The science of training has come a long way since I first
read Eddie B’s Bicycle Road Racing. Power meters and training by power has
replaced the focus on heart rate and rate
of perceived effort (RPE).
I still train by HR…old school or too cheap, but I use the
same concepts and more importantly the same software for analyzing
my training (WKO, Training Peaks, Golden Cheetah (freeware), Polar Protrainer,
etc).
Some key points
Everyone is different…. when it comes to heart rate. Power does not care.. it is absolute
(pwr/kg). An example of this is… Beth
and I both rode Alpe d’ Huez in 59mins… generating 3.9watts/kg (220 vs
320watts) but average HRs of 167 and 154.
She weighs about 125, me.. 180.
In my view the advantage of Training Peaks is that it
evaluates your rides with a training stress score (TSS) and an intensity factor
(IF) and has Performance Management Chart that shows you trend lines. TSS is a combination of duration and
intensity… IF is how hard the session
was.. (for a quick tutorial see.. http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/normalized-power,-intensity-factor,-training-stress-score.aspx ).
As we are all starting or about to start our early season
training and the UWBL has started up, I think a few comments are in order. Below is a chart of mine from last year’s
UWBL. This was a “sit in” ride for me
and I did not “contest” the final run in, but did rev it up for the other
sprints sitting in. With an IF=.69 this
classifies as the top end of a recovery ride; according to the document above… (I disagree with
this.. for me recovery rides are < .65).
It is more of an endurance ride with a few efforts thrown in, and with a
TSS of 230 it would classify as a moderately hard ride
.
But this is for me.
Probably easier for OTF (Brian), but harder for, say, Teenie. UWBL does get too long and too hard for what
I want to be doing as the winter progresses, but I find it a challenging ride
and helps me hone my pack skills (awareness, avoidance, accelerations) for the
upcoming season.
So it is important to determine whether this
is a ride for you or not. As Steve said in his comment… to many egos drive the
pace … which maybe a “deal breaker” for your plan. And the goals of UWBL are more conducive to
men’s Cat3 and above (distance/pace/time of the season). For those thinking of Masters Nationals it is
awful early to be ramping up too fast.
[I will let DS weigh in on this]
Which brings up, do you know
where you stand physiologically. FTP?
LTHR? CP60? maxHR? Watts/kg? The science
behind this is what coaches use to assess you and layout a training a
plan. The more you know the more it will
mean and pay dividends in attaining your goals. So here is a good tool from Dr. Lim .. it is amazingly accurate.....
PowerProfiling … ( powerprofiling.xls ) on file in google docs.. download this…. enter your weight in red box at the
top and see either where you rank or what your output needs to be, to be
competitive.
So… Saturday…. UWBL or do we do a Team Ride? And let us all hear about your training... concepts, questions, myths...
7 comments:
Good stuff, Bird. There is a lot of lingo that you have to learn if you're going to follow the discussions these days. Great chart you posted. Where did you get that chart? Is there one for women as well. I'm sure our ladies would like to know where they stand too.
chart came from WKO+ showing times spent in Zones (Z1,2,3,4,5a,5b,5c). If you are using a Garmin (I use a 405 watch), or a Polar, you can import the files.. Maybe next team get together we can get DS to do a short lecture on training concepts and lingo...
Good stuff Bird. My academic background is in Exercise Physiology (MS), and I have been using WKO and Training Peaks since 2007. I would just add a couple of points. 1) These concepts apply to multi sport as well, although there are no powermeters (yet) for running and swimming, avg pace per segment can be used as a substitute for power (though hills complicate that for running, and choppy water for swimming). Running data can be downloaded from Garmin or Polar devices. The second point is regarding TSS. To me, TSS, along with ATL (acute training load, basically a short term avg of TSS) and CTL (a long term avg of TSS) may be the most important parameters to monitor. After a while, you can pretty much estimate your TSS after a workout, for any sport. These would be good concepts to review at a meeting.
Bird, do you re-test your FTP at the start of every season? Should training zones change from year to year, or even during the same year?
Debbie, you absolutely want to retest your FTP at the start of every season. FTP changes with fitness. Most coaches will retest your FTP at certain points during the season to account for fitness gains during the year. It's a good idea to test it now so you start off your season with the right training zones. Then, perhaps after each module period, you can test it again to see what you have gained. This will ensure that you are using the correct values to create your training zones. To this point, I would also say that ideally, you would do your FTP test on the equipment you are going to use for training to eliminate any calibration discrepancies with different power meters. If you're going to train indoors on a computrainer at the EDGE, then you should do an FTP test on those trainers. Then you will have the specific values for those machines. Then, when you transition outdoors to say your own power meter you should do another FTP test to set it for that equipment. This second test will also help you adjust for any fitness gained during the base and build periods. FTP definitely changes during the season.
Great input Steve. Even if you, like me, train by HR you should check your thresholds each year and during the season... (increase fitness..fatigue) to ensure your training zones are right...
I used to, and am planning on doing a power test on a stationary bike as it is the best predictor of performance and can give you insights on what you need to train. I think repeating the same test during the year is a great litmus test on your training as Steve mentioned above.
I agree with Perry, the ability to track your "fatigue" and "form" (ATL, CTL, TSB) is one of the real advantages of WKO/Training Peaks.. If you have only a HR (Garmin, Polar).. you have to use Training Peaks online for it to compute these...
for a summary of this topic cut and paste the following into your browser...
http://support.trainingpeaks.com/personal-edition/training-stress-scores/performance-management-pod.aspx
I think setting up a power test for teammates at either HQ or the EDGE would be a great thing.. DS/Sam/Steve?????
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