I can ride 60m at around 90% from HRmax so i think it is my LTHR?
Why lucky? It told nothing about my capacity?
Thatās what I remember as well, maybe from his videos on YouTube.
Out of curiosity, how are you setting your SS zone? Using a ramp test based FTP or something else?
I have this on the calendar for the week. This seems like death by vo2 Pisgah +6 is 2 sets of 4x4-minute VO2max intervals at 112% FTP
what do you do when Xert picks the wrong focus? The duration is useless in that case. For example on Monday I did 3x15 sweet spot with bursts every 3 minutes. Xert decided I was working on 6 minute power (Rouleur), and gave a focus duration of 6 minutes and 44 seconds.
gotcha, I was referring to doing workouts assigned by a coach, and Xertās interpretation of the completed workout.
Does time trial performance correlate well to all other types of riding/racing?
It correlates well to FTP.
And we all know that FTP isnāt everything. But if your goal of raising VO2max is to increase FTP, then measuring TT performance is probably a decent metric to measure.
If youāre saying after completing the workout that Xert says the Focus was 6:44, based on the workout you describe that sounds about right. If the burst were suprathreshold, then thatās what I normally see happen to Focus during a workout if the efforts are not isopower and the surges are of a high enough level.
Keeping in mind that Focus after the ride includes everything you did from warm up to cool down. You can get a little better idea of the Focus duration for that 3x15 with burst workout by monitoring the Focus data field during the work. Something of variable effort levels isnāt going to end up being ~30:00 Pure Focus, like what you should see if you did 3x15 isopower intervals or rode indoors, especially using erg.
It shouldnāt treat those 3x15ās like sub-threshold or SS intervals because of the surges and Iād say the Focus duration post workout is reflecting that.
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with this type of workout there are several ābumpsā in PDC and it picked the 6-minute power as focus.
Off-topic, Iām good for now. Thanks for the comments.
Very interesting. Next time Iām force to do a block of training inside, I will certainly look into it. Thx.
And the activity likely has a specificity of āMixedā to reflect that, where isopower (or nearly so) 3x15ās would be āPureā.
So what do yaāll think about accumulating TIZ at the cost, perhaps, of intensity?
Iāve been doing a fartlek-style ride based on Strava segments that ends up being 2 x 10min @ 106-110%, depending on how I feel, then 4 x 3min at the same power. The 3min intervals actually have about 4-5min between them, but at that point Iām pretty cooked.
Those 3min efforts on tired legs at low zone 5 just a waste of time? Or is TIZ TIZ, and itās still stimulating adaptation? Or just, āhey, sometimes in races you just got to give what you got, so train how to give what you got?ā
I think the issue is the tired legs, not the intensity. your adaptations donāt care that your legs are tired, they require a certain intensity. If 110% is all you can do when fresh, then thatās probably okay, but if 110% is all you can do because of legs, then probably not gonna give you what you want.
Seiler has mentioned a number of times that, for example, the aerobic effect of the fourth hour of 70% FTP is a bit different, and the load is certainly different, than that of the first hour.
So if itās into zone 5, and that 3-4 minutes is all you have after that earlier work, is it hitting you the same way that doing that interval fresh would? I would have to think not, but Iām no scientist. 3 minutes at 106% wonāt do diddly if itās the first interval ā but what if itās on top of those long ones at 106%?
Other experts here will have to weigh in, but I donāt think thatās the way vo2max works. I believe those are thresholds that donāt change based on how tired your muscles are.
Got it. So it might be improving your ability to repeat hard efforts ā which is a good thing to have ā but it wonāt be boosting max aerobic power.
Something similar was discussed in endurance innovation podcast with KM about VO2 max and vo2 max blocks - as long as your response to vo2 max is heavy breathing and you can push your HR up, power output becomes secondary metric and you simply generate lower power but you are still overloading the system. The other thing are short power efforts (like 1 min) then you should be as fresh as possible if you want to push the power up.
Helgerud and Hoff mad 4x4min intervals famous and prescribed a HR of between 90-95% HRmax for these VO2max intervals. Yes, HR not power. If doing longer intervals, like Seilers 16min recommendation I think it is better to aim for the lower end of that range to keep a manageable level of fatigue, which in turn, could make it possible to squeeze an additional workout into your weekly training load further increasing your TIZ on a weekly basis. Be cautious though, fatigue management is key in any training plan and recovery is more important than TIZ.
Before the last few years, I was always 4 x 4 or 5 x 4 about intensity, with the much higher wattages. Iāve shifted to the longer intervals mainly just for a change.
And only two days a week. Iāve never done 3 days a week of intensity ā not even in my twenties (55 now).
Thatās a wise decision, Iām 57 and recovery is way more difficult these days. This table is from a website in Swedish but I think the main point is apparent.
