“I always started my bike and ice sessions with 5 minutes at 200W followed by 6 minutes at 260W. My coach kept statistics on the heart rate of these 260W sets which gave us good numbers on how the aerobic capacity developed in the long term (increased during summer and decreased during winter when I dropped the aerobic hours), but it also gave us a short term update on how tired the body was (low heart rate response usually indicated that more rest was needed).”
Nice
For me another example of how irrelevant it is to force a training model over an athlete’s training. If we call this POL, PYR, THR or whatever brings zero value. And will differ very much with the classification scheme.
What we can say, this is a periodisation as traditional as it gets. Base → Threshold → race specfic (VO2max here). Traditional periodisation taken to the extrem in terms of volume. Once again showing that tolerable load it one the most important control metrics. See how he tested out what he can handle!
And despite the extreme nature of this training, it is so consistent with others. See the other paper we just had on the Norwegian model recently. Many similarities.
The sheer amount of energy, kjs these high volume super-elites are able to turn over, month after month…
Norwegian Coach Olav Aleksander Bu mentioned in this pod using doubly labelled water analysis to measure Blu’s overall sustainable energy expenditure, which is unsurprisingly way higher than the average 2.5x BMR. Yet another way in which they’re outliers…
The takeaway seemed to be that Blu has such a freakishly big energy budget that he could afford to keep up work on intensity/‘VO2’ while still doing sufficient volume of IM specific/‘efficiency’ work - he didn’t have to make a trade-off.
Read about this doubly labelled water technique being used academically in Herman Pontzer’s (excellent) book Burn, this was first I heard of it being used in an ‘applied’ manner in elite sport.
OAB says he was only doing it with Blu ahead of the Olympics but Gustav was about to join the ‘project’, that’s what I thought of when I saw above that his power numbers are now hidden on Strava.
Just commented on the Niels van der Poel program, but probably the more intersting debate will be in this thread.
I find the underlying training principles more interesting than the amount of hours or watts. Though it is worth looking at his actual training diary in comparison with his summary, because he really only trains like he says in the last 6 months or so.
But for principles - I love the focus on motivation. Do what motivates you, that is more important than any specific session.
He doesn’t do rest weeks or a 3-1 load cycle, instead trains 5 days and rests the weekends. However, before the olympic build, he is a lot less strict about the 5/2, and there are quite a few 4/3, and also periods where he does an ultra long ride or run with multiple days off either side.
He says he’s not doing strength sessions, but he really only stopped doing them a year or so ago. Before, he does 1-2 sessions per week.
With regards to the overall structure:
Also I think while 7 hour endurance rides sound crazy, from what he writes about his training, this is probably not one session without breaks. And doing eg. two hours before breakfast, then three hours until lunch, and then another two hours sounds much less intimidating to me.
I love the simplicity of the training.
Also, that structure to allow guilt free 2 days off.
I do 6 days a week for a total of 11hrs. Friday is day off. I wonder if dropping a day and adding an hour onto another ride will be a benefit to my training and family life.
Thats a good option! I do the same. 2 restdays a week and make more hours/quality on the active days. Always riding (junk) will lead to physical/mental fatique and you dont know it, because you dont know how it feels when you do more rest.
I think the way he does a “normal” working week Monday-Friday, and then has time on the weekends for friends/family, is very smart. Most of us do our longest sessions on the weekend, but that often leads to conflict with family life.
I also like the two consecutive days recovery. Maybe its just because I’m not that young anymore, but I usually feel that one day isn’t enough. Also I don’t do well with recovery weeks, so his idea of training a few days, and then a few days off, feels very natural to me. It’s good for me to see a very successful pro training like that.
I would guess most professionals would approach a regular training week like that. If races aren’t an issue.
I don’t know, I think a lot do something like 3 days on, 1 day off/easy?
I’ve often thought I should move to longer rides and two days off per week. My “problem” is that I like to ride 6 or 7 days per week.
I’ve heard of some pros doing this kind of schedule which give one two rest days in 8 days.
hard interval day
tempo day
long endurance day
rest
The van der Poel training document is fascinating to read. It’s amazing that he trains for a 6 and 12 minute events and puts in all those hours - as many as a Tour de France athlete. His negative split technique makes for great drama when he races.
This is a very traditional structure, my first real plan when I was a junior in the 1990s had this structure. My brother was riding for Team Telekom and his plan had often this structure. And ever since I saw this in many plans of others. Not an unusual structure.
The vd Poel document is a very interesting read, thanks! But how on earth no one has quoted the actually important parts, such as:
Downing 7000 kcal per day is a challenge. My dental health was shit during this period from all the eating and I wish I would’ve addressed that issue earlier on in my career. Brushing my teeth three times a day was the way to go, but I realized this way too late. However, to down all the calories I was drinking whip cream during sessions, another recurring routine was to eat potato chips after dinner until I went to bed. Aerobic season is food season and I tried to enjoy that, but usually I was experiencing a food coma and hunger at the same time. It’s quite a weird feeling.
Joking aside, I think the author conveys a hell-bent and relaxed approach at the same time. Reading was fun, and I bet writing was too.
This despite sometime in the spring of 2021 there is a skipped training day with a comment: mother passed away.
IMHO, especially the 21-22 refined approach is a good reminder that if aerobic work is aerobic work as long as it is the legs working for absolute elites, perhaps the seemingly endless pursuit of specificity or worrying about this that and the other metric may have diminishing returns for amateurs - especially during base and also perhaps threshold build. Just do the work and try to enjoy it as much as possible. On the other hand, all this work is done to enable specific work done in insane quantities when it is time for that.
This way the vd Poel philosophy reminds me of Renato Canova quite a bit, though the latter seems to be more inclined to get into the details at every step. Translating, aerobic is base phase. Fundamental phase is threshold. Specific phase is accumulating 30sec laps. Special blocks are the aerobic 2.0s. vd Poel just takes the simplicity to the extreme.
Of course, vd Poel may be such a freak that everything works for him.
Anyway, this was an interesting hands-on take about the training process with a very fresh angle: keep it simple stupid. How often do we get this detailed looks into the elites’ practices and especially philosophy?
To me the “refined approach” looks like he realised he needs to get serious about training for the olympics. I think he gets injured, and about a week later the strict 5/2 starts.
May well be the case. Either way, his training does change, and he himself seems to value that structure, so I guess there was no great harm using that term.
Ganna did 468w for over 36 minutes in yesterday’s mountain top finish at Tour de la Provence. Considering the fatigue from the 4 days of racing and the stage itself, I guess his FTP might be around 480w, or is that too much? His weight is set at 85kg on Strava but he might be heavier since it’s only February.
Whipped cream and potatoe chips… 7000 kcal is alot, but im sure there’s other foods or drinks that can be used to make up for the calories
Nothing beat this or straight up butter in calories per volume. Maybe oil, but that’s more disgusting.
Sure, but that’s that my whole point. I think there are better options that might be lower in total calories per volume but still allow you to make up for calories in a healthier way. 7000kcal is alot but it’s not super crazy.
From what I’ve seen, people go straight to fat when carrying convenience is a factor OR when they have tried normal food and it’s too much volume and they feel this alternative is less disgusting. Perhaps a purely personal decision.
