Hello Martin, old post but hoping you would see it. How was your experience working with Ciaran? I am training under him for the last 6months and have seen some good gains but not so much feedback on what I might be doing wrong or right. Wondering if you could share some insights.
She was at 74 when she was competing, that’s whay she says in the video.
2 Likes
I think you got to where I was going in the end.
It wasn’t supposed to be a deep dive into what VO2max is required for what level etc.
Annika was five time World Champ and one of the biggest motors on the Mountain Bike. She also placed highly at Amstel Gold and Strade Bianche. She has all the tickets for entry.
It was more a comment on that being her “off the couch” number if you like (it’s clearly not off the couch, but she’s not training like she used to and has been recently laid up).
1 Like
And no strength training (N=3)
3 Likes
2 Likes
Lorena Wiebes data analysis from Kolie Moore
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg13i_eu4Ur/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
3 Likes
It has gotten quiet around here, mainly because I lost interest in this topic. I must admit, I don’t find the information really helpful. 60-90 race days, superior genetics … I don’t believe much can be transferred to non-elites. And that training per se is largely overrated … for elites and non-elites.
However, whatever, this one is quite interesting
on the nose breathing, zone 1 for him. not zone 2. just saying
9 Likes
I didn’t read the articles…. But what is the nose breathing thing?
it is a popular opinion (especially on social media) that nose breathing is a good surrogate for identification of LT1/AeT/upper zone2 boundary (e.g. when nose breathing is not feasible anymore).
this does not work for me. La-testing checked. and as it seems KJ does not use it for zone 2 either.
Thank you for posting, both were fascinating reads.
1 Like
Completely agree. Thanks for sharing @sryke 
Is this some kind of elevation simulation gimmick they are trying in training?
Have to admit… The nose breathing thing drives me crazy. As a XC coach, I see athletes all the time (usually those struggling in the back) trying to breath through their nose, but aren’t getting enough oxygen. They are literally restricting oxygen getting to their lungs and unable to run as fast. I’ve seen my athletes do it and asked them why and they usually say they saw it somewhere or someone told them too. Breaking them of that hasn’t been easy.
Largest pipe is the esophagus (edit: trachea). So then it would make sense that the way to get air to where it needs to go is… wait for it…the biggest pipe. Why anyone would restrict oxygen on purpose in an aerobic competition is crazy to me.
1 Like
You’re not supposed to nose breathe the entire time, it’s that you should be able to nose breathe the entire time. The effort should be such that switching over to nose breathing causes no perceptible increase in effort. Much like the “talk test”, no expectations of reading Great Expectations aloud during each run, but the effort should be such that you can read a few sentences and still be able to run at the same pace without perceptible increase in effort.
5 Likes
I think you meant trachea, not esophagus
1 Like
Good luck with that! 
Yup… you’re right! I shouldn’t vent right when I wake up in the morning. 
Also incredible that he won UTMB right after having Covid.
Also interesting that he uses a run powermeter (but probably due to sponsoring). Not sure, for what it would be useful given he surely know his body and it‘s not clear what a run pm actually measures.
In the trail running article they mention that Z4 is his „race pace“, but that surely depends on the distance.
Also wondering, if he is really so convinced of Maurten or if this is due to sponsorship.
Do you think there’s benefit in looking at what non road pros post? What the people in the lifetime Grand Prix do would likely be interesting, and World Cup mountain bike racers. Both or these groups seem to race substantially less than road pros, and are optimizing for slightly different demands
Thanks for posting these.
Spent time reading these and burrowing into the links. Not for this thread, but found the minimalist strength training paper to be of interest.
https://osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/eq485
Would suggest any discussion on strength training protocols be continued here:
This thread contains quite a few mountain bikers. Even a lot of information on other sports. Not sure what could be learned from any elite training.