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Chuckie V: Ride Hard Lots
By Chuckie Veylupeck
11/23/2009 |
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Another of the many people named "Anonymous" left a comment on my last blog, asking the following. First though, here's another rant! What's with all these parents naming their children 'Anonymous'? That's even worse than 'Chuckie' and I'm still mad at my parents and trying to recover. Anyway, his question went like this...
Hi Chuckie, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on raising one's FTP as high as possible (without drugs of course). I'm a cyclist and am willing to do years of dedicated work to achieve this. I know there are no shortcuts, but other than the 'ride lots' mentality, what type of training would you consider to be most effective? Aerobic threshold, tempo, threshold, VO2, or a mix of all. Or is 'ride lots' the answer in the end? I'm relatively new to the sport (have been racing 3 years and am hoping to upgrade to Cat 2 next season), but come from an extensive swimming background, and would really like to see where I can go.
Dear 'Anonymous',
The easy answer is "ride lots" but with "hard" thrown in there somewhere. "Ride hard lots". But that's hardly helpful. Most coaches would tell you it comes down to specificity. Any type of training needs to be specific to the end goal if that goal is to be met. The problem is that we don't just get better at doing something by only taking the end result into consideration, including a sole focus like raising your FTP. In other words, you could do hard anaerobic FTP-focused interval training as often as possible, but this type of training is not without its faults. And raising your FTP isn't just about training at FTP intensities; a lot of athletes mistakenly assume this (though once established a high FTP does generally equate to a higher range of capacities over varying durations). (Of course, a high FTP does not mean better racing skills or the capacity to move up a category. The racing cyclist's goal shouldn't be solely focused on a number but rather acquiring all the necessary skills to improve and be competitive.)
Anyway, you first have to build to a level of achieving a capacity for more, if that makes sense; as I once told Tim DeBoom (who then made it famous in triathlon circles, though I'm sure it'd been said long before we ever started saying it), "You have to train hard to handle more hard training". In other words, you have to first train to handle more training (which eventually means "ride hard lots") and it takes time and training volume as much as it does short-term specificity.
You could track time spent at your FTP (your current one; not your goal one) and try to increase that time each week but again, there's a fair amount of risk in that. Doing anything all-out for an hour is highly stressful, even on a nice, expensive bike. And though the body can adapt to that stress, it can also reject it if it's deemed too hard or occurs too often, with inadequate recovery or inadequate restorative mileage between bouts. Training really ought to incorporate a little of everything, so long as it relates to the physiology and mentality required to raise your FTP. In the end, anything that makes you a more powerful rider or a better bike racer can be considered specificity. Miles do this and hard riding does it. There's a balance and a mix of efforts necessary that is unique to each of us. It's part trial and error but the basics can always be applied.
At the top level in cycling the guys with the highest FTP are the guys who put in lots of miles. In the purest sense they're also biggest guys, so FTP really ought to consider or include more of a power-to-weight consideration (if you can consider a consideration!) but since it's your own personal FTP, you shouldn't really give a damn about what others can do. Focus on yours and yours alone, and lose any extraneous weight in the process. Not to come across egotistical, but my FTP is quite high and it helps me go fast for hour-long durations. However, I weigh more now than when I was purely a pro cyclist. I was much more powerful then, even though my numbers weren't as great. Why? Because I hadn't fully developed. Nor did I carry around as much weight (I'd like to think most my weight gain since then was/is pure muscle mass but the dunk tank states its opinion otherwise; my goal is to become the biggest loser but I first need more to lose).
What's more, I wasn't just lighter but more flexible and aerodynamic, in addition to being more aggressive and highly stupid, all necessary traits for ripping the legs off others. Again, power up, weight down (and a focus on strong aerodynamics and specific skills like cadence and muscle recruitment). (Regarding muscle recruitment, FTP intensities and beyond are great for improving this but the slow-twitch fibers must also be fully developed and they don't always get there through shorter, more intense training.)
Specificity may very well be everything in training but an athlete's immediate training may not always be readily specific toward his or her end goal. It takes a layer upon layer or a brick-by-brick approach (read Alan Couzen's blog), not a quick route to the top. In endurance sports shortcuts always end up as dead-ends. You don't need to have a higher FTP tomorrow by training intensely today and everyday before now, even though you might be able to see it rise immediately by doing so. But you'd almost certainly come to reach a permanent plateau by training this way. Instead of worrying about immediate improvement you need to see your hour of power climb over a long enough period, the long term. Ideally, every six months should see an increase, and it'll likely be one that won't immediately erode. Miles help with that but lots of long miles alone won't do the job. You've got to up the intensity ante when your body is ready for it.
I hope this helps. There is no simple answer but to ride as much as your body can absorb with as much intensity as it can absorb. All said, more really is better but "absorb" is the operative word here. To absorb training you need to benefit, basically, and that involves every single aspect of your life: sleep amount, sleep patterns, nutritional habits/practices, recovery diligence, hydration, postural stress, real life stress and so on. The list is long but he who works hard to improve every consideration of his improvement (if you can improve improvement!) is he who I'd bet on come race day, even though my wager would likely be fairly meager, no thanks to an income that borders on no-come.
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