Fair.
In terms of lowering the under vs. shortening or dropping the over, personally i would go with the latter if it helps you achieve the intended result which is teaching your body to clear lactate at high % of FTP. So if you can get away with it, i would be inclined to shorten the over by 15s so you still get that jump in lactate but its not overwhelming to the point you are unable to clear in the subsequent under session operating still near FTP.
Funny that we both have 60min+ TTEs, makes developing some of these workouts a chore to get full TiZ haha.
Both of the workouts I did with 45s overs were very difficult. One I couldnāt finish. This one I got through but the last three were very challenging. The first workout was 2:00/30s, and I was able to get through that. As mentioned, the 1:4 Over:Under seemed a pretty good balance for me. So doing more shorter, higher overs, vs. fewer, longer, slightly lower overs is kind of a wash. (By ālowerā I mean a 2% difference, so 6W but youāre doing them for 15s longer).
With this info from these three workouts, I feel pretty good about being able to build decent O/Us in this format. The one thing Iāll do is err more on the side of conservative in terms of all of it. These are hard workouts.
I know that you use the PDC for calculating the 95% power target. But for the optimized interval, not sure how to work that in.
Using your example, would a good workout be doing 255w for 35min, 2-3 times to get to the TiZ target thatās likely 60-90min?
Or is that something you should be building up to, ie. doing maybe 5x10 and 4x15min @ 255 to try and hit your TTE target for TiZ, slowly extending those intervals out over the progressive block?
Iam in the WKO5 Facebook group so i can ask Tim a question, but i think that i can better focus on consistency than to much energy spending on details.
My Optimized interval for Intensive Aerobic is 28min 272-252w. Thats nearby 35min with 255w like your calculation. Intensive aerobic is 55min (TTE) 267-247w. I will focus on my Optimized intervals and going not more in detail with calculations like 15-20min onder TTE with 95% of that time etc. Better a lot of good work than a couple of excellent workouts
I wanted to do 2x20 (2min 90% and 30s 110%). The first block went well, but the second block i failed around 10min, I couldnāt get the rpm above 90 anymore.
In the morning i did a gym session strength, that also makes the work above FTP difficult. It was the first time sinds months that i did work above FTP, so my body dont know what to do with the lactate
I think with what you wrote about the gym workout, you probably couldāve gotten through the 2x20 otherwise. I struggle with anything above threshold after strength work.
Yeah, I admit that style of O/U that Iāve been running this block is intense. Itās definitely the featured workout of the week which is why I put it on Monday. Anyway, Kolie had that 2x20 as his āstarting pointā when training large motor units during one of his podcasts. As mentioned, I got through it - it was hard - but then two weeks later I did my third one and accumulated 57+ minutes at 93% - 110% with 3:00/:45 ratio, which is significantly more work than that 2x20. I think itās something you can adapt to fairly quickly once you start doing work above FTP again.
Yes i think indeed the combination of strength work in the morning and the first time after months without serious work above FTP, has ensured that i cant do it today. But what you say, i think that i can do 2x20 without problems when iam fresh. Maybe i will change this workout to a day without strength.
WRT the interval construction Tim cited in the webinar, I took that as targeting for steady state intervals, either specifically at FTP or in the neighborhood (SST). I donāt think theyād have exact applicability to this kind of threshold work where some substantial portion of it (in my case 12 min out of 57) are done significantly above threshold. I think the general guidance would be to aim for a total working time of somewhat less than TTE to start, and then building out perhaps to TTE by the end of a block, while getting long enough bursts to generate lactate buildup, and recoveries long enough to be ready to go again without being bored.
Thatās why I spent some time playing with and thinking about the ratio of O/U when working in that low VO2max zone rather than high threshold like TRs O/Us (e.g. 110-112% vs. 105%). Essentially what I landed on last night was the equivalent of Carpathian Peak +3 for this specific style of interval, and that was kinda what I was aiming for - long over/under intervals sustained for near TTE duration.
TL;DR: Keeping in mind that these are intensive intervals, I have been more focused on increasing power, both the under at high SST and the combination of power above and time above threshold, rather than strictly extending workout time. So as I progressed these, I was looking for more total time spent āoverā and a slightly higher ārecoveryā power, first; adding total TiZ second.
Anyway, thatās a little more insight into my thought processes designing these.
Iāve been reading your past posts and I also watched Tim Cusickās lecture and I have some questions.
I did a 60-minute FTP test on Monday and got 253W average, rounded FTP to 255.
If I understand Kolie Moore correctly, the best way to train my FTP is to ride at FTP or just below it.
So Iād start by doing 6x10 - 5x12 - 4x15 - 3x20 ā¦ (example he gives).
If I understand Tim Cusick correctly, I should aim for 200% of TTE, ergo 120 minutes at FTP. I should ride at FTP or just below it.
So ā¦ to train my FTP, I have to do progressive overload by doing longer and longer intervals at 230-255W (90% - 100% my FTP)? Do I understand this correctly? And then re-test when Iām able to hold 255W for 1x120 minutes?
How do I approach O/U intervals? Iād do 1 O/U interval each week to break the monotony; should I go letās say 4x15 (2 min under/1 min over)?
Cusick as I understand him:
Work at sweet spot for 20-30 per cent of weekly volume. Starting with 2-3 intervals and progressing to 1, increase TiZ in each workout to at least 2 x TTE.
Use SS workouts; or high tempo with cadence drills [70 ā 80 ā 90+].
Sorry [misplaced ]
Then, when hit target, progress to:
Find power at 15 minutes before TTE. Set this as power reference point [PRP].
Work intervals at 95 ā 105 per cent of PRP for weekly TiZ of 10 ā 15 per cent of weekly volume.
With 2-3 intervals, progress to 150 per cent of TTE in each workout.
What do you think about that i first will do O/U at 90-105%. Maybe thats better in combination with strength and do the lower over i can maybe handle more blocks. My FTP is 270w. Yesterday i did 245-300. I thought about 245-285w.
My TTE is 55. My MMP is 266w and PDcurve 276w. Do i use 266 or 276w?
On the sheets i reed PDC (PDcurve).
So for me is that between 262w and 290w. For 80min TiZ per workout. Starting with +/- 3 intervals and progress to 1?
Itās just a bit hard for me to understand how this works:
Iām already able to hold 255W for 60 mins. How is working 6x10 at 90-100% FTP, or then 6x12, 5x15, etc. going to improve my capablities?
