How to Build Cycling Workouts (Most People Get This Wrong) | Ask a Cycling Coach 578

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
1

Hannah Otto joined us to go over every training zone in detail: What goes on in your body, the goals of spending time in that training zone, common interval structures, when you want to use it throughout the season, and more!

This episode is aimed to help you understand workout design for endurance athletes and cyclists, but is also a bit of exercise phys 101. Hope you enjoy!

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(00:00:00) Welcome + Coaching Question on Endurance Training

(00:00:42) Best Books for Learning Endurance Training & Physiology

(00:05:16) Training Zones Explained (Power, FTP & Energy Systems)

(00:08:14) Why Training Zones Aren’t Exact (Stop Obsessing Over Numbers)

(00:10:06) Matching Training to Your Race Demands

(00:11:30) How Workouts Target Specific Energy Systems

(00:13:49) Active Recovery: When to Ride vs When to Rest

(00:19:07) Zone 2 Endurance Training: Why It Matters Most

(00:22:02) Aerobic Adaptations (Mitochondria, Capillaries & Efficiency)

(00:28:21) Why Endurance Rides Feel Boring (And How to Fix It)

(00:34:23) Nutrition Mistakes During Endurance Training

(00:41:05) Tempo Training: The Most Underrated Zone

(00:49:13) Sweet Spot Training: Benefits, Structure & Misconceptions

(00:53:08) Why Sweet Spot Should Feel Hard (Not Easy)

(00:57:46) Threshold Training: Building Sustainable Power

(01:01:11) Lactate Explained: Fuel vs Fatigue

(01:07:20) VO2 Max Intervals: How to Improve Oxygen Utilization

(01:21:32) Anaerobic & Sprint Training: When It Matters

(01:30:01) How to Build a Complete Training Plan (Big Picture)

(01:33:02) Race Lessons from Hannah: Focus, Mistakes & Strategy

3

Great one. I’m glad you guys touched on Anaerobic & Sprint.

4

Thought this was a really interesting podcast and always good to get a refresher on the zones and type of workout.

Think we may have gotten a bit of insight into the new FTP system when Jonathan was talking about some people get better training with their zones being set higher than their FTP and others get better training from zones being set below their FTP. May explain some of this different behavior we are seeing from TR AI.

5

Thanks for the podcast - it was really helpful to listen to.

Regarding books, I’ll add the Matt Fitzgerald books. He’s a runner, so the books skew that way, but they’re easily transferable to cycling. My sense is that while Friel and Coggan, etc., are super informative, they’re also a real slog to read—they’re more like books you come back to in reference, rather than sit down and read. Fitzgerald’s are not like that: they’re really enjoyable as books. He writes about training in a very clear, engaging, anecdote-based way. I would recommend “80/20 Running” and “Chasing Mastery.” (I will admit that he tends to re-package ideas in a million different formats. If you read these two, you get 99% of what he’s saying in the other books.)

6

I just want to see the top secret features on Jonathan’s calendar.

7

This was a good one, real liked the break down in training zone.
Having Hannah there to bounce off the conversion was gold. :+1:

8

Discussion on Tempo was really intriguing, especially because I never see that zone in my planned TR workouts. I wonder if I should swap my upcoming 3.75h dynamic endurance rides for a 2h tempo workout before the Barry-Roubaix 100mi in April? I’m not trying to win but I’d love to stick with a fast-ish group on my lower-end gravel bike.

My plan’s main focus is on criterium races. I’m coming off 2 months of specialty, going right into a short base block. Next few weeks in a screenshot below, minus some strength maintenance work on M/F, on weeks where I don’t have an upcoming A/B race.

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9

Possibly the best ever podcast you guys have done. So much good info. I’m going to listen to this again every year. Thanks for sharing all your wisdom!

10

Loved the podcast so much useful information.

I have a quick question. I have been training on a watt bike in the gym since October and been gaining fitness to the point my latest FTP prediction was 309W. However, I just switched to a Tacx Neo 2T and I have not been able to hold close to the power figures that I was on the watt bike. I have turned off ERG mode which definitely helped but I have had to manually adjust my FTP lower to make my workouts more manageable. I was wandering if anyone else has had this issue and if you have any advice for me.

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Hi @Cflann13, this is a problem that is as old as power meters. Switching from one source of power to another where one is more sensitive (i.e gives bigger numbers) by more than a couple of percent has often presented difficulties to athletes. The classical advice to this problem has been to ramp test using the new power meter (be it an on-the-bike meter or a trainer), & use that as the one source of truth from then on. I’m pretty sure this still holds true with the new machine learning system, but @eddie or @SeanHurley could either of you please confirm?

eddie 12

I think there are two options here.

The first would be to use Workout Alternates and adjust workout intensity to achieve workouts that fit your abilities with your new trainer. That, alongside your post-workout surveys, should tell the software where your fitness is currently at. It doesn’t really care why it needs to change your workouts; it just wants to get you the best ones based on the data it has, so giving it some good data will help get it there.

Alternatively, you could take a ramp test as @roleypup suggested, but that’s not our favorite way to detect fitness anymore. While it may still work somewhat well for some athletes, it won’t for all.

If you’d rather a quick fix that may still require a little fine-tuning afterward, that could be a good option, but I think the first option is likely the better one.

Let me know if that helps and if you have questions/concerns or need a hand with this moving forward. :+1:

13

So do you think I should keep the 309W estimate and just try easier workouts and use the rating at the end to let it adjust over time?

I failed my first workout on the new trainer and didn’t hit the targets for my second so I thought lowering my ftp manually would be the next best solution but do you think I should keep what it says?

14

If you’re really struggling, you could try dropping your FTP a bit. Maybe start with 300 or 290, depending on how hard the workouts are feeling right now.

You’ll likely get higher-level workouts at first, but I’d still use Workout Alternates to find “easier” workouts to take on, at least at first. Of course, continue to adjust the workout intensity if things are too hard.

Let me know how it goes!