Hertfordshire. This is where well gritted and cleared roads make all the difference. Where the risk of ice or an accident is minimal unless temps are touching -10C or below.
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So close to me (Peterborough although most of my cycling is in rural East Northamptonshire) which is sh1te but I know folk in Herts Council so that doesn’t really surprise me.
this is sooo uncanny.
What he describes is very much live what i had in my track sprint program.
On rollers and track bike, small gears, warm up, then every minute on the minute, rev out for 5-6 seconds, and easy roll for the rest of the minute. Repeat for 10 or so minutes.
I think i may add this back in as my pedal stroke has gotten rougher since i removed it.
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possibly once every other week on a sunday morning. i’d much rather do that outside though
West Mids, Coventry. im in the city so its about 15 mins to get out towards Kenilworth direction or Coombe abbey way. I cetainly would much rather use the rollers until it warms up, and even then its still just Sunday morning where outside is a real possibility
The real goal is to accumulate as much time at “low intensity” without compromising your high intensity workouts. Because the adaptations you are seeking are driven by muscle contractions, and if you can do
- 12 hours at 60% FTP, plus another 3 hours of intervals at higher intensity
that is better from adaptation point-of-view, than doing
- 10 hours at 70% FTP, plus another 3 hours of intervals at a reduced intensity
Something like that, as a general concept.
We could start a thread and endlessly debate the fine points, but the key points are:
- as much low-intensity as possible
- at a high enough intensity without too much stress
- plus 2 or 3 interval sessions per week
Many people have trouble with the second bullet. So better to start low, say at 60% and if you can nail 6-8 hours/week of that (plus intervals), and do that for 2 or 3 months consistently, then push it higher.
In other words, you are unlikely to compromise the low aerobic gains by doing 60%. By doing conditioning at 70% you might risk the gains at the other end of the intensity spectrum (high aerobic, anaerobic, sprinting).
Food for thought. The low intensity work is more a game of maximizing time (up to ~80% per week) while not compromising your high intensity workouts.
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Yea, i’ve been hearing a lot of the benefits of more than 2 hrs. Not sure im quite there yet but i may be able to nudge past 2 hrs IF i get the right Sunday morning (i.e kids behaving and the wife is off work, plus up early enough)
Thanks. Must break this mindset of more is better (intensity that is).
At least until new year i am going to stay in z2 and once in 2023 i’ll sub in one intensity day for a z2 and see how it goes.
Then another if im managing well.
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Right, more (time) is more on stuff like tempo and sweet spot, until it isn’t. And above threshold more is more up to a point, and above threshold sometimes its more time up to 15-25 minutes, and sometimes its more power with full recoveries.
Personally for the z2 stuff I like to keep my neuromuscular system active and toss in a handful of 5-sec sprints/accelerations. At most that is doing some quick phosphate creatine burns every 6 or 8 minutes, or a flurry at the end of the workout. Just to keep things interesting. 
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From
@empiricalcycling instagram, I always screenshot certain Q&As that might help me. Maybe this helps with this discussion too
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I watch lectures when I’m on the trainer doing Zone 2 work. A favorite is Nick Zentner who lectures on the geology of the Pacific Northwest.
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Couldn’t agree more.
This from the NW Ambulance service the other day “Just be aware if you are going out on your bikes NW ambulance service broadcast an appeal at 7.00pm. Please only call 999 in a life threatening situation. 100 ambulances are queuing at various A&E departments and 600 people are awaiting an ambulance to attend their own 999 call”.
Obviously other areas will be different. A guy in our club gas had 2 friends who came down on the ice. One broke his hip (not great for a pensioner) and other spent 8 hours in casualty waiting to be treated. The planned strikes in the NHS aren’t going to help the situation either.
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Don’t worry if you can’t nudge the volume up of what you can manage. I got very fit from two a day cycles commutes of 45 mins each , 5 days a week, all year round, then longer ride on the Saturday. Did that for almost 3 decades of year round cycle commuting.
You have to work with what you have, and don’t let the idea of perfection get in the way of good enough when it comes to fitness.
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After listening to ISM and a few others, i got into my head that going over LT1 would ruin my aerobic work, especially as i only have 1.5 - 2 hrs, but then reading that article, and anther associated with it, those short rev outs should be ok as it doesnt cause the same glycolitic activation.
This is great news as i love doing short revouts. It will also help break up the longer rides.
Yes, 100%. I need to remember that something is better than nothing and not get hung up on making things perfect when good will do.
Yea, i guess i’ll have to see how it goes.
As some one said on another post, small tweaks where necessary depending on how things are going.
I also realised, after reading that link about aerobic training with kettle bells that i need to be conscious of going too hard too soon and just burning a whole load of carbs, even if power levels and HR “say” im in z2
I read this again, and a linked article. The author talks about aerobic HR sitting around 180-age, which puts me at about 142bpm.
Power to ride at this HR is pretty low, i’d guess under 60%.
Could it be that me riding at 65-75% uses a lot of sugar and although still aerobic, i am using a lot more glycogen and its by products than maybe i want to if im focused on getting better at burning fat.
Yesterday i did Brasstown which is 65-75% and whilst challenging near the end, it was not hard. I was however starving after which makes me think i used up a lot of sugar. Maybe i should ride lower for now given my poor aerobic and fat burning ability and a heavy tendency to burn carbs
Yea. It’s hard because I look at the power number, and how easy it is a think it’s not going to do anything.
As a guide, is HR what I should be looking at more? Given my actual power number might distort things?
I’d pay about as much attention to that as max HR being 220-age, i.e. none . Because this a population average and there is only a small chance you are the average person.
A better calculation for Z2 is 70-80% of CTHr which is the max HR you could hold for 30-60mins.
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only… 
10 hours (or even a but less) is quite some volume, specially when you do structure.
to make a dumb sum-up:
- 10 hours of sweet spot is probably too hard and not productive
- 10 hours of z2 is probably doable, but not the best use of your time and not the most productive
- 10 hours of z1 is too easy and not the most productive.
mix it up (with some vo2) and get the most bang for your buck. What the best ratio is, depends on you experience, how fast you recover, how much life stress you have, how good your DNA is etc.
since the sweet spot plan was too much, maybe a mid (7hr) or high (10hr) polarized plan works for you, This is a nice mix of different zones, and I’m sure AT will keep you on track with progression levels.
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