Tom_hampton wrote:
Like DD said, do THIS:
mrlobber wrote:
...add some more intensity at the very beginning, and this leaves dramatic impact on my ability to create Z3 efforts a couple of hours later.
I do all kinds of variations on this theme as the basis of my "long ride". So, a 2 1/2 hour ride might look like this:
30-45 min WU
<<30-60 minutes of intensity>>
90 minutes z2
The intensity comes in all forms. Could be 5x5' @ vo2, or 15x30" @ 150% FTP this could even be doubled up with 15' easy in the middle, or 60 min @ sweet spot, etc.
I always see significant gains once I start rolling the intensity into the long-ride.
Certainly appreciate the advice, but been there and done that already ;) - in 8 years of self coaching I've tried both slowtwitch and non-slowtwitch approaches :), mixed intensities, different length "base periods", sweetspot, legendary 2x20's, HIIT etc. And, as I said, after the first 2 years where I started from zero endurance background, while I've seen significant gains later, they have been very shortlived - a couple of months, and I'm back where I was before, never with a "permanent" FTP boost, hovering at or below 4 W/kg all the time. So short term FTP boost from intensity - yes. Long term (where you could transfer FTP gains from previous season to the next) - no. At least not in my case.
Anyway, the devil most likely is in the details here. Finally, I took a coach mid last season and we'll see the result of a totally different winter this year.
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Need more W/CdA.