Wouldn’t you say that it’s just his size and weight that kind of falls perfectly balanced in the hunt for good watts and w/kg?
If he was a bit larger genetically, let’s say 76kg at his “fittest” instead of being 76kg when starting his journey, would it be as impressive?
That’s what I meant. Compare this to someone with a physique suitable for rugby, swimming, or wrestling.
World class aerobic capacity also requires muscles that demand/use more oxygen, and endurance riding is a large part of the training to achieve that, to bring this back on the topic of the thread.
Came here to post that too. GCN on a big “Zone Two” kick!
I know it sounds dumb, but it’d be helpful to see a couple of example LT1/talk tests. Si said 250W and 150bpm, was that the intensity he was riding at as he said those numbers??
I still think this argument doesn’t help your case as it seems like a super selective and somewhat distracting point.
As you say, the other points are much clearer. Keep the bingo card like that.
His final comment is telling. He lacked top end. Obviously not a problem if you’re building base and have no races or race simulation planned soon.
Thanks, podcast sounds interesting. Almost gave up as the question became, what does first and second order effect mean. But then it improved.
With all these discussion, does anyone feels the current polarized plan in TR prescribe too high FTP for these Z2 ride? if so, what would you suggest to adjust the intensity?
Kolie’s podcasts are longer than most people’s endurance rides 
That likely varies based upon each person’s current PL’s when viewing and adding plans. As of this moment with a 4.4 Endurance PL and viewing the default 6-week Base POL MV, I see Endurance workouts ranging from 55-75% FTP with plenty in the 65-75% range. That is PL 4.1 in the first week to 5.6 several times through the cycle.
I see the same with more progression to higher PL’s (4.3-7.9) in the 8-week Build as of my same 4.4 End PL.
Point is that is it likely subjective to riders’ current End PL, and I know the statement above is not correct to my Base POL plan currently in use.
For 2 years I’ve had essentially no progression on my key twice a week endurance rides, and yet I kept improving. The key is to not make them too easy, and to realize its a range which was nicely illustrated in the latest GCN video of 220-260W (?) for Si. By the end of 2 or 3 or 4 hours I want it to end, but I’m still breathing fully aerobic and could talk and HR is still reasonable. I vaguely recall a Keegan ride (5 hours?) on Strava titled Squeezing All the Juice from a Lemon, or something like that. Even my 2 hour rides start to feel like that toward the end.
For me it’s about 75%, but 225 is a long way from 270.
As ISM discusses from his research, Z2 start as low as walking up the stairs for type II diabetics or people with long COVID symptoms, and goes all the way to not far off FTP for the elite athletes.
I find all of this discussion of Zone 2 interesting, as Dr. Attia indicates is really “low zone 3” on a few of his YouTube Q&A sessions, where he equates it to cycling zones.
Do you have any intensity (SS/THR/VO2) planned between the Zone 2 rides? Or is this an either or?
The short answer is to change your approach. Instead of thinking you always need to be progressing, focus on longer maintenance phases and occasionally do a development phase.
Spend most of your time consistently maintaining, and if you are like most and have a hectic and stressful work/personal life, you may end up farther ahead in the long run. It worked for me. Play the long game.
This is one of the lessons I got from the Time Crunched Cyclist book, reinforced by my coach, and reminded of that today from a Wattkg marketing email.
I don’t think you need to be dong Z2 until exhaustion to get the training adaptations. At some point point you will reach a max of what can be achieved with the time you put in. I wouldn’t worry too much about that plateau if you can consistently put in 7 hrs a week that should get you to a decent level.
And you should be doing the higher intensities also during base, just as you should also be doing the Z2 rides during build.
The program I am on, I guess I am in base since the event I am training for is stil 5 months out, is giving me at the moment with 10-11 available hours:
2x 3 hr in the weekend + 3x 1.5 hr during the week.
Friday is VO2 Max intervals surrounded by Z2.
Weekends is normally also high/low Z2, alternating between 60%-80% FTP.
Tuesday is Z2 with a total of 15/20 min of tempo intervals at 90%.
Why doesn’t bill belichick run the same offense as that guy from Alabama 
Cause he does it this other way.
I don’t think ISM needs a table. Amateurs in 2010 needed a table. Also, you do understand that this stuff was Coggan’s hobby, right? He knows his stuff, no question. ISM has also figured out some stuff.
If it were as easy as finding LT1 and telling ppl to go out and ride it, you could have machine learning do it.
Based on Coggan’s table, virtually every professional endurance athlete is training totally wrong.
We’d better send it to Pogacar, Wout, MVDP, Iden, Kipchoge etc…