Interval Progression: Add More Watts or More Time?
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Interval progression: when do we add more watts, and when do we add more time?
Let’s talk about 4 scenarios: FTP, vo2max, over unders and tempo.
My former coach, Tom Bell, just spoke about this on That Triathlon Show. He talked about his strategy (which was used when I worked with him last season as an athlete)
25:50
* If only some workouts are optimal for the athlete, I think repeating the same workout design for a period is helpful.
* You might add an arbitrary amount of repeats to a single interval, but no one knows if that is the right thing to do. if you did 4 x 10, who knows if you could have done 4 x 12….
* We ask athletes to repeat the same protocol, with the difference of going long on the last interval (let the athlete find the right level of progression).
We trained vo2max from a physiological aspect, not just adding watts.
Progressive overload with steady state intervals is fairly obvious and what we were doing a lot of in 2009-2010
For the following examples, let's assume athlete has an FTP of 300W
FTP intervals:
4 x 10m @ 300-315W, rest 5m between.
Do we add more time? max around 1hour. Other coaches will add more, I just don’t find the fatigue to create any more success for athletes.
american athlete, listen to grant koontz 8-12m power is a big decider in road races.
When do we ride at 330W? Higher level athlete, or one-off effort when feeling good. If you can knock out one, can you do two? Then what is the third?
where does the athlete get dropped?
is it at the end of the race on a 10m climb….then more important to get those repeats in.
is it a random just lack of power, I want more watts! 4 x 8m over and over with higher watts until we hit 110%….
When do we PR?
VO2max intervals:
5 x 5m @ 360W?
How do we look at repeatability?
When do we do longer but lower watts? (Variety and slow component…race specific, very supra threshold!)
When do we PR?
When do we focus on shorter and harder? (before races, super hard starts are nice)
Over Unders:
3 x 12m with 30s @ 120% and 2m @ 75-85%
Most hit a homerun with this
Just elongating to 45s makes it much harder.
Or: 4m @ 110%, then 1m @ 106% and 1.5m @ 70-80%
let’s talk over unders: if it’s 3 x 12m, If they absolutely crushed them, I’m NOT going to 15m, i’m going to a little longer over….i might start them with a 3m min over, and then the work.do they have a big anaerobic capacity? we might really need to make the overs harder
ATHLETE SPECIFIC….what is their event?
TEMPO
maybe 80m-100m over a 3-4h ride, 15-20m chunks, actually quite tough.
Great muscular component
quite fun
ride really goes along quickly
Email me with questions or comment below! Brendan@EVOQBIKE
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Пікірлер: 57
These are some of the best training discussion I've ever heard. They are so well framed and well informed, i really appreciate the humanizing of them, I recommend them to all my cycling friends.
@EVOQBIKE
5 ай бұрын
so glad they are resonating with you, and thanks A TON for sharing them!! Much appreciated JK!
Alot of beneficial information. THANK U SO MUCH.
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
You are most welcome! thank you!
as always, great information, well delivered with a practical angle on it.
@EVOQBIKE
11 ай бұрын
Glad you liked it! thanks Bill!
Thanks for sharing some great thoughts about training. Always good to hear a perspective from someone with a lot of experience. 👍. Congratulations on 3k subs!
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
thanks James! good luck with your training!
Very valuable information. Thank you!
@EVOQBIKE
4 ай бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
Congrats on the 3k!
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
Thank you!!
Fabulous video packed with great advice!
@EVOQBIKE
2 ай бұрын
Glad it was helpful Ed!
Well Presented! As a (former) USA Cycling coach & Trainer - I'm getting back to competitive riding after a decade or so break (I'll be 65 in the spring) - I've been recreationally riding and want better at hills. ( I was always a crit guy). - You have giving me some food for thought as I craft my training plan for the 2023 season.
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
awesome! good luck next season!
fresh and just back on the saddle since last year, bought a tacx smart trainer recently and wondering how to use it effectively and your explanation helped clear some questions i have in mind! thanks!
Exciting yet scary to hear you're not an experienced trained cyclist after 3 years. I've just started (5 months) into actually training with power and an indoor trainer. I plan to ride for the rest of my life, for fun and to improve my fitness, and it's great to hear I can improve for years to come of I continue to put the work in. I don't have any crazy power goals or anything. My current FTP is only 211 (no laughing!!) and I'd be incredibly happy if I can get to like 275 someday. Anything above that would just be awesome but not really needed for me personally
@vietle8157
Жыл бұрын
My story is exactly like yours. I find that setting a fitness goal, say 5w/kg, helps mentally to complete hard intervals
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
it's not scary, it's awesome! there's so much room to grow!! just go one day at a time!
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
i like this idea!! just keep chipping away, and remind yourself that it's not always linearly up up up...sometimes it's idle for a bit, then a step up!
Thanx... valuable incite
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
Welcome!
Good talk
@EVOQBIKE
3 ай бұрын
thanks Joshua!
First race for me is uphill 14km - 7% avg in May,i will try these tips,working on volume z2 right now, 6week before event i will use these tips structure intervals,and uphills pacing in trashold too.💪 Keep working and infrmning us,realy usefull chanel. Thank you.
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
awesome, good luck Sema!!
@gerrysecure5874
5 ай бұрын
Best stimulus is polarized not LSD only. You can and should add some intensity sessions to your z2 all year long. Maybe one vo2 session per week only, but do it. Later you can do 2 and towards main event do some event specific work to get used to the workload, physically and mentally.
progress is a slippery, devious target. fatigue covers it up and freshness flatters it 🤦♂
When you talk about training at threshold, do you consider threshold a specific number or do you look at it as a bit of a range ?
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
most would call it 98-105%...I try to have people ride at least at 100% depending on the workout
@Phil-dx8rw
Жыл бұрын
@@EVOQBIKE thanks, I really appreciate it because when I am on the road doing threshold work there is always fluctuations and I don't want to stress of those fluctuations
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
don't be a robot, those are natural, and you'll get better and better at minimizing them over time. high tempo is ok and get back into zone as fast as you can; if you're falling to endurance, we've got some work to do on shifting and learning to really USE the bike and the gears over undulating terrain; it can be done tho for sure!
Is 6 hours a week training enough to up your ftp. I've had very little improvement from the start but I know that's mostly down to lack of structure
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
I think you answered your Q right there. More volume would definitely help, even just 8-9h per week, but structure and the right workouts are key. Don't just do Sweet spot and threshold; it stops working after a bit! Over unders, vo2max, etc
@luciouspontorro3741
Жыл бұрын
Hi Ryan. I started in Oct of 2023 with FTP of 149. Did about 4.5 hours of riding a week mainly zone 2 for about 2 months at the start just to get used to riding consistently. I then continued zone 2 rides and a few random interval rides for about a month. I did one 8 week FTP builder course (still only riding between 4-5 hrs weekly) and my FTP went up to 211. So not terrible improvement over 5 months. I'm not bumping up my time on the bike to about 8.5 hours a week.
@laingy2009
Жыл бұрын
@Lucious Pontorro I hover around 240-250 mark and I think my best 20 minute effort is 268 which isn't horrendous for someone weighing 74kg and only training 6hours a week but would love to bring it up to around the 300 mark eventually
And what would you prescribe if you have 2 hours the day after a VO2max training? (Rest aint an option, since that is for the day after)
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
for this Q I would most likely do endurance
@depro13
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, its not optimal but 2 hours is more than nothing
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
@@depro13 im confused, 2h is great for endurance ride
@depro13
Жыл бұрын
Hmm, in your 3rd and 4th hour you will see more gains..
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
@@depro13 surely, but you said you have 2h!
To progress does not mean to progress each training. Let that sink in. A traning is s stimulus. You need only pop up the volume when you don't improve anymore.
@EVOQBIKE
5 ай бұрын
I've actually talked about that in many other videos, but not possible to mention everything about training in every video. this is a question often asked to us. cheers! good luck with your training.
@gerrysecure5874
5 ай бұрын
@@EVOQBIKE I didn't mean to oppose what you said, but to emphasize. Having clarified that I go with Seiler. 90% vo2 max is enough intensity to provide vo2max stimulus, but time at intensity counts. Repeatability is decisive. But then, people respond differently
Do you ever prescribe fatmax intervals?
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
fatmax is not always called the same things amongst people i've realized, so what do you deem fatmax? and then i'll answer! thanks for the Q!
@depro13
Жыл бұрын
The intensity at which in absolute sense most fats are burned. Roughly high Z2/low Z3. Individual values can be measured in the lab of course.
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
@@depro13 exactly! I don't call it fatmax, but lots of endurance and tempo for sure. fatmax is usually coupled with low carb replenishment on the ride, which i do NOT recommend; fuel the ride
did you hurt your finger?
@EVOQBIKE
Жыл бұрын
slammed in a door over a month ago and waiting for the blood to grow through the nail! haha
There are a few concepts with power and heart rate I still do not understand. You can reach an identical HR and power with radically different cadence and gear, but people only ever talk about power and not cadence. For example I can reach an identical 150HR and 300 watts with 50 cadence and high gear, 70 cadence and medium gear, or 90 cadence and low gear. When doing Threshold intervals what cadence do you think would most increase heart size and stroke volume? How do the heart and stroke volume adaptations differ even if power and heart rates are identical?
@EVOQBIKE
11 ай бұрын
was chatting with Landry and he said heart adaptations would be the same at the same power and heart rate, no effect from cadence. -Brendan
@bmp713
11 ай бұрын
@@EVOQBIKE Thank you. When doing Threshold intervals what cadence do you think would most increase heart size, stroke volume, and venous return? At the same power Is it better to do longer intervals with higher cadence or shorter intervals with lower cadence? I am training for health and not for racing, so I am most interested in improving heart and cardiovascular health.
@EVOQBIKE
11 ай бұрын
pedal at your natural cadence from what we've gathered; wont make a difference from cadence stand point