To add clutter, perhaps – Coggan has stated many times over on the Wattage Forum that, in all his years of lab testing, 2mmol is, on average (the bell curve, so take this with bell curve salt), 90% of FTP in trained cyclists. So not that much different from Ferrari.
You can’t go to 85-90% for 40-60 minutes every darned day for a month, or even a week, perhaps, nor should you. But if you’re going off of lab-tested values, then 2 x 20 @ 88-90% is the very top end of the “green zone” if you are average. We know that not everyone’s MLSS is 4mmol. And not everyone will be at 2mmol at 90% FTP.
Nope. Over on Wattage, he has described his winter training as an hour of 85-90% on M-F, then long 4-5 hour zone 1-2 rides on the weekends, 'occasionally swatting a fly" when he feels like it.
So yes, a lot of SST, but more total time in lower levels.
I know you’re probably mostly joking but do think this is relevant. Juiced athletes have enhanced recovery abilities, so the optimal training approach for a juiced vs clean athlete is likely to be different. By the same token, the optimal training approach for a 25 year old pro with unlimited time to train and top >0.1% genetics is likely to be different to the optimal training approach for a 50yo amateur with a full-time job and average genetics. Doesn’t invalidate everything that Ferrari says, just needs to be borne in mind.
I remember listening to Armstrong’s podcast at the Giro in 2018 when Simon Yates was absolutely killing it in the first half of the race and Lance was like “you heard it here first, this guy is going to win this race, nobody’s going to catch him in this form”. Which in the 90s and 00s when everybody was using EPO or blood doping to recover between stages would most likely have been absolutely true. But in a (hopefully) cleaner peloton in 2018 then racing that way is more likely to burn yourself out early which is exactly what happened to Yates. Really brought home to me how doping doesn’t just mean everybody gets faster but likely has a huge impact on race strategy and tactics as well, and that much of the experience of somebody like Armstrong or maybe even Ferrari or Bruyneel may not be all that relevant any more.
Metcalfe post from a few years ago – there was another one where he was a little more explicit about the mixed 4-5 hour rides being mostly low intensity, with some “stuff” thrown in.
On Sunday, October 25, 2015 at 8:27:42 PM UTC-5, Kevin Metcalfe wrote:
I just looked back at last winter. 77 weekday trainer workouts. Basically M-F from the end of DST to when it came back. I didnt count weekend trainer rides in that total. (I’m kind of a wuss and generally don’t go out if it is raining) Off the top of my head I’d say about 2/3 were 2×20 @ sweet spot. Long unstructured 4-6 hour hilly rides on Sat and Sun.
I seem to recall an old post from him about recovering from a collarbone break. He just did a lot of 2x20s @ SST on the trainer to maintain fitness.
It sounds like he is M-F time crunched now so he does his hour every day on the trainer.
The thing to remember is that elite athletes can probably do anything and still crush most of us mere mortals. Kevin Metcalf could probably just ride around unstructured for 8 hours a week and would still be on the far right of the age group bell curve of TR cyclists.
If I personally optimized everything, did structured training, and rode 15 hours per week I’m still not sure I could add 50 more points to my FTP number. (I’ve been as high as 250.) I’ll be 55 this year so I have time working against me.
I truly believe if you build your fitness to that level, that is increasing training density progressively, it is quite feasible. In my opinion, and as they say everyone has one, you are simply regarding it from the your own optic and at the moment this is not feasible for you.
But how on earth would pro riders ride the Tour otherwise? Isn’t it likely most riders do at least 60 minutes of sweet spot per stage?
Also I remember Coggan mentioning that one year he rode 6 days a week 1 hr of trainer @90% of FTP and got in excellent shape.
From an old school XC and CX perspective, 40-60 minutes ‘brisk’/‘just verging on uncomfortable’ most weekdays and a long, steady ride/run with a few big hills at the weekend seems exactly what many guys did prior to widespread power meter or HR usage. I’m not saying it’s optimum, but it will produce improvements in most people who are not especially close to their genetic potential and will be manageable for most if you build up to it and eat and sleep properly.
I found the book and article in case you are interested for the full texts, unfortunately I do not speak German, if you find something worth posting is it too much to ask for a fast summary?zwingenberger2010.pdf (199.1 KB)
