Allen is pretty good at this so bet it will be good. I can make the recorded version available for you guys after the fact.

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

Patrick,

Writing a tip in a newsletter introduction is always a challenge as you tend to be generalized.

So, moving your FTP. Hunter and I discuss this all the time as we constantly see one challenge. It is easy to describe in CTL (Chronic Training Load) but since not everyone on this list I will use training hours in the "challenge" example.

So assume you are at a point in your season on your FTP / Threshold is pretty "maxed" and not moving up. Let's call it 300 watts. You are training 8-10 hours a week and struggling to find the time but you know if you just trained a little more, you could increase the FTP. So you find a way to scrape together another 90 minutes of training a week and add some volume to the load. You train at this new volume for 4 weeks but nothing is really happening, FTP still maxed. Give it another month same issue; no real movement. What is happening?? You trained more??

The "observed" reality of interacting with 1,000's of athletes over the years is that improvement tends to come in more a plateau to next plateau (PtP) way. This can be really challenging to a rider and a coach. What does "PtP" mean? In the above example of rider X riding 8-10 hours a week adding 90 minutes is typically not enough increased training load to move the ball. The reason is two-fold. First off for a reasonably fit person, stressing the body to further adaptation is pretty hard. Your body does an excellent job of adapting and staying efficient and it can take some significant change to force adaptation. Second, the "cost - benefit" equation of training. In this case we are introducing 90 more minutes of training and the "cost" is more fatigue in general and the "benefit" of adding just 90 minutes might not outweigh the cost.

So what does all that mean. When you think about training / training plans / training load you are thinking about creating and organized training system that INCREASES THE ODDS of maximal performance (and for a training plan, maximal performance at a specific time). The human body, and its adaptation to exercise is amazingly diverse and adaptation of training stress can really vary. A good coach thinks in 2 - 4 year cycles with an athlete as they need to determine how THEY (that particular) athlete responds to training stress (both load and content) to best find peak performance.

So, when writing articles you tend to be general. What is the general take away? IF you really want to increase the odds of a break through increase you need to UP the training stress a good chunk. I know Hunter would peg that number around 20-30% and I would agree. The thing we see all the time is the above issue, people up it 5% or maybe 10% and see little to no change as the cost / benefit of the new stress is not worth it. This leads people to focus on all the popular high intensity training regimes out there as it supplies the answer they want to hear. Don't get me wrong, if training 8-10 hours a week keeping the intensity high is a great idea, best bang for the buck BUT you want to break through, going to have to turn up the volume, intensity and work more than just " a little bit".

So, notice I added the word "work" to my list above. Work is measured in Kj's and available on most of your training devices. The reason you specifically go longer weekend rides (back to the original question) is to introduce a "next level" of work in a workout to introduce some deep response. Going LSD (long steady distance) or even mixed longer rides as all the of cardio and metabolic returns that are well documented. Mitochondria, plasma volume, pump stroke increase and energy system improvements. For a pro, a good target is to hit 4,000kjs for a male and 3,500 kjs for female in a long ride. Now go back and compare you largest KJ ride in TrainingPeaks, bet it is half that. So Hunter point of the long ride is since so many training that working mans 8 - 10, adding the long ride on the weekend can push a break through. (When I work one-on-one with limited time athletes, I always try to talk them into one 5 hour ride every other week as that is the best use of added time.)

Hope that helps

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

Wow Tim! That one post just answered so much of what I've been experiencing the past few years.

I've been thinking (wrongly, I see) about a linear relationship to my training load and ftp and struggling with incremental gains to the first but not always seeing the latter.

i suppose it's good news to hear I haven't been "under" by an increment as low as 5-10% but still a bit daunting for a family guy with a job...

Tim

Thanks for the thoughtful response. The idea that it can take a 20-30% increase in TL to stimulate change to another plateau is frustrating (due to limited time and other obligations) but makes a lot of sense and gives me a good idea of what is needed to up my game. 

Thanks

Good replies, just note I am talking about improving the odds of improvement.  The things that happens on so many forums is everyone thinks in absolute.  The best way to find out the RIGHT answer for you is to TRY IT.  There are some people that might improve in a linear fashion, outliers in the bell curve but certainly happens.

Tim as much as I'd love to be an outlier, the jump does resonate with me. It's definitely been my experience (especially when getting back into shape) that I struggle, struggle then suddenly see a large improvement in ftp. I thin I'm going to try and find a way to schedule some bigger blocks of training ahead of key seasons.

Team, please keep an eye on the group ride threads. These next few weeks I'm going to be racing one day, and riding long on the next day. I'd enjoy the company.

Yeay for 3 sets of crit sprints. Last time I could only do 2.

Great work!

"It doesn’t get easier, you just get faster!"

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

DGG getting ready to #bringthepain

Tim, spent some time digesting the "LSD" post. Some thoughts to share.

• If Brooklyn team members went on "The Rockland Lake" Sunday group ride, they would get in an 70-80-ish mile day. Might be an easy way to up that mileage, without too big a total "time away from real life" penalty.
  
  
• While increasing training load 90 minutes per week might not help, increasing it 150 minutes puts you squarely in the middle of that 20-30% recommended range for making the leap to that next plateau. That's 2.5 hours per week additional and somehow sounds more manageable than increasing TL by 30%.
  
  
• What definitely doesn't seem manageable however, is reaching that 4000kj target. I'm a big fan of LSD. And I'm fortunate to get out for long rides as much as possible. I somewhat recently completed an 87-mile solo road ride and 5.5 hours later, I had burned only 2900kj. And while I know I tend to dawdle and take it easier on solo rides...
  
  
• ...even in a pretty tough 62-mile P 1/2/3 race that included some actual pros, and more legit New England Cat 1s, around here (Trooper Brinkerhoff http://www.road-results.com/race/5789#r6456), I averaged just 743Kj/hour. So, if I could maintain THAT intensity for 5.5 hours, then I guess I'd hit that 4000kj target.
  
  
• Even our typical group rides, sans too much dawdling, you're looking at around 530Kj per hour. So we'd need 7+ hours of that for pro level training?
  

Are domestic pros really doing 5.5 hour rides at 750kj/hour and legitimately filing them as an LSD ride (and not tempo or low LT)? That seems like a stretch, even for them.

I guess, more relevantly, the more important question for the members of Kissena is, "What is the Kj target for us on LSD rides to get to that next plateau of fitness/form?"

Marc,

Great points and review. I attached two file views to see how it is done at the pro level BUT my point was that is why/how they are pro. A massive genetic advantage and years of deep training develop an ability to go hard for longer time periods then people think AND the reality for them, only way to increase.

For us normal humans, anytime you get close to / over 3,000j’s you doing pretty well. The email was referring to the point Hunter made in the newsletter but never really adjusted for the “what” to do. These files views are pros riding long tempo, very long but not always the best way to rank up TSS . Try the kitchen sink workout:

15 min Warm Up
4 Hour Ride
in 1st Hour do 6 x 15 second sprints with 4 min rest
in 2nd Hour do 2 x 20 min at 90% of FTP, rest 5 min between
in 3rd Hour do 4 x 3 min at 110% of FTP with 4 min rest between
In 4th hour do 5 x 1 min MAX with 5 min between
warm down

That will give you 3,000j’s if done correctly.

PS: Not sure the pics will post by replying to email, i am traveling and cannot log in, can you post for me? Thanks!







Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O. 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
tim@peakscoachinggroup.com
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

Tim

Can the order of the efforts in the kitchen sink workout be rearranged? For example, I assume the benefit would be the same if the 20 min efforts were conducted in the 1st or 3rd hour. I am thinking about the available terrain and the 20 min efforts can only be done on certain roads without having to deal with frequent intersections, etc.

Patrick

Tim,
     If one mixes up the efforts, your four-hour kitchen sink ride plan could resemble a spirited group ride with town line sprints, hills,  and rotating pacelines thrown in.

Our a 4 to 5 hour race….



Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O. 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
tim@peakscoachinggroup.com
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

Best done in order but can change to fit terrain. I will load in workouts if want so you can tweak but middle of travel day from hell so might be latter tonight.

Tim Cusick
Peaks Coaching Group
717.515.5382
Sent from my iPhone

Thanks, Tim, no rush on that -- we do have a kitchen sink ride scheduled for next week.

As a note on the long ride discussion...

if one can't up volume 20-30% I guess one could focus those example extra 90 minutes on 'free speed:' skills, ride your TT rig or cross bike on grass, cx transitions, turning, gym work, or even be specific about a weakness, sprinting, etc... Tim, any thoughts?

Well if you don't have time for an additional 20-30% of training volume, you can always focus on Prefontaine's other two keys to success...

That made me smile.  I consistently eat pizza and Snickers every day.  I also rest on days when I am supposed to train.  I will win  

Team,

Posted all next cycle plans.  Focusing a bit more on FTP this cycle to make sure you are maintain power at threshold through summer racing.  Take a look and let me know questions.  Chaim, email me your stuff, will adjust.  

Also, there are two people with other plans in their account, i don't want to add clutter.  If you two email me off list, let me know what you want me to do.

Hour of Powah! 

that was hard!! around minute 32ish was like hell on wheels.

also of note @Adam Fabian hour of powah is way faster than mine. wiggins, somehow, is even faster! and @Dan Reiners has started his preparations for a season of cross.

I ended 20 watts above my previous FTP. 

cheers and thanks Tim! it is super cool and encouraging to see this kind of progress.

That is a nice workout!!


If you guys want, I can build a CX plan starting next cycle....

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

I'd love CX specific training, though I'm not sure exactly when I'll plan to start focusing on cross over road.

TimCusick said:

That is a nice workout!! If you guys want, I can build a CX plan starting next cycle.... Timothy Cusick President | Peaks Coaching Group O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382 www.peakscoachinggroup.com

Yes! I've been on the sidelines here because I barely have time to ride except to and from work but the craziness should slow down for the summer and I would like to build into a decent cross season.

Adam Fabian said:

I'd love CX specific training, though I'm not sure exactly when I'll plan to start focusing on cross over road.

This is a good question/point. Especially given the number of KCC riders who race cross (although not sure how many of them are being coached by Peaks/Tim)! Adam, I think you might be surprised at how early the dedicated crosser shuts down his or her road season to start to prep for CX. But I'm a little lot out of my depth here, so I eagerly await to here's Tim's response!

Transition is always the challenge in CX.

Be warned, my CX workouts hurt….no mercy training.

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O. 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
tim@peakscoachinggroup.com
www.peakscoachinggroup.com

This is always a tough one as it is very individual. The key factors?

1. Desire - do you want to keep road racing through the season? When do I want to be on form for CX? What/when peak?
2. Fitness - This is an odd one as you need to reverse your thinking, it limited training and not that fit, you can switch over to CX training without that much rest, if been training a lot on road, then need a week of true rest.
3. Season - what is the length of your CX season.


If someone can give me the facts about your CX season, length, the big races, where it ends (NYC championships?) I can give a more specific response.

Timothy Cusick
President | Peaks Coaching Group
O 717.467.5078 C. 717.515.5382
www.peakscoachinggroup.com