Nice work. This kind of post may inspire me to get rollers.

Hermes, Cleave, Alleghany, AZ - thanks to all for your replies. Yeah, maybe my training is too much higher intensity right now, I'll cut some of the LT and over stuff back in favor of more aerobic time and cycling specific weight training. My interval session each week always has high cadence spinning (120+) and often one leg drills, but that's about it for technique drills.

So I can better interpret all your workouts would you mind providing a brief "key" as to your HR zone designations, there seem to be a lot of different conventions out there. For example, I use a 7 zone system which designates zones 1 to 4 and 5a, 5b and 5c. LT is the bottom of z5a in this system but for Cleave's it's the bottom of z4. Here's the rest of the system I use:

z1/z2 - below .88 LT HR
z3 - .89 to .93
z4 - .94 to .99
z5b - 1.03 to 1.05
z5c - anything higher

Haven't been to lab to determine LT HR but I've used 4 different methods of estimating it based on various timed efforts and they all point to the range of 156 to 158.

There are different methods for determining zones, and the important thing is to match your workouts to the method you use. For instance, don't use a Friel workout with zones determined using someone else's methods. I had a metabolic test that determined my LT, and I used Friel's book to determine my zones based on that. They differed from the from the zones determined by the metabolic test using methodology from the Australian Institute of Sports, but I planned to use Friel's book to create workouts, and wanted to be consistent. When I hired my coach, she had me redefine my zones in Training Peaks and my computer to match the ones from the metabolic test, as they most precisely matched my metabolism, and because she knows and trusts the guy who did the testing. She is defining my workouts using the zones from the test:

LT = 161 MHR ~179 (Could be a bit higher; not sure)

Zone 1: Recovery...................106-121
Zone 2: Aerobic.....................122-146
Zone 3: Tempo......................147-155
Zone 4: Threshold..................156-164
Zone 5A: Aerobic Capacity ......165-173 (Also called Anaerobic Endurance)
Zone 5B: Power/VO2...............174-174
Zone 5C: Anaerobic Capacity....175-176

Here is Joe Frie's "Quick Guide" from his blog. His book provides a table based on LT.

Bike Zones
Zone 1 Less than 81% of LTHR
Zone 2 81% to 89% of LTHR
Zone 3 90% to 93% of LTHR
Zone 4 94% to 99% of LTHR
Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR
Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR
Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR

See, your wife's worries were groundless. ;)

Congratulations!

And Jet, you have NO recovery days?

I like the Coggan values developed by (Dr. Andrew Coggan, a renown exercise physiologist who has published a number of cycling-related scientific articles including Training and Racing with a Power Meter and is a National-caliber Masters cyclist himself) defines his power training zones into seven unique levels as follows:

Level 1: Active Recovery, less than 55% of FTP
Level 2: Endurance, 56-75% of FTP
Level 3: Tempo, 76-90% of FTP
Level 4: Threshold, 91-105% of FTP
Level 5: VO2 max, 106-120% of FTP
Level 6: Anaerobic Capacity, 121-150% of FTP
Level 7: Neuromuscular Power, more than 150% of FTP

Below is a link to a table that also shows the Coggan heart rate zones which have slightly different % than the power. FTP is functional threshold power and it is the maximum amount of power one can sustain for one hour. It is a very tough standard. You will note that Coggan does not define a heart rate for levels about z5

http://www.peaksware.com/articles/cy...ew-coggan.aspx

For all the efforts that I do from z3 to z6, I try to hit the minimum power level in the zone and finish the set at the same or better power. It is better to do more intervals within the zone than a couple at the beginning at the high end or even above the power zone and then quit early or have decreasing power that finishes below the zone.

Everyone uses and believes in different guys and zones. Whatever one does on a consistent basis, IMO, will yield results.

I like Coggan's credentials and he is a successful racer who has pushed the training envelope with power training and software so I have standardized on his.

I'm still working my way through his/Allen's book. When I finally pull the trigger on the Quarq, I'll be switching over to using his power zones. I subscribed to Wattage, and it's great seeing folks like him make their expertise available.

"Ride the pain train"..... I love that! Very good!:lol::lol::lol: (Was watching one of the older videos... the black & white one.)

I couldn't even attempt to think about something else while on the rollers other than keeping the bike upright and hitting my cadence and time.:lol: As for doing it as a profession, I race bikes as my 2nd profession and don't need another job.:thumb:

Thank you for noticing my "hot and fit" wife. My wife also noticed and I got a "good boy".:thumb:

This is my 4th year of training for racing and the 3rd with a coach. Last week was a recovery week and this week is the beginning of the next build cycle. Today's workout is a recovery ride even though I had to warm up into Z3 prior to the 45 minute overgear. My HR in the over gear was high Z2 - low Z3. A year or two ago my Monday workouts would have been 45 minute easy spin. Once the hard work begins, later in the season, I will be doing Monday and Friday rides @ 45 minute easy spin. I do have this Thursday as a rest day from riding.

milmo,

My HR zones are based on an estimated MHR of 173 bpm. My coach and I worked on establishing the max based on some specific efforts and adding a few beats. Using the max my coach established my zones for his training plan. FWIW my zones are:

Z1 < 125
Z2 = 126 - 137
Z3 = 138 - 145
Z4 = 146 - 155
Z5 = 156 and higher

My Powertap wheel-set will be arriving any day and I'll get a slew of new numbers to be my master.

That would have been the "HTFU workout". Glad you enjoyed it.

I do not race but I do have an Emotion Roller that I bought from Inside Ride out of Oregon last January. I am now on the roller fulltime because you cannot ride outside in North Idaho this time of year. I ride it about 1 hour everyday during the winter. I was wondering can you stand up and sprint on yours? I can on mine because of it's design you cannot ride out of it. I started the no hand thing last week just because I thought it would be fun to try and have also made it part of my workout. The roller has improved my riding form. I said I do not race but that is not entirely true. They hold an Ironman in my town of Coeur d' Alene Idaho in June. I ride the course a couple of times a week. Whenever someone passes me and gets ahead and looks back the race is on! If they just pass and keep going I let them go. I can't stand someone passing me just to pass. I can usually take them on the hills and when I pass I am riding up on my ergos and tell them this is my areo postion. I really like this thread thanks for the info!

Is training that's not for racing in-scope?

I tried dope, but I didn't win the TdF, so I gave it up.

I have the Performance band Travel Trac rollers that cost $129 on sale. In order to stand (ots) I put the bike into the 53/12 to 14 gear and keep my butt over the saddle and grip the bars as lightly as possible. I concentrate on staying on top of the pedals and maintain as smooth a pedal stroke as I can maintain. I found it harder to maintain a cadence faster than 70-75 as the bike starts to go forward/backwards on the rollers. I intend to be able to increase the cadence as the winter moves on and maybe to the point of calling it a sprint.

This will have to be taken up with the "committee". Wait... we do not have one. Well, since all training is good training, I say post away and see what happens. That is like the question should I race. Show up and see what happens is usually provides the best answer.

Edit: We racers reserve the right to comment. One of my former coaches, who coached racers as well as riders who wanted to do events, said, it is okay to be slow but one must look and act like pro.

I certainly didn't qualify as looking pro on this morning's slow commute. We have so little cold weather I haven't invested in winter gear, but it has been reaaly cold lately. So I wore black shoes with red highlights, long green wool socks, knee warmers made from sleeves cut off an old sweatshirt (faded black) tucked into the legs of my black road shorts, a black Under Armor shirt underneath my multi-colored club jersery with enough sleeve hanging out to handle any snot rocket leftovers, Mechanix gloves, helmet and shades. I wanted to violate today's z2 directive just to reduce the time I was at risk of being seen, and I waited until my wife was gone before I 'dressed' and left. Oh, and I forgot to mention the green backpack, which at least matched my socks.

In disguise... There are many ways to look like a pro.... The important ones are weight, attitude, spin, posture, position, handling skills and behavior.:thumb:

The all out sprinting potential of the Emotion Roller is what sold me on them. I looked up the Travel trac rollers and what a good deal they are and what a good deal you got. I saw your race win photos on the Spring Dreams thread, great win and good photo, looks like you lwere having fun!

Z1 to Z4 look exactly like mine, then the Friel methodology further subdivides z5 as mentioned by AZ and myself.

The max HR I've observed is 170, but since I didn't pass out in the effort I figure it's 1 or 2 higher.

Correct, my Zones are based on Friel's. Two years ago my coach was giving me workouts using Friels’ zones and I was using Karvonen which didn't work well until we made the connection. The Kavonen Z3 is similar to Friel’s Z4 and doing long Z3 intervals became problematic. I have also viewed sustained HR #'s that were beyond my MHR during races with temps of over 100 degrees. The high rate on that occasion was due to the heat and not the effort, and I did not adjust my MHR on those numbers.

My wife used to state categorically that the max HR she could achieve cycling was 155 when her recorded max running HR was 175. On the Wente road race after a 3 miles slight climb, she hit 161 on the 2 mile 7% grade and subsequently in another race hit 163. I hit 182 once. So max HR is an interesting number and seems to be different for different sports. For me, my HR is higher when racing on hot days.

Unfortunately, I find that the world of racing seems to be biased against slow people, so that limits my involvment. But most of my cycling to some extent revolves around getting better, getting stronger, losing weight, etc., so it's headed in the racing direction. Only race I'm planning is the Texas Time Trials 12-hour version next fall.

Generally, time trials are 85% legs, heart and lungs, 10% brain and 5% equipment. I find the toughest part of a long time trial i.e. 1 hour is the mental focus. I imagine a 12 hour time trial will require near infinite ability to focus on power production while putting the accumulating pain out of your mind. That sounds just nasty. It seems like the ride a lot axiom will be the training method of choice but for a 12 hour TT, it will be ride a lot by yourself with focus on keeping power on the pedals constantly.

The way we do that in 40K time trials is to break the race down into management distances that we can get our mind around which is 10 K. For example, it is a bad idea to think about the 1/2 point and arrive feeling bad and then think OMG I have another 20 K to go.

I would talk with others who have done the event to see what training regimen they used. Good luck.

I looked at the Texas Time Trial web site and rules. It is an interesting event. Have fun with that.