There are always decisions in life.  Each decision sets a direction and determines what you focus your time and attention towards.  There is a scene from “The Matrix” where Morpheus shows Neo two pills. “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill–the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill–you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” I love this video clip because it about this decision….do you want to know or not know, and it is up to you decide. 

I like to provide my view of the training and criterium racing , and my view of the world is always changing and improving as I continue to ” take” Red or Blue pills.   My recent Red pill has been to focus on base building.  Last year, I was very focused building anaerobic power from March to August.  I had a lot of success building sprint and anaerobic power, but I was still felt like I was struggling in my races and was having mediocre results. 

Starting in August last year, I took a different pill… I was focused on 20 to 30 min power building or FTP or maximum lactic acid level.  Again, I had success following this training protocol but I found that I was only able to handle this training level for a period of time.  I was able to raise my 20 min max from an early July high of 290 to an early September high of 342, but I was not able to push in much higher.  The weather played a big factor on not making further progress but I also was getting burned out by continuing to train at these levels.

Now, I am finding that I can training my base by focusing my training at my maximum aerobic level versus training at my maximum lactic acid  level.  When I train for 2-3 hours holding my effort slightly below my maximum aerobic level (Max HR of 152 and power level of 300 watts), I can do this day after day and during the day my legs feel great.  When I training at my maximum lactic acid level (168 HR and power level of 330 watts), I can feel this in my legs during the day and the next day I struggle to do back to back.  I also find that when I train at this level that I am very hungry for carbs.  When I train at my max aerobic level, I find that I can control my diet better.  Now comes the Red or Blue pill aspect, I plan to continue my maximum aerobic training until the first week of May.  It is scary for me to stick to this level because it feels like a sign of faith that training my aerobic base will lead to improvements.  I am finding that I am able to hold higher power levels and maintain a lower heart rate, but will this lead to me being able to race better? 

Starting in May, I will start adding some FTP and anaerobic  intervals. Based upon my response rate to FTP and anaerobic intervals last year, I was able to see very quick results by following 3 days on/2 days off blocks.  These blocks were painful but I topped off my power after one block.  The continued blocks that I did for the rest of summer did provide incremental improvement but I lost my aerobic base.  The physical changes that happen to the muscles and enzymes happen rather quickly, but the physical changes that happen when you build your aerobic base take longer.  I am hoping that my “Red” pill decision this year will change my ability to races this year.    

Ride Hard,

Steve

Base training is a funny thing.  You want to go hard but you know that you should go long and easy to build your base aerobic fitness.  But how do you know if are going hard enough to make a difference on your base or if you are going too easy and just wasting your time with junk miles?  Or maybe you are going too hard and not working on your base at all?  Dr. Philip Maffetone wrote an article many years ago about base training but is was mainly focused on runners, and it was around the time time that heart rate monitors had just come out well before power meters.  It was called you “Want Speed?  Slow Down!“.  I love this article because it is so clear about how to build your base.  Key factor:   No anaerobic training and do lots of time just below your aerobic max heart rate, then as you get better raise the power but continue to use the same heart rate.  But how do you find your aerobic max heart rate?  Maffetone gives a formula based upon his research.  If I use his formula my aerobic max heart rate would be 180-40+5 = 145 bpm.  However, I know that my aerobic max heart rate is at 152 bpm because of the metabolic/VO2 max testing I have done.  So for me when I am targeting my aerobic base, I keep my heart rate between 140-150 bpm.  On the trainer, I adjust my computrainer output to maintain this level during my longer intervals. 

The other article that I like on this subject is “The ‘slow component’ of VO2 – understand it to go faster!“ from Andrew M Jones on the Peak Performance website.  On Saturday, I was doing a 20 minute interval that shows a great example of the slow component of VO2 as shown in figure 2 from the article from Andrew.  My plan was to do 300 watts for 20 minutes.  As you can see below in chart, I held the 300 watts for the 20 minutes but my heart rate continued to rise through the whole interval.  The dotted red line is at 150 bpm or my aerobic max heart rate, and you can see how as I hold the power level my heart rate continues to rise to 162 at the end of the interval.  This looks a lot like the “heavy” situation in figure 2.  When I am doing a FTP interval I try to get my heart rate up to about 168-170 so this was not hard but the VO2 slow component was building as my interval progressed.

Now for an example of training at the moderate level as shown in figure 2 and training at my aerobic max heart rate zones.  Today, my goal was to ride a 3 x 60 min intervals but adjust my power to hold between 140 and 150 bpm.  Below is my first interval with my heart rate zones indicated with the red dotted lines and the yellow dotted line indicates 270 watts.  For the first interval, I was able to hold around 270 watts while maintaining my heart rate below the 150.  There was some upword drift because I was doing these on the trainer.  The fans can only cool me so much on high.  This interval compared to the one above shows how staying below aerobic max is a key factor to avoid the Vo2 slow component.  I am sure that my heart rate would have continued to raise when I was holding 300 watts yesterday but at 270 watts, I can ride all day in this heart rate zone.  Since today was longer day, I completed 2 more similiar intervals while keeping my heart rate in the same zone.

By staying below your max aerobic heart rate you will be build your base if you put in the time and work exclusively on this system for 3-4 months.  You will know it is working when you have to increase the power to stay within your heart rate zones.  I am finding it easy and easy to raise the power level on my 3×30 intervals while staying with in my 140-150 zones. 

Base training is training just below hard and burns much more fat and less carbs, which is what you want to have happen.  Burning more fat is great, but it also does not make me so hungry like the way that LT interval blocks do.  This helps me so that I can focus on dropping a few pounds. 

LT work is hard work and should be done after your base training starts to platau after about 3-4 months.  This is the time then to do LT/FTP intervals.

Ride Hard,

Steve

On Feb 4, I completed my second Metabolic and VO2 max test with Angie Sturtevant from Specialists in Sports Performance in Madison WI (www.VO2test.com).   Click here for more on the testing by Angie. I would highly recommend Angie if you are interested in this type of performance testing.

My first test by itself was interesting but not helpful.  My second test was very insightful and helpful because now I can see how my training and nutrition has affected my body.  I decided to have my first metabolic testing done after reading a book by Bob Seebohar, Metabolic Efficiency Training.  More info from Bob can be found at  http://www.fuel4mance.com. 

My training before the first test consisted of mostly anaerobic and sprint training for the preceding 4 -5 months.  My nutrition involved using GU gels and GU Brew for every ride and eating lots of carbs.  One of the concepts that Bob talks about was the crossover point where you are burning 50% fat and 50% carbs.  When I looked at the graph from my first test, I could not really see any crossover point.  The problem was that my CHO and FAT burn was jumping all over the place.  My training and nutrition was training my body to burn carbs which I believe to one of my performance issues.  The graph below is from the first test on 7/7/10.

After Nationals in August, I decided that need to adjust my training because I was fading at the end of my races.  I had a lot of anaerobic power but I just was burning through carbs so fast that I was always fading at the end of my races.  This is not surprising because I had trained my body that way.  Starting in August, I have been doing a lot of 20-30 min intervals in the “sweat spot” and at my FTP.  The last 3 months, my weekly hours and training stress has fallen, which of course means that my CTL has fallen slowly over the winter from 88.6 on August 1 to 56.7 today. I just can’t ride the trainer more than 2 hours (and can’t x-ski because it hurts my knees).  December and January have all been trainer rides with around 10 hours during training week and zero hours during travel weeks.  My 20 intervals have been falling slightly but I have been doing mostly 30 min intervals for the last few months.

Nutrition wise, I have modified my approach.  I have also been doing the majority of my rides from 5-7 am.  Before the ride, I have been having a cup of coffee and some amino acids.  After the ride, I have been having a large berry smoothie with some Living Fuel Greens and Protein mix.  For lunch, some meat and large spinich salad.  For dinner meat and veggies.

I tell you all of this because it has dramatically affect my metabolic and VO2 max results.  If you look at the chart below you will notice how smooth the CHO (carbs) and FAT lines are compared to my previous test.  The key for me is how far to the right the FAT line stays up, and how low the CHO line starts and slowly rises.  What does this mean:  It means that during my races I will be burning fat at higher power levels and I will be saving my Carbs for the end of races. 

Also, I have improved my VO2 max by 20%.  I went from a 55.7 (okay for a 40 year old) to a pretty good 66.8 mL/Kg/min.  After my first test, I set a goal of hitting my VO2 Max at 65 mL/Kg/min.  This goal was based upon me dropping my weight to 170 and a slight improvement of my VO2 mL/min.  I am still planning to drop my weight to 175 pounds over the next 3 months so that I can push up my Kg/watts.   I have not been very good over the winter at restricting calories so I have maintained my normal winter weight of about 190.  The key factor for me is that my VO2 mL/min was the only factor contributed to my improvement. 

What does this mean to me and what will I do with this?

First, I am very happy to see the improvement that has happened over the fall and winter.   I was making good progress pushing my FTP up when I was riding outside and was able to get some high training stress rides.  Inside during this winter, I have been doing a lot of long sweet spot rides.  Recently, I have added my “MAX” Tuesday workout, which is a Computrainer stallouts and new addition of pain, ride as long as I can at 420 watts.  I was trying to do this workout a few days week but found that it was fatiguing me so that I could not even do my sweet spot intervals.  Wednesday to Sunday are either endurance or sweet spot rides, and Monday are always off.  I will continue this schedule through February, and I hope to start getting some outside weekend rides starting in March, if the snow will every melt!!!!!

Second, I plan to get re-tested in about 3 months to see where I can push these numbers with my training.  With a drop in weight, I should be able to hit 72.5 mL/Kg/min (66.8*190/175=72.5) and with a 10% improvement of my VO2 mL/min (5756*1.1 = 6331), I am targeting to hit 80 mL/Kg/min (66.8*6332/5756*190/175=79.8).  This will be an intense three months of training as I work to continue to push my aerobic system.  I am also taking this time to push it hard because I won’t be traveling too often during first half of the year because of budget cuts!  Starting in May, I will work to peak for State Crit and TOAD. 

Ride Hard,

Steve

Right now, I am experimenting with stallouts after my 2×30 min LT efforts.  I recently read about these in the book by Bill Edwards, Progressive Power Training.  I am doing two variations of the stallouts based upon my modification of his idea.  The first stallout is aimed at the anaerobic energy system.   I set a computrainer .erg program for 1 min at a powerlevel that I know at 45 sec it will start to get hard and by the end it will completely shut me down.   The goal of these intervals is to completely stop you from pedaling so that you have fully drained the energy system.  I do these seated and am currently using 500 watts, but based on the powertap file I am well over 500.  As I am able to reach closer to one minute, I will start increasing the wattage.   Also, it important to maintain a race cadence during the interval so that the muscles are working race speed when the hammer drops.  I target 100-110 rpms on these. 

Below is a screen shoot of a recent one minute stallout.  The first 30-40 seconds don’t feel so bad because  all of the muscles are being recruited and all of the energy systems are relatively full.  Then, it kicks in quickly at 35-45 seconds.   I am suffering by 50 seconds…shutting down.  I am just not able to generate any power or keep the cadence up.  I was frustrated on this one because I did not go as long  as I wanted to, and I tried to kick in one more time but could not.  I do these in the drops because the goal of these are to recruit muscles as you would use them in the race.  It is important to train as you race so that your body is able to recruit every muscle to drive power, i.e.  so that you are building neuromuscular systems in your legs.  

Next I do a similar stallout but only for 12 seconds.  For this interval, I set computrainer .erg file to ramp up from 500 to 2000 in 12 seconds.  Again, I do this in the drops and get my rpms to about 120 just before the power ramps up.  Then I try to hold my rpms and form as the watts start hitting me.  These will shut you down very quickly, so much so that you will only get about 6-10 pedal strokes.

January and February are tough trainer months in Wisconsin because there is no chance for riding outside…too much snow and cold.  My training blocks for the next 2 months will be the workout below on Tues, Thur and Sat.  Monday is off, Wed and Friday are 60 min easy, and Sunday is 2-3 hours aerobic.  

• 10 min warmup
• 2×30 at 280-300 with 10 min rest
• 3x1min stallouts with 5 min rest
• 3x10sec stallouts with 5 min rest
• Cool Down until hit 2 hours

The stallouts are really only able to be done on an ergometer because you need to be able to set a power level that will not stop until you stop pedaling.   If you want my erg file, send me an email and I will send it to you.  If you are using rollers or standard type trainer, I don’t think it will be possbile to do stallouts.

Ride Hard,

Steve

Watch this clip and think about how approach your interval training, are you attempting to escape from the pain or are you fully aware of how your body is reacting to the intervals?   This is one of my favorite clips of all time.

Sometimes, I start to feel like the lactic acid hurts too much….This is an interval, and it will hurt more than you have every hurt, stay with the pain!  Don’t shut this out, without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing, your legs are searing and burning, this is your pain, these are your burning legs, they are right here right now.  Don’t deal with it the way those dead people do, this is the great moment in your life, don’t seek to escape the pain, don’t fail, don’t give up, know, not fear that someday you are going to die, you don’t know how this feels,  it is only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything.  Congratulations, you are one step closer to hitting bottom.

When you are doing your intervals, are you with your pain or are you trying to distract yourself from it either by escaping it in your mind or with music, etc….?   The intervals that require my most intense concentration and conviction are the 20-30 min intervals at 100-105% FTP.  Sometimes it is just too easy to back off a little or stop pedaling for just a few seconds.  Be with the pain, feel it. love it!

FYI vinegar does not help with lactic acid!

Ride Hard,

Steve

As an example of how to plan, I thought I would post my planning sheet for my 2011 season. 

I started with my racing and training goals for 2011, then added my known obligations for work and vacations.  I have a relatively challenging travel schedule which includes 10-12 international trips per year, so it is important that I work around these dates.  Next, I looked that potential races that might or like to do and put them into the schedule along with my key fitness testing dates.  Next, I added my training blocks which for me are build around my travel schedule.  I typically have 3-4 weeks of training followed by a week of travel.  Most of my travel ends up being completely off because of my schedule overseas.  Then I added my daily hours each week.  In Wisconsin, my rides are inside on the trainer so they are not long until then snow melts.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqM3csS0ZAj7dG9nLWFteklWclZpQnhFal9oSF83UkE&hl=en#gid=0

Ride Hard,

Steve

Now is a great time to set your training and racing plan for the 2011!  When I am setting a training and racing plan, I always first consider the following key aspects:

1. What are your major “A” races, i.e.  What are the races that you want to try to win?  What are the races that you will do but will not taper for, i.e. “B’ races?
2. How many hours are you willing to dedicate per week to your training?  What days are you able to train?  Is this realistic based upon your life obligations?
3. When are you scheduled to travel for work or plan to take vacations?
4. Design training blocks around the “A” races and obligations, but most importantly specifically plan in rest weeks and tapers for “A” races.  Sometimes it might make sense to have longer or short training block depending upon schedule. 
5. Set training goals for each training block and plan fitness testing days.

With this input you can layout a training plan for the whole season which allows you plan for your success.   If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!

Ride Hard,

Steve

I wanted to share some thoughts I have had while working on raising my FTP.  I have been doing a lot of longer intervals (20-30 min) which has been mentally interesting for me.  I started my effort to raise my FTP after masters nationals in beginning of August because I have been struggling at the end of my races.   Since then, my rides both inside and outside have been focused on longer intervals just under my FTP or my at my max aerobic level of 280-300. 

Outside I have a few routes that I ride that range from 20 to 30 minutes of uninterrupted flat roads that end with a 3-10 minute climb.  I like to finish up these intervals on a hill so that there is no slacking at the end.  I always use my powertap interval function with my power out set for average power.  This allows me to ensure my power numbers are good for the interval but not worrying about the up and down you see when you see current power.  

Depending on my time, I will do 3-4 of these intervals for 2-4 hours of riding on the weekends.  During the week, I am riding the trainer, and I am currently doing 4×20 with 5 min rest for about 2 hour workout on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  I find that Tuesday is the hardest day, Wednesday and Thursday are actually easier to hold higher power numbers with a lower heart rate.  I am also working on keeping my cadence about 95 during these intervals.  I do these on my computrainer unconnected to the computer so that I can set the watts on the head.

Here is what I wanted to share, first these are much easier to do outside.  I can hold better power number on the road with the same heart rate, which I am assuming is due to me slightly overheating in the basement.  The two fans on high only can cool me off so much.  These intervals were a mental struggle for me in the beginning.  All summer, I have been focused on raising my top end so I was doing much short and more intense intervals.  These long intervals are not very intense, but require much more metal focus.  It is easy to fall into the thinking mode or be distracted by something, and then your power drops.  I found the first interval was easy but the middle two were always hard, and sometimes the last one was easy because it was the last one or hard because I was spent.  The rest never seems like it is long enough.  It was easy to find a reason to let off the pressure or stop pedaling, but the drive to keep the interval numbers on target always brought me back.  Physically, these were not hard but mentally it was hard to keep the concentration up to keep the cadence high.  One morning , I did not eat or have any energy drink and I paid on the last 2 intervals.  I was not able to hold the power at all. 

Now, the intervals have become mentally  “easier” to handle.  Mentally, I know how they feel and how to push through them.  I have eliminated the distractions and excuses to stop pedaling during the interval.  I also now know that I can make it each workout and can handle the weekly routine that I have set up for myself. 

Ride Hard,

Steve

Here are what I call the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Criterium Racers (thanks Steven Covey):

1. Detailed Goals

• You should have 3 Racing goals and 3 training goals, and no more than 3. 
• Your goals need to be SMART
  • Specific Measurable Attainable, Realistic, Time bound
• Your coach can help you set SMART goals.

2. Quality Training

• Season plan, month plan, week plan, workout plan
• You need a coach to give you advice and help mentor you.  You need someone you can bounce ideas off and someone that will help guide your forward.
• Your coach should work with you to set up a training plan.

3. Quality Nutrition

• Eating the quality foods at the right time for your body.

4. Quality Rest and Sleep

• You don’t get better by training, but you do get better if you rest after training and recover after a training block.

5. Mentally Prepared

• You have to be mentally prepared to execute your plan and deal with the changes that happen during the race.
• You have to be prepared to suffer and suffer and suffer
• Your coach can help you get ready mentally for the race

6. Monitoring and Feedback (from a coach)

• WKO+, trainingpeaks.com, restwise.com
• You need to see where you have been in order to see how to go forward.
• You need to analyze your racing results to see what is working and not working
• Your coach can help you interpret the data.

7. Race Preparation and Luck

• Racing is about being prepared
  • Ensuring you arrive on time, with all of yours stuff
  • Extra wheels, food, water, drinks, cloths, shoes, helmet, etc…
  • Eliminate all of the variables outside of your control
• The actual race can depend a lot upon luck.
  • Did you avoid the crash, were you at the front when the winning break went off, did you get a flat, etc…..

Ride Hard

Steve

I thought I would take a look around the web to see what people say about their Functional Threshold Improvements.  Here is a sampling of  what I found.

• http://www.computrainer.com/rm_inc/Stories/williammangar.htm
• http://theroadtocat2.com/2010/05/13/threshold-power-estimation-test/
• http://www.findingfreestyle.com/passive-technique-blog/breakingthroughhowanathletetookhis40kttfrom5531to5139in1-year
• http://www.bikesandbeansnb.com/?q=node/19
• http://lowcadence.com/tag/functional-threshold-power/
• http://www.bikebeerbbq.com/my-latest-ftp-test-results/

If you know of any others  that are interesting please let me know.

Ride Hard,

Steve