An Hour OF Power!

BullGod

Good work Ade.

Above 300w and you are officially a good cyclist.

Set yourself the challenge of 350 for 2010.

Spin it a bit more though fella....

110 cadence for 3 hours IS possible....:-)

Ade Merckx

Cheers Mate I'll keep going. Its nice to be at 300watts and knowing that I haven't really had to dig too deep. Not knowing CTL or any of that good stuff I just have to monitor things on using the gool ole fashion 'how ya feeling now approach'. 350watts by 2010 thats dreamland My key event this year is a Surrey League 2/3 stage race in August. If I could bag another 25watts by then that would be great. Who knows though, perhaps I'm nearing my genetic limit

Simone@Italy

Great job Ade!
Can I ask you how long did it take you to reach this goal? I ride my bike since 2004 and I'm nowhere near you.. so I wonder if I'm not good at cycling :-)

Ade Merckx

Yeah sure. It really depends, if you mean how long have I been 'training' I'd say probabably three years; but never consistently or hard enough.

In 2006 however I went from cat 3 to cat 2. In the uk cat 3 is quite easy to get to, you just need 10points - a win or a few placings at the lowest category 4. Basically Simone I'm a lazy guy who finds it hard to focus without seeing real improvement. Last year I never really tried hard enough and psychologically was so dissapointed getting trashed in the 4-6 races early season that I never bothered to train properly for the rest of the season. I think my strength is really motivating others so maybe I'll turn to coaching at some point.This has been my first winter of consistent training - on average 5 days each week since November 15th. I don't have a PM but the KK trainer with its power feedback has got me motivated because I can still see improvement.

Simone@Italy

I see. You are not counting the time when you weren't "training".. I think this was not time lost, anyway.

root

Insipred by this post I decided to push my limits a bit last night and did 2x20 at 305Watts. . I don't think I would be able to maintain that for an hour though, but it's amazing to see how much more reserve your muscles have once your brain decides to alow the torchure.

I think I will ease off to 288 Watts for my regular training though.

root

Don't be discouraged. I started cycling long distance in early nineties. I never trained or anything. A friend of mine and I decided it would be fun braking the monotony of student life (I studed pure math and he medicine) and it would be fun to go out and breath fresh air for a change. We did the first ride to a near by town 16 km away and back. Needless to say we were absolutely dead for the next 2-3 days. After that our second ride was to a near by town 65 km away . We slept over and cycled back the next day. And from there on, we cycled pretty much every day. Longest rides were 280 km in a day. Most people thought we were insane.

However neither of us ever trained or even had our bikes setup properly or even proper size for us. But we cycled every day religiously at least 100 km.

Then I stopped cycling in 2002 when I got hit by a car. I just started cycling again in the spring this year. I picked up body building in the mean time and gained a lot of weight. I subsequently stopped body building too and gained even more weight .

After being diagnosed with diabetes in November 2006, I decided it's time to cut this crap and take control over my body again. So in May 2007 I picked up a mountain bike. I could barely cycle all the way home from the bike store . I felt exhausted. I would say my FTP was less than 100 Watts, and I just could not believe how hard cycling felt. It used to be so effortless and easy, and that's how I remember it, just flying up the hills.

So, I cycled on a mountain bike for a month and hated it. So, in June I got a new road bike. And I cycled pretty much all summer every day, until I could do 160 km rides without being completely wasted.

In November I discovered this website and started structured cycling training for the first time in my life. I did my first 1hr FTP test at about 170 Watts.

Since mid November last year until today, my FTP has gone up to 275 Watts, and today I did 2x20 at 305 Watts, and my power fluctuated between 298 to 325.

I don't ever intend to race or anything. However, I am racing against diabetes, which is now under control and has been all summer. I can eat sweet stuff in huge quantities cycle 4 hrs and my blood sugar is down to 4.8 .

So, if I can do it, everyone can. Now, get on your bike and train .

Bill Black

You are right into it now! The physical side doesn't get any easier but the mental focus does. Do the HOP about once every 10 days and your race season will show the results -- at least as far as FTP goes. Here is a link to an article I wrote that concerns a disguised HOP http://www.usacycling.org/forms/newsletter/newsletter0413.pdf

Keep it going and train hard and smart!
Best,
Bill Black

Ade Merckx

Hey cheers Bill - good article. I'm not sure if I'll hit the HOP (Hour Of Power) every 10 days but I'll try to do it once or twice a month. How often do you do that workout you describe in your article?

Bill Black

The workout described in the article is really the HOP although the article is more oriented to explaining the rationale behind the workout. The HOP is made difficult by the surging, which better simulates riding/racing outside, and then returning to the specified watt level without letting the watts dip below the 80% - 95% of FTP.

I had long overdue peroneal tendon surgery in July, 2007 (had been told for 7 years that it was nerve impingement in my back) and I am back to doing the HOP about once every 10 days. At this time of year I look to raise my average wattage for it on a month-to-month basis leading into the race season.

Best,
Bill Black

Ade Merckx

Cool, so are you dong some of the typical workouts described on this and the wattage forums 2/3 x 20's sweetspot, L5, etc?

Bill Black

Since 2000 I had been pretty much limited to TTs due to the improperly diagnosed problem I was having with my lower right leg. Consequently, I was doing almost exclusively FTP building workouts.

While FTP building still represents the bulk of my workouts, I will be varying things more now that surgery has corrected the torn tendons in my lower leg.

However, I stress that folks should be able to race with the peloton at L3 and then have the "rope" to go into L4 and higher only to attack, respond to attacks and to finish. In order to do that one must spend the greatest percentage of one's training time building a solid and high FTP.

It takes much longer, and for most folks it is more difficult, to build up FTP than it is to build VO2max (3 - 5min) power.

Best,
Bill Black

daveryanwyoming

Bill I don't know any way to tag a post as being particularly insightful, but those are words to live by and a point a lot of riders don't get.

High FTP is valuable as much as anything else so you can ride most of the race without approaching it. It leads to endurance, the ability to attack or respond repeatedly and the power margin you need to avoid racing at redline until the time comes to lay it all on the line. Nice post!

-Dave

Piotr

The reason for the workout you described was also the rationale behind the Sweet Spot workouts I've been doing (shown here). Though recovering from 30 sec at 120% FTP may not be the same as recovering from 5 min at 100% FTP.

I recently put on a HR strap to see how much of a HR drift I had during a Tempo (80% FTP) ride. I found NO DRIFT after 1hr 45 min and it may well be due to an increased ability to recover at that intensity.

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