What % of FTP do you do for the long tempo intervals? Or do you shoot for the 83% HR target and adjust power as you go?
I’ve done some longer intervals at 85% FTP and was under the 83% HR, so was going to try some at 88% next.
I adjust power as I go. Sometimes with the +/- buttons, sometimes just by taking it out of erg mode and pedalling harder / softer. I found that going up the Alpe du Zwift at my weight and my tempo pace takes just about an hour, and the scenery plus concentrating on adjusting gears and cadence as the gradient changed made the time go by quite quickly.
At the moment I’m not doing any FTP testing. But just for purposes of monitoring TSS and CTL, I’m just taking the power I do for long intervals @ 83%maxHr, and divide that by .85 to get a rough FTP.
I’m going to be basing most of my time on Spruce knob (!?) for January and February this year. It’s long intervals (20 plus minutes depending on variant) at 85% FTP. Sweetspot but at the low end. I can do it at aprox 80% of max heart rate. I’m not planning on doing anything above this intensity. It always worked for me when I was racing before power meters were around.
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I’m seeing a few local racers on Strava doing 10 - 14 hour weeks (outdoor rides). I assume the intention is traditional style base, but I was under the impression you’d want to maximise Z2. Breakdown for these guys is something like this…
Z1: 50%
Z2: 30%
Z3: 15%
Z4: 5%
Are these guys wasting their time? Relatively speaking, I’m working my butt off, but doing half the hours.
Sorry if slightly OT!
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local cat2 doing traditional 8 week base:
ramped from 7.5 hours to 22.5 hours, most of it z2. Healthy diet of 4-5 hour rides, along with 2 hour rides. His last ride of December was 5 hours / 78 miles / 6100’ (1860m) and even with all that climbing he did a great job keeping it in z2.
He started doing traditional endurance training a few years ago, and over a year or so went from 15mph z2 to over 20mph z2 on the flats.
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That’s impressive. I have nowhere near that amount of time to ride. I definitely get the benefits of big hours of endurance instead of lower hours of SST. But not sure the hours/work I mentioned above is going to be particularly effective.
Just make it clear, when you guys talk about tempo, is it zone 3 (76-90% FTP) or…?
This z3 is kinda weird because you can ride there fairly long and im still not sure which direction i should go with my training. Like how many sessions with z3 or how many hours i should do it weekly or per session. While im getting stronger i get the feeling “should i do more”, but then i also realize i can just add more time in z2.
For me tempo is the lower half of zone 3.
If you feel tired/worn out, ride zone2. if not very long tempo or sst. repeat. focus on time accumulated. focus on how you feel. if you feel you need a rest day, take a rest day. learn why you need a rest day.
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Hello, it’s me again… Just because i’m happy and i have good news.
- ~20w increase in ftp in little over two months
- Didn’t do as much volume as i planned
- Didn’t do as many vo2max sessions as i planned and those sessions i did had like 15min in z5
- Did atleast 1h in z3 per session - hardest session 1h 45min in z3
So i guess i will carry on focusing z3 for FEB-MAR and try to increase the volume. I’m not sure about the z5 sessions, maybe i still keep doing them (maybe once in 10 days).
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Here’s my check in:
Did 12 weeks of:
- 300 miles/week
- 14000kj/week
- one day of 10-12 :30 max efforts on 4:30 rest
- one day of 60min zone 4
- two weight sessions
Took an easy week of 7hrs, 5600kj
Did one week of intervals this week – hit 410w for 5 min today, then 520w for 1 min, both better than my bests last year.
I’ll credit the volume for the 5min power and the weights+:30 sprints for the 1min. Xert has FTP at 345 today, 8w off the best from last year.
I’ll see how the rest of the year goes. Damn well better not be peaking in Feb.
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🤦🏻♂ 
I think Quintana thinks similarly 
I’ll check in - currently have a 105 day in a row streak going.
Hit the weightlifting goals 100% in terms of completing all workouts in programming. Have been getting outside on the mountain bike regularly as winter has been wet but mild. Indoor training on the bike has been less focused than planned but for now I’ll take 2 out of 3.
March and April it’s time to cut back the weightlifting and pump up the bike riding. Indoors and out. Have picked out a half-dozen TTs for the spring and then am looking at some XC races and might try an enduro event. Maybe…
-Mark
Good time to check in, too. Just finished a 5-week tempo base period (4 load, 1 recovery).
Each load week included:
1 long midweek interval session (2x45 tempo, 1x60 + 1x30 tempo, 1x90 tempo, 4x20 sweetspot)
1 long weekend outdoor ride (started out strictly Z2 then allowed myself to go harder as the block ramped)
1 short (6x5min) tempo session done at 40-50rpm
The rest mostly Z2 and recovery, with a little bit of extra tempo at the weekend if I was feeling fresh.
1x weight training / core strength session per week.
Really interesting training because it focused on muscle endurance - so apart from the occasional hill on an outdoor group ride, I was never really gasping for breath during the sessions. But 4x20 @ 90% (Galena +3) in the 4th week took some serious concentration. And my legs felt it!
I haven’t done any proper ramp test as I haven’t really done any work on the top end yet. Before I did Pettit before and after the block with the following results.
Before: AvPwr 164, HR 119
After: AvPwr 168, HR 105
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Do you know what improvement you’ve made in Tempo power over 30mins at 81-83% maxHr?
I did a sub-threshold ramp test for different heart rates. I was about 10-15 watts higher at the steps around that point.
I suspect, but can’t currently prove, that I can also hold that power for longer without my HR going up.
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Last weeks podcast has some good info about what to do so give that a listen if you’ve got time for more detail.
Could do a couple things:
Train ‘as normal’
Work on weaknesses (build block)
More base
You probably don’t need a specialty block if you know your events are cancelled, I’m gonna do one even though I’m fairly confident my first A race is down the tubes just to get more reps with the training plans and figure out how my body reacts to a double peak.
Build focused on a weakness area would be good if it can help your long term goals, ie sustained power build is probably everyone could benefit from. Or just to mix it up. I’ve done 40k TT but always give side eyes to short power.
Keep repeating base training, but sprinkle in some threshold / vo2 max efforts to stimulate both mentally and physiologically.
At the end of the day since you don’t have races, it can be hard to keep that training motivation so do something that’s fun and motivating!
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Short power build is a blast. Had a ton of fun doing that block last spring.
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After24 weeks of base I would probably go through at least one 8 week build phase just to switch the stimulus up.
Since I started this thread, my final contribution: as there is no racing I can’t evaluate my base period approach. Therefore, did an outdoor CP test today, it could have been a great seaon. Bummer!
CP = 4.985 W/kg
and a pathetic W’ of only 10KJ. This is not unexpected, I suck up there. And I’m old.
After two years of no improvements a new bump up. Something I noticed for a few weeks now. The improvement of AeT definitely translated to the upper region, as well. Though I did quite a lot of intensity since Feb.
Basically followed a two zone approach, below and above anaerobic threshold. Intensity of below was guided by “feel”. I outlined this in a previous post here.
and weight came down as well. First time in two years!
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