Overtraining, Cyclist Rider Types, Plateauing, and More – Ask a Cycling Coach 350

:muscle:

If you’re not bleeding down there, are you even racing?

I enjoyed this podcast. Interesting with good info. I especially liked Nate’s very specific suggestions to the possible overtrained rider about how to adjust his workouts to slightly lower the workload.

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About TT saddle,
1) the type & model was discussed a lot ; I’m on ISM Attack. ( I hugged my fitter after i tried it). Some LBS have demo loaners so you can try until you find the one.
2) a bike fit (like with a Retul fitter or equivalent) is necessary imho and hopefully the fitter prioritizes comfort over power generation. If it’s not comfy you won’t stay aero. Small angle or fore-aft adjustments can make a big difference.
3) time riding in TT. This wasn’t mentioned. Getting used to the position takes time and many rides.
I do TR intervals indoors on my TT until weather allows long rides outdoors. As race day approaches, I’ll spend more and more time in aero position: in long rides, I count and increase the longest stretch of time in aero so let’s say 15 min then 25min 45min … to progressively have my body adapt to 6hours in aero and be able to do a marathon after T2.

I’ve completed 10 ironman-distance races each of which involved traveling by plane.
For flying with my bike, I use a ruster sports hen house. Its dimensions mean it counts like normal luggage saving me $$.

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Agree, I bet @Jonathan and @Nate_Pearson are Wicked fast once they can ignore the saddle setback rule.

Saddle still makes a huge difference.

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I really enjoyed this podcast other than a couple of details. Typing noise as already mentioned was a big issue here.

But one I have not seen mentioned are the two hiccups in the app discussion. Nate jumps in on Amber twice and I found it a bit unnerving in some ways. It’s odd really, considering the cast starts with Jon talking about the “talk show” post and they discuss the aspect of the prior planning that often takes place for these episodes.

  • Considering that, I can’t help but wonder what communication mistakes took place for Nate to have to come over top of Amber on the AIFTPD background AND the heart rate related aspect that comes later?

  • Nate’s AIFTPD stall is a distraction in a “whoops, I have no idea where you’re going…” way and makes the initial points on planning questionable to some degree. I’d have expected to have that be a known variable even if the apparent “look” during the cast is a more matter of fact discussion.

  • Then we get to the apparent confusion about the HR side and when/if it’s related. It comes off as a “yes, no, maybe…” type of discussion that leaves me as the listener a bit confused. This is the type of thing I would expect to be known to all parties with respect to feature conditions.

It came off less than polished and counter to the “planning” that was mentioned earlier.

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I’ll take a thin tri chamois any day over the bloated diapers they are sewing into bike shorts these days.

I was just listening to this and had the same feelings.

I think “he’s back Nate” - is still recovering from life which has been less than perfect for his podcast preparation. I give him some slack. I would say all the other presenters do all the background planning and Nate just jumps in :smiley:

The heart-rate discussion was interesting, it seemed best summed up as. It’s not needed right now. But in the near future, Nate hopes that the data, in the near future, will be really useful and is encouraging everyone to wear a heart rate monitor. But, he can’t say why because that product is not yet developed. But, he also doesn’t want to be shouted out when they release whatever feature it is. Amber’s comment seemed to just be - as of today, right now - it’s not needed.

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What is the noise on latest podcast? Sounds like someone takes dancing on the mic?

lol, it is someone typing on a laptop keyboard. My guess would be Jonathan

I moved your post under the related topic in the Podcast Category.

Someone (haven’t bothered to watch the video to confirm who), was typing. That noise got picked up on the mic.

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Would appreciate a marker if anyone knows where in the ~40 minute AI FTP discussion this comes up.

Thanks. FWIW I hit my best fitness ever training (self-coached) without power, just using HR. And again 5 years alter with a coach we are using both HR and power, and have almost matched that previous best fitness. I can’t speak in general, but for me specifically HR has been a great tool.

I normally listen to the podcast, and found the typing super distracting. I made a note while I was listening of a time when I heard it (for example, at 2:03 near the end when they’re talking about air travel), and watched the video at that minute… and there’s no typing sound at all. I don’t know what’s different in the production of the live feed vs. the podcast, but it sounds (literally) like the typing noise was introduced somewhere that the two differ.

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The noise was caused by differences in live settings and post-production that picked up typing and other noises as well.

Trickiest part of this is due to the nature of how podcasts are distributed, a remedied version of the podcast will not likely make it to people that have yet to listen to it as many podcast apps cache the initial audio file or even download that and ignore RSS updates for prior entries. It’s a very harsh pass/fail environment for publishing, so we need to do better. Sorry!

We believe we have it sorted and you won’t hear it again.

Regarding the statement on planning and confusion from @mcneese.chad , that’s a bummer to hear you felt the instances of miscommunication invalidated the planning that goes into the podcast from all involved. Just because an athlete makes a mistake in a race doesn’t mean they didn’t prepare for it. :wink:

With these complex features, there are a ton of moving parts and many hands on deck. We make an effort to be as transparent as possible with our audience, which means we sometimes tread into deep water and get our wires crossed a bit when discussing the intricacies of how a feature works. It takes a lot of work to improve internal documentation to the point where we can discuss a beta feature like this in detail when it is just recently launched into early access, but we need to do better so we don’t leave you all confused.

Thanks for the feedback – it keeps us constantly improving!

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  • 0:22:30 per the audio version I DL’d.
  • That’s a stronger statement than what I meant in my comment. I know we are all human here and don’t fault you guys to the degree I read in your comment.

  • It was just an interesting contrast with how disconnected Nate and Amber appeared to show on those two aspects. It sure doesn’t “invalidate” the podcast or even those topics (and I didn’t mean to imply that if that’s how my comment is read). I think there was a decent conclusion for both topics. Getting to that conclusion seemed more messy than it could have been.

  • I totally get the hidden complexity of an active set of projects and how not everyone may be on the same level of info at any given moment. Just an observation and not meant to be a harsh critique.

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In regards to the TT saddle discussion: (for those interested in an age-groupers input)

Ironman triathlete here. I love my ‘Cobb Plus 2’ and have had it for several years. My LBS had a nice test saddle program and I tried MANY saddles before landing on this one. I tried the ISM and it was NOT for me. I do 100% of my TR workouts on my TT bike and 85% of that time is spent in aero. This saddle is designed for long stints on the bike and you have to build up your sit bones for it, because you actually sit on the ‘front edge’ of this saddle, but I can go 5-6 hours in this saddle, typically, with no problems or discomfort. Hope that helps :v:t2:

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As the owner of a really loud keyboard, it makes me sad that more people don’t embrace the sound of furiously typing!

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Just listened to that part, and didn’t feel the same way. I’m going to paraphrase:

  • TR FTP estimation only uses power
  • question came up about HR
  • FTP estimation only uses power, no HR required at the current time
  • Nate pointed out that HR is only used to estimate TSS when you don’t have a power meter
  • TR has plans to expand usage of HR in the future
  • FTP estimation only uses power, no HR required at the current time

Pointing out that TR currently uses HR for TSS estimation, and the subsequent talking points, was welcome IMHO because some could walk away from the first part of the answer as TR doesn’t use HR. That clarification and acknowledgement of the value of HR was good to hear.

I thought it was handled very well.

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Thanks, Brian! I too thought they handled the disconnect well.

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I’m surprised people are so upset about AT

Active Typing

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