Goals Galore, v2.008

[Steve_B]

but I'm real curious what happens after a season of 36 hour training weeks.

He will have a very large CTL and maybe a sore butt.

 

[rmur17]

• Train consistently and stay healthy {pretty good for winter. CTL ~100}
• Keep the weight down over the winter {yep}
• Functional Threshold Power (FTP): 420W (5.0 w/kg)
  {curently at 415W after last week's training. Close
  Addtional targets: 430x30, 440x20, 470x10}
• 5-min max. power (5MMP): 500W (6.0 w/kg) {est. 490W, not tested}
• MAP (25W/min ramp rate): 550-560W (6.5 w/kg) {est. 550W, not tested}
  
  {The rest? No outdoor riding yet!}
• PB on local TT short and long courses: (21k/46k)
• Local big Sept. stage race: Podium overall and win TT stage.
• Canadian Nationals: Podium in the M40-49 ITT
• Help local U23 rider win the Natz TT (4th, only 16 sec from 1st last year)

Items 3 and 4 would be +20W to 2007 bests and all-time PB's (age 44).

update April 1st, 2008

 

[daveryanwyoming]

update April 1st, 2008

Nice job! So out of curiousity, what's your total delta FTP and FTP ramp rate over the 5 years you've been tracking power and training with SST/L4? I have a feeling your steady progress over the last half decade would offer a lot of motivation to folks newer to this stuff and lower down on their own power curves. I also think it might give folks something to think about in terms of how quickly you do(or don't) reach your genetic limits.

Good winter of training man!

-Dave

 

[rmur17]

Nice job! So out of curiousity, what's your total delta FTP and FTP ramp rate over the 5 years you've been tracking power and training with SST/L4? I have a feeling your steady progress over the last half decade would offer a lot of motivation to folks newer to this stuff and lower down on their own power curves. I also think it might give folks something to think about in terms of how quickly you do(or don't) reach your genetic limits.

Good winter of training man!

-Dave

Hi Dave,
I found a post I made on another forum about a month ago and updated that.

1998 no PM, rode ~ 8,000 km (no racing mostly commute and weekend riding, age 35)
1999 no PM, rode ~ 7,000 km
2000 no PM, rode ~ 10,000 km
2001 no PM rode ~ 15,000 km or about 500 hrs (no racing but a solid weekly regimen)
2002 no PM rode ~ 18,000 km or about 600 hrs. Got back into local TT's at a good level. training partner did 2X IM that year.

2002 October baseline tests for FTP upon getting Computrainer 325W @85-87kg in quite good (relatively!) e/o season form.


2003 +7.7% (FTP as are all subsequent %'s, CT checked by PT Pro power, rear hub)
2004 +5.7%
2005 +2.7% by May then dropped close to 30% with a bad leg
2006 Recovered to 2003 level (350W)
2007 +14.3% (new training plan )
2008 +4.8% (but it's only April 1st , targetting another 3% or so, age 45)


Percentage FTP change over 5.5 yrs training with power: ~29%

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Hi Dave,
I found a post I made on another forum about a month ago and updated that.

1998 no PM, rode ~ 8,000 km (no racing mostly commute and weekend riding, age 35)
1999 no PM, rode ~ 7,000 km
2000 no PM, rode ~ 10,000 km
2001 no PM rode ~ 15,000 km or about 500 hrs (no racing but a solid weekly regimen)
2002 no PM rode ~ 18,000 km or about 600 hrs. Got back into local TT's at a good level. training partner did 2X IM that year.

2002 October baseline tests for FTP upon getting Computrainer 325W @85-87kg in quite good (relatively!) e/o season form.


2003 +7.7% (FTP as are all subsequent %'s, CT checked by PT Pro power, rear hub)
2004 +5.7%
2005 +2.7% by May then dropped close to 30% with a bad leg
2006 Recovered to 2003 level (350W)
2007 +14.3% (new training plan )
2008 +4.8% (but it's only April 1st , targetting another 3% or so, age 45)


Percentage FTP change over 5.5 yrs training with power: ~29%

Nice! Nearly 30% increase in 5 years and that follows 5 steady years of cycling and nearly 60,000 km of riding.

Can't speak for others but that's very encouraging. Sure we won't all make those kind of steady and continuous gains but knowing it's possible and that you don't necessarily cap out after a season or two is really motivating.

-Dave

 

[rmur17]

Nice! Nearly 30% increase in 5 years and that follows 5 steady years of cycling and nearly 60,000 km of riding.

Can't speak for others but that's very encouraging. Sure we won't all make those kind of steady and continuous gains but knowing it's possible and that you don't necessarily cap out after a season or two is really motivating.

-Dave

aside: An additional datapoint - in 2002 my best on the local TT course was around 31-min (30:51). This year I hope to hit around 26-min on a good day. That's about 20% faster ...

Now admittedly I'm comparing a road bike with semi-aero wheels and clipons, non-aero helmet to a full aero setup but a good chunk of that time drop is due to power increase. Roughly speaking I'd guess ~ 20% improvement in aero drag vs. 30% increase in power.

edit: BTW Dave, I think you're due an update of your own soon? Training is testing and all that ?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...edit: BTW Dave, I think you're due an update of your own soon? Training is testing and all that ?

O.K. I guess it's put up or shut up time and everybody knows I'm not much good at the latter.....

Weight steady at 69 kg for the last couple of weeks, hope to drop another kilo or two before the big climbing races.

FTP 305 watts measured on PT SL via Monod. So ~4.42 watts/kg at the start of April.

4 consecutive Tuesday noon sessions on gym ergs for 55 to 75 minutes steady 305-310 watts but I don't take those numbers to the bank since I have no way to test the calibration on those machines. They agree pretty well with the Monod results above but I suspect they're 10 to 20 watts generous since I'm able to manage an hour plus on them during regular training.

So far no outdoor training with snow still flying and temps around freezing or lower but things are looking good for an outside ride in the next week or two.

Oh yeah, CTL hovering around 105 for the last few days, broke the 100 mark about two weeks ago. CTL ramp since late October ~ 2 points per week, sometimes a bit steeper but never over 5 per week. A couple of dips for life interruptions and one for a short bout with the flu a couple of months ago but more or less steady climbing all along.

So far I'm about 6 to 8 weeks(or 20-40 watts) ahead of power numbers at durations over 3 minutes compared to last year. Still behind on short sprint and AC efforts which I don't do too much of on the trainer and still behind peak season numbers from August. Sure hoping the numbers come up a bit when I get outside. A 5% outdoor boost would set new highpoints across the board.

Anyway, that's the April update. Week 23 of indoor training and getting hopeful but still a lot of snow and ice out there.

-Dave

 

[rmur17]

O.K. I guess it's put up or shut up time and everybody knows I'm not much good at the latter.....

Weight steady at 69 kg for the last couple of weeks, hope to drop another kilo or two before the big climbing races.

FTP 305 watts measured on PT SL via Monod. So ~4.42 watts/kg at the start of April.

4 consecutive Tuesday noon sessions on gym ergs for 55 to 75 minutes steady 305-310 watts but I don't take those numbers to the bank since I have no way to test the calibration on those machines. They agree pretty well with the Monod results above but I suspect they're 10 to 20 watts generous since I'm able to manage an hour plus on them during regular training.

So far no outdoor training with snow still flying and temps around freezing or lower but things are looking good for an outside ride in the next week or two.

Oh yeah, CTL hovering around 105 for the last few days, broke the 100 mark about two weeks ago. CTL ramp since late October ~ 2 points per week, sometimes a bit steeper but never over 5 per week. A couple of dips for life interruptions and one for a short bout with the flu a couple of months ago but more or less steady climbing all along.

So far I'm about 6 to 8 weeks(or 20-40 watts) ahead of power numbers at durations over 3 minutes compared to last year. Still behind on short sprint and AC efforts which I don't do too much of on the trainer and still behind peak season numbers from August. Sure hoping the numbers come up a bit when I get outside. A 5% outdoor boost would set new highpoints across the board.

Anyway, that's the April update. Week 23 of indoor training and getting hopeful but still a lot of snow and ice out there.

-Dave

hi Dave,
Sounds like you've had a productive winter (soon segueing into spring I hope!). Keep it going!

 

[Sillyoldtwit]

1. This is a stretch goal for sure. Right now I'm at 4.2 w/kg and I can't loose much more weight. I am optomistic about hitting 4.5 w/kg and 300 watt FTP before the state championship time trial and cyclocross season.
2. Won my first race today. It was my second ever road race and I made a break with another guy about 13 miles in on the 33 mile race. We actually worked together (unlike last week where NO ONE would work with me) and opened a gap of about 2 minutes on the peloton by the finish. About 1 mile from the finish I dropped the other guy on a steep climb and hammered it home.

Well done Strader! How many riders were there in the field? Tyson

 

[strader]

Well done Strader! How many riders were there in the field? Tyson

34 if I remember correct.

 

[PaulMD]

It's always good to post goals on the internet. Then you have to!

0.) Drop weight again to 70.0 kg.

1.) FTP 315 watt @ 70.0 kg (4.5w/kg)

2.) 20MP 350 watt @ 70.0 kg (5.0w/kg)

3.) Run a 10km < 40 minutes.

4.) 10 full squats with 70kg.

0.) Now it's 70.7kg for the last 3 days. In june I want to weight 69kg instead of 70.0 kg.

1.) estimated FTP is now 285 watt @ 70.7kg. 30 watts to go. Ouch. Or 25 watts when I weight 69 kg... But estimate is from riding indoors. I don't know my outdoor/indoor ratio because I improved my indoor riding facilities (two big fans and a heavy flywheel) this winter.

2.) I don't know but this goal is also going to be difficult. In May I will do 3 timetrials of approx 20minutes so then I know more.

3.) Got injured during the winter with running and stopped.

4.) Done that easily Did 10x85kg. I now stopped lifting weight every week. I will try to maintain it and will do some two week lifting blocks true the summer.

 

[PaulMD]

It's always good to post goals on the internet. Then you have to!

0.) Drop weight again to 70.0 kg.

1.) FTP 315 watt @ 70.0 kg (4.5w/kg)

2.) 20MP 350 watt @ 70.0 kg (5.0w/kg)

3.) Run a 10km < 40 minutes.

4.) 10 full squats with 70kg.

0.) Check, it's now 67.5kg
1.) Check, FTP 318 watt @ 67.5 kg (4.7w/kg)
2.) Will try after La Marmotte to do some 20-30min timetrials
3.) Was already a failure and no goal anymore.
4.) Already done

New season goal is now 6w/kg for 5 minutes and 5w/kg for 30 minutes!!

So new goals or goals I still have to reach:
1.) 20MP @ 350 watts @ 67kg (5.2w/kg)
2.) 5MP @ 402 watts @ 67 kg (6.0w/kg)
3.) 30MP @ 335 watts @ 67 kg (5.0w/kg)

 

[strader]

That's a huge improvement Paul! What have your training weeks been looking like? What about you current CTL?

 

[PaulMD]

Sometimes I think my powermeter is defective because I can't believe my own improvements. Next week I will ride with my other powertap wheel to check if I can do it with that meter also

After my 60 minute L4 training my CTL was 82.4 and my ATL was 102. For more details I have added a picture of my PMC to this post.

My trainings plan is dictated by my legs. Last weeks they are always painful. I tried some easy days but the strange sensation in my legs didn't become less. So I just started hammering in training again, after a couple of easy days. After a good warm-up the pain does not limit my performance (I can't explain it).

My trainings week looks like, or this is what I want that it looks like:
Monday: off
Tuesday: L4: 2x20@100%
Wednesday: L3: 1h40m @ 80-85%
Thursday: L4: 2x30@95%
Friday: off
Saturday: sometimes 2h L2 with my girlfriend, sometimes 2-3h L3
Sunday: I try to do I a little bit longer than on Saturday: L2-L3 depends on how I feel.

But it changes every week, I have nothing on paper and my plans can change during warmup . Two weeks ago I planned a L5 training on Tuesday because my legs were not really bad. But I destroyed myself in the second 5 minute interval but had a very nice PR for my 4 minute power: 402 watts. I will try to do a real L5 training this Tuesday. So most of my rides are L2-L3 but in those rides I can't help myself to hammer 10-12minutes @ L4 at 3/4 of the ride when my legs feel better. I sometimes plan a L5 training (very rare, done 3 of them this spring).
I plan to do 2 rest days a week on Monday and Friday. But now La Marmotte is within 3 weeks I changed my off days to recovery rides of 60 minutes.

 

[swampy1970]

Sometimes I think my powermeter is defective because I can't believe my own improvements. Next will I will ride with my other powertap wheel to check if I can do it with that meter also

After my 60 minute L4 training my CTL was 82.4 and my ATL was 102. For more details I have added a picture of my PMC to this post.

My trainings plan is dictated by my legs. Last weeks they are always painful. I tried some easy days but the strange sensation in my legs didn't become less. So I just started hammering in training again after a couple of easy days. After I good warm-up the pain does not limit my performance (I can't explain it).

My trainings week looks like, or this is what I want that it looks like:
Monday: off
Tuesday: L4: 2x20@100%
Wednesday: L3: 1h40m @ 80-85%
Thursday: L4: 2x30@95%
Friday: off
Saturday: sometimes 2h L2 with my girlfriend, sometimes 2-3h L3
Sunday: I try to do I a little bit longer than on Saturday: L2-L3 depends on how I feel.

But it changes every week, I have nothing on paper and my plans can change during warmup . Two weeks ago I planned a L5 training on Tuesday because my legs were not really bad. But I destroyed myself in the second 5 minute interval but had a very nice PR for my 4 minute power: 402 watts. I will try to do a real L5 training this Tuesday. So most of my rides are L2-L3 but in those rides I can't help myself to hammer 10-12minutes @ L4 at 3/4 of the ride when my legs feel better. I sometimes plan a L5 training (very rare, done 3 of them this spring).
I plan to do 2 rest days a week on Monday and Friday. But now La Marmotte is within 3 weeks I changed my off days to recovery rides of 60 minutes.

It sounds like the La Marmotte ride should be easier for you that you may have anticipated - but just remember to take it pretty easy until the Galibier.

 

[strader]

Sometimes I think my powermeter is defective because I can't believe my own improvements. Next week I will ride with my other powertap wheel to check if I can do it with that meter also

Your gains are not suprising considering you've gone from a CTL of under 40 to over 80 in the last few months. When I first started training seriously with a Kurt Kinetic trainer it seemed like I was putting out a PB every 2 weeks.

 

[jsirabella]

CTL does make a difference but if you do not work on the higher end stuff you will not see the PBs IMHO. I have a ton of CTL right nowdoing alot of SST work and riding everyday but I feel now I am ready for the 5x5 and 3x10 higher end number to push up the FTP.

I have attached my PMC....Do not get me wrong the push method has worked very well for me but I think now it is time for some pulling.

Your gains are not suprising considering you've gone from a CTL of under 40 to over 80 in the last few months. When I first started training seriously with a Kurt Kinetic trainer it seemed like I was putting out a PB every 2 weeks.

 

[Alex Simmons]

On the trainer, on the way.....

 

[Felt_Rider]

On the trainer, on the way.....

This would probably be the only time that I could ride and hang with you.
A couple more weeks of you being back on the bike and I wouldn't be able.

Good to hear that you are back in action.

 

[Alex Simmons]

This would probably be the only time that I could ride and hang with you.
A couple more weeks of you being back on the bike and I wouldn't be able.

Good to hear that you are back in action.

I doubt it. I am 25kg over race weight.....

Sorting out the bike leg attachment next week so I can clip into a pedal instead of plonking the "foot" on a flat bed pedal. No pulling through, scrape the mud off, pedalling in circles rubbish for this guy It's just push down as I can.

Not sure how long before I make an outdoor venture. I think I'd want to graduate to a slightly longer left crank first.