I had used R (a programming language)…
McN watch
UAE training camp, riding plenty of #shocker# evil no man’s land/grey zone/happy hard/zone to avoid/uninformed age grouper intensity: tempo!
#sarcasm off
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Maybe plenty of tempo is evil intensity for age groupers. Esp. for those just off the couch and w/o pro-level genetics and yet-to-peak/resilient young bodies.
Would love to see any dentist try to emulate a UAE training block. 
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so better train like elite Norwegian xc skiiers because their genetics are so ordinary and similar to the average dentist?
And who says you should copy blindly someone else’s training?
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Definitely a 48-yr old Cat.3 on the physiological downward slope shouldn’t train like a 23-yr old pro who is still growing toward a physiological peak (with the aid of a team of specialists).
ISM, POL, SS, JRA…do whatever makes you happiest, it’s just a hobby. 
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Has anyone said a 48 year old should train like 23 year old pro?
I’m interested in how elites actually train. And how this training differs from discipline to discipline. And how it varies within a discipline. And that there may not be one true model among elites, despite what some podcasts tell us. Or one evil intenstity level which lead directly to bursting mitochondria and cortisol drowned overtraining.
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So…an informed age grouper would do plenty of tempo riding like a 22-yr old pro? 
@skyre really appreciate all of the time you take to gather, post and analyze this data. I find it very informational and valuable. I love all of the tempo as well! Gracias.
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It’s not so much that I love tempo (though “happy hard” describes it actually pretty well). It’s that “grey zone/black hole” bla bla that I find simply bizzare.
One additional point on the data above - I’ve already alluded to this before - ISM does not have his riders do low cadence work. The tempo efforts above are not at low cadence or sets of low cadence. This is really different to what you see with other pros. I haven’t seen a single low cadence session of McN yet.
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Consistent with ISM’s data. La curve is shown in one of the responses
less than 55kg and with these numbers? damn.
Results of my lactate test of today.
Have been working a lot in what’s usually considered zone 3 but is actually around 2mmol/L, 80-85% of FTP and has definetely paid back. Volume of around 15-20h per week.
Now, if only this study was still valid…
Biggest takeaway for me is that traditional Z2 is definetely too low, aligning with the ISM model.
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How long were the steps?
5 minute, 30w increase per step, starting from 150w. Trainer reading pretty low compared to favero assioma (around 20-30w)
What amount of time/week where you spending around 2mmol/L?
Great numbers by the way 
When asking for methods to determine LT1 one gets often the breathing/talk test recommended. I’m sure most folks recommending it have never tried it on themselves. I already start breathing heavily when I just step on the bike at resting heart rate.
Pay attention to this guy’s warm up. For him this is a fairly easy pace but this is not what I would consider as “easy talking”. His aero position will have an impact as well but this breathe/talk test is simply to fuzzy. Made me feel really good to see him talk like that. More confidence in my La testing results, nice calibration with my breathing/talking.
An impressive how he talks at threshold.
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I have very similar observations. I mean for me (and I suspect for many similar riders) traditional Z2 with upper limit defined by breathing/talk test or first ventilatory threshold is too low. And I also saw great benefit when spent a lot of time at 80-85% of FTP (which i still considered my upper Zone 2/polarized Zone 1). But this is just mine n=1. It won’t be true for everyone! There is no universal training/intensity prescription.
Funny, I had the same thought: warming up at about 50% of FTP, and already his speech was somewhat halting. (Maybe pausing to think since he’s being recorded, though?)
So here’s a thought. Sanders’ lungs aren’t likely to be any bigger than anyone else his size. At 200 or so watts, though, he’s going to have to be moving at least 75 liters of air every minute, which is probably going to require at least 25 breaths per minute.
Point being, could absolute exercise capacity influence the self-identification of VT1?
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My N=1 experience is that my HR is very stable with my breathing pattern. Each Saturday we do long steady group zwift ride and we talked over discord. As soon as I go over 150bpm it becomes difficult to finish my sentences.
I did the one hour drifting test as linked above in this thread and it gives me also that 150bpm ballpark figure for LT1 or VT1.
When I started 3 months ago, this was corresponding to about 200w. Now I can hold 215w for the same bpm and breathing pattern. I am happy with the results 
given I am only doing between 8-10hrs a week.
This week, I feel tired and last night I had more wine than usual, a bad night etc. Probably dehydrated as well. This morning my HR was all over the place. I was at only 180w for 150bpm, but as soon as I went over 150bpm I noticed the same pattern with breathing/talking ( I was talking with a friend during the full ride). In the 3rd hour, I start to feel better and the watts went up and closer to my normal w/HR ratio. Overall, I saw a pretty consistent relationship with breathing and HR over the last 3 months.
However, I agree that I have no clue what my lactate is. This is not optimal but it’s good enough for me now. For completeness this corresponds to 80% FTP, so low tempo… So, I continue with this approach a few months. We have a lot of snow here and I won’t go outside before a while.