From January 15th, I do the “sweet spot” training, 2x20m at 91%FTP, almost every day.
How I started:
normalized power; average heart rate; maximum heart rate; EF efficiency
1 interval 226W; 165bpm; 175bpm; 1.37
2 interval 224W; 168bpm; 177bpm; 1.33
Today:
normalized power; average heart rate; EF efficiency
1 interval 235W; 148bpm; 157bpm; 1.58 (158bpm is the top of Z2 for me)
2 interval 240W; 159bpm; 168bpm; 1.5
And first of all I don’t feel any pain in my legs from lactate !
The results may not be great, but the increase in form is probably OK
Looking at my power curve, I found that I have a large VLamax and threshold training is probably the best to lower VLAmax. I was always blocked by pain in my legs during greater efforts, recently I haven’t had it !!! It is possible that type IIx muscles evolved into type IIa.
There is one more option, my “assioma favero” are going crazy
This drop in rank between 1 minute and 5 minutes
And it matched what I felt in my legs with what I read about high VLAmax. More intuition than research.
Or that I can do 259 TSS in 1h42m during sprint training
If a large drop between 60 seconds and 5 minutes is an indication of large VLamax would the opposite hold true? If so how would you suggest training for that?
For reference this is the position I am in so am interested in how this could benefit my training.
I am not a trainer as I wrote more in this intuition than research. How seriously you are interested in VLamax, you should get a fitness test. There they will detect at what level of Vo2Max your lactate increases drastically.
Looking at your results that you powninieś boast how you train and not me
When did you notice the effect? You’re doing extremely monotonous training. On one hand, this should not be productive in the long term. On the other hand, I want to know how much focused work is required to influence the HR this much.
I am not a trainer, but as far as I know, threshold training involves more and more muscles, including type IIx. This favors the conversion of IIx to IIa. And increase their endurance. A typical Z2 workout may not activate these muscles because it’s too easy. I rode in Z2 4-5h and instead of beating faster, my heart slowed down during training
As far as I know, such training gives large and quick results, but at the same time you also reach a certain limit which we will not exceed with this training. I also suspect that for athletes with less seniority I give greater effects than for advanced ones.
See the different riders who start with Zwift. These training plans are primarily threshold oriented. See what the FTP increases are at the beginning.
P.S.
So far I have done 20 such trainings in the period from January 15, today it will be 21 but I am adding + 10W
For me, this effect is also surprisingly good, and I am a bit afraid that it may be a defect in the power measurement. Though little chance
Looks like you’re adding watts arbitrarily. Did you do a formal FTP test before this all started? The drop in HR is very significant – maybe you are no longer working on the sweet spot level?
Also, this quote is interesting. Typically, the same argument is used to motivate the “long run” – a type of endurance training at a pretty low intensity (no higher than Z2) that supposedly tires out the regularly used muscle fibers and forces the body to activate type II
Yes, I did the FTP RAMP test before this training cycle. I had 255W. Now I am increasing FTP to 275W so that the planned trainings are just as difficult on the RPE scale. The training was much more difficult but still bearable
Please post your next FTP test here when you do it. Your HR drop is way more impressive to me than the +10w change. Maybe your FTP has risen even higher than you think!
Hello ! I am really impressed and jealous of such an improvements ! I would love to prick your finger to get some lactate at the end of the intervals !
To put a little bit of context, how long have you been in cycling ?
What training volume have you done, let’s say, in the 3 months before 15th of january ?
Would you be kind enough to post the fitness / fatigue curve ?
Do you have a Garmin device ? What does it says in terms of FTP and VO2max estimations ?
I had good results in SS training in the final dash to a plan before a race, it was good specificity because I was aiming for half ironman races with 2,5h of riding during the event. But I am cautious with these trainings because sport science say that it might put a lot of stress on the body. Anyway, reading articles is one thing, kicking ass on the bike is another
I understand your VLaMax explanations, I have heard it dozen of times. But unfortunately there is no peer reviewed data to support this hypothesis.
I would also be interesting in doing a FTP test the old way with a strong 4-6 min effort before an all out 20 minutes efforts.
Congrats for your efforts, I wish to keep this stamina through te season
I am 41 years old and have been training for about 2 years and have been training with power measurement for a year.
Garmin estimate me:
250W FTP
54 ml / kg / m
HR max 204
HR resting 54
LHTR 177
From March, I go back to 80/20. Twice a week intervals of 4x8 minutes and a lot of driving in the Z2. For now, I have -18 degrees and 20 cm of snow
Nice
I would love to prick your finger to get some lactate at the end of the intervals !