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As we are taking about interval training I'm referring to 105-120& of Threshold power. No ones riding at maximal oxygen uptake for that long, no.
Or L5 as describe here - http://www.hunterallenpowerblog.com/2015/05/power-training-zones-101.html
And yes I do feel like that L5 descriptor afterward, and yes I am breathing out of my arse at the end. We are focusing on muscular endurance so I do sweet spot the day after - yes its very hard but nothing worth having comes easy. I'm sitting here with my legs throbbing as I type.
This was at the top end of VO2 max and going into Anaerobic. There's no way I could do 120% of FTP for more than about 4 mins. I can manage under/over sessions with 12 min intervals fine. It's just the longer VO2 max I'm struggling with. It's my legs that give up before my lungs.
I've been averaging 70hrs a week since the end of October due to a sudden increase in my area of responsibility. It's completely my own doing really but it's temporary and hopefully the end is in sight some time I march. my job is primarily mentally tiring but some 4am starts twice a week take their toll and the first thing to be affected had been my interest in doing any exercise and I've probably not done a tenth of what I was doing in the autumn.
Kyrton.
Would you agree with the following?
I think when you test ftp you come in a little under what’s expected, thus your zones are set a little too low.
Whether this is due to a natural phenomena or because you’re not trained in this department would have to be assessed.
3x15mins at 105-120% is a bit out of normal parameters in my experience and from most accepted studies, even that article you linked too stated above 8mins in this zone was not really possible.
Please note mate that this is not a dig, quite the opposite in fact, as it could be that you are underestimating your ftp and could be further along the bell curve of cyclists than you think. (I know this doesn’t affect race performance but it’s nice for bragging rights).
Further anecdotal evidence to support this would be when we discuss sweetspot work (90-95% ftp). I find The difference between doing the intervals at 90% or 95% very marked, so a 5% difference makes a large impact. If your ftp was just set 5% too low then your 105% intervals would be actually at threshold and 3x15’s would be possible (but still brutally hard)
If you can do 3x15 intervals at 110% then I’d say that figure would be darn close to your actual ftp.
Food for thought?
Sorry OP. By the way my wife’s a teacher and it looks to be about the most exhausting job there is. I’d suggest fitting riding around your job, forget training and just getting out whenever possible. Record your tss and see how you ctl graph looks after a year. You might be able to see trends then get into some more focussed training.
@Kryton57 - I just didnt feel it was that helpful to the OP to brag about how good your VO2 max training was when he is querying not finishing intervals. AS others have said further up, so much of it is mental, especially those 125% 3min VO2 max ones (I find), knocking someone doesnt seem helpful.
Thankfully I'm just starting base training so I have a bit of time till that starts 🙂 Though 2hrs of z2 along cold, dark rainy cyclepaths pre-work has its own type of pain
Ferrals - I'm not bragging. I'm trying to show him that I was as physically and mentally destroyed as he was pre Christmas, yet with a bit of rest I've come good and have actually achieved more than I could achieve before it. I'm trying to demonstrate the impact of the rest period with a real example.
If I was bragging I'd have posted about how I'm holding 500w for 15 mins x 3 - which I've course I'm not and have nothing to be proud of in that respect.
@rollindoughnut you may be right, I'm too close to an event to test/change now but I will be testing again before the next training phase. However 99% of my current zone 5 max watts is well over midway through the same Zone prescribed before it dropped, yeah so maybe I'm doing 3x15 at 110% rather than 115%.
Fair dos, I misread your post.. looking back i see where you were coming from. Shouldnt ahve posted after a couple of beers 🙂
Re. the mental side, this TR podcast with Amber Pierce is well worth a listen with her experiances of racing abroad, and how the extra cognative load meant she and others couldnt attain the same wattage as they would at home. While it a totally different context it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, rang very true with me and explains my less than desired performance through the last year xc and cx seasons.
think when you test ftp you come in a little under what’s expected
Just to address that, I was 12w under prior FTP. Not a huge amount.
Next week is a scheduled recovery week with 3 sessions of aerobic endurance so hoping I'll feel some gains after that. Im only 59kg so not expecting FTP gains, a few extra watts will make a noticeable difference and already feel my muscular endurance has improved at the lower end.
Record your tss and see how you ctl graph looks after a year.
I'm quite new to using this sort of info to analyse training but can see a gradual increase in TSS over the last month. In one of my other threads about base training and FTP someone said about the effects and gains of training taking time (6 weeks) to show so hoping I'll start feeling the benefits of all the effort soon.