Help on Setting Goals

[walterptiv]

I've just started training with power and am looking for some advice on reasonable goals to set for improvement. I will do my first year of Cat 4 racing in 2006 and am currently at about 3 w/kg for 20 minute efforts. Would it be unreasonable to assume I can improve to 4 w/kg (without losing weight) using my 400 hour/year training plan?

 

[peterpen]

Depends how hard you've been training already. If you've only been JRA for the past year, maybe. If you're already doing structured training, seeing that big a jump would probably be surprising. This is based on what I was told at UC Davis, where they said they are happy to see an increase of 15-30 watts over a 6 month period.
That said, if you are only 50 kilos, you can go from 3w/kg to 4w/kg with *only* a 50 watt gain!

 

[walterptiv]

they are happy to see an increase of 15-30 watts over a 6 month period.

Does that mean 30 - 60 watts per year until you reach your genetic limit? If I gained 60 watts by August I would be almost to 4 w/kg.

 

[RapDaddyo]

I understand what you are saying and I think I understand the thought process. Sometimes we feel that we must be working toward some specific goal. But, it's not what I do personally and it's not an approach I would necessarily recommend. That's because there are too many variables that will determine your progress. Rather, my advice is to set goals in terms of measurable training statistics that should result in increases in power across the board. IOW, instead of setting goals based on the output of the process, set goals based on the inputs of the process. My view is that I will improve my power if and only if I get in quality minutes of L4-L6 intervals (AC's schema). L3 and below may improve my endurance but not my power. So, I set goals for a minimum number of minutes per week at L4-L6 combined. This doesn't mean merely a given number of minutes in that range. It means intervals of both the required duration and power for that level. So, the L4 minutes count only if they are done at durations of 10 minutes or greater, the L5 minutes count only if they are done at durations of 3 mins or greater, and so on. My personal goals are in the range of 3-5 hrs/wk, but that's based on my available training time. The beauty of this approach is that I have total control of achieving my goals. My hope and expectation is that the results will follow and thus far that has been true.

 

[peterpen]

Does that mean 30 - 60 watts per year until you reach your genetic limit? If I gained 60 watts by August I would be almost to 4 w/kg.

My understanding is that rate of improvement would be excellent. I'd assume it would taper off as you reach a more highly trained state and start bumping up against your personal physiological limits - getting that last 15 watts is going to be a lot harder than getting the first 15 watts. Also, you'll cycle up and down - ie, if my theoretical max is ~5 w/kg, when I get there I won't be able to maintain 5 w/kg throughout the entire year (or even an entire season.)
Daniel Coyle's book on Armstrong has an interesting account of how world-class cyclists "inch out onto the knife-edge" of maximum power and minimum weight. I'd have to look at it again, but I think that there is as much as .75 w/kg fluctuation between the off-season and peak fitness for target races. One would assume it might be even more for someone like Ullrich, who tends to actually take an off-season.

I've only had a PM for less than two months, so it would be silly for me to comment on how much (or even if) it's helped me improve - any gains I've made could solely be due to resting during October after a hard year, or only missing one workout for the past two months, or some other factor. I did raise my w/kg 10% from May to September last year and (if my PM matches the Computrainer on which I've been tested) have raised it another 10% since then - but I've also lost 7 kg since May. It's going to be progressively harder to see similar gains - unless Ben & Jerry's stops making ice cream or I develop an allergy to tasty cheeses like taleggio.
mmmm, taleggio.....

 

[BlueJersey]

How much you weight? If you are on the heavier side, drop your weight. With 3w/kg, you just can't do a thing in a cat4 race other than being "off the back." That's ok since next year will be your first year racing as a cat4. If you consistently follow some sort of structured training, you will get to 4w/kg by the end of next year. I think most seasoned cat4 can maintain 4w/kg.

Beginning of 2005 season my power to weight ratio was 3.9w/kg (230w 131lb), that was after coming off a mild training load during the Winter. By May to early June, my 30 minutes power ratio was 245w, 4.08w/kg.

Right now, after over 1k miles of base miles training since 10/26, my power to ratio at "L4" is already 247w, 4.11w/kg. I am very confident that when I hit L5 or L6, I can sustain 290w+ for 5 minutes or more.

I've just started training with power and am looking for some advice on reasonable goals to set for improvement. I will do my first year of Cat 4 racing in 2006 and am currently at about 3 w/kg for 20 minute efforts. Would it be unreasonable to assume I can improve to 4 w/kg (without losing weight) using my 400 hour/year training plan?

 

[walterptiv]

How much you weight?

I'm 76kg now and at my lightest during last year I was down to 74kg which is why I don't know that I can drop 10kg or so. According to my body composition testing I have about 8kg of fat.

Being new to power I'm just looking for realistic goals to set and things to measure. If I use Coggan's power profile chart I don't know if it's realistic to move up one category per year or not. I suppose that's a problem with power training, there are so many things I can now measure from ride to ride and month to month I'm having trouble knowing what to pay attention to and what numbers I should be working on and be proud of.

 

[BlueJersey]

Very unlikely you can cat up every year, unless you are training with some good quality cat4 or cat3 racers. Having good fitness and power to weight ratio would only allow you to animate the race. It does not bag you the win. Just keep on training and racing, by the end of next year, you should have an idea what you can do in a race and how much power you think you can generate, and for how long.

I'm 76kg now and at my lightest during last year I was down to 74kg which is why I don't know that I can drop 10kg or so. According to my body composition testing I have about 8kg of fat.

Being new to power I'm just looking for realistic goals to set and things to measure. If I use Coggan's power profile chart I don't know if it's realistic to move up one category per year or not. I suppose that's a problem with power training, there are so many things I can now measure from ride to ride and month to month I'm having trouble knowing what to pay attention to and what numbers I should be working on and be proud of.