Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

🤷🏽‍♀️

I think it would be interesting to test your lactate levels at some point.
Maybe you have pro level legs in respect to lactate generation and tolerance, and your possible limiting factor is lungs/heart and oxygen delivery.
And if your V02Max goes up, your legs will just produce more power until it gets to the point of lactate burn.

That would be nice!

Haha! Yeah that’d be great.

Can’t seem to shift my FTP past 300w though. This year I’ve done ~30% more structured interval training on the turbo compared to the last two seasons and I’m no faster. If anything I’m a bit slower this year.

It does, I guess if @dbr did a max 1h effort, his legs would have built up lactic to the point where he would need to stop. If his legs are very aerobic compared to the rest of his CV sytem, and just builds up lactic slowly, then for 3-5m efforts, might not be a big issue.

I find it difficult to concentrate at FTP, because of the pain. If I am above FTP, the pain increases to the point I can't pedal any more, rather than feeling like I've run out of air/performance. My interpretation of increasing FTP is experiencing the same level of pain, but pedalling a bit faster/harder.

5w/kg is properly strong. I was reading somewhere that very aerobically inclined athletes tend to need to add significant volume for further adaptation, also from anecdotal evidence from very fast runner friends.

20-24h a week of zone 1/zone 2 riding might boost your FTP (just a winter of growing bigger vascular network maybe) but noone has the time for that...

Hmm yeah maybe. I’m not doing that, but maybe just more base /sweet spot and save the high intensity stuff for even closer to HC season.

On running, I managed a 40 min 10k with no interval training, just trying to run harder a few times a week for a couple of months. Not meant to be a boast post, just adding to your data set for internet diagnoses.

Yeah, 40 min 10k without training makes be a bit sad inside...

I’m planning on adding 1h at mid-high zone 2 at 90-95rpm every morning before breakfast, see whether I can build a higher level of fatigue resistance.

I’m planning on adding 1h at mid-high zone 2 at 90-95rpm every morning before breakfast, see whether I can build a higher level of fatigue resistance.

I would be interested to hear how this works for you.

I’m better setup for weekday very short rides (1-1.5hrs) this winter. I’m lucky I do have some good roads for training (inc a TT course just up the road).

I need to build ‘base’ but have no idea how to do that with these short rides. Just ride everything just below threshold? Who knows.

Do a turbo session without your fan.
That might have the desired effect as a lot of cramp seems heat related.
As you are quite small and lean you probably shed heat fairly well.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you sad inside 😓

Hah, I haven’t run for a while due to meniscus tears, so not missing the running part, just jealous of the multi discipline fitness!

Just ride everything just below threshold?

You’ll hit a plateau.
Or at least that is the theoretical outcome.

For the record, I was it not a 40:02 because the Strava app was telling you fibs?

40:09, thanks for reminding me. Lying Strava robot split announcements.

Looking back at Strava, I had a year of cycling fitness, I think I just had to spend a couple of months conditioning my legs to accept the punishment of running.

I'm sitting on a turbo thinking about your lactic acid... What would happen if you decreased the cadence to say 75 for the same watts?

Not sure. I can try it sometime though. I’d probably die a death. What kind of duration & intensity, or do you mean just any interval?

For 4x12min w/3min rest or something close?

SS, FTP?

How many hours do you have a week?

As hard as you can maintain for all of them, it won't be dissimilar to ftp (theoretical ftp, rather than the actual power ridden for an hour) I imagine? Average power.

Power is a balance between velocity and force. And in my brain I translate that to how much I have to breathe and how hard I'm pushing. 360w @75/80rpm i could almost hold a conversation at the same watts but at a higher cadence I couldn't. So I train to ride at a higher cadence because that's my limitation. All of this is pseudo science reasoning of course. My brain is funny and I deal with pain by just boxing it up and pushing it away.

4-5 sessions of 1-1.5h just below threshold sounds pretty grim, and will probably put you into a dark hole...

Riding intervals at sweetspot seems to provide enough training stress while not stressing your body too much. With regular small increases in watts throughout the winter?

4-5 sessions of 1-1.5h just below threshold

Yeah, good luck with that.

7 hours.

4-5 sessions of 1-1.5h just below threshold sounds pretty grim, and will probably put you into a dark hole...

So to clarify. It’s outside - riding as close to target as the road/traffic/body allows. In practice it’s usually around an hour of sweetspot with around 40 mins of that consisting of steady 8-20 min efforts.

Yeah :-/

Increasingly I’m thinking my outside riding should just be Z2, in whatever durations fit around life. Then twice a week some strength work and 2x15-20m efforts (in a gym).