Page 2 - Increasing sustainable power

29-03.-2008, 10:57 AM

#16

rmur17

Registered User

Join Date: Oct 2004

Posts: 926

Re: Increasing sustainable power

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbarker76

I built up for a peak in late October for a very hilly century ride in my area. It includes just under 10,000 feet of climbing in that 100 miles. Like I mentioned before, I seemed to build lots of endurance while building to that peak.

My training to get to that peak consisted of SST blending into more and more L4 work. Around September I started to add some L5 work since alot of the climbs were very steep. There were 4 major climbs that took between 5-10m to complete all around 10% with pitches as steep as 24%. I wanted to be sure I had the VO2 strength to make those 4 climbs. I successfully completed the ride.

After that I backed off a bit for November and started training seriously in December to start racing this year. I'm building back up again. As I said previously, for some reason, I seem to build the endurance, recover better from ride to ride as the TSS goes up and builds, but the actually power does not seem to want to increase. I've been reviewing all of my power bests since I started this thread and they pretty much have all been stagnant since March of last year.

Robert Barker

thanks for posting the additional info and charts. Some things come to mind but not knowing how much you can effectively train it's probably just a smart-ass remark to say "train more". A CTL of 60 seems low to me but we're all different.

Back to the composition of your weekly training, what did it look like? Digging deeper I wonder how you're actually performing your SST and threshold work. You keep mentioning hills --- does that mean you have a hard time finding either flats or long steady grades to do this type of work on. Do you do much indoor training?

sorry for all the questions ... but I'm loathe to suggest any specific training w/o understanding why you're not progressing on your current training. Maybe you could use a local coach????

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rmur

29-03.-2008, 11:57 AM

#17

daveryanwyoming

Registered User

Join Date: Oct 2006

Posts: 1,385

Re: Increasing sustainable power

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmur17

...I'm loathe to suggest any specific training w/o understanding why you're not progressing on your current training. Maybe you could use a local coach????

Agreed, it's a bit of a mystery. You've got a good steadily increasing load. It's not real high at the moment, but you had a good steady build last summer leading up to your big ride. Your endurance seems to respond nicely to training and although you've been doing focused SST/L4 and some L5 work your FTP has been flat for nearly a year.

How about the background stuff like nutrition overall stress, blood work, etc. Are you diligent about refueling with carbs and a bit of protein within the first half hour to hour of completing each workout? Are your workouts spread throughout the week or do you lump them on weekends into longer sessions? Do you vary your workout intensity throughout the week or within training blocks according to some plan? How much do you train alone vs. group training rides? How long do you typically sustain continuous excursions into Tempo/SST or L4, are they continuous efforts or broken by terrain or traffic?

Something doesn't add up based on what you've posted. Your results reflect someone doing a lot of LSD work with little to no high end, plenty of endurance, reasonable CTL, but no improvement in sustainable power for moderate durations. I can understand your frustration after putting in as much effort as your PMC reflects to still feel stagnated after a year. Rmur is probably right, a good local coach is probably your best bet for getting to the bottom of what's happening. If you're doing steady work at appropriate intensities with sustained excursions at level and you've done this for as long and as consistently as your chart implies you should be seeing some improvement.

Don't know what else to tell you based on what you've posted,
-Dave

30-03.-2008, 02:12 PM

#18

swampy1970

Registered User

Join Date: Feb 2008

Posts: 407

Re: Increasing sustainable power

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbarker76

I've been at the 240 watt plateu for about 9 months plus or minus 10 watts. I've been riding for about 3 years total. At the begining of 2007 I started off with some L2 rides building volume and also some neuromuscular work. I reached around a peak volume of around 8 hours a week. I'm going to shoot for 10 to 12 this year but I have a wife and 4 kids so it's a struggle.

Robert Barker

It is a struggle to "get the hours in". I don't know if it's an option for you, due mainly to other factors like work comute etc, but you could always do your training in the morning before work. I found that getting up at 5am and getting a couple of hours in before leaving for work is easier on the wife and kids. If needs be I take a snooze in the car at lunch or get a 1/2 hour nap in when I get home.

At the weekends I often get up whilst everyone else is still sleeping and get a few hours in. During the summer this often means I can get 5 hours in on both Saturday and Sunday and still be done, showered and fed by noon. Again, I often take a nap late afternoon for about 20 minutes or so... nothing too long though.

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