Post my ride 3

Race data

This week we have a file from a Kermis from a land formerly known as one of the “Low Countries”, and no, it’s not Luxembourg. The race had its share of continental teams along with some developmental teams for Quick Step, Landboukredit and the team formerly known as Silence-Lotto. This week’s mystery rider finished 10th in this race. And if I remember correctly, tenth place in a race like this usually gets you a free rub down from a guy with a 2 pound mustache then a celebration dinner of muesli drizzled with a half-teaspoon of olive oil with a packet of Sweet and Low for dessert.

49 Comments

Anonymous

Let’s say your goal is to average 330 watts for 60 minutes. What would get you there faster (I know there are a million other ways to make this happen, but choose between the following …):

1) Ride 60 minutes as fast as you can three times a week, and ride endurance the rest of the time
2) Ride 350 watts as long as possible, rest 5 minutes, repeat, and stop the workout if your duration drops by 10%. Do workout three times a week, and ride endurance the rest of the time.

Both would trigger some sort of adaptive response no? Assuming that the rider rested and took care of themselves, neither would put them in a hole. So which of these massively oversimplified approaches would let you reach your goal more quickly?

Aaron

1000 Kj an hour is a lot. Again, the numbers seem impressive, but hard to judge not knowing how much this person weighs. I know some very strong (possibly sandbagging) Cat 3s who can put out those numbers. Of course, numbers alone won’t get you 10th place.

Anonymous

gotta be jon chodroff…he doesn’t train in the northeast really anymore so i guess thats why he is so fast

Anonymous

oh, stop… those are big scary numbers, but how does this guy do when he comes back to the pathetic northeast where everyone sucks and the racing is so easy? is he a man among boys? does he ride away uncontested? i don’t know who he is but the answer is no, he doesn’t.

Anonymous

yeah, i just want to race and talk about racing, as opposed to training and then talking about training, or in this case, some hypothetical hardman’s storied 10th place in the epic tuesday nighter in hoorsbritches.

nothing against him, of course. better than nothing… just sick of winter.

Anonymous

Please post the rest of the peak power #’s I never took “Graphs 101” in college.

What are his 3, 5, 10 and 20 min power numbers?.

Anonymous

i think it’s definitely chodroff. it’s obviously europe, as they said, because no races out here average over 35kph. they’re really turny out there so i assume that’s why the average speed is so low.

but big ups, that’s a pretty big number for 3 hours.

Anonymous

I like scenario 1, especially for the build. I would probably switch over to scenario 2 when 1 started to become less effective, or races approached. I think it is a lot safer way to build a strong sustainable peak. In direct answer to which one would be quicker – I haven’t a clue. I just think 1 would be more sustainable.

Anonymous

If you were structured about your recovery, and disciplined, I’m not sure 180 minutes of threshold each week would equal burnout. Sure, if you do that, and then race each weekend, or do hard group rides you’d be toasted. Based on TSS, an hour at threshold is less stress than going out for a 4 hour hammer fest.

Anonymous

one *may* be able to train 3×60 min. at threshold each week, but the vast majority would be completely, totally cooked for racing.

Anonymous

if you were structured and disciplined, you’d not be approaching training this way. you’d do it slow and steady, periodized, and not risk any type of burnout. save the threshold for the racing.

Anonymous

That is what confuses me … go out on any Sunday and you’ll see guys hammering. Even in Feb. Are they burning themselves out?

Anonymous

I think the poster was asking …

does it make sense to train the duration of the effort, and let power come up, or train power, and let duration come up?

personally, I think training power and letting duration come up would be the smarter choice

Anonymous

exactly. they have to ride hard to be in their endurance zone. or they might be doing a little tempo. i’m sure most people are NOT doing 60 minute THRESHOLD intervals in february.

Anonymous

I don’t know. I think the training stress associated with doing one hour at threshold on the trainer (for example), is less than going out on a “brisk” 4 hour ride with teammates in 32 degree weather. The group ride will always get competitive unless you’re with a good group.

Plenty of people do intensity in the winter to ward off boredom. Shorter workouts are more bearable inside.

WJODonnell

360 watt FTP. It’s not Chodroff, or if it is, he had not updated his threshold because the dude is MUCH stronger than that.

Anonymous

There is definitely interest. While you’re at it, it would be cool to see the file from your win at TT Nats.

Anonymous

there should be a special name for the wattage-file-inspired boner that 21:24 has. i may be wrong but i’m reading that post with a lot of emphasis on the “definitely,” and in the voice of the Hardly Boys from a semi-recent South Park episode. “Oh, man, I’ve got such a raging [insert clever name for watt boner here]… can you iMAGine the TSS induced by riding that long and hard over your CP30? I’m almost at threshold right now!”

Anonymous

all training these days is acronym based. i propose the measure to be something like “maximum power erection threshold” or MPET. something like that. Its important, because due to the autonomic nervous system control over erections and the like, it is damn near impossible to reach erection at true anaerobic threshold. therefor, the higher your power while maintaining rock-hard boner, the more intense your libido. i’m not sure if it maintains any correlation to racing performance (currently under review by top physiologists). but it could lead to a whole new direction for the design of anatomic cutouts in saddles.

love,
snake oil sucker

Anonymous

i always thought “head unit” was sort of suggestive, but doesn’t include the watt-envy element. keep working.

Comments are closed.