New tape saves you 5 watts at 40km hr

Can we please use this space academically? There are enough threads for the less serious. Let's try to make the most out of Tim's time.

Send the bottle of whiskey and tape my bars for me, will answer any question you want!!!

Let me know if the plans making sense. Based off some early feedback, I think will need to tweak a few things to make fit into schedules better. Hopefully Brandi making it easy for everyone to get started.

The plans totally make sense.

I always kinda struggle with 'base in February', basically the plans calls for 3:30 hours of total riding over this weekend (and 7 hours next weekend) which would be trivial on easy weather, but with this winter, I guess we just do our best on our trainers.

Eloy, pop on over to the "mentoring" thread where I've posted some thoughts that address your last comment.

Tim when I uploaded a workout file much of my info was lost (power...hr)  the only metrics that were picked up were time, distance and kcal.  I believe I used a GPX file to transfer my workout.  Is there a different way yo upload a file?  I am using a Cateye Stealth 50 to record my workouts.  These files have no problem uploading to Strava.  Thanks
Chris

Ouch. Ok Tim, what's my FTP?

http://tpks.ws/SZ5y

Vlad's Schwartz is bigger than mine.  I went for high cadence on these (110 rpm).  Watts are a bit lower but better for the old patella tendon (which detests low cadence indoor work).

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/athlete/workout/C7JXSTMIF7P25D75ORMYSC6SZQ

Not sure I agree with Mr 1500 watts

I don't know where the 1500 came from....I did 285 for 20 on Tuesday but I'm starting to think the 20 minute intervals I do after a 10 minute warm up are not great indicators of fitness.  You want power in the last 20 minutes of a race way more than the first 20 minutes.  The five minute VO2 test shortly before the 20 minute effort likely produces a better real indicator of power output after your legs have been tested (like in a race).  The indoor #'s are always lower than race #'s but for winter training they are valuable for the consistency of conditions (always 72 degrees & no drafting).  I still twitch when I look at this file from that Masters race at Prospect last year. (should I be posting these discussion here? or in the other training page?)
https://app.strava.com/activities/150488918

Vlad / All
See the attached.  A good way to estimate FTP is 95% of your 90min peak.  Once you have determined this, enter into TrainingPeaks and set training zones.  Vlad, how much you weigh?

Vlad / All,

A good way to estimate your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is to use 95% of your 20 minute peak power (See screenshot).  Twojacks makes a great point about performance, being able to produce power late in races is a huge factor (fatigue Resistance) but to use that as a number to set training zones would yield zones that you could easily hit when you are fresh (You will see in the the Cat 1-3 plan that doing intervals late in rides is dictated about 40% of the time to help support late race performance).

For those uploading, you can still set your FTP power off the base file even if you cannot upload.  I need to find out why the Cateye is not loading.

Twojacks,

Here is yours.  You are seeing a good amount of cardiac drift (we call it Power;Heartrate ratio) in yours.  

SWEET !!!!  thanks

Hey,

Yes on the 5 minute effort also, we do that before the 20 minutes to take the "top end" off and reduce the anaerobic contribution to the 20 minute effort.

Here is a little video to begin to see your power profile in TrainingPeaks:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9A2Fd5Hzrk&edit=vd  

Might take a few minutes to load....

I weighed in at 168 lbs this morning.

Thanks so much Tim. I'm super excited to get into the meat of this program. Couldn't be more grateful.

Tim - for those of us who aren't "fit" per your intro webinar, how do we get the on ramp program?

Craig - it is in the ebook you get when you sign up, full walk through how to test and use.

Tim,
   On my previous, self-designed plan, I had this week scheduled as an easy week.  Your plan suggests otherwise.  Should I do the plan, wait a week and start with next week's, or is there a way to push this week's back?  

Tough call but always lean towards rest.  You get stronger when you rest assuming previous over-reaching.  Try splitting the difference, rest for 4 days and pick up into plan.  At this time of year that is not too much intensity so should be ok stepping in.

TEAM,

As i am working through the start up of plans, want to do a plan update.  Now that I better understand the group i see some improvements I can make that will make it easier for all to fit into schedule and more focused to your events.  To really take the plans to the next level can each person participating please tell me the following (can email this to me at tim@peakscoachinggroup.com:

1.  How many hours a week do i train on avg?
2.  What are my typical rest days (off or easy riding)?
3.  What is my longest planned race in 2015?
4.  When does race season kick off for you

I will post new plans tomorrow morning based off feedback.  I can customize each a touch.

Team,

New plans are built and I will be posting them shortly.  Check out this short video for overview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEbUSAIE_9I&feature=youtu.be  

I'm looking for the ebook to find detailed descriptions of the workouts.  I feel I must have missed it.

Program loaded on my schedule. I like this, and understand it so much better, thanks so much @TimCusick


@mugwump, I received 3 documents:

Hi Tim,
When doing 2x20 FTP intervals what % of FTP do you suggest holding for the duration of the interval? How many times a week can these be done? What other intervals (Sweet spot, VO2, 5x5's) do you suggest for raising FTP for a Cat 123 Criterium rider?

Craig,

The answer is 102-105% of FTP!  The reality might be different. Since these are 20 minute efforts you should be able to hold supra-Threshold for the entire efforts.  The reality is this does require solid base fitness (not sure what everyone has been doing last few months) and control of the variables (outside terrain, trainer with no fan....).

So here is a trick to doing these well.  First off, start the first one 10 watts easier then target for first 3 MINUTES (no shorter) then go up in effort in 5 watt increments every 2 minutes if you can to you find the right pain level.  Hard but you can hold that for the remaining time of the interval.  For the second interval start 5 watts easier for first 2 MINUTES then go right the pain point learned in interval one and hold it for the remaining time.  These should be hard so pain is pretty high.

When done, evaluate the intervals and record average of each.  If the second interval is higher wattage then the first one, adjust future 20 min FTP targets up 5-10 watts, if the second one was lower then the first, adjust future FTP efforts down 5-10 watts.  IF they the same (give or take 5 watts ish), you have the target correct.

Hard to explain in this way but think this should make sense.

Thanks Tim. Appreciate it!

Coach Tim,
I got the new customized plan today and it looks great. I have a similar question as asked above by Craig. When I do the ftp 2x20 workouts (I don't have a power meter) and I'm basing it off of z4 HR, do I stay at the top two or three beats in my zone? I have a 16 beat range 149-165 (according to the coggan 5)What would be the right way to build my FTP

Thanks, Chaim

Here's where I'm lost on workouts:

"2-3 x 1 minute Fast Pedals to wake up legs”

How fast, what intensity level?

"MS: Micro Intervals. Training can bring mixed weather days so this can be done on trainer or long stretches of flat road. Complete 3x8 Minutes of “micro intervals”, this is an 8 minute interval where you vary effort from 30 seconds at Level 6 HARD (Power Z6, HR Z6, RPE >7) to Level 1 EASY (Power Z1, HR Z1, RPE <2) for the duration of the intervals. Rest for 5 minutes in-between intervals at Level 2 Endurance (Power Z2, HR Z2, RPE 2-3)”

What are the details of the routine within the 8 minute interval?

"MS: Pre-test effort is about opening up the legs and keeping the lactate processing plant sharp. As part of the 30 main set do 3 x 90 seconds “Hard Effort” (80% of MAX), rest for 5 minutes in-between. Focus on tomorrow’s race during effort, breath deep and pedal smooth.”

The “Hard Effort” 80% of max power?  Heart rate?  

Since I’m not finding answers, I’m thinking they must be elsewhere, or they're embedded in one or two workouts but not others.

@mugwump, have you set up YOUR power and HR zones on the site? If not, watch the intro video on the main forum page to find out how to do that. It's at about 11:30 min into the presentation

How fast, what intensity level? - just wake up your legs, it's only the warmup; it's whatever feels good to you.


What are the details of the routine within the 8 minute interval? - Get  up to Z6 and hold that for 30 sec, then gradually take it down to Z1 over what's remaining in the 8 minutes.


The “Hard Effort” 80% of max power?  Heart rate? - If you have power, let that dictate the percentage. My guess is that it's 80% of the max power you would put out in a 90 sec interval. For me that's 80% of 460W, so around 370W.

These zones are specific to the athlete, which means that yours are different than mine. If you've got them set up, you can click on the little lightning bolt or heart on the workout summary window to see what they are.

#uncoachable