Training Update - FTP Work

Had two heavy days of FTP work thrown in between getting work (that pays the bills) done.  I've been finding some time to train and making the best of it, although I'm still at a sub 90 CTL.  I don't think that is going to go up this season, every time I produce more kJ for the week my FTP estimate has gone up and my CTL is lower.

The whole reason why I'm working on my FTP is to actually not be DFL in time trials this season.  My previous season I was able to get some wins by sneaking away while no one was looking.  That might work in crits but it sure as hell is not going to work in road races and time trials.  My lack of power was evident whenever it was me against the clock, usually finishing in the bottom 20% of all racers in my category.  Cat 4s.  Yes, my time trialing is that pathetic.

Well, time to bust out my e-wang.  Right now my FTP is about 280 if I use my best 20 minute power and take 95%.  Today I think I proved it to myself by doing my first set of 3x20s ever, and really nailing the third 20 minute effort at 290 watts and using a pretty solid negative split of 284/296.  I know I could have gone better and it was the third set of 60 minutes of FTP work today, so 280 is pretty realistic as an FTP with which to set training zones by.  That means my 6x5x1s need to get up to about 302-305 watts, which is doable considering yesterday I did them at 300 watts average over the 6 intervals, +- 3 watts variation between reps.

Anyways, that puts me at 4.21 W/Kg.  Not that great, but better than ever for me and also within reach of 4.5 W/Kg for Washington County.  I'm dropping weight pretty well at about 1.5 lbs per week since laying off the sauce, something I'm sticking to for the next few months.  Another 12-15 watts FTP and 3 lbs and I'm at 4.5.  the 3 lbs is going to be easy, the 12-15 watts not so much.  I basically only have one more build cycle before TofWC and another 5% increase is really pushing it.  One day if I get to 4.75 I'll stop posting my numbers or just grossly exaggerating them :)

Anyways, here are the two workouts... Pretty pictures.

298W/298W/301W/303W/300W/302W = 300W Average

The 3x20s showed an interesting trend.  Here are the splits for each set and also the cadence for each split.

Interval 1: 281W/288W = 285W
            97 rpm/95 rpm
Interval 2: 278W/284W = 281W
            93 rpm/91 rpm

Interval 3: 284W/296W = 290W

            90 rpm/89 rpm

My cadence seems to be dropping as I get tired.  I'm happy to see I'm still above 90 rpm when I thought I was grinding away at 75 rpm.

285W/281W/290W - Negative Splits!

Jefferson Cup Race Report and Analysis

Jeff Cup was a lot of fun this year... more fun racing it than last year, although my result sucked I was overall pleased with how the race went.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't have every high expectations and was looking at this as a "training" race.  I went into it with pretty sore legs, having missed my Tuesday workout and essential riding very hard Wed/Thu/Fri before the race with about 350 TSS for those 3 days.  Nothing major, but I'm only doing about 500-700 TSS per week so it was a decent block.

The race started out very fast and part of that was my fault.  I was pushing the pace, knowing what I was doing was stupid.  However, there was a number of us working at the front trying to catch folks off guard.  Honestly, for a 60 mile 3/4 race it was too much too early.  I did 250+ watts for the first 10-12 minutes, which is not much but definitely wakes up the legs quickly.

For 3 laps I tried to pedal 0s as much as possible and was pretty successful doing 0-5 watts for over 30% of the time for those laps. Furthermore, I was able to move from the back of the pack to the front in about 10 seconds due to the rolling enclosure and the fact that there was only 50 or so riders at this point.

At one point, I go OTF after counterattacking a break attempt that had just been caught.  I dangle about 15 seconds in front of the pack and decide since no one is coming to join me, I'll sit up and wait.  Decent sized match was burned attempting this.  After that I decide to sit in and wait for the field sprint, nothing was getting more than 200 hundred yards up the road if that before the group chases it down.  The racing was pretty negative the whole day.  The reason why 3/4 races end up as bunch sprints 90% of the time is because no one lets a break form and when they do, some dumbass drags the whole pack up to the break thinking they are "attacking" or "bridging".  One guy pulled a break back (only guy on his team in the race, by the way), looks at me, and goes "We got em, you can thank me for that!"  I just rolled my eyes at the guy...

Well, after I had all buy given up, Avery Wilson (a fast junior) goes OTF with one lap to go.  Immediately an All American Bicycling Club guy goes with him.  I knew this move had a chance.  So, I actually attack when the break is 50 meters up the road to make sure it doesn't drag the pack up to them.  I put out my peak wattage for this attack, and it worked.  I made it to the break and recovered for a minute before working.  Within 5 minutes we were out of sight of the pack and had probably 30 seconds or more!  It was the winning move, I could feel it.  We were working really well together and I was pulling us up the final climb, feeling great, when the moto ref told us to pull over so the 1/2/3 field could pass us.  Argh!!!!  Ok, not a big deal... he says we have 30 seconds on the group.  "Ok... " we say, "but how do you know?", they haven't even made the turn onto the climb and we are more than half way up, almost over the top.  He says they checked it and it was 30 seconds and they will keep that gap.  Still, 30 seconds is pretty good since we are out of sight.

We wait 5 minutes, the 1/2/3 field goes by, and then the 3/4 field starts coming up the climb.  The ref had told us they would bring them up to us and then stop them and recreate the 30 second gap. Well, when the field is 1/3rd of the way up the climb and about 15 seconds from us, the other moto ref yells at us to go!  We complain but he just yells "Go Go Go!!"  Great... now we are in sight and the pack has momentum coming up the climb.

Well, long story short, we got caught, I recovered, was 5th wheel going around the final turn, and then blew up on the "sprint to the sprint" with 1k to go.  Really what happened is my motivation went out the window.  In retrospect I might have finished in the points if I didn't sit up.

Anyways, here is the ride file for the race with some comments.

Status Report - 6x5'x'1 Efficacy Update

I haven't done an official 20 minute FTP test in a long time.  The last couple of times in previous seasons went so badly.  Had I set my training zones based on those numbers I'd be doing VO2 workouts at base.  Therefore, I traditionally used NP for hour long hard group rides to estimate my zones.

Well, after several weeks of 6x5s it looks like my ability to TT is actually beginning to match my VO2 capacity.  After an easy weekend with only an hour of racing I felt a little flat today but after 15 minutes of warmup decided to try a 20 minute all out effort just for the hell of it.  My previous 20 minute best was 3 seasons ago and only 278 watts.  Here is today's workout.

Negative split 288/296 and still felt like I had a lot to give.  Probably should have kept going as long as I could, but for now I'm still surprised I was able to hit my first real goal of 290 Watts.  This puts my FTP at greater than 275, which puts my power to weight at the 4 W/kg mark!

I also like the fact that I averaged 23.9 MPH on a windy day on a road bike.  I really hope this transfers to the time trial bike, I have some stage races to go to this year.

I'm beginning to think a 315 Watt 20 minute (and 300 Watt FTP) is completely achievable this season.

Hurray 6x5s!!

Fulton Category 3/4 Race Report

Taken from my club forum:

A couple of us - Jeff Erler, Luis, Brian Meadowcroft, and myself - went up to "Peach Bottom" PA this weekend to race in the cat 3/4 road race.  With a name like Peach Bottom it was hard to resist.  What I thought was going to be a rolling, mellow course ended up being one of the hardest road race courses I've done.

As usual, we spent some time talking about cassette choices, the course profile, strategy, and tactics.  Little did we know that a lot of that would go out the window once we saw the course!  We showed up almost 2 hours early to see the start of the women's open and the 4/5 race.  I'm still not sure whether the decision to pre-drive the course after the 4/5s was a good idea, but off we went to check it out.  At this point the 4/5 race had 7-8 minutes on us and we knew we'd catch them and pass any stragglers.  Barely 2-3 miles into the course, the carnage was already becoming apparent as we were seeing popped riders hanging off the back of the pack and unable to catch back on.  Long story short, probably 25% of the 4/5s were dropped on the first lap.  This course was muuuuch harder than the course profile suggested.  It was very intimidating just to drive the damn thing, riding it was going to suck big time!  There was one great part of the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs - as one of the dropped riders was suffering off the back, a group of dogs came up and started nipping at his heels while he was in the red zone!  Awesome image, you had to be there to get the full hilariousness of the situation.  I was tempted to bark out the window as we drove by the poor guy.

As we lined up for the race, the self deprecating excuses starts in earnest - no one was very confident they will be finishing this one.  It seemed like it would be a race of attrition and as we rolled off, mood was great but confidence was not particularly high.

The race starts on some nice rollers and I begin paying attention to who is in the race.  The main person I was marking was Jeremy who now rides for Haymarket, so I was trying to stay near the front and near his wheel.  Although I can't really follow him if he really wants to go, he does not always get tactics right and it's possible to stay close.  The four of us, Luis, Jeff, Brian, and I were all pretty much together for the first part of the lap, but in short order the center line rule was ignored and people were shooting up the far left side of the course and all came around me.  I did not want to be at the back of the pack up the climbs but looks like I would be.

After the doing the first lap it was very clear that the course is as hard as we thought!  I put down personal best 2 minute power pretty much each time up the main climb.  The other climb wasn't a slouch either, I actually think it did more damage because if you were close to the rivet the false flat that followed would pop you.

A couple more laps into the race, and I was sure that the next time up a climb would be my last.  As I looked around, the group was shrinking each lap but somehow managed to stay with it.  Overall the pace of the race was not fast, with a couple of moves going off the front here and there.  I did not have the confidence to try and bridge and one time Luis went off the front and I at least went to the front and controlled the pace of the race.  I would rotate into the front and just ride tempo, when people came around I let them gap me so that others were forced to move around me.  Yeah, a little cheap but the point was to let a break get established and not just have the regular old race.  Jeremy tried to "bridge" up to about 5 different small groups but instead dragged the whole pack with him... sigh.

By the time the last lap came around, though, I was getting more confident and moved to the front and began to really watch my position.  On the last climb there was three off the front that we probably wouldn't catch and the chase group split into 3 different groups.  I ended up in the 2nd group and accelerated out of it after recovering a bit, making sure not to let anyone sit on my wheel.  I reached the front chase group and started to position myself for the sprint.  I knew people would go too early, and when everyone jumped out of the saddle I stayed seated and in their drafts until the last 50m or so and sprinted for 5th in the group, 8th in the race.  Pretty happy with that result given my winter training and how much more season is in front of us.  One place out of the points but $30 richer!  Luis bagged 18th and although he was disappointed, I think he's doing awesome this season and will have his podium finishes really soon.

Overall, this is a great race, highly recommended.  Next year I'll play around in some of the breaks of the front for sure.

Boom #2

Today's workout was a repeat of the last several weeks, a 5x5'x'5 set @ 115%-118% FTP.  This means that if my FTP is set correctly, I should be doing them at around 305-312 watts.  My latest thing is to definitely value quality over quantity, and this was another instance of following that philosophy.

The first interval was lower than I'd hoped but still on target @ 310 watts.  Last week I started with one at 310 as well, so things looks ok.

Just to compare, this was last week's workout:

310/315/315/308/312 Watts

Well, this week, 2 minutes into my second interval, the lights just went out.  It could have been mental at that moment, but my legs were just screaming and I could not get the wattage above 300 for any period of time.  After 2 mins, I lost my willpower and bailed.  After looking at the power for the first 2 min it wasn't terrible at 303 watts, but I knew I was going to blow up.  I rode home and actually struggled to maintain 160-180 watts and rode at more like 125 for the remainder of the ride, 30 minutes or so.

Last week I went into this workout with much less fatigue in the legs, and most likely that made the difference.  While I had 3 days off the bike completely last week, I have been on the bike since Friday, making that 7 days in a row.  Time to recover again according to my new technique and avoidance of junk miles.  No scheduled rest weeks, just reacting to my ability to complete my exercises.  Last season and every season before that, I would have stayed out for another hour or so and probably ridden harder even though my legs were sore.  This way I hope tomorrow's opener goes well and I am fresher for Fulton RR up in "Peach Bottom" PA.  Love that name.

So, boom #2 in my new training philosophy happened today, hopefully I can slowly learn how to adjust my workouts and intensity to manage this well.  I assume that as I continue to train and recover sufficiently, I will be able to take on more and more TSS per week. Right now I'm averaging what looks like 650 TSS per week, my CTL has gone up from 32 to 81 in 6 weeks and it's still climbing.  Last season when I got to 100 CTL I blew up, so I'm wondering if I can hold that this season.  Either way, I'm not going to force TSS down my throat for the sake of TSS.  This week will likely be light since I missed most of today's workout, tomorrow is just an opener, and I'm not riding Sunday.

Junk Miles

One of the nice things about a power meter is it's very good at telling you when you are wasting time on the bike.  By wasting time, I just mean not enough adaptation for either the time or the effort.  For instance, you are wasting the limited training time you have on miles that won't make you stronger.  Even worse, you are leaving enough residual fatigue in your legs that you don't recover from the previous workout and then can't do your "hard" workout the following day either.  I first read about this from Friel a few years ago, but like most self coached cyclists I didn't truly follow my own advice.  Most published coaches, as far as I can tell, refer to tempo or Z3 as the junk miles zone.  This is where I think it's an oversimplification for the sake of the reader.  Using the definition I gave above, there is nothing wrong with a 2-3 hour tempo ride if you make it hard enough.  Some people call the upper tempo training zones as Sweet Spot Training and as long as you are going hard enough for long enough it could be an appropriate training zone.  I'm not going to talk to SST here since there is plenty of good literature on that by the FasCat guys.

http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34778&id_sub=34778
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34129&id_sub=34129

You can define and scope the definition of junk miles even further than this, though.  Depending on the build period you are on and when your A races are happening, a lot of miles that would otherwise be appropriate training become junk miles.  For instance, doing anaerobic work in November is worthless unless you are racing cross.  That's not to say you shouldn't do any intensity, but targeted VO2 work would be wasted 4 months from your first race of the season.  Same goes for endurance riding like Z2.  If you have 10 hours a week of training, Z2, even during base season, is a complete waste of time.  A lot of people will disagree with me, but I would argue that the mainstream coaching community is coming around to this realization as well.  If you have 10 hours a week and you want to raise your endurance, right high tempo steady state SST rides as much as you can.  You simply do not get enough fatigue from riding Z2 10 hours a week to maximize your time on the bike.  It's similar to the whole "fat burning zone" argument.  Sure, if you jog slow for an hour you will burn more fat proportionally to carbohydrates, however if you run really hard for an hour you will burn so many more calories that you will actual burn more fat too!  You can get endurance based adaptation without riding Z2 is the bottom line.

The reason I'm posting about this is because I can very accurately determine how many miles a week I ride that don't contribute to my intended fitness goals.  The power meter, combined with WKO+, allows a detailed analysis of your rides throughout a build period.  I'm riding many less hours this year but my junk mile ratio has gone down significantly.  Hopefully I can carry this through the whole season, but so far so good, less TSS per week, better fitness gains, and overall less fatigue and therefore less chance of burnout.  I think my biggest contributor to burnout was all the junk miles I spent commuting, thinking that the "intervals" I was doing were helping.  This whole premise actually fits in rather nicely with my previous post "Anatomy of a Failed Interval" in which I explain my philosophy for this season (that I borrowed) of using a failed workout as a barometer for the need for rest.  I'm sure I will be adapting this as the season progresses and my legs make up my mind for me.

VO2 Interval Progression

I’ve been seeing very solid steady improvement during my VO2 sets lately.  My weapon of choice for the last build cycle was 5x5’x5’ at 112-115%.  Although I’m sure not all of the gains are from actual fitness, I’m surprised by how much they have gone up 3 weeks in a row.  Here is the progression:

March 17^th: 283W/283W/280W/286W/283W = 283W Average

March 25^th: 303W/302W/299W/305W/303W = 302.4 Average

April 1^st: 310W/315W/314W/308W/312W = 311.8 Average

That’s almost 10 Watts per week gain on these.  Although the first round on March 17^th was slightly under estimated (I came out of doing these a little too fresh I think) the next two rounds were very painful.  I could barely make it home after the 2^nd one and the 3^rd one really hurt as well.

This week will be a true test since I’m coming off 3 days of rest last week, totally of the bike Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Although this weekend’s workouts were quite hard (SST and 2x20’ FTP work) I’m still thinking I’m more rested this week and ready to really go hard on the 5x5’x5’s.  I thought about switching up to another VO2 workout I’m curious what kind of gains I can see this week.  If I hit 320 watts average for the 5 intervals I know I’m onto something good.

Here's how a 5x5'x5' looks in WKO+.

Not commuting to work on the bike is really lowering my junk miles significantly.  It’s most likely the reason I’m able to get a quality 10-12 hours a week and see such gains.

On a side note, this weekend was the first successful set of 2x20’s in over a season.  I hate steady state intervals and I was able to complete both @ exactly FTP.  I will shoot for 102-105% FTP next time for maximum adaptation, but just doing them @ FTP is putting a smile on my face for now.

Anatomy of a Failed Interval

For a couple of weeks now, I have not taken an official rest week typical of periodic training plans.  It certainly makes sense that after a period of build weeks you should plan some recovery.  However, I’ve found that it is impossible or at least difficult to plan weeks ahead of time your rest and builds.  The overall structure of your season can certainly be estimated and planned, but how your body and your life come together during training greatly determines the specifics of that plan.  Most coaches following the periodic build approach recommend 3-4 weeks of build and one week of recovery.  Typically this is about half the overall training stress of your biggest week in your build cycle.  In a perfect world, I’m guessing this approach works very well.  The problem with this is that it makes significant assumptions about how well the training has gone and how much fatigue your body has actually built up.  This is where having a way to measure training load and fatigue directly is key in determining a need for recovery time.

It’s often said that you only recover when you rest.  This is true, however balancing that with a loss of fitness or potential for better adaption through training is the end goal.  Personally, I feel like I can never find that balance.  On one end I’m either undertraining or not allowing myself to have enough quality workouts due to too much intensity close together.  My hard workouts suffer and become junk miles for the sake of miles, which don’t do anything for my fitness but still keep me fatigued.  Nothing new here, this is probably the most discussed topic in amateur cycling.

I mentioned having a way to measure fatigue and training load is essential to managing this balance.  Some people can do it by feel and a workout points system with much success.  I would say that a lot of the strongest riders I know manage to do this really well, by assigning points to workouts by difficulty, listening to their body, and modifying their plan accordingly.  Again, this does not work for me and I just can’t achieve that balance.  This is where training with power comes to the rescue.  I’ve been using it for a few years but this season I’m using it to its potential and I’m finding a big difference in my growth and fitness.  Instead of going into training with power, I’m just going to tie it back into the discussion around finding the appropriate time to recover.

After taking the entire base season more or less off the bike except for maybe 2-3 hours a week, I came back to training with a vengeance.  After 5-6 weeks of upping my training load, I was beginning to feel like I could keep going forever!  I was able to hit all of my intervals and workouts and made every training goal.  I knew I needed to recover eventually, but I decided to keep going until my power meter told me it’s time to rest.  Usually this is done by looking at CTL and ATL and the hours on the bike and sticking to the plan.  However, since I was already outside 3 week build cycle I needed something else to use as an indicator.

On Tuesday, that indicator came in the form of a failed interval.  On my 6^th interval of my 6x5’x’1 FTP workout, I blew up about 3:00 minutes into it.  Here is the WKO+ file showing the workout.

The first five intervals were fine, although I did overreach on the first one.  The last one was a complete detonation.  This is the indicator I was looking for to tell me it's time to rest.  The last three weeks when I've done this exact workout (at different power levels do to improved fitness) I've been able to nail it and also feel great afterwards.  The cumulative fatigue had built up in my legs and I was barely able to limp home after the workout.

Perhaps I overreached on the first few intervals and this was the cause, or I'm coming down with something, or otherwise fatigued, however it does not matter too much.  Over the next two days I could feel how tired my body was overall and it's the first time in a few weeks I felt like moving my legs was just too physically demanding.  I also felt that deep ache in the legs associated with training that becomes junk miles if I train on it.  So I have taken the time to recover over the last two days and tonight I can feel the legs waking back up and ready for the next intervals and my next build cycle.  Instead of forcing a schedule on my training, I'm allowing my body to dictate my build cycles.  Sure, it's tough to plan for a peak and A race this way, but that's where I would compromise and do a little bit of both while maintaining peak, quality workouts during the rest of the time.

Back in the Saddle

Obviously an overused idiom but I'm not feeling particularly clever at the moment...

The end of last season was not enjoyable for some reason.  Although I was able to accomplish my goals for the season (MABRA criterium champion, upgraded to 3) and more, I still felt somewhat unhappy about the bike.  Not sure whether it was burnout or simply boredom, but when work dialed it up to 11 it shattered the last part of my season and winter training.

Fast forward a couple of months and things are looking better.  After training camp and one race in the legs I'm actually feeling like this season might be salvageable.  Although originally my goals for this year would be to make category 2, over winter they just turned into "build for 2012".  However, my last few weeks of training are making me think that although cat2 might be a stretch this season, hopefully something better than just "riding around" is achievable.

First some numbers:

Feb 25rd 2011
CTL: 32.1
TSB: 19.9
FTP: 240
Weight/BF: 160.5 lbs, 22%

March 27th
CTL: 77.7
TSB: -43.7
FTP: 260
Weight/BF: 153.0 lbs, 16.5%

Although I haven't been putting in a ton of hours, I've been much more structured this season with the intervals and it seems to be working.  Last season I did a lot of my training while commuting, and although I tried to work in intervals, I think I ended up with lots of junk miles, long hours on the bike, and lousy recovery and adaptation.  This season I'm lowering the hours on the bike but making most workouts structured.  My bread and butter right now is 6x5'x'1 @ 108% and 5x5'x5' @ 115% intervals.  I'm really hoping the 6x5'x1' pay off, I did it a few times last season and always felt stronger on race weekends following that regiment.  The explanation for these intervals is here:

"The goal is complete slow twitch fiber recruitment. I assume that results in the greatest gains. Simply put, the effort sustainable for 20 minutes straight (let alone 2x20) is below the level at which maximal slow fiber recruitment is achieved, while still adding extreme levels of fatigue. A more effective method is to use shorter intervals at slightly higher intensity, with shorter recovery between intervals. 105-110% FTP seems to be about right based on what I saw. Intervals should be in the 5 minute range. We did 8 of them, with 1 minute recovery between each. The number of intervals is what should increase, not the length of interval. The first two or three feel ok (as the first 10 minutes in a 2x20 would), the last ones get hard. You will work you over every bit as much as a 2x20 or 3x20 session, but apparently with bigger gains. 

Now the numbers: I saw two studies, the first putting cyclists through 14 weeks of 2x20's. Total gains: 2.2% at threshold. The second had cyclists do only 7 weeks of the shorter intervals and saw a 7.9% increase in power at threshold. That's pretty huge. The fact that it was this particular guy showing me the studies and advocating the approach pretty much sealed the deal for me. He said there are others but he only had the two on hand."

The intervals were later modified to 6x5'x1' and I know why, usually that 6th interval drains the tank.  If I can do more I will, but 6 seems to be a good number.  The physiological reason for the success of these intervals as FTP trainers is based on the 1 minute recovery, not enough to recover your anaerobic capacity but enough to keep draining your aerobic and pulling your threshold up.  I plan on using these along with SST @ 92% and 2x20s at FTP to keep bumping the threshold up.  My VO2 workouts (5x5'x5' @ 115%) are working great in the sense that I am able to nail them and still feel like I could do more, recovery is quite good.

Oh, and as a last thing, I am doing Crossfit 2-3 times a week and I think that is helping a lot with the VO2 stuff.  I think I might write down some stuff about how that is going as well.