i am 3.3 / 3.4 . hence i started the thread endurance or ss.
very sad.
- Why?
get to 4.0 is not easy. i weight 57 kg only.
Right, some targets are not meant for everyone. That’s why broad info like this can help or hurt a person. So many factors at play (age, training history, work & life stress, nutrition, training & recovery time to name the big ones), there’s no way to know or predict with certainty that you can get there. It may well be possible and you won’t know until you try, so have at it.
BUT, I just think it’s not healthy to let yourself get hung up on possibly NOT getting there. No different than anything else in life, wishing for something like that may be more detrimental to our mental state and happiness than it is beneficial. You can only do what you can do. Control your controllables, train and try to find happiness in the process along the way. Compare to yourself and your own progress as the leading yardstick, rather than others. You are who you are, and can likely be better so focus on yourself as the main progress marker.
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As a clinical academic who has some experience in genetics and large datasets, your idea is a common one but the old adage applies: rubbish in = rubbish out.
I am not a racer. I joined a non competitive club, we sometimes send a group to local brevets but that’s all.
Some friends of people affiliated to the club actually race in an amateur team. They only ever get to regional competitions here in Madrid. These people are all about 4’5 to 5 w/kg,
One time, they invited me to come along one of their recovery day rides. They were chatting and they waited on top of climbs and we averaged 31 km/h. I was absolutely destroyed at the end. They took that as an easy spin.
These guys that are absolutely untouchable for me are nobodies in their current amateur rank. I can’t say what category they are in, but they don’t compete nationally or enter podiums.
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Good example. Think about it in a running context too. An average male high school XC runner can do a 5k in 16:30-17:30.
They have no chance to run D1 in college where this would be a tempo run pace. However, they probably can win local 5k races or be in contention.
Most D1 5k runners also have no chance at running professionally after school ends let alone even competing in the event at D1 NCAA national championships.
However, they appear as legends to the recreational runner (and probably still do many years after serious training and competing ends for them).
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Love the running analogy. I was one of those high school 3K and 5K runners. State level in HS and absolutely destroyed in college meets. Good for fitness but no delusions of being fast.
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I’m 50 years old now. Definitely average. Every year that goes by I care less and less about race results and focus more on the process of training. At this point, I just don’t have that competitive spirit where I get overly upset when I don’t perform well.
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Newbie, age 51, started with a Gravel bike in Dec. 2020, added a powermeter in Aug. 2021, and got a real roadbike in Feb. 2022.
Pretty much no sport 2005–2012, significant injury then, physiotherapy plus required work (1/w in the gym and the pool, 5 km run) for the following four years, then started Badminton in a local team (1.5 x 2.5 h weekly avg) in 2016. With Corona that stopped, started some running – and bought the bike because of “hip uncomfort” in Dec…
Currently at 3.8 W/kg (80 kg).
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Are you implying rubbish genetics in = rubbish out
Or rubbish training in = rubbish out?
Neither - rubbish data in = rubbish conclusions out.
The problem with survey data is that the quality of the data that you get is generally very poor. But you have lots of it. When you then start a scientific fishing trip with vast datasets, you come out with what look like statistically very significant results, but actually a lot of it turns out to be spurious correlations (see Spurious Correlations)
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Don’t be sad. I’d love to get to 3.0 Currently stuck somewhere south of that.
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3.8 W/kg @ 80kg are not really newbie numbers. It also means that you can ride solo at speeds of 38-40 km/h outside on flat terrain.
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Totally resonates with me. I’m pretty sure I could do 4.25 w/kg for an hour, which is maybe useful for impressing folk who don’t ride much, but without a wicked sprint, it makes me a really average amateur.
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Yet the numbers of a newbie;-)
As I wrote, not a lot of sport for 15–20 years before, but probably some physiological memory of fairly high-level non-endurance sports activity in the early 1990s…
Sure – depending on bike and wind even 45 km/h – for some (not too long) time…
38-40 km/h is on a regular road bike with no wind on flat terrain, and sustained for say an hour. If that is the level that you are at with little to no training, then I would say keep it up and you can be going places!
Thanks, but, unfortunately, no – my aerodynamics are not (yet?) good enough for this:-o
Hope to demonstrate a >36 km/h solo round-trip for >1 h this year… let’s see if I find a day with good legs and little wind;-)
Same here. Seeing folks get to 3.8x+ within a year of starting to ride crushes my soul every time I read such a comment.
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As my first season of racing (XC) I’m realising more than ever that FTP isn’t everything when it comes to race performance.
At 4.5+ wkg I’m likely one of the fittest in my local club league - the winners are about 4wkg but their skill and knowledge of the trail (most of them have done the league for the past 10 years) - makes it so I can’t even come close to them.
Whilst I have to ride around threshold to not kill myself before the descent so I can focus on the descent and not die… they can push themselves even further and recover on the descent.
This is obviously XC specific but I can imagine it applies to other forms of bike racing.
Sure we can crank out watts on the trainer but what about taking it outside? Or performing after a few hours at tempo. Our ability to recover whilst in a race situation is vital
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