6 weeks to my Target Road Race. Should I...

[Ade Merckx]

A. Do more threshold sessions (e.g. 2 x20) at 100% FT
B. Continue with 2 Hr Sweet Spot rides
c. Do twice rather than once weekly VO2 max efforts
D. Do Anaerobic intervals of the 30sec-1 vareity min

Available training hours 12
Ft approx 300 watt
Wt/Mass 72kg's
5 min power ~ 360/370 watts
1 min power ~ 500watts

Currently in my weekly training I'm doing one vo2 max effort and one 2 x 20 and the rest are sweet spot rides (90% FT). I hope to start racing once a week starting in March. My Target Road Race is on April 4th

Its a hilly road race held on a 7-8 mile loop which will be navigated 8 times. I
I'm currently practicing on a rolling 7mile loop with a couple of short sharp hills. I'm finding I can hold a a good pace throughout the ride on the flattish sections but I'm slowing up almost every lap on the short punchy climbs (not quite as hard as those in the actual RR) which take 1-2 minutes to ascend. Interstingly I do recover quite quickly once I reach the top of each climb. All constructive advice much appreciated

 

[flanman]

My suggestion is concentrate on bringing speed over the top of the hill. Pace yourself up and then hammer over the top. I guess this means sets of 1 min anaerobic intervals.

What works best for me is to do out of the saddle effort for 30 secs and then do the last 20 secs seated. I often get a free spurt of energy from doing this. That's just me though, YMMV.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...Currently in my weekly training I'm doing one vo2 max effort and one 2 x 20 and the rest are sweet spot rides (90% FT). I hope to start racing once a week starting in March. My Target Road Race is on April 4th...

I'd say you're overdue for ramping up the L4 work to an hour or even an hour and a half per week in 20 minute or longer blocks.

Typically I'd suggest starting a dedicated VO2 Max day in the final 6 weeks before your target race. The target on that day would be 25 or more total minutes in L5 done as 5x5s or 6x4s or something of that sort. But I wouldn't generally introduce the L5 work without a solid base of L4 work and if I read your description correctly you're only doing 40 minutes per week of L4 work.

Tough call as you enter the home stretch, but I'd think about two L4 days per week or working towards a single day where you accumulate a full hour or more in L4 with something like 3x20s or 4x15s. You'll probably have to ramp back your SST work a bit but it sounds like your base is plenty deep if you've been doing so much SST up to now. Once you adjust to an hour or more of L4 work per week then I'd introduce the L5 work. Anytime you introduce focused high end days you'll probably have to back down some of your longer Tempo/SST work in order to recover sufficiently and that's when some longer low Tempo/L2+ rides can help sustain training load if it fits your lifestyle and available training/recovery time.

Hammering the crests of hills is a great way to finish out L5 efforts, but personally I wouldn't focus on pure 1 minute AC efforts for a hilly circuit course. I'd suggest you focus on the L4 and L5 work till racing starts and then use your early season B races for high end work including the L6 work. If the racing is frequent and you ride them aggressively, you'll probably have to drop at least the L5 work and move back towards SST work to maintain base.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

[Ade Merckx]

I'd say you're overdue for ramping up the L4 work to an hour or even an hour and a half per week in 20 minute or longer blocks.

Typically I'd suggest starting a dedicated VO2 Max day in the final 6 weeks before your target race. The target on that day would be 25 or more total minutes in L5 done as 5x5s or 6x4s or something of that sort. But I wouldn't generally introduce the L5 work without a solid base of L4 work and if I read your description correctly you're only doing 40 minutes per week of L4 work.

Tough call as you enter the home stretch, but I'd think about two L4 days per week or working towards a single day where you accumulate a full hour or more in L4 with something like 3x20s or 4x15s. You'll probably have to ramp back your SST work a bit but it sounds like your base is plenty deep if you've been doing so much SST up to now. Once you adjust to an hour or more of L4 work per week then I'd introduce the L5 work. Anytime you introduce focused high end days you'll probably have to back down some of your longer Tempo/SST work in order to recover sufficiently and that's when some longer low Tempo/L2+ rides can help sustain training load if it fits your lifestyle and available training/recovery time.

Hammering the crests of hills is a great way to finish out L5 efforts, but personally I wouldn't focus on pure 1 minute AC efforts for a hilly circuit course. I'd suggest you focus on the L4 and L5 work till racing starts and then use your early season B races for high end work including the L6 work. If the racing is frequent and you ride them aggressively, you'll probably have to drop at least the L5 work and move back towards SST work to maintain base.

Good luck,
-Dave

Hey thanks a bunch Dave I was hoping you'd reply. Just to add I 'm only five weeks back into training having taken an enforced 3 week holiday between Christmas day and Mid Jan.

I kinda thought introducing a VO2max effort (last two weeks only!) would help me make up lost ground. I'm already feeling the benefit but perhaps I should introduce 2/3 dedicated 2 x 20 or 3 x 20's sets a week to really bring up my threshold power as you say.

I must admit I'm not a fan on one minute intervals (ya get them in racing right?) so I'm glad you didn't suggest them. Would it be work block training the L5's in the last three weeks if I can't race?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...Just to add I 'm only five weeks back into training having taken an enforced 3 week holiday between Christmas day and Mid Jan....

That changes things a bit as your base built on SST probably isn't as deep as I guessed. Do you know your current CTL and how steep you ramped from that 3 week rest?

...Would it be work block training the L5's in the last three weeks if I can't race?

It could, but blocking a lot of L5 work in your training week will almost certainly cost you overall training load (CTL). Do that too soon before your A race and you'll miss your peak and be on a CTL downslope when the race arrives.

FWIW, I strongly discourage "catch up" training philosophies. They generally don't work for either the short or long term. With 6 weeks to go to your A event and some races along the way I'd work on building FTP and CTL. Introducing L5 work in the last few weeks should help, but I wouldn't switch to a pure L5 block focus. I'd add one day of L5 work, probably in exchange for one day of L4 work assuming you build to two L4 days per week between now and then.

I would strongly suggest doing those L5 efforts on short hills and really focus on finishing each effort as flanman suggests. Personally if the terrain allows I like to punch those sort of efforts beyond the top of the climb to get accustomed to the power and speed surge I typically need to stay in contact with the leaders over the crest of a hill and onto the descent or flats. Twenty to thirty seconds of spinning up progressively bigger gears beyond the top of a hard climb is good training for circuit courses with rolling terrain. Too many riders sit up at the top of hard short climbs and that's where the split typically occurs.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

[Ade Merckx]

That changes things a bit as your base built on SST probably isn't as deep as I guessed. Do you know your current CTL and how steep you ramped from that 3 week rest?
It could, but blocking a lot of L5 work in your training week will almost certainly cost you overall training load (CTL). Do that too soon before your A race and you'll miss your peak and be on a CTL downslope when the race arrives.

FWIW, I strongly discourage "catch up" training philosophies. They generally don't work for either the short or long term. With 6 weeks to go to your A event and some races along the way I'd work on building FTP and CTL. Introducing L5 work in the last few weeks should help, but I wouldn't switch to a pure L5 block focus. I'd add one day of L5 work, probably in exchange for one day of L4 work assuming you build to two L4 days per week between now and then.

I would strongly suggest doing those L5 efforts on short hills and really focus on finishing each effort as flanman suggests. Personally if the terrain allows I like to punch those sort of efforts beyond the top of the climb to get accustomed to the power and speed surge I typically need to stay in contact with the leaders over the crest of a hill and onto the descent or flats. Twenty to thirty seconds of spinning up progressively bigger gears beyond the top of a hard climb is good training for circuit courses with rolling terrain. Too many riders sit up at the top of hard short climbs and that's where the split typically occurs.

Good luck,
-Dave

Ok. I can't tell you my CTL because the power outputs I gave come via the KK trainer computer so it won't be perfectly accurate. I've had a least 6 rides of three hours plus in the last two weeks and total ride time has been around 30 hours. All good quality, I've been at great pains to fillet out any junk miles. As I guessed doing well in the race is gonna ultimately be about having good FT power. I just finished a ride where I incorporated 2 x 20 in a 90min ride. I definitly seem to ride 2 x 20's harder outside. I'll get a better picture of where I am when I do some 2nd/3rd cat race very soon. I will try to do the L5's on a hill. I'll have to lead up to it since all the hills round here can be ridden in 2-2.5 mins approx.

 

[Watoni]

Interesting.

I am now about 7 weeks out from my first event (20,000 feet of climbing in 206 miles).

I have been without my PT wheel for about a week now, so I have been retracing very hilly routes done with the PT and trying to match total and climbing times. The IF for these rides with the PT was roughly 0.9, with climbs at 95-100%

My question is how much of a difference training on the climbs at 90% (which Ade is doing now) versus 95-100% makes. 90% is low L4, and would allow more work to be done at that intensity, but perhaps the higher intensity would be better for a racer versus an ultra-type rider ...

 

[daveryanwyoming]

....My question is how much of a difference training on the climbs at 90% (which Ade is doing now) versus 95-100% makes. 90% is low L4, and would allow more work to be done at that intensity, but perhaps the higher intensity would be better for a racer versus an ultra-type rider ...

The general consensus is that pushing the higher end of L4 doesn't provide enough additional benefit to offset the greater mental effort and shorter total accumulated time. Sure pushing the envelope once in a while to see what you can do and of course during time trials you'll push that hard. But for weekly training, even for a racer, most folks get better results doing a lot of work in the 90-95% range rather than less in the 98-102% range.

When a racer needs to tune up their high end it makes more sense to do a dedicated L5 day at 110-115% of FTP than to try to do all your L4 work near 100% and burn yourself out. And during final peaking cycles some L6 accumulated in B races, fast group rides or if necessary some dedicated L6 training can put the icing on the cake but only if the foundation is solid.

YMMV,
-Dave