Chasm, thanks for the conversation on the subject. I can benefit from it.
Locally, it's sort of entertaining. On one side I have a group of guys who are apparently impressed by my improvement and very quick to tell me how I could be doing even better if I would x,y,z. When in fact, I'm more than happy with the gains I'm experiencing and am participating in actively limiting my rate of progress, so as not to experience some of the pit falls we've already discussed. On the other side are a few guys who are quietly asking what I'm up to or showing up on my local loops and appear to be adopting some of what I'm doing. But, without really talking about it, the pro's, con's or managing their approach.
Anyhow, I appreciate the conersation. It keeps me thinking.
With regard to LT and determining it: I went looking for an article that I had read about how most athletes end up underestimating their LT by 3-5%. The study went on to take athletes who had lab tested for LT, then systematically asked them to repeat their best test. By displaying numbers to the athletes equal to their previous best while in fact increasing load beyond, the researchers were able to demonstrate that most atheletes were capable of more than they would have allowed themselves. However, when that load was increased by more than 3-5%, they pretty much all fell off the cliff.
However, on my search I quickly came upon this site:
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com...-training.html It's worth a look for anyone that's followed this thread this far. Without having read all the articles it links to, it does, very early on the first page, point out that the LSD theory is being questioned by some of the establishment.
"Professional road cyclists posses exceptional endurance. While
VO2max is not always a good predictor of performance in elite endurance athletes, studies have shown that aerobic power is high in this group of performers (1,2,3). More accurate predictors of performance include
lactate threshold, maximal lactate steady state and power output at lactate threshold. Lactate threshold has been shown to be as high as 90% of VO2max in professional cyclists (1, 4,5,6).
Peak power output can also be used to predict cycling performance (7,8) across the disciplines. For competitive road cyclists, anaerobic power is required for the mass start, hill climbing and a sprint finish. It may be even more important for off-road cyclists and is obviously a prerequisite for track racing. Traditionally, cycling coaches have prescribed increases in training volume to induce overload and adaptation. Yet it may be that a reduction in volume and integration of interval sprint training may be more beneficial. Not only has this shown to improve peak power output and capacity, it also increases VO2max to a greater extent compared to lower intensity, longer duration training (9,10).
This, along with other training strategies is examined in the articles below. You will find sample training sessions and programs for the various cycling disciplines, all drawing on current scientific research. "
I'm not attempting to poke holes in conventional training regimes. Friel in particular has worked for thousands of cyclists for a long time. I am however, keeping an open mind to the idea that there may be better, or other, ways to more effectively utilize the recreational cyclist's training time. I'm not adverse to examining the idea that many of the gold standard training programs were arrived at by working backward from what the pro's were doing and in many cases assume more time dedicated to training than most recreational cyclist will achieve. If one takes a look forward to what most recreational cyclists desire to achieve and how much time they will actually spend training, there may be more efficient ways of achieving those goals or maximizing performance, while accommodating increased flexibility in the amateur's training program.
However, I do firmly believe that such an approach requires much more active management to avoid issues, if one is going to try to maximize their gains.
Anyhow. Thanks
And CJC, looks like you had a pretty good ride yesterday. 22kph for 64km, cool.