I have been looking around the forum and wider Internet for an answer, of sorts, to this question. Is there any guidelines as to what type of training suits various rider types? E.G Anaerobic biased riders should train for muscular endurance adaptations or climbers should add more intensity to help increase power?? Or would looking at your power profile,and then comparing to the Coggan scale, and simply work on your weaknesses suffice? I’ve also heard some stuff about INSCYD reports etc from completed various duration efforts, which I’m not entirely convinced is accurate. I gather the only true way to get an accurate answer would be some form of lactate test in a lab. Thoughts?

[image] Matthew_Taylor: I gather the only true way to get an accurate answer would be some form of lactate test in a lab. The only true way is to try different methods, make meticulous notes, and discover what works best for you. What you’re asking is the silver bullet we all wish we knew before starting a training plan. After two years of structured training, I wish I knew the answer to this question as well. I think you have the basics covered, if you know your weaknesses, best to start there if your goals include performance in that area at least.

“Train your weaknesses, but race your strengths.” That’s the common theory, anyway. Me, I think you train to excel at the level you want to be, not the level you currently are. One thing’s for sure, a one-off lab test isn’t going to tell you anything worthwhile.

The other thing to consider is the timeframe for “experimentation” Typically most people see a response in days or a couple of weeks from anaerobic work. This makes it easy to identify cause and effect. The downside is they fade just as quickly. Adaptations to aerobic base efforts take months, and are very gradual, so it makes it hard to pin improvements back to specific forms of training. They are also harder to measure (eg. aerobic decoupling) than a ramp test.

As a basic guess, you probably respond best to the type of training you’re ‘naturally’ good at and that is most fun to you. So if you like long, all day rides, you probably respond well to endurance, and if you can’t help sprinting at every opportunity, you probably respond well to sprints. Whether that is the type of training you would make the most progress with is a different question, and has more to do with your goals. What is it you want to achive with training?

[image] splash: What is it you want to achive with training? My goal is just to get as high as Cat 2 and I would happily sit there as fodder. For me I would feel pretty happy about getting there and being able to join a race with some of the big hitters in the E/P cat. Whether I get there by way of RR’s or Crits, im not really fussy as I enjoy both formats of races. I see myself as a Punchy/All Round type of rider.

Option 1: pay $15-30 / month for a coach Option 2: use internet for a few years to attempt to fill large gaps in your understanding and approach You shouldn’t need lab testing at this stage. Plenty of field tests will tell you what you need to know. If you don’t know which ones or how to apply them, see above options. If you have a realistic chance of getting to Cat 2, it ain’t gonna be from “coaching by Internet forums”. If you’re not already riding tempo and endurance 5-6 days a week, start there. Regardless of the type of rider you are, you’re gonna need that. Everybody does and everybody responds to it. It’s when your response to that type of riding slows down that you really need help.

I should have mentioned that im already using TR and have been for nearly a year now (super happy with the product as a whole), so my programming should be thereabouts. Its more for deciding which type of base/build would be optimal for me

The half-life of adaptations to training are the same regardless of the type of training. The adaptations that most improve performance during a ramp test are the same as those that reduce HR drift, i.e., an increase in cardiovascular fitness.

They literally just posted a podcast explaining this stuff

They were talking about body types, not really what type of training one would respond to.

TrainerRoad

How do I find the type of training that my body responds best to?

Training

tshortt September 26, 2020, 9:01pm 17

Different original question but similar (and decent) advice:

Topic		Replies	Views
What Type of Rider am I Training ramp-test , ftp-testing	30	6760	April 18, 2019
Volume vs intensity responders? Training	27	4731	October 27, 2020
Rider type testing Training	10	1628	November 5, 2018
What "type" of cyclist are you? (Coggan chart analysis) Training	6	9371	February 9, 2019
Muscle fiber types, recovery and training adaptations Training	69	6682	March 20, 2023

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