Pablo.

My coach keeps telling me that everyone doing intensity now is going to be burnt out by June. Yet everyone is doing intervals and telling me that riding around aimlessly @ endurance pace 10 hrs. a week isn't going to help. I don't get it.

gsteinb

Get a new coach? Guys told me I was going to be burnt out my memorial day, but I won races in each month of the season.

dysFTP

Correct; annual endurance is an antiquated concept. You only build the endurance required for your target event(s) then you focus on intensity.

If you aren't increasing your FTP you aren't progressing. At least this is what I'm told.

I'd burn out doing lots of junk miles long before I would doing intervals.

grolby

It depends. Different people respond to different programs based on age, experience and individual physiology. I'm relatively new to road riding, so for me riding around aimlessly at endurance pace is an important part of any successful training program that I might undertake. An experienced rider probably should do less endurance riding and use more intensity to build speed earlier in the season.

grolby

It is not necessarily that simple.

mollusk

It all depends on what you need to accomplish in the "off season". Do you need to drop weight? Do you need to get ready for longer races because you have Cat-ed up? Did you finish last season on great form and you want to get back to it (or better) quickly? Do you need to work on sprint power? Do you need to work on "bridging" power? Do you need to work on TT power? It is a different sort of "base" season depending on what you need.

tanhalt

Hehehe...in SoCal, the season starts at the end of this month and is basically OVER by the end of June

Besides, what burns people out is the combination of volume and intensity, with not enough time for recovery...if you don't have the time for volume (like me) you'd better make up for it with intensity. Recovery time isn't typically an issue for a married, kids, over 40, full time job, mortgage kind of guy like me

The_Cretin

Blasphemy. Weights and base all year round.

San Rensho 

Here in Miami, the race season has already started and racing in the northern climes starts around March, so if you aren't doing intesity work by now, or soon, you are behind.

If you feel you are burning out in June, just take off a week or two and get back into it slowly, you'll have plenty left for the mid-end of the season.

caloso

Yep. I'm in that boat too. I get plenty of recovery rides during the week. They're called commutes.

BigSean

If your new how do you know?

dmb2786

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm following the friel plan and i'm not peaking until late may.

kensuf

Why shouldn't I be doing intensity? The biggest group of races I'll be doing this year are over the next six weeks.

Grumpy McTrumpy

I've been doing a lot of 2x20s at L4.

Is that intensity?

dysFTP

I consider L4 to be the bottom floor of intensity.

kensuf

No. That's soft.

Real men do 4x20s.

ElJamoquio

REAL men do 3x20min.

MONGO!

If you're new to racing, winter is the time to build power, not just endurance.

Grumpy McTrumpy

ok, not real man. floor

gotcha

kensuf

4x20min is what I meant. The s was to denote pluralization, not duration. But yeah, I can see why that'd be confusing -- I'm still jacked on endorphins (and now beer).

waterrockets 

I can barely keep it together for 1x20, but I hit them too hard.

To the OP, try it and find out. I burn out from volume, not intensity.

dmotoguy

Exactly.

today was our teams first group ride, they were all noodling around for 3 hours at 100-150watts... it felt weird to me, maybe there is a place for SOME L2-L3.. but it sure is boring.

AlexTaylor

Blimey! That's near my FTP for 3 whole hours!

Psimet2001 

We did 10X6 2 weeks ago, 6X10 last week, 3x20 on Tuesday. This on top of indoor TT (computrainer based) races on Sundays. I had to take this weekend off.

I did the whole Friel deal, but I am mainly using it for weight lifting periods and for time on bike. Trying to take overall intensity into account. I keep hearing that Coggan has a more power based periodization schedule that interjects high intensity sessions year round. My body reacts well to that.

I've been riding around for hours for the last 20 years.

For now I think I will be sticking with the instensity at least once a week and just try to keep the overall weekly load low.

ridethecliche

The early season races in the North East (i.e. here in CT) start in march and are typically shorter crits.

I honestly feel that it's a good idea to start doing the higher intensity/shorter duration stuff maybe 2-3 weeks before those races start, since those races are great training. If you gear up and throw all your cards down for the early season races, you'll have to make sure you know what you're doing if you don't want to burn out.

I really like using the early season races as VO2Max training sessions and such. If you're doing FTP boosting stuff (90% FTP to push up ftp etc), you should be okay sitting onto these races and using them as good training. A few races into the series, your training will start catching up and you'll be a player if you want to be. Personally, I really like the idea of using the first few races early in the season as good training sessions.

Of course, this depends on what you want out of them. If you want to win the early season series, you're probably going to start training earlier in the winter and start doing the higher intensity stuff earlier as well.

6 weeks till the racing starts!