In the process of getting back into regular changing following house move and birth of my boy.
Season will consist of sprints mainly. Run training in hand, swim, well, it is what it is.
Bike, well, I train with power, have trainer road subscription and have been looking at the ready made plans. Given a 40k TT and a sprint Tri are raced (for me at least) a similar power (95%-100% FTP), then is the 40k TT plan a suitable plan for someone targeting sprint Tri from a bike training perspective - any thoughts appreciated.
In the process of getting back into regular changing following house move and birth of my boy.
Season will consist of sprints mainly. Run training in hand, swim, well, it is what it is.
Bike, well, I train with power, have trainer road subscription and have been looking at the ready made plans. Given a 40k TT and a sprint Tri are raced (for me at least) a similar power (95%-100% FTP), then is the 40k TT plan a suitable plan for someone targeting sprint Tri from a bike training perspective - any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks,
I think you meant “training” and not “changing” - but you’ll be doing plenty of that too!
Any plan geared to raise your FTP will suit you just fine. I’m in a similar position as you (life changes) and elected to do their time crunched plan with a long ride on the weekend. The time crunch plan are pretty intense intervals (bordering around vo2 max type stuff).
No idea how it will work, but I’ve heard it produces good results to your 40k time and raising your FTP (which, in turn, will raise my overall bike fitness for longer stuff). We’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty much grasping at straws to get as much family time as I can and keeping triathlon stuff invisible to the wife.
Ask the question to Nate on the Trainerroad thread - he can talk with Coach Chad (I think he made the plans) and give you advice how it would work based upon your goals and experience. It’s pretty great.
I used the 40K TT plan in the second half of last year targeting two sprint races, and I found it worked really well getting me stronger and ready for the races. I plan on using it at least twice this year.
In the process of getting back into regular changing following house move and birth of my boy.
Season will consist of sprints mainly. Run training in hand, swim, well, it is what it is.
Bike, well, I train with power, have trainer road subscription and have been looking at the ready made plans. Given a 40k TT and a sprint Tri are raced (for me at least) a similar power (95%-100% FTP), then is the 40k TT plan a suitable plan for someone targeting sprint Tri from a bike training perspective - any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks,
Yes, we recommend using the 40k TT plan for sprint tris too. If we were to write a sprint bike plan it would be pretty much the same thing. You’ll probably race your sprint tri close to the wattage you would for a 40k TT, so it fits really well.
Quick hijacking, would that plan be recommended for an olympic tri mainly and a bunch of local short TT (less than 40k) I guess yes but is there any better idea?
Just trying to understand the plan a bit more, if you would humour me? I’m trying to understand the purpose of the work that is above FTP (or 105% of FTP given the recognised training zones) ? Given we are essentially looking at a maximising 1 hour power, I would have expected this session (Typically the second one each week) to be a sweetspot session at the start of the plan, progressing into an additional threshold session? Not saying I know better, because I don’t, but just trying to learn a little!
I used the 40K TT plan in the second half of last year targeting two sprint races, and I found it worked really well getting me stronger and ready for the races. I plan on using it at least twice this year.
Good to know. Can I ask how you timed it? Sprint Tri at end of week 12 given thats a ‘recovery week’?
Just trying to understand the plan a bit more, if you would humour me? I’m trying to understand the purpose of the work that is above FTP (or 105% of FTP given the recognised training zones) ? Given we are essentially looking at a maximising 1 hour power, I would have expected this session (Typically the second one each week) to be a sweetspot session at the start of the plan, progressing into an additional threshold session? Not saying I know better, because I don’t, but just trying to learn a little!
Thanks in advance,
Yah, no problem. 105% is really good at raising your FTP. 105% at 6 minutes is much more intense than 100% at 6 mins. Remember, that 100% is something you should be able to hold for an entire hour.
So doing lots of intervals at 105% gives you lots of time above threshold. More than if you tried to do it straight. The result is an increase in FTP :).
Last 4 weeks of the plan start to taper you for your race, with the last week being an easy week with the conclusion of the plan a 60 min FTP workout or a race. I raced at the Saturday of week 8 (completed Friday workout, raced Saturday Morning, completed another Sweet Spot ride Sunday afternoon). I felt really good on the bike for that race. I ended up spraining my ankle the following Monday, so that last 4 weeks of the plan, I basically rode 7 days a week with mostly being 2x20 Tempo/Sweet Spot rides. Coming to the last race, since I still couldn’t run, I just did last 60 minute FTP workout for the plan instead. Before doing the 12 week plan, I tested with a 20 min test and came out with an FTP of 250w. At the end of week 4, I bumped my FTP to 257w to keep the workout intensity up. At the end of week 8, I bumped it up again to 265w. For the 60 min FTP workout, I averaged 281w for the 60 mins. So yes, I saw a bit of improvement mostly following this plan.