Threshold power work in Jan. Are we the smart ones??

BlueJersey

Are we really the smart ones who is working on threshold power now? I spoke to couple of people (including a cat2 in my team) and they generally are not thrill about doing threshold power now. I am not sure they may not have enough base miles to begin with. For someone who has over 1.2k miles already by the end of Dec, doing threshold power work makes a lot of sense. Not to mention you have the damn power meter to tell you that you are riding longer, using less effort, and putting out the same FT power as of last year.

frenchyge

It'll definitely seem so in March, but we may not know the real answer until June or July.

acoggan

Comments like those of your teammates are why one well-known coach has opined (only somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that there is an inverse relationship between one's physical abilities and one's intellectual abilities.

BlueJersey

I am going to keep my mouth shut until I pull couple of wins. I don't want to offend anyone.

robkit

my best year was characterised by doing a couple of mock 10 mile TT's on the turbo every week, all winter, and my worst featured pretty much all base miles until april.

consequently i'm in no doubt that higher intensity work thoughout the winter is smart. there's a bit too much tradition in cycling and that includes the mindset of taking it softly in winter.

if the form arrives to early then it cant be that hard to ease of and rebuild - better early than late or never!

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SolarEnergy

- Threshold power for one, may mean something else, for one other. For some, it is MP30, for others it is MP40 or MP60, for others it may be MP90 or even MP120.

- Doing Threshold workouts, doesn't necessary mean developping it. It could simply be maintaining it.

- To me, Coggan's Z4 is closely related to Z3 anyway. IOW, even if FTP development begins in March, or April, a minimal amount of time should be spent maintaining Z4 work in January, just to keep the top edge of Z3. I don't see the point in working one, without working on the other, vice-versa.

frenchyge

That's exactly what I'm planning on (ie, hoping ). I guess the downside is the additional torture of having done intensity all winter and having to back off later, instead of just taking a little more time off before starting.

whoawhoa

They may not know it, but if they are training zone 2-4, they are probably improving ft (provided they are doing enough volume).

BlueJersey

You are right. I think they are scare to go hard around this time due to the conventional wisdom (folk lore) about intensity work around this time I have been commuting and riding everyday since 10/26. My daily average IF is around .6. After reading the Sweet Spot Training article, couple of days later, I went out and did 3x20 threshold intervals. Not 2 but 3x20. I haven't done that many 20 minutes intervals in one session, ever. Power output was about 10w less than my May 20 minutes MP. Average HR was about 170. Not just that, one day later, I did another threshold power trainer session, 3x10. 10w higher than my last May 20 minutes MP with an even lower average HR. I like how my off season training is going. Is sad that some people don't reflect every year and ask why they haven't been improving.

whoawhoa

I know a few riders who train like the riders you know (cat 2s, and one semipro mountain biker) and they really don't seem to improve much over the months that they don't race. It's great for me, since I anticipate being able to out-ride them in many ways by next spring.

craigm

how long is your season? That may help as too much very early can be burn out later yet, on the other hand my coach has me building now thru spring----------

BlueJersey

Burn out? Hmmm......you know, I don't think I race enough throughout the season at all. I seriously don't believe in "burn out" any more. Just because pros can feel burn out it does not mean we amarturers would too.

WarrenG

Your cat 2 buddies might do 100+ races a year. So they are probably doing a lot more intensity than you will. If they race 20 times between February 1 and May 1 and train hard they will get lots of intensity training in time to be ready for the events that probably matter most to them. It's possible that they have learned about the importance of a slow, gradual build to a major peak or two. Or, you're right and they're just doing what they've always done and probably getting beat by the same guys every year.

frenchyge

That's a good illustration of the point that just because someone who knows what they're doing does something, doesn't mean everyone else should imitate it.