A couple of days ago there was a bug in Strava that means that clicking on the “analysis” tab opened up the power and HR data for every ride, even if the rider had chosen to hide it.
Which means I was briefly able to look at the actual numbers Chris Froome was putting out during his winter training in South Africa and then Giro prep in the south of France. I won’t say the actual numbers as I don’t think that’s fair, particularly on HR (hint: you’d be surprised by the number!). But what I can do is extrapolate how you can emulate his training…
Session 1 (winter)
30 minutes easy
15 minutes @ 87%
20 minutes easy
12 minutes @ 85%
3 minutes @ 110%
25 minutes easy
120 minutes @ 88%, with 30 second bursts to about 140% every 10 minutes
Easy for 30 minutes
8 minute all-out effort, 110%
1 hour 45 minutes easy, ending with a full gas 15 second sprint.
Session 2 (spring training)
30 minutes easy
3 minutes @ 80%
2 minutes easy
8 x 20 seconds on @ 120%, 20 seconds off
1 minute 40 seconds @ 87%
Couple of quick cadence sprints then 10 minutes easy riding
Interval Block 1: 5 x 90 seconds on @115%, 30 seconds off, then 6 minutes @ 85% with a 30 second acceleration halfway through
30 minutes easy
Repeat Interval Block 1
45 minutes easy
24 minute all-out effort @ 105%
Ride around at easy/steady pace for another 2 hours or so.
Look forward to seeing these sessions on Trainer Road in the near future…
I think the key is the extra time allows for longer block of recovery ‘30 minutes easy’ ‘45 minutes easy’ so he accomplishes more intervals in a given session resulting in a greater amount of time in all training zones so greater training stimulus than an amateur would get from a one hour typical v02 workout say, but the intervals do suggest he’s performing incredibly close to his VO2 max power for threshold given the percentages and how hard they are for him to sustain taking into account his incredible muscle endurance being able to pedal hard for 6 hours
Thanks!
Most interesting aspect for me is, those workouts basically combine different energy systems into one workout, much unlike the TR workouts.
Plus he should be in base phase, but still trains VO2 and stuff…
Interesting!
JP
I remember reading an article describing their training and the difference then was that they were training ”hard” during the time that is traditionally used for base building. But that article was years ago, things may have changed a lot since that.
From what I’ve read there’s no correlation between max HR and performance. Some elite athletes have a high max HR, while some have a low max HR. All have got low resting HR though.
Interestingly, the highest it ever reached on the workouts I saw was 162. Even after 24 minutes at, well let’s just say it’s about my max 2 minute power…
Aye! He says his resting is in the high 20s and always wondered if people thought he was doping if they caught a glimpse of his HR values on his bike computer…
I agree. People really should just stop talking about Max HR as some sort of a performance figure. Same goes to all the magazine articles that quote what maximum HR should be for a particular age group.
In my case, it normally goes like this:
“Whaaaaat? You’re 42 and your max is 200 ???”
or
“Whaaaaat? Your resting HR is 45 ?? How are you not dead ???”
So true!
I imagine being his coach might be exasperating.