Started just below 200W mFTP, after taking off a big chunk of summer 2019. Yesterday did 51 minutes at 243W, could have taken that out another 10-20 minutes and so I’m good with the current mFTP. I’m bigger guy and not a climber, and rarely look at W/kg… take in a deep breath and… its 2.5 W/kg.
My plan is to double down on endurance/volume, extend sweet spot time-in-zone, and slowly whittle off weight. Believe that should get me to 3 W/kg and 275+ mFTP. I think there is a path to a 300W mFTP.
I assume OP is doing the 3min all out test. Start as hard as you can and keep it up, with power falling as you’re not able to hold it (so, not a steady-paced 3min effort). CP is the average power over the last 30sec.
Well I haven’t been posting up here for a while. I did mostly LIT for my winter and well, my thresholds all went down (go figure). However it also appears that my HR dropped for them as well, indicating to me that I’ve got a higher capacity. Garmin thinks I’ve still got a similar VO2max, even though my 5-6 minute power is down by a good 20 watts. If anyone has read “The science of winning” by Jan Olbrecht, it sounds like I’ve got a good aerobic capacity, and am ready to increase my aerobic power.
My winter of using a lactate profile to set zones has basically validated the basic premise of the ramp test, as long as you can calibrate it to your on abilities. As for me, my max aerobic power has dictated where the thresholds end up. Doing a lot of LIT, did not maintain my LT1, but did maintain PWR:HR. i did not do anything much over 300 watts through the winter, so I"m curious to see what the next 5-6 weeks do by bringing back the 120% target power intervals of SSB2.
I’m guessing that the whole race season this year will be mostly scrapped, as a triathlete I don’t expect public pools to be open, especially considering that the one I go to is on a college campus. If anything they’ll keep it to just for the college team until a vaccine is developed.
I always do a CP4 and a CP15. The resulting CP aligns well with all other markers, e.g. average power of last interval of a set of 4x15min at threshold or a 40min TT. For me 0.95xCP20 actually is actually a good marker as well (with the 5min pre-load!!!). A ramp test is an absolute waste of time for me, I simply suck at everything above CP. I don’t train accordingly.
you probably have stated this before but I could not find it, what did you feel was lacking during the 2017 and 2018 seasons? My personal view of polarized is:
appears to be an overly simple way to increase vo2max
using Mader/Olbrecht/Weber/INSCYD model of metabolic metabolism, the polarized philosophy of combining very low LIT with HIT MAY increase short power production (VLamax) faster than VO2max which for THOSE PEOPLE would reduce power at MLSS (anaerobic threshold / FTP). The “VLamax vs VO2max response - which wins?” is highly individual and can even change during the season.
improved cardio response to ‘high tempo and low threshold’ road race efforts HOWEVER I was lacking the muscular endurance to push hard for more than 60 minutes
The last bullet is from my own limited experimenting with polarized.
Your points kinda highlight the fact that many people perhaps adopt a training method without having a clear goal of what they are trying to achieve and why. If your goal is simply “Raise my FTP!”, then you might be better off with a TR plan; however, that might leave other areas underdeveloped or even untouched. Similarly, doing a POL plan just because it’s in vogue might have you coming up short in that FTP goal.
My POL-seasons were 18 & 19. I was lacking clearly endurance, still going strong after 3 or 4 hours. A typical XCM race is to kill yourself in the first 30min and then survive for the remaining 4 to 8 hours. I was clearly losing in both compatments, high speed (my CP6 was highest in 2017 and lowest in 2019) and “endurance/survival”. The latter was more prominent.
I believe my POL approach generated too little load. Despite >20h. Too many junk miles.
thanks, “muscular endurance” is what I thought and matches my limited experience. Tempo and sweet spot work has real and positive impact on my ability to stay strong for hours and hours. Obviously working in the grey zone does not fit nicely into polarized “physiological breakpoints” talking points, but it works and produces results.
Had to think about this thread recently. Listened to @Mikael_Eriksson latest interview with a running coach: best approach when time maxed out, probably an increase of LIT intensity.
This is exactly what I did this year. And I extended this due to lockdown. Base is everything up to mid/upper tempo. Acutal intensity is driven by “feel”. If “feel” allows only Coggan zone 1/2 → rest day or active recovery day.
I’m a disciple of the “no rest week” school, love it, no restrictions to my exercise addiction. And it was/is great fun to figure out how much load I can tolerate. Sleep is really a key marker for me.
A few weeks ago I learned I can race again early August: 240K, >8000m climbing. Switched to build phase. And I must say, I’m impressed of the load I can handle. This long base with endurance/tempo focus has laid out a solid foundation.
Yes, it was tough and somehow you always feel tired but I could always execute my planned sessions. What really worked was doing 2-a-days. Love it. Carbs are key at this volume and intensity. I’ve never fuelled that much during a workout. This really makes a difference for the rest of a block, not just for a single session.
So one more short block, than 4 days “wash-out”, and a final mini-build. 3 weeks until race day, just hope borders stay open.
Wait what? Are you saying I can just start eating after 1h15-1h30 on my 5-6 hours rides? I am trying now to push it to 3/4 in when staying strictly in zone 2.
time weighted kJ at intensity much higher than in any build block in the last 4 years + significantly less disturbance of well-being-parameters (I’ve been tracking sleep and mood for 3 years now)
yes … long day training … and not unusual when you look at other sports
I have no events this year and have sort of faded out my training the last month, going down from around 16h/weeks to 9-12h/weeks. I will take the last part of September and October to do whatever I feel like, but trying to do 4-5 hour endurance rides during the weekends. I will quit my job and move the last of October so November 1st will be the start of my 2021 training season. I will have time to do traditional base and I like the idea of high volume. Hopefully my first race will be a criterium the first week of February, followed by a 4 days stage race with lots of climbing the following week.
I have to say I am really looking forward to November and get back to structure in training and back to the basics, slowly working towards a set goal.
Yep, as per my post I’m in week 2 of 2 weeks off the bike.
Next week I’ll still be trying to improve my capacity to absorb and recover from run sessions, but will add in easy bike rides.
Then from early October it’ll be as much volume at Z2 as possible (or tempo when time-crunched) + a couple of runs per week, and some strength work.
Maybe around mid-November, I’ll reduce the running down to 1 a week, but start doing more and longer tempo intervals (nothing strenuous, just building up muscular endurance) on top of the Z2 rides.
Base will officially end mid-December where I’ll have a 2-week FTP block periodisation before the festive break, then start Build in the New Year.
Obviously all subject to change and will adapt as life / reality gets in the way!
I started this thread a year ago, a new season is about to start. This was probably the longest base period every. However, I had two races. The second one on Sunday, this was quite telling. Especially since I can compare it to previous participations.
First of all, I’m repeating myself now:
I’m a more experienced rider (I don’t see huge gains anymore, my FTP hoovers around 4.7-5.1 W/kg)
training before last year’s participation was very polarized for many months.
this year with Covid I did plenty of @ AeT and Tempo. Plenty, plenty. A short threshold block in July (which was too intense I believe) and another threshold block in September. The rest of the time AeT and Tempo. No “very easy” days. I rather took a day off or went for an easy 1 hour run.
This year, 25min faster, age group win, comparable conditions
there is basically just one difference: I’ve spent almost 30 min more in the threshold zone. One of my main concerns with previous training was the lack of turbo diesel performance. Just LIT and HIT did not produce this. Furthermore, 10min less coasting. I’d say this also reflects improved fatigue resistance.
In contrast this year, lots of tempo. And a short threshold block. As said before, at 46 and with my history I don’t expect much movement of anaerobic threshold anymore. HOwever, it appears that time at threshold is still quite trainable.
This is strikingly similar to what we see in DrMF training model thread. And this will be my model for the upcoming base period. A nice side effect: riding around AeT and tempo is extremely entertaining. Happy hard, fun. What I will include as well are these low cadence variations, have never done them really.
I did lot less intensity this year. 530 hours last 12 months. Did not do as many 15h training weeks as i wanted. Biggest week 17 hours. No racing. Regained my fitness (was not in a good shape last year at this time) so FTP went up like 50w (july). Hit my 6min PR with very few vo2max sessions.
I know volume works for me so i need to find a way to increase it. So this year will be probably very similar; Z2 with stuff.
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