So I have noticed a strange thing about my the power curves from myrides. No matter if I go out for a fast sprinty workout or a slow steady FTP building ride I always notice my 5 min power is the same. I have even gone out for 5 min hill intervals and it is the same 300W.
Most of the mountain bike climbs I do are around 5 min ( or longer with flatter sections around every 5 min) so improving this number will have a huge impact on beating my friends up these hills.
You can see from the graph that my 20 min max power is about 270W which is not that much lower than the 300W for 5 min.
The question is: Should I just focus on getting my FTP up as high as I can and it will essentialy "swallow" up my 5 min numbers? or will mixing in some shorter intervals help bring up that dip in the 1min - 5min range in the MMP curve? Is the dip an indication of a shallow AWC?
I don't really have a "racing season" (because I only race my friends every few weekends) and I also don't have a Winter season (because I live in So Cal). I'm just trying to address my weaknesses and see what that does to the entire package.
So I have noticed a strange thing about my the power curves from myrides. No matter if I go out for a fast sprinty workout or a slow steady FTP building ride I always notice my 5 min power is the same. I have even gone out for 5 min hill intervals and it is the same 300W.
Most of the mountain bike climbs I do are around 5 min ( or longer with flatter sections around every 5 min) so improving this number will have a huge impact on beating my friends up these hills.
You can see from the graph that my 20 min max power is about 270W which is not that much lower than the 300W for 5 min.
The question is: Should I just focus on getting my FTP up as high as I can and it will essentialy "swallow" up my 5 min numbers? or will mixing in some shorter intervals help bring up that dip in the 1min - 5min range in the MMP curve? Is the dip an indication of a shallow AWC?
I don't really have a "racing season" (because I only race my friends every few weekends) and I also don't have a Winter season (because I live in So Cal). I'm just trying to address my weaknesses and see what that does to the entire package.
What's your FTP? It looks as though it may be a bit more than 250W. 5 mins is right in the heart of VO2MAX and the traditional efforts to train VO2MAX is 120%FTP. So, your 5min efforts aren't far off the mark now. I'd say just keep doing them (5mins @ 300W). They should get a bit easier over time.
What's your FTP? It looks as though it may be a bit more than 250W. 5 mins is right in the heart of VO2MAX and the traditional efforts to train VO2MAX is 120%FTP. So, your 5min efforts aren't far off the mark now. I'd say just keep doing them (5mins @ 300W). They should get a bit easier over time.
Hey RD, I have had my FTP set at 250W for the last few weeks, but the L4 intervals are working and I think its moved up a bit to the 255W - 260W levels because the IF of my rides is starting to hit 1.03. What I found unusual was that even 5 weeks ago my 5 min power was 300W. I can't ride the MTB without doing these hills so I will keep them up.
As I say this I realize that maybe the reason that the 5min power hasn't gone up may be because I HAVE been working this duration hard all year long riding these trails 3 times a week and just not thinking of it as an interval. I hope that doesn't mean I may have an FTP ceiling of 300W!
I'll need more than THAT if I ever want to get up Mt. Charlston!!
Hey RD, I have had my FTP set at 250W for the last few weeks, but the L4 intervals are working and I think its moved up a bit to the 255W - 260W levels because the IF of my rides is starting to hit 1.03. What I found unusual was that even 5 weeks ago my 5 min power was 300W. I can't ride the MTB without doing these hills so I will keep them up.
As I say this I realize that maybe the reason that the 5min power hasn't gone up may be because I HAVE been working this duration hard all year long riding these trails 3 times a week and just not thinking of it as an interval. I hope that doesn't mean I may have an FTP ceiling of 300W!
I'll need more than THAT if I ever want to get up Mt. Charlston!!
If you have been training your VO2MAX all year, you may be near maxing out, but you can probably still increase your FTP significantly. There are worse things than having a 300W FTP ceiling.😄 And, if your target climbs are ~5mins, don't ignore the importance of AWC. AWC contributes significantly to 5min power and the cool thing about AWC is that a significant part of it recovers quickly (e.g., <3mins). Mt. Charleston awaits!😉
don't ignore the importance of AWC. AWC contributes significantly to 5min power
I've always suspected my AWC was poor because after 7 seconds of sprinting I get really tired. You can see the sharp 110W drop between my 7s and 9s MMP.
Doing these L4 type intervals is very new to me however and I really seem to be responding well to them. Is it reasonable to suspect that whatever muscule fiber adaptations that are happening to increase FTP (more mitoclorians or mitocondria or whatever those muscle fibers are) will spill over to the 5 min power? or does VO2Max use a different muscle / enery system?
The more I think I know about this stuff, the more questions I have.
I've always suspected my AWC was poor because after 7 seconds of sprinting I get really tired. You can see the sharp 110W drop between my 7s and 9s MMP.
Doing these L4 type intervals is very new to me however and I really seem to be responding well to them. Is it reasonable to suspect that whatever muscule fiber adaptations that are happening to increase FTP (more mitoclorians or mitocondria or whatever those muscle fibers are) will spill over to the 5 min power? or does VO2Max use a different muscle / enery system?
The more I think I know about this stuff, the more questions I have.
Yes, there is some spillover benefit but if you want to target VO2MAX you need to stress it, ergo the 120%FTP efforts. The key to targeting any adaptation is to stress the targeted energy system.
