume these are just 3 workouts, whatever days work for us?

- I suggest to do Q1 on Tuesday, Q2 on Thursday and Q3 on Saturday. If that is not possible you can do sessions on Mon, Wed, Fri or just make sure to leave 48 hrs in between sessions.  For those doing cycling focus you can add a Q4 on Sunday or any other date that works for you.

Hi Jorge,

If I am using a CT, I usually just ride the IMF course because it doesn't have a lot of big hills but it has some. Can I use your training plan on this course or should I do the training in ergo mode?

I have never used the ergo mode so I wasn't sure.

Thanks

You will do another test (yeah fun ) on 2-3 weeks but let's use your zones as an example as to how use your LTHR to set up your sessions:

I believe you have confused max heart rate and lactate threshold heart rate.

The HR zones in the plan are based on a percentage of lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR; which is lower than max HR).  So it is possible to workout at >LTHR, i.e. 106% of LTHR.  It looks like you took 185 (your max HR) then calculated the zones using the %'s in the plan.  That's not the way to do it.  The zones in the plan are based on LTHR.  If you haven't done an LTHR test then you can not calculate the zones using the %'s in the plan.  You could use your max and one of formulas to calculate zones.  In your training log there is a link to heart rate data where you can use your max HR and the formulas (not the best way to calculate zones, but it's a start.  Later do a LTHR test).

Yes, just adjust your effort accordingly for the next few weeks and when in doubt go by perceived exertion. Once you do the testing you'll know your LTHR and training zones