Uhl said:
I've been reading these forums quite a bit and this is the first time I've heard these guidelines. May I ask from whence they came?
I'm also interested in more details on the last part, like how soon before your peak event do you start doing 100-105%?
He might have extrapolated from this....
" Still, I don't think one can assume that just because the TSS is 35% larger for 3 x 20' @ 95% than it is for 2 x 20' @100% that you automatically get 35% greater benefit. In fact, for someone who has already pushed their functional threshold power fairly high relative to their personal limit, the former is unlikely to result in any further increase, whereas the latter still may (based on my personal experience, anyway)." A Coggan.
Re: your second question....LONG before. Should be doing "a little" in late winter....at 100%.
It is the VO2 max work that you should start a few weeks before your first races, along with the 100-105% FTP threshold work in conjunction with each other that help the most.
VO2 to raise the threshold ceiling and intense threshold work to force it up. But if you are doing significant VO2 work then you don't need to do much 100-105% threshold work...at least at first.
Be careful with the Threshold work at 100-105%...it can kill you off if you get carried away with it.
The VO2 work will also be best for building mitochondria and the vasculature needed to feed them and this will also help raise FTP. It will also help boost stroke volume and this too will hep raise FTP.
To peak you do MORE.... or you can do two day blocks of VO2 max work. and keep L4 fairly high....and reduce total ride volume per week.....and then taper for 14 days with at least a 40% reduction in volume while maintaining or slightly increasing intensity. In peak and taper you can add a perhaps 5 days of pure L6 work(real L6 intervals) to give a little boost to your anaerobic work capacity.
