Share your training arsenal here (please)

[netscriber]

I've gotta admit that my training menu is pretty bland. Basically, I see training as an effort to stress a couple different energy systems within the body, and that just doesn't seem to require an 'arsenal' ) ) of workouts.

Long-term aerobic energy production (ie, LT related): longish intervals between LT power and 1-hr power - typically 3x20 at 1-hr power, or 3x30 at 95% of 1-hr power with 5 minutes between intervals.
Short-term aerobic energy production (ie, VO2max): short intervals with short rests - typically 6x4 at ~112% of 1-hr power, or 6x5 at ~108% of 1-hr power with 2.5 minute rests.
Sprints: 6 maximal efforts of 20-30 sec durations with several minutes rest in between
Jumps: 6 maximal efforts of 10-15 second duration from a slow start (<10mph) with a couple minutes rest in between

I haven't started anaerobic training yet, so no workouts for that energy system. Anything of lower intensity than these gets trained during longer variable power rides or group rides. Pretty basic, but I'm a 'fundamentals' kinda guy.

Hey frenchyge,
I just finished my 4 month base this year and am moving to the build period(after 5 years of inactivity) I still do not have a powermeter and am trying to follow a decent regimen based on HRMs. Some of the information you guys post is pretty valuable but I cannot relate it to an HRM. So without getting into the extreme accuracy factor can you tell me how FT corelates to LTHR? Does LT power mean LTHR? Also how do you say you havent started anaerobic work when you sprint?

Thanks in advance

 

[RapDaddyo]

Hey frenchyge,
I just finished my 4 month base this year and am moving to the build period(after 5 years of inactivity) I still do not have a powermeter and am trying to follow a decent regimen based on HRMs. Some of the information you guys post is pretty valuable but I cannot relate it to an HRM. So without getting into the extreme accuracy factor can you tell me how FT corelates to LTHR? Does LT power mean LTHR? Also how do you say you havent started anaerobic work when you sprint?

Thanks in advance

FYI, all of Andy Coggan's training levels are defined here in terms of power, HR and RPE http://www.midweekclub.ca/articles/coggan.pdf.

 

[SolarEnergy]

Bompa has good stuff, but the ideas around periodization go back to the early 70's and a case could be made that they go back further, e.g. East German training methods. Bompa's ideas about periodization were more or less employed by athletes long before the 80's, i.e. base conditioning, pre-competition, competition phase, etc.....

......For example, to develop the characteristics associated with "base" training the old school just did lots of really long rides........

Yep, I must agree there.

I remember having read an article in a magazine, writen by one coach on the US National team staff. I tried to google that at multiple occasions, but with no success.

He was basically advocating 5000 k done in lower L2. What was distinctive, is that the athletes were not allowed to
1) Pedal at an intensity higher than lower L2
2) Do weight resistance training

The idea being that during that 5000k, a new chanel of capillaries was being developped. And that those baby capillaries would die, in the presence of lactic acid.

So once a year, riders would spend some time developping new capillaries, and once these were strong enough (the capillaries), then intensity level was gradually raised.

I think that was the old school. Em I right?

 

[beerco]

So I start suspecting that event "new school" proponents do some amount of base (slow) miles. Is there any truth in this? If yes, how much?

(the hidden question of course is: did I wasted my time during the 2-3 months of slow-ish miles?)

The true answer (as others have already alluded) is that it depends.

The key to all training is overloading the system you're targeting through either volume or intensity. No overload, no training effect.

If you have gobs of hours available, then you can overload by doing gobs of slow riding. If you don't put in the hours though you've got to up the intensity to get overload.

So, did you waste your time? If you were putting in 20hours/week of slowish riding, probably not. If you were doing 10hour weeks of slowish riding, then probably yes, you were wasting time.

 

[whoawhoa]

Yep, I must agree there.

I remember having read an article in a magazine, writen by one coach on the US National team staff. I tried to google that at multiple occasions, but with no success.

He was basically advocating 5000 k done in lower L2. What was distinctive, is that the athletes were not allowed to
1) Pedal at an intensity higher than lower L2
2) Do weight resistance training

The idea being that during that 5000k, a new chanel of capillaries was being developped. And that those baby capillaries would die, in the presence of lactic acid.

So once a year, riders would spend some time developping new capillaries, and once these were strong enough (the capillaries), then intensity level was gradually raised.

I think that was the old school. Em I right?

I know this was a philosphy held by Rick Crawford, which he later admitted was wrong, as was indicated by scientific literature. Capillaries, apparently, don't burst as a result of high intensity effort. However, Crawford still prescribes a long base period with a low heart rate cap, I believe. Not sure why though.

 

[WarrenG]

I know this was a philosphy held by Rick Crawford, which he later admitted was wrong, as was indicated by scientific literature. Capillaries, apparently, don't burst as a result of high intensity effort. However, Crawford still prescribes a long base period with a low heart rate cap, I believe. Not sure why though.

You're right that Crawford still suggests long slow miles. What he actually said about the capillaries was that it "was as if they exploded", when he was referring to their development hindered being by doing anaerobic training. Then people distorted that a bit and attributed him with saying they did explode.

I asked my coach about this two years ago when this was going around and he said he doubts that capillaries get destroyed or damaged, but the enzymes being produced by aerobic vs. anaerobic are somewhat (I don't remember exactly) different and the ones produced with siginficant periods of anaeraobic training might inhibit the development of the enzymes we want to increase during aerobic development.

This is one of the reasons my training is mostly (but not entirely or strictly) limited to below threshold during the period of the season when I'm primarily focussed on improving aerobic development. I'll often approach threshold or go above it for brief periods but nothing too sustained until later. Once I start doing significant anaerobic training my aerobic ability will decline slightly so we try to get the aerobic ability as high as possible first. YMMV.

 

[frenchyge]

This is one of the reasons my training is mostly (but not entirely or strictly) limited to below threshold during the period of the season when I'm primarily focussed on improving aerobic development. I'll often approach threshold or go above it for brief periods but nothing too sustained until later. Once I start doing significant anaerobic training my aerobic ability will decline slightly so we try to get the aerobic ability as high as possible first. YMMV.

You talking about lactate threshold (or OBLA), now, or the so-called anaerobic threshold? My understanding was that VO2max training was still primarily aerobic, but is your coach saying that the 'anaerobic enzymes' are produced during efforts approaching VO2max as well?

 

[WarrenG]

You talking about lactate threshold (or OBLA), now, or the so-called anaerobic threshold? My understanding was that VO2max training was still primarily aerobic, but is your coach saying that the 'anaerobic enzymes' are produced during efforts approaching VO2max as well?

I'm not certain if the enzymes are related to lactate levels ( I think so) or if it's the high intensity using high amounts of Fast Glycolytic (FG) fibers that encourages the enzymes.

LT, OBLA, AnT and 4mmol/l are all very similar points on the lactate curve for me. Basically, I don't spend too much time (not the same as "no time") with more than 4mmol/l of lactate until after most of the aerobic development is complete. I can do brief efforts around VO2max that stay within those contraints. I do extremely hard uphill sprints with only 3' rest but there really isn't much time spent with high levels of lactate. I do more and more efforts that approach AnT lactate levels, or get there briefly (like yesterday's 4' intervals), but not many over it, until later. As you can see, this would be quite different from the old school and Rick Crawford's approach to "base" training.

 

[SolarEnergy]

In an effort lasting 10min, maximum power for this duration, a fair guess would be that anaerobic metabolism contributes for at least 20%. Between 20 and 30% would be my guess.

 

[WarrenG]

In an effort lasting 10min, maximum power for this duration, a fair guess would be that anaerobic metabolism contributes for at least 20%. Between 20 and 30% would be my guess.

Might be less than that. I think there are charts online about this. I don't do any 10' efforts like that this time of year.

 

[fergie]

I think if Lydiard was still about he would look at the levels of training and suggest that one stayed at L5 and below with the exception of a few L7 sessions (I do 6 sec sprints with all my riders year round) and brought in the L6 when the rider wanted to peak for a major event with 4-12 weeks to go. The more the anaerobic capacity was needed the longer you would spend developing it. I don't see much point in doing a huge amount of anaerobic training for a three week stage race but if your goal was a 60min crit then things would differ.

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach

 

[WarrenG]

Classic example of the new school vs. old school approach to training and my previous comments about the difference in the structure of the training...

Some of you probably noticed that in the 2005 Tour de France Levi Leipheimer did much better than he had in previous years. My coach has been coaching Levi since November of 2004 so I asked him yesterday what he did with Levi's training that enabled Levi to improve so much. He said that Levi tended to do lots of long rides without much structure to them. They added more structure to these rides and Levi's other rides, and more intervals at specific intensities. FWIW, I think the earlier-mentioned Rick Crawford was Levi's previous coach.

Levi will be doing the Tour of California in two weeks and even though the Tour de France is Levi's primary objective for this year and it is still very early in the season, Levi has done a little bit of training aimed at the Tour of California. Levi lives in Santa Rosa when he's not in Europe and the race goes into his hometown and the surrounding area.

 

[acoggan]

In an effort lasting 10min, maximum power for this duration, a fair guess would be that anaerobic metabolism contributes for at least 20%. Between 20 and 30% would be my guess.

A 3 km pursuit completed in 3.5-4 min would be 70-80% aerobically fueled, depending of course on the anaerobic capacity of the individual. By the time you get out to 10 min, aerobic metabolism would account for 85-95% of energy production.

 

[acoggan]

You're right that Crawford still suggests long slow miles. What he actually said about the capillaries was that it "was as if they exploded", when he was referring to their development hindered being by doing anaerobic training. Then people distorted that a bit and attributed him with saying they did explode.

Actually, before he retracted his statements Crawford did claim that newly-formed capillaries were fragile and would be damaged by high intensity training. He's not the originator of this myth, however - that responsibility rests (hopefully peacefully) with Mike Walden.

 

[acoggan]

I asked my coach about this two years ago when this was going around and he said he doubts that capillaries get destroyed or damaged, but the enzymes being produced by aerobic vs. anaerobic are somewhat (I don't remember exactly) different and the ones produced with siginficant periods of anaeraobic training might inhibit the development of the enzymes we want to increase during aerobic development.

The activities of "anaerobic" enzymes such as glycogen phosphorylase, phosphofructokinase, etc., don't change much even with true anaerobic capacity training - just take a look at that Wilmore and Costill textbook that you said you liked.

 

[WarrenG]

The activities of "anaerobic" enzymes such as glycogen phosphorylase, phosphofructokinase, etc., don't change much even with true anaerobic capacity training - just take a look at that Wilmore and Costill textbook that you said you liked.

I don't have my bookmarks here or that book but I recently saw a chart that showed the changes in 6(?) different enzymes due to training, and showed the changes due to anaerobic vs. aerobic training. I think the issue was about not wanting to inhibit the improvement in enzymes developed during aerobic training by doing too much anaerobic training.

 

[acoggan]

I don't have my bookmarks here or that book but I recently saw a chart that showed the changes in 6(?) different enzymes due to training, and showed the changes due to anaerobic vs. aerobic training.

Well if you find it, make sure that it is scaled correctly to show the relative magnitudes appropriately, and isn't drawn like something you'd find in USA Today that is presented in a manner that distorts reality.

(BTW, here's a study that examined training-induced changes in the activities of three "aerobic" and three "anaerobic" enyzmes:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...t_uids=1601786&query_hl=5&itool=pubmed_docsum

Yeah, the subjects were all >60 y of age, but the relative changes were comparable to you find in young individuals following a comparable training program.)

I think the issue was about not wanting to inhibit the improvement in enzymes developed during aerobic training by doing too much anaerobic training.

There is no such inhibition.

 

[SolarEnergy]

A 3 km pursuit completed in 3.5-4 min would be 70-80% aerobically fueled, depending of course on the anaerobic capacity of the individual. By the time you get out to 10 min, aerobic metabolism would account for 85-95% of energy production.

Sorry.

I try to back everything I write, but some of my printed litterature is... I don't know. Maybe a bit outdated.

I'm surprised though, Ernest Maglisco is usually quite reliable.

Thanks a lot Andy, appreciated.