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plodding plodding at Z2.
And there's the dilemma - I guess that ideally you need to be "zipping along" rather than "plodding", but it takes some work to get to that point.
@TiRed, the point on tempo Z3 work - if (for point's sake) I was doing 8-12hrs of base miles and 1 HIT session in a week, plus a mixed ride that would include 2-4hrs of Z3-ish pace (Z3-4 mixed). I'm lucky, have ability to fit in the hours so haven't really used Sweet Spot guidelines. Would there be a benefit in regulating that Z3-ish ride to be Z3 only? ie less pace variation from SS riding and more managed output on a geared bike? Ta.
@TiRed - how long did it take you to get from average club rider (for want of a better term) to where you are now? It sounds to me like you're refining your ability rather than making big gains.
As you note, people have limited time, the OP says his friend is time poor. Also not everyone has the mental strength to maintain tempo for three hours, shorter more intense sessions are easier to psych yourself up for. Of course if the OP (and friend) haven't done much training then anything will show big improvements.
My FTP is in the 300W range so the upper limit of zone 2 I’d be riding at 225W. If I raised my FTP to 400W then my zone 2 limit would be 300W, i.e. I’d be able to ride “all day” at my old hour pace.
Exactly this, you just described Froome's training plan. This is how Le Tour Pro's can ride all day for 3 weeks - they are spending the majority of their day for most days averaging circa 250w - well within their Z2.
What proportion, well I'm paying for my advice so I'm not giving it away free here but thats a mixture of your physiology, science and outcome that needs to be specifically analysed. In the main if you google any Pro's training plan you'll find a surprisingly small percentage of their overall time is above Z2.
I wouldn't expect you to Kryton 😇 Going back to the Tom Bell stuff I linked to earlier (I only came across his blog when looking things up for this thread) there's this:
As a best practice for most athletes other than those with very little training time, a “polarised” or 90/10 split between what we might deem ‘low intensity’ and ‘high intensity’ is a good rule to follow (using a time-in-zone approach).
This intensity distribution is what’s mostly commonly seen in the training of elite and world class cyclists, whether they consciously chose this distribution or not.
I just happened to be looking at my bookshelves and noticed "The Time Crunched Cyclist" by Carmichael and Rutberg, given the time of year it might be an appropriate present for the OP's friend.
Year 1 was some circuit racing and club rides with commuting.
Year 2 was more circuit racing and vets racing and club rides. Plus commuting.
Year 3 was circuit and road racing and being dropped a lot! And faster club rides. Third cat.
Year 4 was proper endurance training at 250 km a week off season plus circuit races and still being dropped in road races. Still third cat.
Year 5 was more endurance training at 400 km/week including commuting. Discovered I was rather good at 12 hour time trials. Second cat
Year 6 as above but now even more endurance racing and longer rides. Retained second cat.
This year will be more 12 hour, 100 and 50 mile TTs. Of these, 12 hours are the easier to pace. Limited commuting.
To get better at something specific, you need to practice at that specificity has been my practice. I found that a lot of circuit racing made me great for 90 minute road races. Except the races were 120 minutes. Hence a switch to endurance training to ride at pace for two hours. It helped. I also ride 7 hour rides fairly often, and 100 miles is not an issue. Still no got under 4 hours on Ride London, but have solo in a TT fine. The discovery that I was actually rather good at 12 hours came as a shock and surprise.
The objectives this year are to ride longer faster and on an extra wheel.
In reply to jameso, one reason I ride fixed is that it reduces the variance in effort. So on a ride one doesn’t coast, so this keeps the effort up, and equally it is hard to really mash the pedals and move up a zone. I do think if time is limited that Z4 and the odd Z2 longer ride is a good strategy. But it is not the one that will give you the best speed increases if you can ride a lot more.
Pros typically ride about 25 hours a week at about 20 mph. In stage races, NP on a flat stage can be even lower than Kryton’s 250 watts. In days gone bye, huge mileage was the marker of the serious amateur time triallist. 600 mile weeks were not unheard of! Modern methods of training have added HIIT Z4 and sweet spot (an hour of which is not fun), to bring this mileage down and maintain the same fitness/ability. But at the end of the day, if you want to go faster, you have to practice going fast!
Interesting your point on fixed which I can see working, certainly if the activity you posted earlier was anything to go by - that's positively flat* compared to local rides for me (not getting in to the "my rides are hillier than your rides" willy waving!). The only time I've ridden fixed was on the track but I do ride SS at this time of year.
* I remembered I'd done some rides around Cambridge a couple of years ago when I had some work down there so looked back through Strava: 75km with 150m ascent. I have to admit I found it hard work as it was just constant effort whereas round here it's almost like interval training as after a hill you'll have a minute or two coasting down the other side getting you ready for the next hill.
It's not very hilly, I agree (I'm from Devon, so KNOW what hills are). Rolling is my favourite terrain. I've ridden 225 km round the M25 fixed a few times now. That's about 1250m of climbing. I'm only a 15 minutes faster with gears over seven and a half hours. But when you ride fixed in the wrong gear into a headwind, you REALLY know about it.
Mentally, fixed really helps me. You have to keep pushing, so staying in Z3 is, I feel, a bit easier. Also power is basically force on the pedals. In group rides, I keep the group from surging.
Tomorrow will be 90 km and 750m on a circuit we race. Then back to some gears I think for a few days.
As we've gone a bit more in depth, the way I trained for the European 24hr Champs was pretty much as I posted earlier, long'ish easy (Z2) rides, lots of what could be termed short 2-2.5 hr Z2 rides while commuting, but the morning one was always fasted. These were interspersed with XC and Endurance MTB races so relatively short events - bar Ten Under the Ben, but with periods of serious efforts and periods of short recovery before the next effort.
It worked as I got Age Group Bronze and 25th Overall, with the vast majority of the ride spent on Z2. I also did a few long sportives later in the summer, where I rode to the event and back, so over 200km, again with the vast majority just ticking along in Z2 with the odd effort (climbs and the like) followed by recovery and back to Z2, 6 hour or sub centuries kind of pace it turned into.
In the build up to the Euro's I was outside for at least 10 hours per week and then some track and turbo work on top.
Now don't get me wrong, it's hard work, it impacts on your life, your clothes need replacing (as they don't fit), it can be a right drag getting up at 4:30 to ride 65km to work in the morning when it's hovering around zero and black as the ace of spades, but in my mind it was worth it.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s hard work, it impacts on your life, your clothes need replacing (as they don’t fit), it can be a right drag getting up at 4:30 to ride 65km to work in the morning when it’s hovering around zero and black as the ace of spades, but in my mind it was worth it.
That's what separates people like you from the rest of us mortals.... doing that just takes more than most of us are prepared to do 🙂
In truth weeksy, when I’m out in the dark and cold pushing that gear, I often fantasise ride on thumbs up dropping into the back pocket as miles in the bank! Sad eh? Each ride is about +3 on Strava fitness and freshness at the moment.
Friend is time poor, so how best to improve endurance speed with shorter training sessions.
This from the OP......
There is loads of great advise here, and some pro-level practices talked through. The whole thread is worth re reading but simply what I do when limited on time is going to be ignored by loads of people as its boring.
I get on the turbo and do single leg.
Advise would be to do one minute per leg on a very easy gear and over a period of months build up to being able to do 4 mins per leg.
It engages core, shoulders, triceps, wrists etc.
Time crunched solution!
Going further, faster by training smarter.