Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

I see your point, but I think we train in different ways.

I wouldn't try to improve 1m power by just going out and doing successive 1m intervals at max effort until exhaustion - it's hard mentally/boring, and hard to be specific/repeatable when you are just doing fatigued max efforts, which will be lower than the first effort.

...the alternative is just to get WKO or similar, and not bother testing ever again.

But why are you training 1m? Presumably you've raced 'something' for 1m or with a 1m max component and want to improve it? There's your 1m value. Otherwise you're picking arbitrary time frames to improve which seems a bit weird. If you have no power data you could test but most people recommend just riding with a PM for a while to collect some data and familiarise yourself with everything.

If you're training with power, get WKO/TrainingPeaks. You still need to test.

the alternative is just to get WKO or similar, and not bother testing ever again.

Not the case. WKO4 needs a full PD curve to spit out a good mFTP figure. So that means feeding said PD curve max numbers at short, medium and long durations.

I don't know about anyone else, but I very rarely do max efforts on rides. So I have to do specific rides (usually on the turbo) to do max efforts.

mFTP or "made-up" FTP

Doing max efforts to get a power curve so WKO can estimate your FTP when you don't do max efforts in races seems silly to me.

waits for tester to say all FTPs are made up

mFTP

have you patented that?

Coggan almost certainly has.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/an-introduction-to-the-new-ilevels-in-wko4/

Doing max efforts to get a power curve so WKO can estimate your FTP when you don't do max efforts in races seems silly to me.

Agreed

I picked 1m for two reasons: my power profile in TP shows it's significantly below the other values that it has picked out from racing this season, and secondly it's probably the most useful interval to improve for bridging, breakaways, longer-range sprints etc for the racing I am doing.

Maybe you could go through all your power files and see that it's actually 90 seconds, or 100 seconds, or 86.52 seconds that is the average max period in a given race, but 1m is what TP uses so I want a protocol to test this regularly, in the same way last year I was doing regular 20 minute tests for FTP. NB I don't really care about FTP this year other than for training zones, but probably should...

You're missing my point. Assuming you had a powermeter fitted for these races you already have the 1m profile, right? So, why do you need to test 1m to build a profile?

Because I'm not racing through the winter, so I want some way to track 1m power whilst training it. That was my original question - a standard protocol as UTFS came up with so many different results.

You'll be training around 1m, so the values will be in the profile.

Wait, you don't have WKO, so where is your current 'power profile' coming from?

Training Peaks has a power profile chart in the dashboard.

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The coggan CTL model stops working in ultra stuff really, after a few days. Given all I can do is 150w and my ftp would be like 200w. But it's the best there is. But take all number with a pinch of salt, they don't even begin to tell the story really!

FTP doesn't mean shit when you're spending 11hrs in a lodge waiting for your ankles to move again or running into service stations every 2hrs to put fresh cream on your arse :)

You can build a power profile from the shortest hardest test (appropriate to your event) up to the longest easiest one.

for example, a rider may do a 30s sprint test, an MMP and an FTP which gives you 3 points to plot. You then train and monitor each one to see if gains in one are affecting another and balance it with your phases and specific targets through the season/cycle.

If you (or your coach) don't understand the principles of conditioning, how or why or when to phase training then you don't need a power meter to tell you you're probably riding all the time in Z4 and most likely won't see any significant gains rather stability peppered with the odd feel good session and odd injury/niggle.

Except for Hippy, who rides in Zone 100 all the time everywhere, but he's special like.

You type special, slowly and with air quotes didn't you?

" s p e c i a l "

Exactly.

Why can't I make the pain go away. My legs have been feeling like shit for a month straight now. My FTP was ~300 before, now I can barely push 270. I tried having an easy week, took 3 days off. Same old. Been foam rolling over the last few days and it doesnt seem to be helping, just painful.

Legs just feel tight, knotted, dull and achy. Feels like my muscle fibers are all pointing the wrong way. My training is the same as its been for months, no increase in load. TSB is floating around -10 to 0.

I'm off to Mallorca in 3 weeks and not sure how to approach. Will a sports massage help?

Overtrained?

You mentioned this when I saw you last and I said I'd been experiencing something similar. Well, it's been getting steadily worse. Have you given me leg AIDS?!!!

I was thinking my pain might be due to having stopped training the last few weeks. I've just been commuting and riding at the weekend. Anyway, a sports massage is where I'll be headed next week.

Have you considered cycle training?

Maybe I am over trained, although I don't feel like my volume is enough to warrant that (6-8 hours + commutes). TSB isn't low. I don't feel like i have any other symptoms of over-training other than legs say nope.

Maybe it is leg aids. Sorry @TTM I should have let you know before we shared that ride together.