I’m only about 12 minutes into it, so interested to finish it this weekend.
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Nice.
Dont think that this is threshold training and move the curve up webinar. That is apparently what tim wants to deal with in webinar #3. Nomenclature made this hard to understand for a bit until someone in the webinar finally asked the question
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For 19-20 my early-mid base was September 2019 thru end of January 2020, and built around TR’s Traditional Base and then some polarized experimentation. So 5 full months of basic aerobic development before getting serious about doing sweet spot and threshold work. Now with a coach, this 20-21 season is oddly enough following the same template but without the trial and error so I’m a LOT happier. My decision in 19-20 to do 5 months of base was purely on instinct / feel. My coach on the other hand has actual no-WKO-required performance criteria (“until you can do X”) to determine when its time to move on.
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Reposting this chart here because the question comes up from time to time about “how much” is the right amount;
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Yes, from my point of view I’d only seen the old webinars quite recently. Having just cemented the ideas and terminology in my mind, I was just really confused for a while. Also the previous assignation of those terms seems to fit better as descriptors of the work done IMO.
However it doesn’t really matter, and what I learned previously gave me an outline of what I’ve been doing since October. I’m keen to see the next instalment as it catches up with where I am currently.
Next step is second guessing what multiplication factor each ‘+’ is 
Let’s lowball it, so we can all say we’re pros at sweetspot.
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The more training sessions from pros is available (thanks @sryke) the more confused I am they are doing WAY easier hard stuff but a way more volume. Recently when reading interview with Sepp Kuss he described 2x20 O/U during 4h ride as a very hard day that cannot be repeated too often. But when you combine it with the volume I understand why it can be hard. On the otherhand they have done their share of hard work earlier.
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You need to look at WHEN during their rides they do their work as well. A lot of TR and similiar programs have you do a brief 10-12min warmup and straight into the working sets.
Try doing 1-2hrs of zone 2, THEN hit your working sets. That’s a much different feeling than doing it fresh out of the gate. You want to build fatigue resistance and win races, do that.
This is the type of workouts I have recently introduced - for example 3h ride with effort every hour. 1h of Z2 before intervals is basically proper warmup (30-40 min for me works the best) I am not saying that it is easy what they do, I am only saying that us, mere mortals do a lot more of high intensity in comparision, and I know why but It is simply always surprising for me. I completely understand the idea of efforts when fatigued as part of race specificity.
Yup.
The other thing to remember, even with cat1/2 races i’m not racing longer than 3-3.5hrs. I dont NEED to race for 4-5hrs like a pro does. There’s a reason they train like they do, and there is a reason we shouldnt copy everything they do as well.
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Only reason I go as long as I do is because long term I’m going after Ironman. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t ride over 3hrs!
Agreed, let’s call it 90 mins!
I do think this slide is the deepest insight Tim has provided across all the webinars. I know he says he’s holding stuff back, but it seems like he is giving a lot of stuff away.
I’m looking forward to seeing the LT1 WKO stuff, I’m not sure whether part 1 or 2 teased it, but it worked!
This makes me feel really good about myself as I did 3x20 over unders today and then followed it with 1x80 SS. But I’m actively trying to train my fatigue resistance for roadraces… whenever they come back some day
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I’m guessing pros do very little sweetspot training. We know Paris Roubaix was won by 6 hours of sweetspot, though so it is useful. I’d guess most would knock out 4 or 5 hours no problem if needed?
I believe it depends on the rider. A guy like Luke Rowe or some other diesel is probably doing a fair amount of tempo and sweet spot work. Where as Quintana might be doing less given they have different race-specific demands. But the notion that a certain power zone is avoided seems like total rubbish.
IMO, touching all zones at various points throughout the season is essential.
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Powless is coached by fascas who are very very big on sweetspot. They say world tour guys should be knocking endless hours
And Alex Dowsett has said he rarely finishes his 2x20 O/U sessions.
Perhaps it’s because they are putting out more watts, or maybe, as in the Kuss interview, they are done in conjunction with other efforts.
I didn’t suggest they do no sweetspot. I had believed the vast majority of pro training hours over the course of the year is done in Z2 (Coggan).
I think the ‘6 hour SS’ headline is a bit misleading. Looking at the power file, he seems to spend most of his time high z2 with surges. If you had to call it anything, I’d say it was a solid tempo ride (Even though I know the IF is 0.91.)
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That’s the actual P-R race file. Hayman did a 6hr SS session on his indoor trainer w/ a broken arm.