If and when you decide to use it to create a plan Nath, I’d be interested in seeing what you come up with as you work through the various steps.

I *think* the workout menu will use HR zones rather than CP zones but I can give you the equivalent power zones from my MTB training bible.

I think he’s doing a brand new version this Autumn!

Ta.

Call that a serious training book, this is a ‘serious’ training book…

Sorry TSY, can’t see the pic.

It’s worth following Friel on Twitter actually, he uses it to link some great articles, puts out some great Tweets and will respond to your questions.
Today’s tweet was quite relevant to what I was saying about Power, HR and RPE all being important for pacing:

How’s your perceived exertion? Occasionally put a piece of tape on your device to see if you can hit the numbers without seeing them.

Although it might be easier to just flick to a different screen 😆

Edit- got pic now.

Already got it on Kindle but didn’t really think it added anything in particular.

Consequently, LT is the single most important physiological determinant of performance in events ranging from something as short as a 3 km pursuit to a stage race lasting as long as three weeks. This is especially true when LT is expressed in terms of power output, which also takes cycling efficiency into account.

Do like this quote though TSYeti 🙂

It’s effing heavy going!

I think it would be great if you use training software- much of the stuff will be familiar to you already.

It’s a bit like Spaniel Training. I used to read every book I could get my hands on. There were graphs, diagrams and tables galore with many thousands of pages of waffle.
Then (and I should have started with it as it’s a classic book) I stumbled across Kieth Erelandson. In one paragraph, he told me everything I needed to know and what other writers had failed to convey in an entire book.

And that’s how I view the Bibles. He gives you everything you need in a short paragraph with none of the waffle.

Short paragraph?

I’ve got a 300+ page book here 😆

In theory- a 60minute TT as TiRed suggests is the best way to achieve this, but only if you are truly wrung out at the end.

It’s a race, you’ve paid to enter and the adrenaline will do the rest! My turbo does little for adrenaline production in the garage. 😆 . I don’t go and ride them off my own bat. Also the start time and course helps with the traffic. Perhaps not if you are a mornings person though.

Predicted FTP is 10% down on my true value. That or my Biological age is the same as naths. I think I like that one more 😀

And with online calculators, you don’t even need a power meter. A bit like speed on the turbo, but much more fun.

Banbury star cat 3/4 road race was an eye opener. We set off at one hell of a pace I think average speed after 9 miles was about 26mph, I got stuck near the verge in a slight cross head wind plus bunny hopping drain covers every 100yards. Turned sharp left into strong head wind, big concertina effect and full on out the saddle sprint to stay on the back. Turned up edge hill hit the 15% ramp and got shelled out the back, after that rode solo for half a lap then worked with 2 others for lap 2 and on lap 3 I could not hold the wheel in front and TT’d my way home as the Marshalls were cleaning up.

Average heart rate for 2 hrs 10 mins was 172, average speed was 19.8mph over 45 miles, i spent an an hour and five mins at threshold and the rest of the time just below. I came in second last but there were a few who abandoned. I got fairly demoralised after being dropped and nearly pulled in after one lap but then decided I needed to finish.

I couldn’t believe how fast the race was the winner averaged 24.8mph and finished 26 minutes before I got back.

@tomvet, thats about how all the races are up here, don’t think there are even any 4th cat only races that score points – its madness.

@nath – enjoy the bible, bit outdated now perhaps but a great foundation in the basics of training and planning.

Wow! Sounds brutal Tomvet! Well done for hanging in there and plugging away. All these road races sound like a step up in terms of danger from a Crit! Is that fair?

TiRed- only really applicable to TT season though. A good reliable and repeatable test protocol that you can do regardless of day of the week or season of the year certainly has its benefits- and you could normalise it against your TT too.

Also- a 25min TT would actually not provide me any clue to my CP60 because it would take me about 1h20 😆

Wouldn’t have said it was any more dangerous, less if anything every crit I have been in there has been a crash. But then I was only with the bunch for 20% of the race so who knows, the downhill was fun, hit 49mph in a bunch. Not sure if I will try again I was just so far off the pace it seems unachievable.

Don’t forget the reason behind all this. It’s not really to do with CP20 or CP60. It’s to work out your Lactate Threshold to set your zones.

In theory- a 60minute TT as TiRed suggests is the best way to achieve this, but only if you are truly wrung out at the end.

Well, kind of. Doing lactate threshold tests in a lab is more accurate but not very practical. For almost everyone a 20 minute test is going to give an adequate estimate of lactate threshold for both zone setting and monitoring improvement. A 60 minute test would be more accurate if executed well by someone with good endurance, but as you say, that’s logistically tricky. Also, for people who are not already well trained in endurance efforts of that sort of duration, their CP60 might be well below their FTP.

(I realise that you know all this, am just really waffling for general clarification.)

Personally I started out using the 8 minute protocol on TrainerRoad mainly because I was more confident that I’d be able to pace it well first time than for the 20 minute test. I then continued using the 8 minute one for consistency. I suspect that my personal power curve lends itself better to 8ish minute efforts than longer ones, but haven’t yet found that the TrainerRoad sessions based on the results of 8 minute tests were too hard, so am going to stick with that and assume that any changes in 8 minute results are representative of more general changes.

Enjoying the book so far, certainly has highlighted a few characteristics of my current training regime.
I was also looking at my power curve last night:

Unfortunately some of 2017 is a little skewed because of using the vortex turbo trainer (overreporting) instead of a power meter. The 1,200w was with a power meter though.

How many times have you hit the 1200? Or close to it?

I got fairly demoralised after being dropped and nearly pulled in after one lap but then decided I needed to finish.

Always finish. You’ve paid to enter, it’s all training. And you never know what might happen. I’ve finished in the bunch, in front of the grupetto, behind them and last. But I always finish. Actually, there is normally someone to pick up and ride with, and you’ve already beaten the DNF’s mentally just riding past the lap line.

I found the only way to improve endurance for these road races was to do more of them and try and stay on. Circuit racing did very little for this. Longer rides helped. But I still struggle in 2/3 races.

Can you ride LVRC races? Getting into them is a competition in itself. No BC points, but plenty of tactics.

A few, I’m not sure how to search effectively for it but some recent examples:
1194
1133
1129
1127
1106
1098
1066

Only really got a power meter from the start of January.

Clearly I do need to work on my sprinting… it’s a limiter I have already identified 😆

Always finish.

I happily bin races if I know I’ve done my bit for the team and know there’s no points in it for me.

There’s greater training benefit to be gained by being fresher the following weeks training sessions.

As for improving endurance… ride more.

Good work nathb, good sign it’s not a one off blip in the reading.

Always finish. You’ve paid to enter, it’s all training. And you never know what might happen. I’ve finished in the bunch, in front of the grupetto, behind them and last. But I always finish. Actually, there is normally someone to pick up and ride with, and you’ve already beaten the DNF’s mentally just riding past the lap line.

That was my logic in the one race i did, Abingdon, i was dropped i think on lap 3-4 and i just TT’d it the whole way until the lap we’d be pulled out by the Comms, despite being lapped i thought “Sod it, i’m doing my best” and even tried to hang with riders who came past me later on etc. I was happy to finish.

It depends really. I guess on a long RR lap, you need to get back to your car anyway 😉
I think I’m past wanting to finish for the sake of it.
I scheduled a lot of racing into my plan this time to try and boost my race craft as it was clearly a limiter.
However, for my next block I will definitely race less in favour of more well-rested intervals.

As for improving endurance… ride more.

I use a dropping a race as a chance for another hour of riding. In one E123 race I was dropped after about 1/3 of the race, rode with two other riders for another 1/3 and was eventually lapped. The bunch had calmed down after the Elites had escaped, and I finished the last 1/3 in the bunch; obviously I didn’t contest the finish. It’s not all solo riding 😉

Drum roll ready for CH’s race results & write up from this evening…..

One of my pet hates with race reports is excuses! Sniffles, sore throats, injuries, family crisis, car problems, punctures and mechanicals abound.
Of course, when I read mine back, that’s all they ever are too- human nature being what it is, it’s actually pretty hard to frame a write up any other way!
Tonight was due to be different. With a month to go on my training plan, it was the first of my B priority races.

I had even managed to properly execute a rest week. With just enough hours and very little intensity, I steered clear of the club run (although MrB being in sunnier climbs meant the pace was a little lower anyhow!) and did my Z1 like a good boy.
I had scheduled my FTP test for Saturday too and the result was bang on what I expected and a nice improvement from when I started this process.

Even Strava had good news. The F+F page was showing my fitness had dropped as it should on a proper rest week and my fatigue was at a pre-race low not seen for months. Form was right up at +20 compared to recent races being done at around -20.
Perhaps the scales could provide me with bad news to blame? Had the easy week encouraged my body to fill every niche with supplies, relieved not to be running a strict daily deficit?
Uh, no. Weight was barely changed at a smidgen over 85kg.

The weather was good, the sun was out, the car was on song, the dogs were avoiding the vets, work was no more strenuous than usual and I was nicely hydrated and well fed.

Arriving in plenty of time, I managed to get in a good warm up. I ran out of time for any leg openers yesterday so I did nearly ten miles, mostly easy with a couple of sprints and things felt good.
Pit stops well timed and gel popped on the line, nothing could stop the positivity flowing!

A commissaire tried his best! “I will try of course but I may not see your number there!!” he said in his best British Cycling voice. Seeing as it was in the same pin holes as the previous three rounds and little different than everyone else’s around me and where the lady on the desk had told me to put it on round 1, I struggled to agree with him! My upbeat mood continued though and I substituted the smart arse reply in my head with a smile and an “Of course! No problem, thank you!”.

I even had a team mate. A guy from TFC was there in his first Crit and what a ride! He rode smoothly, safely and powerfully when needed- used no more effort than he had to and followed my wheel to finish just a place or two behind- an awesome debut!

Time to talk tactics! I had had the pep-talk via text from Nath. Be lazy. Sit in. Don’t do anything, don’t try anything don’t push the pedals more than you have to.
But the confidence, the form, the good vibes were telling me something could happen tonight!
I made a deal with myself to spend a couple of laps covering the front, a couple of laps recovering and then the finale getting myself into position for the sprint.
And that’s actually how it panned out.

The pace off the line was hot. I would say 90% or more of the field were familiar faces and of course, everyone is improving. Actually, that’s the challenge with riding a series- you don’t just have to improve if you aren’t up to scratch- you have to improve faster than everyone else! (Is that an excuse? I can’t decide- I’ll let you draw your own conclusion!)

I would imagine, everyone was aware of last weeks solo victory and the poor guy was quite heavily marked. I congratulated him during warm up and he was very modest and said he just got lucky! Don’t you just love those lucky 25.5mph solo efforts!!

As we came through the fast section and into the downhill towards the headwind, I was pumped! I was way further forward than usual but carrying momentum too. One guy had already set off on a solo mission and as everyone else sat up, I found myself off the front of the bunch. I felt a knock on my helmet as the ‘Nath of common sense’ whispered “WTF are you doing!” into my ear.
I put my head down, tried to squish my shoulders in, got a perfect 90 degrees in my elbows and carried on at the same effort. RPE was playing tricks on me again and this easy spin was actually way over threshold. I kept soft pedalling as it felt and yet nobody came past. We began the ascent and still nobody came past!
Perhaps I should have tried to bridge to the solo artist!!! As these and other stupid ideas began to fill my mind and witty Strava names for my epic victory won from a first lap attack came and went- at long last the noise of aero wheels and tyres over taking me brought me crashing back to reality.

I don’t think there was even a gap- I’ll check the Flyby out and have a laugh later.
Anyway, I held a nice position of around tenth and felt crazily strong. So did everyone else (no that one’s not an excuse- it’s a compliment!) mind you and breaks of all shapes and sizes came and went off of the front.

I think everyone has been watching GCN “What is an Echelon?” videos this week as the pack was crazy in the windy sections. Swooping from side to side, two or three trains strung out, it would have been comical if it wasn’t also slightly hairy and completely un-necessary!
The pace remained high and I was still trying to maintain top 10 and stay as close as possible to Ben. I was working quite hard though and every mile that passed left me thinking that surely this was unsustainable.

Eventually I was proved right and we ground to a halt on the downhill section into the wind. Like literally did 17mph! I joked that it was time for a café stop and a few folks laughed. But sadly, nobody really looked any more tired than I felt- just resigned to our fate of a bunch sprint.

Last week’s winner was still here, trying to look innocent and feigning (probably) a few hard breaths. It was tenterhooks waiting for the attack! Just before the chicane and he went with one other guy and slowly but surely they developed a lead.
It wasn’t a brutal attack but it was well timed. Soon however, we were getting lapped by the others and it was all back together. Once more the pace ramped up as guys tried to follow the other race’s backmarkers (not drafting but just proving we could match their effort if we wanted to sort of thing- which we blatantly couldn’t!).

How was I doing? Well ok… I had worked a little hard early on perhaps but that seemed inevitable with how smoothly everything was going and how over-excited I was! My HR was back in control and I was yo-yoing between 10th and the back but never feeling too much pressure.

With two to go, I realised last week’s winner and his team mate were right at the back too! They looked like they were planning something and I debated holding off and trying to go with them but in the end- even they didn’t try anything!
I took some wind and moved up, thinking ahead to the sprint. But it was futile. It slowed down again on the hill and literally the whole race was spread across the track. So now I had it all to do again. I caught some good wheels and moved up nicely down the start/finish towards the top chicane and rode a good line through there.

But here’s the thing- everyone was so evenly matched! I knew I was going too hard but literally the whole bunch was doing the same. This definitely isn’t an excuse either I don’t think- it’s just a fact. There is so much room, so many lines and we were so closely matched that as the surge happened, we all just surged together.

Then, 9 people got away! Literally nine people! That meant we would be sprinting for the one remaining point. I looked around and there were strong guys all around me. Even Ben was still here.
So I chased hard…. and ended my race right there.

What I should have done of course was trusted the FACT that Thruxton is always a boring bunch sprint. But I didn’t. I believed my eyes who thought they were seeing nine people being a bit creative. The watts went up and of course, every extra one was spoiling my sprint. I started to make headway on the gap but of course, the surplus of strong guys and the sheer width of track available meant everyone did the same. And as I yet again used 400+ watts down the hill (like I did two weeks ago) it all came back together again. Bollocks.

Anyway, the guys with the power and the ones who had kept the faith took their rightful places into the chicane and I rolled through in a fair spread of riders. Pushing hard, I made up a good few places right up the finishing sprint despite no real kick to speak of and UNLESS there was another break I didn’t see (quite possible around the time we got lapped) I reckon I was 18th or 19th.

So no excuses (perhaps?), I came prepared, had some fun, made some moves, stretched my legs, got over excited, tried to be clever and made a very slight improvement (maybe!)
And still didn’t score a point! 😆

Now you’re racing.

How did none get away? You n a 4th Cat race. Bunch not wanting to work in the wind. Well done Andrew. Points aren’t far away, but better than that, you’re enjoying the racing. Now attack!!!

Thanks TiRed! It felt really windy tonight. Forecast was 4mph but it was way over 10 with some gusts I’d say.

Just checked the Flyby and there wasn’t a gap- well not that GPS could detect anyway 😆

You are right- a proper attack to could help me out now. Just to see……

I can’t quite bring myself to admit it’s ‘boring’ at Thruxton but there really aren’t many options now everybody is on song.

What’s the worst that can happen 😆

I’ve got until December 31st to score my first point……

Well done, I’m impressed! Sounds like it’s only a matter of time.

Nice one CH 8)

Like I keep saying though be boring on your next one, get yourself to the sprint finish with as much energy as possible. Your next part of race training is that sprint finish for point(s)!

Then I’d go back to attacking etc 😆

Well, my hunch was correct. A guy got away for the win during the confusion of being lapped!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1002405173

Argh that sucks CH!!

Okay first ever structured training session done, I think I was fairly consistent!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1003505409

I’m only 60 pages into the bible so no formal plan yet..

Epic write-up CH. I hope the actual race was that involving.

With just enough hours and very little intensity

For tapering, you should be keeping the intensity and reducing the volume. Otherwise you lose all your snap.

Matts- yeah it was the last R+R week not a proper taper. However, what with trying that TT and enjoying the club runs, this was the first R+R week I’d done properly. Hence being (using the correct bible terminology of course) ‘over-aroused’ 😆

First Peak week this week but I’m thinking of being a first class hypocrite and swapping Saturdays ‘interval medley’ with a C race……. It’s Big Events at Hillingdon and it’s gonna be 24 degrees and sunny…

I’m thinking of being a first class hypocrite and swapping Saturdays ‘interval medley’ with a C race

It’s a C race, so you can go ahead and make pointless attacks for your intervals 😀

Exactly 😆 Which should focus my attention for Tuesday 🙂

But it does rather undermine what I said about crisp intervals being better than race fatigued ones so I need to be REALLY lazy inbetween too 😀

Will you listen my words of wisdom for this one?

Flowers worked a treat so should see you Saturday!! 😆

Niiice! Did you email Alice?

No, I’m coming to watch you get some points!!

Entered the 3/4 race at Milton Keynes bowl last night, couldn’t make the 4 cat only race due to an early start. Wasn’t feeling great to start, hadn’t ridden since going deep on Sundays road race and had a hectic few days at work since. My legs never felt good but I got stuck in the first few laps were frantic, our bunch caught the e123 race and then had to back off a bit so the two races didn’t come together. Was starting to suffer and sat near the back of the bunch and then the course was extended mid race through a gate and a few different bends which I wasn’t expecting,at the back of the bunch I was caught in the back of the whiplash effect and soon shelled out the back. Rode a few laps on my own and pulled out as felt like I was getting in the way of the e123 race.

Apparently after I had pulled out there was some chopping and a crash followed by a punch up on track so maybe for the best!

That’s it for my racing this year I think, my wife’s due to give birth in 2 weeks with our first child so priorities change big time for now.

That’s it for my racing this year I think, my wife’s due to give birth in 2 weeks with our first child so priorities change big time for now.

Congratulations. 2 weeks off to ride!!

Hopefully you’ll get back in to it later on. I took a “break” from road racing 2 weeks before our second was born – that was nearly 5 years ago now.