Anyone else has a dip in their anaerobic zones of their power curve?

Always wondered why I suck so bad at anaerobic zone. In relationship to my ftp, and basing my observation on 4 years of serious structured training and what kinds if interval trainings are easy and which ones hurt so bad that i can’t complete, i can comfortably say that my threshold, neuromuscular, and vo2max is much, much better than my anaerobic capacity. my training peaks profile has always reflected this as well. on the road, after 30 seconds of pretty comfortable feeling of holding high (relatively) power, I feel like I hit a WALL. my legs burn pretty immediately and the power I can hold drops drastically. I’m hoping the short power build phase addresses this in the training program but meanwhile I wanted to reach out and ask if anyone has similar issue and were able to train themselves out if this “dip”

for reference here’s my career bests:
1hr: 242
20mins: 285
5mins: 330
1min: 469
5sec: 1070

these are bests but i have a lot of data on max efforts over the years. my bests have been pretty repeatable (within few watts) so not one of weirnesses. I feel like 330 for 5 mins to 469 1 min is a very small jump.

A simple question I would have is - how much have you done focused work on your short power in the run-up to your 1-min and 5 sec bests?

Short power can be built up quickly, and is also lost quickly - you can’t sustain it for long times without burning out. That’s why it’s usually addressed in peaking / specificity training phases. If most or all of your training is non-anaerobic, your short power results will be well below potential until you directly address it.

I’ll do 2-4 weeks of short power work a couple times a year and can move my 30 sec to 2 min power by 100 or more W, and can then hold that level for about a month or so. The last couple of years, I’ve used a descending approach where I do 2-min power intervals 2x a week for 1-2 weeks, then a week or so of 1-min repeats, then 1-2 weeks of descending repeats from 60 to 45 to 30 to 15 seconds. It’s worked well; there may be better ways I haven’t found yet.

It’s brutal work - I won’t lie. Personally, I don’t worry about holding a consistent power during these intervals. I start around 2 - 2.5x my FTP, then just hang on for dear life.

Man, we have VERY similar power numbers - for the most part. Except for that 1 min power.
Here are mine:
1hr: 241
20mins: 284
5mins: 328
1min: 508
5sec: 1131

For reference - I’m 67kg, not really a sprinter, not really a climber. Kinda just ok at everything, and haven’t really focused on any one element. Last year was SSB LV, then Sustained Power and Century specialty.

Looks familiar!

1 hr - 269W
20 min - 288
5 min - 327
1 min - 540
5 sec - 1155

Honestly speaking perhaps I haven’t focused on 1 minute specifically or as much as I do on 5sec or 20 min efforts. In the past years I have a lot of sprint practice but thinking about it unless I’m specifically doing a 1 minute max effort I have always sprinted for 20s-30s-10s or whatever the terrain / segments call and they have rarely been 1 minute efforts.

So perhaps it’s trainable and I have neglected it. Hopefully TR’s short power program will kick my butt to increase my level :slight_smile:

Crazy! Yeah this is very similar. Eventhough TR shows my 5 sec as 1131 I actually have a sufferfest 4dp test I’ve done on Favero Assiomas that showed me 1130 as well so even more similar in reality. Except as mentioned, my sucky 1 min power :wink:

I’m sort of ok at everything too I feel. Hopefully I can sharpen some skills before my main race in June. Otherwise it’s hold on to the main group in front and hope for the best again!

I’m not alone! :smiley:

Part of its probably from being smaller in general - don’t have the explosive power/muscle. I’m a bit lighter, but same kinda deal. Unlike me, your 1min is at least a decent amount higher than your 5min
20min - 345
5min - 380
1min - 550
5 sec - 1200

Yeah I’m similar. It feels as if the anaerobic system isn’t switching on, or takes too long to do so. I mostly notice it in cross races, I can do a good start of the line, but get dropped 45s in. A bit later, I can pick it up again. My power profile also has this dip around 1-2 min, and my 5min is my best power.

I haven’t really focussed on 1-2 min efforts in training, so maybe that would help.

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This is interesting and I (think) has been covered at some point on the TR podcast but I can’t find the reference - maybe I’m not looking properly …

I have noticed that prior to starting using TR and following structured training for the first time in September last year that my short power (sub 5 minutes) wasn’t too bad but my long power (not sure that is the right definition) was relatively weak.

Jump a few months and my ability to hold better consistent power over longer periods has improved a lot albeit my FTP hasn’t moved much.

What is definitely noticeable is my short power had dropped off a fair bit.

I’d say it probably goes back to the old maxim of use it or lose it. I’ve been training and focusing on SSpot style riding indoors so no wonder that type of performance has improved.

I used to ride in a fairly unstructured and ‘polarised’ manner - plenty of rides were mostly low speed easy plods punctuated with short blast hammerfest efforts.

I’m pleased to read that short power can come back relatively quickly as I was worrying I’d lost it for good :grin:

Now I’m into short power build and will move onto Crit speciality my expectation is in a few months I’ll see a bump in my numbers on that part of my power curve - hopefully it will eclipse last year’s number based on the extra work I’ve done in ‘base’ over this last autumn and winter.