I Showed Keegan Swenson My Sub-7 Leadville Training | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 584

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Keegan joined the podcast this week for my Sub-7 Leadville training check-in.

FTP isn’t too different, but my power at key durations is up ~5% and weight is down 2lbs (~1kg), putting me only 2lbs (~1kg) away from my end goal after having lost 8lbs altogether over the last few months.

Volume has picked up but at this point, there won’t be too much more lift in volume unless I can clone myself to handle higher priority life responsibilities :wink: .

Keegan offered great insight on some of the training nuances, nutrition, sodium, heat training, elevation training, and more.

Hope you enjoy, and if you want to help me raise funds for the Leadville Foundation (get more healthy meals to kids in schools!), you can do that here: https://give.ltfoundation.org/fundraiser/6845358

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(00:00:00) Welcome!

(00:00:56) Keegan Swenson Reviews My Leadville Sub-7 Plan

(00:09:47) Why FTP Is Less Important Than Real Workout Power

(00:10:28) VO2 Max Intervals and 30/30s for Leadville

(00:20:39) Sweet Spot Training for Long Race Power

(00:27:28) Keegan’s Leadville-Specific Training Advice

(00:41:38) Leadville Bike Fit, Drop Bars, and Equipment Choices

(00:49:58) Fixing Race-Day Nutrition, Sodium, and Gut Issues

(01:05:31) Tire Choice, Bike Setup, and Final Leadville Prep

(01:09:19) Keegan Swenson Wrap-Up

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@Jonathan mentioned wishing that a bathroom scale would show a rolling average instead of just the current weight measurement. It’s not a physical scale, but the Happy Scale app does this really well. You log your weight each day and it uses that data to compute a moving average and trendline. The yellow-background screenshot on their homepage shows a blue trendline with blue dots representing actual scale measurements scattered around it, which is a great way to visualize noisy weight trends.

They have a paid tier, but I’ve been on the free tier for years and it does everything I want it to.

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It really blows my mind that Jonathan, an admirably amazing cyclist, is doing all this, and the top pros will still go at least an hour (~15%) faster. :exploding_head:

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The effort the pros put out for long durations really blows my mind and then I have to erase it from my memory so I don’t cry over my own numbers. :sob:

I admire Jonathan’s dedication and focus in his training. I enjoy cycling and training for events but I just don’t have the burning desire for a specific race goal at this point.

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Couple interesting takeaways from the podcast. Them running Keegan’s numbers through TR and it being within 3 watts of his FTP was pretty reassuring to see. Also their discussion around FTP not being everything was reassuring. Kind of feel like I’ve been in a FTP plataeu but know I’ve been getting faster. Good to get that perspective from the outside.

Also loved Keegan continuing to hate on the aero obsessed. He’s been doing a bit on the cool down, but great to see outside it.

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The Garmin Connect App shows a 7 day average too

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Salter app shows 5 reading average

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All while Jonathan talks about his skin suit and aero socks. :winking_face_with_tongue:
I enjoy when he gets irritated about riders not taking pulls. I’d really love more people’s GoPros picking up in riders yelling at each other about not taking pulls. It sounds like it happens.

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Yeah. Even though pro racing can sometimes be quite different than amateur racing, many of the post race videos sound just like the chat I hear after amateur races. Keegan definitely isn’t one to make excuses, but everyone gets frustrated when they are marked and other people sit in looking for a few strong guys to do the work and close down breaks. The days of winning gravel races in the Grand Prix by just being the strongest rider are fading away. Strong guys will continue to shame the guys sucking wheel and the wheel suckers will keep doing it as long as it’s their best path to success. Some guys don’t think they can win (and many of those guys can’t), so sitting in can be good strategy. There is no glory in taking pulls when you are already in over your head and it causes you to get dropped.

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Yeah. I’m sure at the elite level there are plenty of guys knowing they’re not going to win but a top 20 at something like Unbound is a solid day and looks good to any sponsors they have.

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@Jonathan are you still doing gym work and/or running? I haven’t heard you mention either for a while so just curious, and also wondering if you dropped them (if you dropped them) due to lack of time or for performance reasons. TIA

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Withings does this also. In the app you can have it set to day, week, month, quarter, year, or all time rolling average.

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That’s not quite what Keegan said. His take was that measuring his FTP accurately to set workout levels, is pointless because his FTP changes are so small during a season that it’s within the range of watt values prescribed for an interval. I am not surprised that he isn’t monitoring it to try and raise it. His FTP is clearly enough to win races consistently. But the guy finishing 20th, trying to stay with him on an attack. Should that guy ignore FTP?

What really had me shaking my head was Jon agreeing that since launching AIFTP and predicted FTP TR users are going nuts chasing the number. And that we should not focus on it. Smash cut to him outlining precisely how he is going to reach a target W/kg FTP to get a sub7 Leadville. So, which is it?

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Dangling the carrot that is AI FTP PREDICTION front and center on career page, it should be no surprise people are uber focused on it.

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Agreed. It’s definitely a case of do as I say, not what I do, when TR proudly display their and Pro’s outdoor workout results with high compliance, promote outdoor workouts as a TR feature for new users; then almost universally slam the attempts from users attempting structured workouts outside. So demoralising.

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That’s a bit dramatic lol, they’ve been pretty clear that it’s a bug and they’re working on it.

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Bug in Prediction != “Almost universally slam”

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I will say the new AI FTP feature has stirred up forum activity surrounding it like somebody grabbed hold of a bee hive and shook it. And they’ve got the bug with the mobile app. I’m really hoping it’ll get stable in a month or two.

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The FTP messaging reminds me a little of the crypto investment bro messaging:

Price of bitcoin goes up: Great! this is what we predicted would happen.

Price of bitcoin goes down: Great! this is an opportunity to invest more.

FTP goes up: Great! The new AI is doing its job.

FTP plateaus: People need to stop focusing on FTP, it’s not the be-all and end-all.