Week of January 18th 2016

So we did a power test? Now what?

Well we did this test at the end of Love Season because we should be quite strong and ready to fine tune our engines. We should have a good base line of fitness now and with a good bit of structure we should be able to get quite fit and ready.

The power test, if we had power, or heart rate, will enable us now to train smarter and more accurately. Having these numbers is not critical at all, however they are helpful. So now we need to understand how they are helpful.

The numbers we have now are going to act as our base line, and we are going to train off of them. What we are going to try and do is increase our base line with structured work.

To do this we are going to spend two weeks working on our VO2 max. We are going to be doing very hard shorter intervals with the hope that we can gain a bump to our base line. Then the third week of this block we are going to focus on our LT. We do the VO2 max first in the hope that we get a bump of fitness so that when we do the LT intervals they are even more valuable, or we are doing them at an even great power level.

This training block will get us to the first race, then we will take a week easy, then build into our first goal of the year, the 24 Hour race.

If you had a power meter I want to know what your 20 min average power was on the test. Then we will take that number and multiply it by .95. This will be your Functional Threshold power (FTP). This is the number we are going to try and increase. This is the important number.

So if you had power I want to know:

What your FTP is

FTP x 1.06- 1.2  VO2 max training level

FTP x .91- 1.05 LT training level

FTP x .76- .9  Tempo

FTP x .56- .75 Endurance

Please have these numbers ready.

If you had heart rate:

We will first start with your max heart rate. This will be upper level of your VO2 max training level.

VO2 max– 100%- 88% of max

LT– 76–88%

Tempo– 64– 76%

Endurance– 52– 64%

If you had a watch:

On a scale of 1- 10 and 10 being the hardest–

8.5- 10 VO2 max

7- 8.5 LT

6-7 Tempo

5- 6 Endurance

A watch works great as long as you the athlete tell yourself the truth about how hard you are working.

The only thing the power meter does is ensure you are not lying to yourself. One does not need the power meter as long as you can tell yourself the truth.

Training Plan:

Tuesday: 5 x 3 min VO2 max

Wednesday: 5 x 3 VO2 max MTB or Road bikes. Please let me know what you like.

Thursday: Crit Skills

Saturday: Morning rides

Sunday: Mountain biking