I am not sure where to find the “official” Coggan charts, but the ones shown on the related TrainingPeaks page include reference info about Heart Rate (based up Threshold HR, not Max HR AFAIK), RPE.
It also includes more nuanced info in the Description section, which has comments related to breathing, physical sensations, mental focus and such. Considering that Coggan is listed as the author of this TP article, I think it’s a worthwhile reference.
For quick reference (and to save space), here are just the first two Levels from that chart:
If that parallels the official Coggan info, it seems to try and cover more bases than pure FTP related info. As ever, there is more to this than the simple summaries we use sometimes.
I never claimed it did pertain to the broader question here. I shared it to show there is more nuance than the pure “it’s all about FTP” aspect. Pushing the fuzziness into TR definitions or other hard lined splits is messy business.
I don’t have any good answers to the OP’s issue, and I think others have covered a range of possible reasons quite well. I was just trying to show a wider picture with respect to the Coggan FTP aspect here is all.
Probably because you don’t know anyone who has put in enough time in consistently into long endurance rides to raise it closer to ftp. If you mostly do high intensity you’ll never close the gap.
His is 380W I’m pretty sure (at least on TR, may be higher)
@GoLongThenGoHome can I ask what your TTE at FTP is? Again, not doubting for a second, I just find your physiology fascinating and I’m wondering if you have an extraordinary amount of conditioning at LT1 and if that means a relatively low FTP TTE (given its not particularly relevant for your racing).
I do because it’s what’s key when your events are ultra distance. I spend a lot of time working at LT1 as that’s mostly where I’m riding on my events which stretch anywhere from 10 hours to around 170 hours unsupported. I don’t know my FTP TTE as I don’t test that aspect of FTP. Sustained efforts around FTP just aren’t relevant to the type of events I do.
So your rpe is higher, even though you aren’t breathing as hard?
Also are you talking about sustained efforts at z3/4 or short bursts?
Are we also talking about similar cadence?
I experience something similar when mountain biking, but only for short punchy climbs. Its easier to zip up those than to grind it out, but that is easy to explain since those are powered by reserve energy until after about 30 s, then o2 uptake needs to match the effort but by then you’re already at the top or near it.
I’ve written on other thread that many athletes in training finding sticking to Z2 very hard. Its the psychological aspect. As competitive people riding at an easy, conversational pace seems counter intuitive to improving performance, and hence, takes a lot of concentration, because instinctively we want to push ourselves. Having to force yourself to not push hard into the wind, up an incline, not to jump onto the tail of passing riders who aren’t doing your type of session, requires focus, concentration that is often way more difficult than just following your instinct. It is mentally tiring having give it that much attention.
You are not alone.
A coach of a professional team gave talk about how until his team had to fit GPS monitors, he didn’t know they were all cheating, all working way too intensely, when they were supposedly doing their long easy Z2 runs. The athletes hated the GPS monitoring because they got a bollocking from their coaches from then on, they couldn’t get away with doing what they liked doing, what hitherto just came naturally!
I have another potential theory about this which if anyone has any knowledge might be useful. Do zones 3 and above raise blood pressure where as zone 2 and below don’t real;y?
So if you suffer from low blood pressure z2 and below can feel hard and you can feel tired but when pushing over z2 blood pressure increases and hence things start feeling easier.
This is definitely a thing for me. I have very low blood pressure and riding at Z2 I sometimes get this fainting like feeling everyone with low blood pressure knows. More salt helps with that to some extent.
Yeah i kinda have this feeling that sometimes im mistaking low BP for low energy. Feel like i need fuel even though im 30 mins into a ride when i clearly don’t!
