Felt_Rider wrote:
I am curious when you mention being time constrained. What is you example of time constrained as in per day or weekly?
For instance I thought I was time constrained with a 9 to 10 hour weekly / 60 to 90 minutes week days for endurance training (cycling only) and longer for weekends. I do a pyramidal Lydiard approach with submaximal sustained efforts and I am 54. I am not trying to suggest changing your path or approach. I am just curious of the time constraint.
I don't think Lydiard is fully cross compatible with cycling vs running in all disciplines. It is also certainly not compatible with people not having double digit hours a week to train but also wanting to be fast. There are very distinctly different failure modes to over training running versus cycling. Running is an impact sport. Cycling is not.
I also do not consider long and ultra distance cycling time trial (Ironman for example) to be a majority of traditional cycling training. It is a very unique subset. The typical road race time trial or time trial series is up to a max of about an hour for a pro.
Tom Dumoulin wouldn't have won the world time trial championships on a diet of training like that. Even though it was a time trial.
There is a risk/reward and law of diminishing returns for us folks short on time that utilize higher intensity training. You walk the bleeding edge of the risk of hurting yourself to get as close to the same gains as you can as the guy spending 2x the time per week.
I avg about 5 to 6 hrs a week on the bike. Right now, if I keep up the power and weight changes, I stand to get to a 4.5w/kg by this time next year.
There's people locally that do two long group rides per week (for example). Usually a weeknight 30 to 35 and a weekend century. Those two total probably 130mi and 11 hours at a B group ride pace.
I recognized them, nice people, and rode with them a while at a big fundraiser ride. They stayed together for about 25mi at the main group's A-pace. But then started falling apart because they couldn't hold an A-pace on the rollers and hills. I joined the break-group and we finished probably 15min ahead of them on a 50mi route.
Point being, you have to have some high intensity work as part of your diet at some point and time.
A quote from a Durian rider video about a much maligned doper:
"If you are not trying to snap the bottom bracket out of your bike when you are pushing then you are just too much of a #$%%^.""
You know, deep down, if you are a road racer........that quote has some truth to it.