Just wondering if this is still considered a ‘grey’ zone of training and of little value ? On a personal level I did one workout a week tempo in the lead up to a 70.3, because I figured it follows the rule of specificity. The other ‘hard ride’ I did was threshold. I ended up having a good bike leg in the race.
For the moment I’m keeping tempo once a week ( again threshold the other amongst long and easy rides), prior to sprint tris and switching up to sweetspot and v02 max 4 weeks out from races.
Why does tempo get a bad rap? Wouldn’t it be perfect for long course atleast ?
My sprint tri season starts in 7 weeks. Am I better off ditching tempo now and switching to v02 type of stuff now ? The other workout would prob go to sweetspot since threshold plus v02 would be too much. Any advice would be appreciated here.
Cheers
good question. Havent done V02 for a while but kept having crap long course races when continuing with a diet of threshold/ sweet spot stuff, despite long easy z2 rides. Short course was ok. Working in tempo really helped the endurance aspect, teaching me to hold pace at given power and HR. However im unsure of its use in short course. Im convinced, for me atleast, long course it helped.
I did an ftp test recently and increased from 253 to 260 watts with threshold and tempo as key workouts.
My history suggests i adapt to v02 workouts quite quickly and dont mind the 3min@ 120% type of workout.
Sorry i couldnt give a clearer answer. I have done a good block of tempo recently, however im wary of its use in races that are 20km bike legs.
You’re onto something with specificity. Now that it’s sprint tri season for you, I’m not sure of the value, but tempo riding has been absolutely massive for me as a long-course athlete. I think more and more people are coming around to the idea that, in many situations, it’s not a “grey zone” – my coach, for one, assigns a lot of it.
My take is it really depends on your ability to recover. Unless I’m deep in the hole, tempo (or even lighter sweet spot) rides up to ~2 hours don’t tax me. I can treat them like a recovery day, completing them while still feeling fresher the next day. And as a race gets closer, I feel that getting a race-paced effort in without negative consequences is more valuable than an easy z1/z2 spin. If I didn’t recover so quickly or had other stressors at play, then perhaps I’d shy away from them.
Also, if I were training for a sprint, I might feel differently – I’d be smashing more VO2 and threshold rides, and tempo wouldn’t have the specificity benefit, so I’d consider taking my “easy” days (which in my long-course training can be at tempo) easier in order to recover from these higher efforts.
Are you VO2 limited? That is - your ftp is already a high proportion of your current VO2.
How do you work this out exactly? It’s something ive wondered for a while when people ask ‘is it your vo2 that is limiting you?’, and usually it probably isnt.
Short of going to a lab, there are various test protocols for estimating power at VO2max and power at threshold. The question being posed is, “how close are those two power numbers?”
…kept having crap long course races…despite long easy z2 rides. Working in tempo really helped the endurance aspect… Im convinced, for me atleast, long course it helped.
You have found a way to improve performance for yourself. Everyone is a bit different but keep in mind the tempo workouts you’ve done for your next long course race.
You also mention specificity. If you only have a sprint race coming up then you can focus on those demands. Something like 6x5 or 3x10 best effort or ~ftp.
Are you VO2 limited? That is - your ftp is already a high proportion of your current VO2.
How do you work this out exactly? It’s something ive wondered for a while when people ask ‘is it your vo2 that is limiting you?’, and usually it probably isnt.
+1. I’m also curious your method of measuring if an athlete is VO2 limited?
My sprint tri season starts in 7 weeks. Am I better off ditching tempo now and switching to v02 type of stuff now ? The other workout would prob go to sweetspot since threshold plus v02 would be too much. Any advice would be appreciated here.
Cheers
Keep in mind that a sprint triathlon is still a threshold effort. If you’re going for race-specificity, don’t eliminate the threshold work.
The danger with tempo is doing every single ride as tempo. Using it as part of a bigger plan can still be really powerful, especially for long course endurance.
I personally have found 10min interval sub threshold work (~90-95%) to be a little better if you can work up to 90 mins of it. Doing that twice a week really helps build muscular endurance, bump up the threshold, and really help overall bike fitness without gutting you like full threshold intervals.
Pure tempo workouts can be great for race specific work as it generally falls right at the range of 70.3 and IM race pace. Generally when I do tempo I target race pace, which helps build the brain and body for the effort. You just can’t do this every workout like I mentioned before or it’ll start to drain you and I still do these in 20-30min intervals to give some resets vs a solid straight effort.
Have you done VO2 stuff before? Recently? It seems to have a dropoff, aka use it or lose it, that’s why people tend to recommend it before events. However it can dramatically increase your ftp quickly if you haven’t worked it much and it’s restricting your threshold (aka what the others mentioned). Personally a couple training blocks of vo2 and subthreshold could be really powerful at the beginning of the season, before switching to full threshold and other types of work. I like it because you are pulling and pushing the threshold at the same time, as well as building a really strong aerobic engine which will only be beneficial later on.
Are you VO2 limited? That is - your ftp is already a high proportion of your current VO2.
How do you work this out exactly? It’s something ive wondered for a while when people ask ‘is it your vo2 that is limiting you?’, and usually it probably isnt.
+1. I’m also curious your method of measuring if an athlete is VO2 limited?
When your HR is through the roof and your lactate is well below LT2
How do you work this out exactly? It’s something ive wondered for a while when people ask ‘is it your vo2 that is limiting you?’, and usually it probably isnt.
There are a few ways
If you have robust data, WKO tells you (FRC and Vo2 ratio)
Do a short duration test and a long one and look at the ratio
Examine your race data - if you got dropped after 3min at close to your max for that duration and IF hadn’t been high leading in to that point then lifting Vo2 duration power might help
Consider your event target, if it’s a triathlon longer than supersprint/MTR then VO2 low on the list of potential limiters
Per point 4 - the only triathlete I’ve given VO2 sets to was racing ITU and our focus was MTR, but before the VO2 sets we got FTP up to ~5w/kg (for a female) because that is still what matters most.
All my AG athletes have been long course, if I had someone doing sprints I’d likely sprinkle in some VO2
not that i think im limited by my Vo2 personally, but ive always been curious how to spot that limiter!