Not as impressive power as you, but a huge bump for me at where my LT1 is estimated to be (coach is in another country).
Been doing lots of z2, 1-2 interval sessions a week at max, 99% of the time only one. Averaging around 10-15 hours a week
Started cycling in 2018, just riding around, mostly in the city, 2019 was my first year actually cycling and looking at metrics, last year was a bit more riding, but got a coach in October and has been working with them since then, and gotten much stronger across the board, while also losing 8kg!
I can add that I started TR 2019, and did it through on and off into 2020, but constantly got burned out and got sick 5-6 weeks into the plan every single time…
I think that has been the biggest thing with having a coach, always keeping up with how I am feeling, lots of z2, moving effort days if I am feeling sluggish or such. This way I have been able to be ultra consistent as well as managing fatigue!
I figure I’d join in… I’m only adding outdoor pwr:hr since I have auto pause for tr workouts which can then elevate my pwr:hr ratio. I ride rollers and periodically stop since standing is more of a risk than the effort is worth so I give my butt a bit of a break every 15 to 20 minutes.
Lt1. Looks like in 2018 I was just never riding easy and was only at that hr during downhill and recovery periods. Total volume this year is quite low, and I have done zero intensity above threshold.
Interesting, this coach was coached by ISM for many years. He pretty much uses ISM’s philosophy in his own coaching now. However, he also cautions of too much “base” training. Similar to what J Vaughters once said. You have to touch all systems.
Very interesting, he speaks of tempo a lot. Also his description of how breathing should feel like in zone 2/at base matches pretty much how I feel. This is so different to all the Twitter-experts-who-recommend-nose-breathing-but-probably-have-never-tried-it-themselves.
I can relate a lot to what he says. My “problem” is that I have moved my AeT/LT1 so much to the right that it sits very close to my FTP/or-similar-metric. I’m happy with my AeT, I’m not so happy with my FTP/or-similar-metric. However, my only two races this year (probably) are ~12h each. Project for next season.
Yes, this was another great episode of what is a consistently excellent podcast.
Your point about LT1/FTP relationship was interesting. Given that a goal of LT1 training is to improve lactate removal, I would have thought this would have produced a shift for FTP (or whatever term) too.
Was all your LT1 training done at the expense of other levels?
Kidding aside, as you right shifted your LT1, did you notice that riding at FTP/MLSS seemed easier? In terms of RPE. That happened to me and I attributed it to working on LT1 and TTE as opposed to trying to drive up FTP (which is what I’d mostly done in the past).
The obvious magic sauce will be moving LT1 right, TTE out and then moving FTP up. Then repeating the cycle(s). Post in bold font when you figure out how to solve the whole equation!!
Yes, sort of. Started with the pandemic. Firstly, did a lot of no-man’s-land implicitly and then more structured after learning about ISM. At 18-20h per week there is not much room left for intensity. Once a week some stuff. Did two dedicated blocks though. The magical 105% FTP/90% MHR region. Can’t say it had any effect though.
But I’m already a more experienced rider, my context is probably very different to most folks in this forum.
Indeed, it appears Ben Day prescribes more intensity than others. I can’t say for sure if this Bike Exchange athlete is coached by him but there are some indications on the web. More intensity, more medio.
It seems like Ben Day’s zone 2 was a notch higher than what ISM prescribes. A few of things he said reminded me of the latest Magnus and Marcus podcast. Anyone listen to these guys?
In this podcasts they were talking about plateaus. When they get a new runner, they look for the kind of training the runner hasn’t done. They may find an athlete that never did long slow volume or one that never did sprint training. Giving the athlete their training weakness usually gets them off of their plateau and up to the next level.
So like Ben Day was saying, you have to hit all systems.
As usual, dose makes poison But yes, the question about how to keep all energy systems firing is an important one. I also think that the fiber type distribution or genetic makeup of a rider affects this equation quite a bit. In my experience, as long as I can recover, there is almost no detrimental effect of doing as much z2 as possible, but this may be because I have a relatively strong natural anaerobic capacity. So, if anything, it is beneficial to tone it down a bit. Then again, someone else might lose quite a bit of their upper end, as brought up in this thread.
My winter was not good: due to constant flus from my kids’ kindergarten I lost 1/3 of my volume or even more, and training was very sporadic. So I decided to cut out all intensity and do some of the z2 in the happy-hard z2/z3 region for the first time. Gotta say I am quite impressed thus far. Having done essentially no intensity proper since last autumn, I have broken my historic 4min best by more than 20w. Also there is minimal HR/power decoupling at the end of medium-long progression rides (eg. 1,5h happy hard to 1h threshold) that I have done the past couple weeks. Also legs feel strong at the end of such rides. Next week I will do a volume block and then move onto threshold and vo2. Have an A race in August.
I don’t really think it matters how Pog trains (within reasonable limits), he’s just such a talent and genetically gifted, he would always rise to the top. While I really enjoy ISM’s training model, I think Pog would fly with any model. From all what I’ve heard so far it’s more a matter of holding him back in training and not letting him peak to early. Actual training/workouts probaly don’t matter so much.
This. Surely you could mess him up with a bad training modality. But if you just are somewhat sensible in the hierarchy of endurance training needs he will always be fine.
People not acknowledging this are the same who say everybody should train like a cyclocross racer because MvdP and WvA are ripping it apart in the world tour. Wonder why both of these then ride so far ahead of every other Cyclocross athlete and where all the other cyclocross riders are on the podidums of the world tour…
A German newspaper, Tagesspiegel, runs a feature on ISM and his “mitochondria training” today. Nothing new for us, however, there is one little snippet which is interesting. McNulty does not seem to be overly sold on this “special” training. Or at least on its uniqueness.
That’s the theory which does not necessarily translate to real world improvments. When asked by Tagesspiegel, Pogacar’s team mate Brandon McNulty did not notice any relevant changes in his body due to the mitochondria training. “We train normally, eat normally, the classic preparation,” said the American.
ISM is using the same methods now as he did when he was the Doctor for some of these teams; Vitalicio Seguros, ONCE, Saunier Duval, and Astana plus he’s worked with the following riders; Joseba Beloki, Chris Horner, Leonardo Piepoli, David Millar, and Alexander Vinokourov.
I don’t want to derail the thread, but given the names you provided, I couldn’t help but notice Beloki, Piepoli, Millar and Vinokourov had one more thing in common, not just ISM …
this has been a topic in this thread before. To cite Jonathan Vaughters on accusations in this direction:
This is just stupid. Do you know Inigo’s history? do you know how he got kicked off all kinds of teams for trying to convert them to a non-doping philosophy? Do you know how he got physically assaulted by a rider because he told team management the rider’s blood values were off? He was messed up pretty bad.
This guy is one of the real forces to change things behind the scenes. One of the few in the medical field that instead of A. Giving up on cycling or B. going ahead and doping the crap out of guys, decided he would get in the middle of it and try to convert guys to a more healthy philosophy. And his career suffered for years because of that stance.
I love ISM. He seems like such a genuinely nice guy. If I were his good friend I’d ask him over a glass of wine why he would stand in the shadows of all these dopers and help them succeed with training. ISM talks glowingly of Indurain but it’s pretty clear he was part of the first part of the EPO generation. There’s no way he could have won in those years without doping.
I’m sure it’s complicated. You love cycling and don’t want to leave it so you try and change it from the inside out but you end up being Don Quixote.
