Just an anecdote, but I am about twice the age of your son and did exactly none of the things that his coach has recommended, other than emphasizing the importance of rest.
My FTP peaked this year maybe 15w lower than what his sounds like his was.
The only thing I have in common with your son is several years in a row of ~500+ hours a year.
I would suggest that the likely reason for this is that the stuff he’s mentioned is likely extremely trivial in terms of its importance in training and performance compared to just long term high-volume riding.
The most shared km’s on Strava by active world tour and pro team riders in 2024:
Lukasz Owsian - Arkea, 39366 km
Lennert Teugels, Bingoal WB, 39102
Magnsu Kulset, Uno-X
In case of first two, their teams didn’t extend their contracts and they dropped down do Conti level.
As far as coach is concerned his riders won in many different categories: 1 Olympic Games medal, 19 World Championships medals, 12 European Championships medals.
Yea, the notion that base training is just easy riding needs to die. The only time that makes sense is if you are doing 20+ hours of easy riding. I would recommend following TR’s workout suggestions and then add some Z2 on top.
Sorry, don’t understand. If you’re suggesting to try some of those things…
I do shift work so consistent bed time is not an option.
Having a beer once or twice a week or eating some ultra processed food (like malto powder or gels) sometimes has also never had any significant negative impact on my training in the ~decade I’ve been doing this.
I tried tracking sleep for a while and it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, so stopped. Same with HRV.
(Actual) Sub-10% body fat is associated with increased risk of certain health problems, and is too much work for the amount of time I have. I also tend to perform best around 15% - I’m not a climber.
I also wouldn’t get bloodwork in the absence of specific symptoms - I work in the medical field.
If I was a professional cyclist where a 0.01% gain might be relevant, I’d care more about this other stuff. I’m not though.
That’s fair. I appreciate the flattery to try and deflect things, but I hope it’s not actually needed. My only point here is that I am doubtful a lot of this stuff contributes to performance in a significant way. And worry that people will focus on the little things while neglecting that time and volume are like >95% results.
I’ve seen a few people IRL go down the rabbit hole with some of this stuff, and it did not lead them to a healthy place. Things like eating disorders, losing friends and family because they worry about the effects of going out on their diet/sleep/etc. worsening anxiety/mental health. Etc.
If I’m coming off as too contrarian, it’s probably because I’m speaking with those memories in mind, so the tone is a reflection of that, rather than of this convo.
Yeah. I already see that I focus too much on details and this is not healthy for me. I am stressed when Christmas comes, when I eat a pizza or something. This dont help me with training at all. One pizza in a month or even in a week or 1 Christmas in year will not make me weaker rider. I am trying to change my approach
That siad, I think doing some blood test is reasnable two times / year if you train a lot.
Bands measuring sleep in my view are useless.
I don’t like alcohol so no problem with this.
Body fat at around 13-14%. Maybe I could go down slightly, I would like to lose 2-3kg. But it is soo hard at that point. I prefer to increse power.
I done it but you’d definitely be better with the latter (increasing power). I lost a 3kg tumour and section of my colon. Luckily, I seemed to keep most of my muscles and somehow coped with the massive weight drops in chemo before stabilising again at my post op weight. So, when lockdown hit a year later, I was able to focus on some consistent training volume without the interruption of more fun group rides and get to just over 5w/kg.
)
this is the way