SS Intervals - do you agree w/ Charmichael?
 

""don't make the mistake of riding [them] at your time trial pace" - C. Carmichael, Ultimate Ride pg. 111

Depends.

What's he referring to? If you are talking about long intervals but less than 1 hr, then you should probably be at a wattage somewhat higher than ftp.

He's referring to intervals of up to 20 min. He states that the intensity should be approx. LT-5 BPM. He specifically states that you should train slightly below LT. He says "spending too much time at your LT is too taxing and will ultimately diminish any gains".

It's basically Sweet Spot.

You can boost FTP up in two ways:
1) Push it up.
2) Pull it up.

#1 is usually less taxing and can be done more regularly.
#2 is more draining and it takes the body longer to recover so you can do them less often.

So usually, you can do #1's on a much more regular basis (even everyday if you do other things correctly). Thus, they might do less per interval but the quantity of them helps more than doing less of something that does more.

You're right. He's preaching SST below threshhold.

According to page 110, SS = Steady State *TM by Chris*

ROFL...


I disagree with his 1:1 work/recovery ratio and that they should be no longer than 20 minutes.

3) Throw it up

Everyone's got their own thing - ask three different coaches the answer to this and you'll probably get three different answers. Truth is that your body adapts to stress when you apply the stress regularly. It also depends, probably, on the "percent of potential" you are at in terms of your potential performance. For me, a second year racer and still making relatively large gains in my estimate of LT, I pull it up, so to speak, because I still have not closed in on my potential. If I were an experienced racer and my gains are more incremental, then "more of less" will probably stress the body more efficiently than "less of more".

Time constraints also probably play a role. If you have limited time to train, it is probably more beneficial to increase the intensity. For instance, I think it is Friel who stated that endurance rides of 3-5 hours are beneficial, but riding at endurance pace for 1-2 hours isn't really doing anything. You need to be at endurance pace for long periods of time, else you should increase the intensity of your rides.

But I don't know. I'm feeling my way along and it really does sound like he is making his way around to the concept of sweet spot training that Allen and Coggan introduced.

I've been doing the CTS program for awhile now. The way the program is set up, steady states are done at or below LT (8/10ths perceived effort).

The program also has TT intervals which are 9/10ths perceived effort.

So 2x20 efforts in the CTS program can be done just below LT (Steady states) or as hard as you can hold for the time (TT intervals)

Both have their place. There's pretty good data that doing the steady states gets you most of the advantage that doing them balls out gives you at a lower cost.

And then the TT intervals are done in the final prep phase, to really push you.

That makes sense.

I tend to do better by pushing FTP up than pulling it. I'm still seeing huge and consistent gains from peak to peak.

Look at the power levels table (Table 2) here. Look at the differences between training in zone 3 and zone 4. All of the same adaptations are represented in both zones. More in zone 4, but it's not like zone 3 is abandoning your threshold training. I can train sweet spot in high zone 3 for five days in a row. That's better than a day in zone 4 (for less time) followed by a day in zone 2 to recover, in my opinion.

I do most of my winter work indoors and find it hard to hold 100% of FTP for 20 minutes because I overheat and get bored..... No need to worry about me doing SST work at 100% of FTP this winter :)

I have found that I can do 80-90% of FTP for 15 minutes (x4) twice a week on the trainer and recover fine the next day..... With that said I cant wait for DST to start!

FTP is not really a steady state if you think about heart rate drift, but I can do 60+ minutes at ~90% FTP and my HR is pretty much stable.

That's my preferred method. Painful, but quick.

FTP is power not HR (duh I know) but you should account for HR drift even at 90%

I train with a PT so I don't have to account for HR drift. ;)

However, I only have a 4 bpm difference in average HR vs max HR during a 2 x 40' at 90% FTP. The first one is 153 bpm average, 157 bpm max. The second one is 153 bpm average, 157 bpm max. I reach 153 bpm around 5.5 minutes into the each interval. The last half of the second interval actually averages 91% FTP with an average HR of 154 bpm.

That seems pretty steady to me.:)

I keep forgetting, what's HR again? That strap thingy that was accidentally left in my PowerTap box?

Yeah, you should try to get as many HRs as possible. You never know how many you'll burn in an attack.

I only wear mine indoors - another number to look at.:)

Account for it as in .... expect it and its no big deal.

I havent used my HR strap in over a year.