First time posting here, but I've been following the advice in the forums for over a year using my power meter. In particular, I want to thank davery and rapdaddyo for their contributions to the forum. I read through most of the SillyOldTwit thread and found it very helpful.
Background: I have a powertap, and I've been doing hill climbs, as they are best for the intervals that I want to do--mostly 2X20's or 6X8's. My power has gone up, and I notice that I can keep up with some pretty good recreational riders on most of the climbs for a while but then don't have the stamina to keep up on longer climbs. An example: I can do an eight minute 5-6% grade at over 300 watts NP (roughly 1.5 miles) but if I'm doing a 10 mile climb that lasts an hour, I fall way back. ...so I'm looking to increase my endurance.
Advice from one friend is to do lot's of base miles this winter at below 200 watts (ftp of around 258), mixing in the occasional intervals, although I had planned on going harder and continuing with intervals three to four times per week.
Supporting my friend's advice was a video that I saw on another forum: http://www.canal-insep.fr/fr/training-periodization-deep-root-cultural-heritage-and-innovative-paradigms-2013/ei_13_10_va_pr_stephen_seiler-mov [you may need to cut and paste to see it]
The speaker discusses a number of pretty compelling studies of elite athletes, showing that they do a lot of very low intensity training and a small amount of high intensity training with very little in the middle.
The main problem (aside from the fact that I'm not genetically elite) is that time constraints do not permit me to do a lot of low intensity training (kids, job, etc).
Any thoughts on training--balance between base miles and FTP intervals? If I'm training four days per week, would you recommend all long rides, 2 long and 2 hard interval days, or some other mix--at least for the winter months? Any thoughts on interval lengths?
By the way, my goal is not racing but rather to increase my stamina on longer climbs and rides. Put in power terms, I need the same power if I could keep it for longer durations.
Thanks.
Background: I have a powertap, and I've been doing hill climbs, as they are best for the intervals that I want to do--mostly 2X20's or 6X8's. My power has gone up, and I notice that I can keep up with some pretty good recreational riders on most of the climbs for a while but then don't have the stamina to keep up on longer climbs. An example: I can do an eight minute 5-6% grade at over 300 watts NP (roughly 1.5 miles) but if I'm doing a 10 mile climb that lasts an hour, I fall way back. ...so I'm looking to increase my endurance.
Advice from one friend is to do lot's of base miles this winter at below 200 watts (ftp of around 258), mixing in the occasional intervals, although I had planned on going harder and continuing with intervals three to four times per week.
Supporting my friend's advice was a video that I saw on another forum: http://www.canal-insep.fr/fr/training-periodization-deep-root-cultural-heritage-and-innovative-paradigms-2013/ei_13_10_va_pr_stephen_seiler-mov [you may need to cut and paste to see it]
The speaker discusses a number of pretty compelling studies of elite athletes, showing that they do a lot of very low intensity training and a small amount of high intensity training with very little in the middle.
The main problem (aside from the fact that I'm not genetically elite) is that time constraints do not permit me to do a lot of low intensity training (kids, job, etc).
Any thoughts on training--balance between base miles and FTP intervals? If I'm training four days per week, would you recommend all long rides, 2 long and 2 hard interval days, or some other mix--at least for the winter months? Any thoughts on interval lengths?
By the way, my goal is not racing but rather to increase my stamina on longer climbs and rides. Put in power terms, I need the same power if I could keep it for longer durations.
Thanks.