I've plowed through nearly 30 pages of the "It's killing me but..." thread, and finally concluded that maybe it'd be wise to just ask a few pointed questions here. I realize this may be repetitive, but even if I could find everything I'm seeking via the search function, it's all pretty spread out by now. If you're in the St. Louis area though, you can always find me at Carondelet on Tuesday nights or the track on Thursday and just smack me
1. The premise of spending copious time at L4, as explained by Rappdadyo and his awesome documentation of his own increase from 225W FTP to 300W FTP from a few years ago makes sense. Is there a limit to how many sessions of 2-3x 20min one should do per week? Days off in between? Also, even once out into the county around where I live, there's still the issue of traffic lights...all the sudden, getting 20 consecutive minutes isn't necessarily a given. How problematic is that? Like, I'll get the volume of time in at the specified intensity, but there might be instances where I'm sitting at light for 30 seconds.
2. VO2max intervals definitely work, and they apparently stimulate pretty quick adaptation. I'll skip over discussion of "what protocol is the best." I like the idea of just thinking about how much time you're spending at a given power level. So with the quick adaptation in mind, does that build over time? Specifically: suppose I'm at 290 FTP and 350 L5. I train L4 for awhile, and get up to 300 and then do a few weeks of L5 intervals and find myself at 370 before stalling out progress. Cool. I then back off the L5 work and go back to 3x20min sessions for awhile and boost FTP up to 320W. Is my L5 glued to 370 no matter what? I realize there's some genetic potential at work here that makes a definitive answer hard if not impossible. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if that "bigger base" contributes to a "taller peak," so to speak.
3. Anaerobic capacity/power: about how many weeks of these sessions to see progress? I'm assuming you can't just do these all the time and expect to move forward all the time. I've seen it mentioned that adaptations happen quickly, was just curious what the timeline seemed to be. I've got a couple months after Tulsa Tough this weekend before my next major race and I'd like to make the best of that time.
Thanks. And seriously, I'm not trying to be too repetitive here!
1. The premise of spending copious time at L4, as explained by Rappdadyo and his awesome documentation of his own increase from 225W FTP to 300W FTP from a few years ago makes sense. Is there a limit to how many sessions of 2-3x 20min one should do per week? Days off in between? Also, even once out into the county around where I live, there's still the issue of traffic lights...all the sudden, getting 20 consecutive minutes isn't necessarily a given. How problematic is that? Like, I'll get the volume of time in at the specified intensity, but there might be instances where I'm sitting at light for 30 seconds.
2. VO2max intervals definitely work, and they apparently stimulate pretty quick adaptation. I'll skip over discussion of "what protocol is the best." I like the idea of just thinking about how much time you're spending at a given power level. So with the quick adaptation in mind, does that build over time? Specifically: suppose I'm at 290 FTP and 350 L5. I train L4 for awhile, and get up to 300 and then do a few weeks of L5 intervals and find myself at 370 before stalling out progress. Cool. I then back off the L5 work and go back to 3x20min sessions for awhile and boost FTP up to 320W. Is my L5 glued to 370 no matter what? I realize there's some genetic potential at work here that makes a definitive answer hard if not impossible. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if that "bigger base" contributes to a "taller peak," so to speak.
3. Anaerobic capacity/power: about how many weeks of these sessions to see progress? I'm assuming you can't just do these all the time and expect to move forward all the time. I've seen it mentioned that adaptations happen quickly, was just curious what the timeline seemed to be. I've got a couple months after Tulsa Tough this weekend before my next major race and I'd like to make the best of that time.
Thanks. And seriously, I'm not trying to be too repetitive here!