In the “horses for courses” category: Bissell domestique Nate Williams, who posts on the velocipedesalon.com forum as Heisenberg (I’ve been over there as Doofus since the board started with the original group who were once an e-mail list), said that after he got his big mileage base in, one of his goals was sustaining how long he could ride at 4 w/kg – he noted that the really good domestiques in the US pro scene were the guys who could “ride at 4 w/kg all day long” – so his own training would reflect that – lots of rides at 80% or so of his FTP for 4 hours or so. 1000kj/hr was his standard for daily aerobic grinding.
LIke Christian Knees, Team Ineos, mentioned above: “you know how we pros train, lots of GA2 and GA3”
(GA2 → 70-80% FTP in the German system)
(GA3 → does actually not exist in the German system, he means something between GA2 and thresold: SST)
by the way, anyone knows of an elite XCO rider who uploads everything to Strava? Checked some of the top 10/15 of the UCI ranking but neither shares all data. I’d be interested in how training is different to road pros.
Not XCO but XM - maybe Alban Lakata (Alban L | Strava Pro Cyclist Profile)? He openly shares lots (all?) of his workouts and seems to be a nice guy, too.
Don’t know about Strava, but from watching that Nino documentary, I got the impression that a lot of his fitness training was not actually on the bike.
Does anyone have any info on what the 'crossers are doing? I’m assuming the longer rides with the harder intervals toward the end wouldn’t be so applicable. This is a great thread. Thx for contributing all.
Though not pro training, this one is interesting in the context of this thread. A time crunched 3 days/week training plan by Dan Lorang. Interesting because you can see the similarity to Emanual Buchmann’s training plan posted previously. However, I do not know what the purpose/goal of the time crunched plan is. Just getting fitter? Haven’t watched the video, though. He may give more details.
He touches all intensity zones, there is no evil zone to be avoided. And there is a clear progression.
Yesterday on German TV once again the statement: Emanuell Buchmann is not a super talent but he’s a fine example for what can be accomplished with modern training and hard work.
Should be a good motivation for all of us which were not so lucky in the genetic lottery (though EB does not seem to have had so bad luck either …)
And this is a nice example why I find this topic so intriguing, there is a lot to be learned from the Lorangs and Webers of this world.
Interview with Dan Lorang on EB’s prep for TdF 2019. In German, key points relevant to this thread below. I’d say 80% of the podcast is more on coach-athlete relationship and so.
prep starts as soon route gets announced
biggest challenge for TdF 2019: 3rd week (=extreme fatigue) in combination with altitude. Therefore, did more altitude this year. Especially under fatigue. Longer intervals. But one has to be careful not to do too much. That’s why experience with an athlete is so important, they have a lot of data from previous years and know hoch much EB can handle. Yes, they also look at studies but in the end it’s really an athlete’s data set which is relevant. This is so important and part of a long term development: gather data and see what works and what doesn’t. Especially with altitude
mental game: extremely important to DL. He’s so amazed by how (elite) athletes differ in mental strength. This can make such a difference, especially in the 3rd week.
improved time trialling: have only spent more time on the TT bike. With some intensity. Apart from this nothing special
Cyclocross: just came across this, not much info though
In CX season my training is really planned from race to race: Sunday: race, Monday: recovery, Tuesday: endurance, Wednesday: intervals + endurance, Thursday: speed, Friday: easy with sprints, Saturday: race, Sunday: race. After the Worlds, we plan around the race where I want to be on my best level. Training will be focused on these days and other races will be used as preparation.
XCO: just checked a little bit Flo Vogel’s Strava. Definitely less volume. More intensity. All intensities as I could see. Clearly not polarized at any level.
Kerry Werner puts pretty much all of his workouts on Strava. Lots of endurance mountain biking in the spring and fall (Pisgah Stage Race and BC Bike Race this year), transitioning to skills and higher-end road efforts starting now. Lots of motor pacing in season as well. He lives near me and it’s humbling, to say the least.
I’m experimenting w a diff approach to ‘cross this year. Doing a more polarized approach until mid aug; hrs will peak out at abt 20. Still getting 2 days of intensity/wk w one of the days being longer vo2 max int’s and the other ftp work. Will starter the shorter
harder stuff when I get back from vacationing in Bend or.
A “typical” three-day block for a Team Sky rider. They always (they probably still do as Ineos) do three-day blocks. It is not specified, how typical “typical” is. And when it is typical. I guess most here know these stories of endless SST (over-under) sessions on Mount Teide.
However, it’s strikingly similar to what all other GT pros do. Touch all energy systems. Don’t really go much above threshold. The sessions themselves do not seem extremely tough. But add the frequency of these blocks and in particular all the racing, this is quite a strenuous programme
Previous studies in endurance athletes have indicated that block periodization (BP) can be a good alternative to the more traditional organization of training despite the fact that the total volume and intensity of the training are similar. However, these studies usually last only 4-12 wk. The aim of the present single-case study was to investigate the consequences of 58 wk with systematic BP of low-intensity training (LIT), moderate-intensity training (MIT), and high-intensity interval training (HIT) including incorporation of heavy strength training. It is important that a maintenance stimulus on the nonprioritized training modalities was added in the different training blocks. Performance-related variables were tested regularly during the intervention. The studied cyclist started with a maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) of 73.8 mL · kg-1 · min-1, peak aerobic power (Wmax) of 6.14 W/kg, and a power output at 3 mmol/L blood lactate concentration (Power3la-) of 3.6 W/kg. Total training volume during the 58-wk intervention was 678 h, of which 452 h were LIT (67%), 124 h were MIT (18%), 69 h were HIT (10%), and 34 h were heavy strength training (5%). The weekly training volume had a large range depending on the focus of the training block. After the intervention the cyclist’s VO2max was 87 mL · kg-1 · min-1, Wmax was 7.35 W/kg, and Power3la- was 4.9 W/kg. This single case indicates that the present training program can be a good alternative to the more traditional organization of long-term training of endurance athletes. However, a general recommendation cannot be given based on this single-case study.
I saw this a while back and thought it looked like a really impressive result (+36% threshold power!) for someone who was already pretty highly trained, and was already following what looked to be a pretty sensible training protocol (high volume LIT with low volume HIT/MIT).
I was tempted to try it, but then saw the details (4-6 weekly HIT sessions + maintenance of other energy systems + weight training). I might be misunderstanding it but that looks like a week with 5 v02 max sessions, > 1 threshold/SS session, >1 long (3-7hr) endurance ride + >1 heavy strength session. I think this would probably kill most people!
The “test subject” was a 37 year old cyclist. Amateur cyclist. He had to go on business trips during the training intervention.
When you look at Fig 1 in the appendix of the draft full text you can see the weekly volumes. With the exception of some massive LIT weeks his volume quite “normal”. Definitely not in the >15-20h range.
I guess many non-pros can relate to this.
The term “Elite” seems to refer to a classification scheme for some physiological tests. He started as “Elite” and at the end he was “World-tour”. I don’t know how good his race results are.
They only measured Power@3mmol. I would not call this threshold. Could be half way through AeT to AnT. Though this 4mmol ~ AnT is highly debated.
Yes, n=1, but once again they hit all energy systems/zones. I would have thought MIT is banned in Norway and training in this zone leads to an immediate expulsion.
Furthermore, very typical, as pointed out in the discussion: biggest gains were made in the first few weeks. Even though this was not so “blocked/focused”. Only one HIT/week and more MIT focused.
Very typical since this is often observed, here a classic illustrating this:
As Dan Lorang pointed out: you almost always improve when you apply a new training stimulus.
Therefore, I’m always a little bit sceptical when people here report of their initial success stories from switching to a new (science based) training regime.
and thank you for the info in this thread