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-   -   Need help with Power (https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/683496-need-help-power.html)

BudFox 09-27-10 12:45 PM

Need help with Power
 
I've got another month or so before I start base miles with a new training program and am very unhappy with my power output to date. I'm getting dropped on the flats on fast club rides. I can easily spin at 100+rpm, ride at threshold for hours, and am a very strong climber. In fact, I always catch up on the climbs.

What kind of training can I do to hold onto the back of a 25mph pace line? I need a crash course now and a longer term focus for next year.

gregf83 09-27-10 03:45 PM

Nothing much to do during base other than getting in lots of time. Once you start building you should be incorporating threshold intervals.

It's probably a terminolgy issue but normally threshold power is the average power you can put out during a one hour TT. By definition you can't keep this up for hours. My suspicion is that you spend a lot of time riding at a tempo pace rather than actual threshold power. Doing 2x20min intervals at threshold should be physically and mentally difficult.

You'll also want to add in some shorter (1-5min) intervals which will help with those peak efforts you need to make on the group ride. Get Friel's training book and a powermeter if you are serious.

Carbonfiberboy 09-27-10 09:35 PM

Like Greg says, you gotta work harder. A bodybuilder at our gym was doing calf raises with 1200 lbs. I asked him why so much? He said dryly, "Gotta stimulate 'em." So do it. Do 10 minute hill repeats just below LT at 50 cadence. Don't move your upper body at all. Do a set of 3 or 4 once a week. One-legged pedaling on rollers or trainer (not on the road). Do a 2 minute interval with each leg, then recover with legs together for 2 minutes. Repeat. Work up to doing that continuously for 45 minutes. No break. Use enough gear so that you are crying for your mommy at the end of each interval. Do that once a week. Stimulate 'em. Do stomps. Slow down to 15 mph or less. Shift into your biggest gear, or maybe a cog or two below it depending on your strength. Then accelerate with all your strength until you get on top of the gear. Spin easy for 5 minutes and repeat. Find a hill you can climb in 45 seconds at full throttle. Do full throttle repeats with 5 minutes spinning between them.

And you aren't riding anywhere near LT. At threshold, you should be breathing hard enough to bring a lung up and be pretty well blown after 20 minutes. After a couple years of training it, you should be able to maintain that pain level for 45 minutes or so. So find a 20 minute hill and practice getting up it as fast as possible. Once you get the feel of it, try doing a repeat.

I used to tell the newbies on my rides to hold their wheel until the blood started from their eyesockets. That's how you get so you can do it.

BudFox 09-28-10 02:03 PM

Thanks for the recommendations. Since most of my miles are commuting, I can't do hill repeats. But I will spend some time doing those power and LT intervals.

Carbonfiberboy 09-28-10 02:38 PM


Originally Posted by BudFox (Post 11537733)
Thanks for the recommendations. Since most of my miles are commuting, I can't do hill repeats. But I will spend some time doing those power and LT intervals.

You can on the way home. That's what most folks do. Take a longer route with some low traffic hills.


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