This article is kinda topical, probably deserves its own thread. I’m surprised how little work >FTP was done in training.
“And yet, it’s fascinating to dive into the details and learn how the best riders approach the longest and hardest races in the world. And in the case of Landa’s successful tilt at the 2015 Giro, it looked something like this: a long, steady build-up with a focus on base miles; a gradual increase in intensity as the season began; and a bunch of hard racing to tune the engine, before finally tapering towards the Giro. Easy, right?”
It’s difficult to judge, lots of people racing to qualify/get a spot on the Olympic squads - not an issue for Blu…I’m not sure how the rest of the Norway team are looking. Iden probably out given all that happened last year. Stornes and Thorn probably. EDIT they have two male slots, Blu and Thorne.
Tight race men and women imo, Paris will be dramatic.
Yes, Paris is clearly his only focus. He talks about it all the time on his channel.
On his race review, he clearly wasn’t happy with the run leg though, and was expecting much more after his altitude block in Sierra Nevada
Thanks, if that was Yokohama he’ll also be disappointed with the more recent Cagliari although the field was much stronger last weekend. He looked pretty good on the run but Yee and Wilde were away with it as they usually are.
I’m biased but I’m hoping we don’t see any problems in the swim or bike so we can see what Yee and Wilde can do on the top stage. Blu will need a successful breakaway surely.
I doubt it, as I remember Seiler saying in one podcast (and later Coggan here, and then a guest I cannot remember also mentioned this on a Scientific Triathlon podcast…so several sources, who don’t agree on everything, as you know), a lactate value of 1.0 is often measured when an amateur simply changes into their kit. They haven’t even gotten onto the bike to warmup yet. LOL
But the concept I think is valid. Back when I measured lactate, I had established a baseline number. I cross-checked it with HR, feel, and (most importantly) breath count.
At this point in my understanding, not only do I think this is overkill for us, I also think that this level of precision within the Norwegian approach isn’t the secret sauce, and is likely overkill for them as well.
There is some sort of logical fallacy that I cannot think of that leads someone to misattribute success to some coincidental behavior. I think that is what they are doing.
if they put in the hours?
I think they could get close (just based on old coach’s input/private data). In fact, I think it is the hours per se that leads to this. IOW, “what intervals did they do?” “what was their intensity distribution?” “do they avoid the dreaded grey area?”…doesn’t matter. They put in the hours without getting hurt. But even if you get down to 1.0 mmol/L type values, doesn’t mean you’re any faster than they are. Just means you are faster than “higher lactate value at same intensity” you.
Having said all that, it ain’t power alone. Or an online training plan, either. Those two things alone didn’t get me more than newbie gains.
Listen to Bu on Scientific Triathlon. They focus on raising vo2max (volume). They focus on raising ftp/cp/cs as % vo2max (threshold work). They profile each individual, including how they respond to very specific training. They profile target races and use the response-to-specific-training data to individualize training and increase odds of optimizing performance.
All very basic stuff, but with high attention to detail.
Well it’s the pattern matching capability of our minds that is our success and downfall. But correlation rather than causation is probably the phrase you’re looking for.
I don’t think there is any secret sauce. They’ve done well through their approach with likely all elements, the reason I say all is that if there was a flaw in one of those elements I don’t think we’d have seen their dominance.
And such is why their coach can’t be simply dismissed as some posters above would have it.
They put in the volume without getting hurt. Too many people think it’s about hours.
Iden had his first injury last year, achilles. He didn’t know what Tod do as he’d never been injured before…imagine that for a moment.
I wonder if they are using Moxy more for intensity control these days and doing less lactate tests. An athlete getting a lactate test makes for a dramatic youtube video scene and doing workouts with a Moxy under your shorts won’t get any play.
What has intensity got to do with volume? Surely two riders doing 20 hours are doing same volume, just that their intensity distributions may be different.
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