So, as a triathlete short term power isn’t really a priority for me like at ALL but I mean it would be nice to be able to punch a bit.
Take for example: I was out riding with some friends last weekend. We come across a short hill at speed and a pure Testosterone fueled sprint occurred. Both of them passed me. Now my ego isn’t that fragile and I can drop them on any 10+ min effort but I’m wondering if can improve it without too much impact to overall training.
If you have so much free time… Stop doing Tri’s and train for TCR …lol
No sorry.
Okay vanity gets the better of us… I am training for TCR… I do not need to sprint… your so called friends know you can beat them on 10+ stuff so they are baiting you. It also saps some of your leg power for later.
If You really want some sprint power… no short cuts , you need to do some VO2 max training which takes some recovery from and will take something from somewhere else… No pay back… there are always something.
I have no idea…but I’m curious. My ftp is 50 watts lower, but 5 sec power is 1219. Switching from short power build to sweet spot base high volume to try and raise ftp. Wondering if i can keep sprint i have, or hopefully grow it as well without torpedoing my other training.
Is this actually accurate though? I was under the impression vo2 work targets the aerobic system. Well I take that back…I KNOW it does. Which is the opposite of an all out sprint.
I mean…I bet I can sprint at 1000 watts for 10 seconds while holding my breath.
Yes but is highly individual and depends on your anaerobic capacity- there is anaerobic contribution that you are depleting, for example during hard starts to the vo2 max interval, and after that you are working aerobicaly. And people with high anaerobic capabilities usually have to work on higher percentage of FTP to depleat anaerobic part. If I understand the mechanism correctly.
To me that 5 second power stands out as lower hanging fruit than the 1 minute power. I’d bet you could dramatically improve that by incorporating a handful of 15 second sprints into very easy rides a few times a week.
I agree with others. To me the 5 sec power is much lower than expected. The 1 min power isn’t super high but I wouldn’t call that lacking. Practice sprints and it should come up relatively quickly.
Hi
I checked the Guru book, It’s Neuromuscular Power you are looking for. So Short Shorts or Micro bursts (15 seconds hard 15 second off) do this for 10 minutes. @ 150% of FTP will do what you need. You can do 20 minute easy then repeat if you have more time.
definitely! And you don’t need much of it. Work in some 5 x 1m efforts 1x a week and you’ll see improvement. Max out the effort and def go harder than vo2max power.
I don’t think some extra work on sprinting will hurt your overall training, but watch out for muscle fatigue.
A sprint focussed session will take more out of you than the average sweet spot session, due to muscle repair required if you’ve done it right.
Basically treat them like heavy weights sessions, with enough recovery.
Specifically for sprints, you shouldn’t need to do intervals of more than 30 seconds, anything longer than that isn’t a sprint.
Outdoor ride, with at least 5 minutes easy in between, accelerate into a short climb and go absolutely nuts for 15-20 seconds. Repeat 4-times. Add a couple of 5-10 second sprints with 1-2m rest in between, to simulate rapid accelerations to chase people down, then go home and lie down.
I’m contemplating actually working on a sprint. I just startarted sweet spot base high volume. I do a group ride on sundays with a few full gas sprints. Thinking about turning the friday easy zone 2 ride into a sedate affair, with a handful of sprints. I’d like tk see if I can develop mine some. My 5 sec power is apparently 1219 untrained, with a fairly modest 284 ftp.
Looking back at some old data. I apparently did 1003 5s in a crit last year, but the biggest difference is that last year I was completely shelled after the first prime and basically held on to the end.
Today I cold do a handful during a 100 miles and it felt really repeatable
So cool to see progress like that
Nice, you definitely can improve it or improve your watts/kg. I am at the end of the spectrum where I am unlikely to get more watts out but my watts/kg is increasing. It’s up to 15.35w/kg in the last 6 weeks (862w), from 15.13w/kg (899w), from 9.78w/kg (612w) when I started training in 2015
It’s only based on 5 years of power data and I might have exceeded 1000w when I was younger and heavier
and I can drop them on any 10+ min effort but I’m wondering if can improve it without too much impact to overall training.
