Realistic expectations...



ecarter202

New Member
Feb 2, 2013
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My goal is to be able to put out 3.0 - 3.2 watts/kg all of the time, by the middle of March. By all of the time, I mean for up to 5-6 hour ride without trying to kill it; being able to pace at that power.

Currently I would think my peak pace power output is 2.5. I can hold that for days it seems like.

My idea for a training program is to do 2.5 and then bump it up to 2.7 or so, and do 15-20 minute intervals for 2 hours, 5 days a week. Of course I'll mix it up a bit, but the base of the training would to be to increase the power output each week, or increase the length of the higher power intervals.

In any case, I have 3 months and would like some suggestions &/or advice on the expectations. Is 10-15 hours/week on the bike enough to increase my base power output .5 - .7 in 3 months???


Thanks!
 
No. And no. And that's not a training plan, that's just banging your head against the wall over and over again. Your body is very good at adapting. But when it adapts, it no longer needs to improve. You have to keep changing the stimulus to keep the body improving. The same thing over and over and over again simply doesn't work.

3 months is nothing in the grand scheme of athletics. . 5-6 hours at 3w/kg just on a whim? That might take years or never for some people. Sorta impossible to say.

I spent probably 3 years of riding 15-20 hours a week to get to the point where I could do that as a normal Z2 endurance ride, and it took me about that long to get to a Cat 1, so I wasn't slouching about. But that included lots of intensity as well as volume, improving different things along the way and building a big foundation from which I could do those rides. Mostly it took patience and miles. Lots and lots of miles.
 
Originally Posted by pedalbiker
But when it adapts, it no longer needs to improve. You have to keep changing the stimulus to keep the body improving. The same thing over and over and over again simply doesn't work.

3 months is nothing in the grand scheme of athletics. . 5-6 hours at 3w/kg just on a whim? That might take years or never for some people. Sorta impossible to say.

I spent probably 3 years of riding 15-20 hours a week to get to the point where I could do that as a normal Z2 endurance ride, and it took me about that long to get to a Cat 1, so I wasn't slouching about. But that included lots of intensity as well as volume, improving different things along the way and building a big foundation from which I could do those rides. Mostly it took patience and miles. Lots and lots of miles.
One of my favorite things to remember in my own training is the common, "Keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you are getting." I've enjoyed some similar discussions on the web lately from guys like you that have a lot of experience both good and not as good. When I competed in lifted there were a lot of trial and error years to start, but when things really started to sink in mentally the refinement went to the next level and so did the outcome.

I liked this from Dr. Coggan on FB the other day. "In my ~40 y in endurance sports, I've never seen anyone get faster by reducing the volume and/or intensity of their training." From that statement several others posted a few more morsels.

There are some other discussions going on about "quality vs quantity" and "sub vs supra" that I have been watching. Since last fall I have been moving a bit more polarized. Unlike the popular study that came out last year with 80% in L2 I've got a little bit more intensity in the weekly ratio. That study ratio doesn't make sense to me and it does not seem to play out well in observing trends in the PMC at least in a short observation things were declining in the PMC and on the road.

Saturday and Sunday (warmer weather) I go out for more of a 4 to 5 hour L2 to SST type blend of a ride and try to keep from getting up toward 275 to 300+ TSS for the long ride. Too much and it seems to impact the higher intensity days (harder for me to hit those interval targets). My indoor intervals I try to focus hitting top of L4 into L5 (100% to 115%) for at least 3 days during the week. I did this schedule from September to November with no issues on recovery. I was starting to see some good improvement until the busyness of the holiday obligations kicked in. Now if work and life allow I should have a straight run in trying this for a long block and see how it goes.

For the indoor intervals I bump the intensity % by a couple more watts each week until I can't finish the intervals. When I begin to struggle I will then stick with that target until I can move up again.
PPP "sooner or later, you have to increase the power"

I don't compete (have never competed in endurance sports) and mainly ride alone so most of this is just for curiosity sake in observing the trends. My training time is usually limited to 10 hours a week.

Anyway thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your post.
 
Originally Posted by Felt_Rider

Saturday and Sunday (warmer weather) I go out for more of a 4 to 5 hour L2 to SST type blend of a ride and try to keep from getting up toward 275 to 300+ TSS for the long ride. Too much and it seems to impact the higher intensity days (harder for me to hit those interval targets). My indoor intervals I try to focus hitting top of L4 into L5 (100% to 115%) for at least 3 days during the week. I did this schedule from September to November with no issues on recovery. I was starting to see some good improvement until the busyness of the holiday obligations kicked in. Now if work and life allow I should have a straight run in trying this for a long block and see how it goes.

For the indoor intervals I bump the intensity % by a couple more watts each week until I can't finish the intervals. When I begin to struggle I will then stick with that target until I can move up again.
PPP "sooner or later, you have to increase the power"

I don't compete (have never competed in endurance sports) and mainly ride alone so most of this is just for curiosity sake in observing the trends. My training time is usually limited to 10 hours a week.

Anyway thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your post.
Great post, too!

I'm pretty much on a time-crunched schedule myself these days. During winter time, I'm just trying to get in 8 hours a lot of the weeks. Once spring rolls around I get back up to 12-15 hours and the form really comes along quickly.

Because of the less volume in winter, I do a lot more intensity, but it's more general fitness intensity than specific race intensity. Meaning that I do a lot more Z3 and Z4 in the winter time to prepare, then when I get in race season I swing the other way and have a lot less Z3/Z4 and a lot more Z1/2 and Z5/6+ as those are specific intensities that I both race at and train to race at. This worked out last year and I had my best season ever which including winning the State RR championship in late July. One of the first times ever I kept progressing throughout the summer without having to take a big break and rebuild mid-summer. I think the lower winter hours helped a lot with that.

My intensity breakdowns (power-wise) for the last two winters:

Last Dec I was:
~20% zone 1
~33% zone 2
~23% zone 3
~15% zone 4
~5% zone 5
~3% zone 6

This Dec. I was:
~19% zone 1
~27% zone 2
~27% zone 3
~17% zone 4
~6% zone 5
~3% zone 6
 
Increasing my work out time has been difficult but I think I finally built up the courage to do it. At first I think I was just being lazy by putting myself in a position to excuse some of the things that I was doing. But now I'm not making any excuses anymore and I am making sure that my workouts are long and difficult.
 
Realistic expectations help a person to live a good life and it is definitely useful in every way. I do believe it can be really helpful and you should aim to get your expectations met.
 
Realistic expectations help a person to live a good life and it is definitely useful in every way. I do believe it can be really helpful and you should aim to get your expectations met.
 
Being unrealistic can't start to really get to you and discourage you when you never reach your goals. Short term goals I'm realistic, long term not so much.
 
Yep, people get impatient and set and desire unreachable goals. Set realistic goals and eclipse them if you can but don't live for them. Every time I get about 20 miles into a hard ride I realize why I am solo riding, this s**t is not easy but worth while. Always looking forward to the hot tub and my libatious reward. Well I there right now. Woo Hoo.
 
Let's put it this way. When I first started cycling, I kept setting very unrealistic goals for power and distance. I failed miserably for the longest time no matter how hard I pushed myself, and then I started training smarter and with better knowledge of how to improve. That's when I started taking a realistic approach to things and seeing some gains!