Couch to Bike - Sebring 2018 Training Program

[ratz]

Ok here it is, I know you've been just itching to have it. This years Sebring training program.

I decided that this year there wasn't reall a need for a new training plan for the hard core riders. Last years is fine and dandy; ** you could pair it with the plan from this post. Ride this one until the end of november then switch.... so....

Instead I thought we'd see if we could get a few more people to show up with a plan for everyone else. So the following is the Couch to Bike - Sebring 2018 Training Program. It's a 21 week plan and very gentle. It's mostly stock TrainerRoad Plan for Traditional Build; with a modified Sustained power build. This is suitable for 100, 12hour and even 24hour riders. It assumes you are starting from ZERO but that you would like to show up in 21 weeks and do very well in the ride. Time commitment is a not as step it's big brother plan an average of 8 hours a week; 4 days week; with a few exceptions. This is also very much target at anyone over 45 that needs more recovery time to foster proper improvement.

PDF Attached.

 

[Eric Winn]

You and you your faster half going to be at Sebring 2018?

-Eric

 

[ratz]

If work settles down we'll be there doing the 12 and the 24

 

[Eric Winn]

If work settles down we'll be there doing the 12 and the 24

Cool. I'm going to try and make it too. Probably 24. Haven't ever done a 12 so might ponder on that a bit.

Which of you is doing the 24?

-Eric

 

[Roger Underhill]

Ok here it is, I know you've been just itching to have it. This years Sebring training program.

I decided that this year there wasn't reall a need for a new training plan for the hard core riders. Last years is fine and dandy; ** you could pair it with the plan from this post. Ride this one until the end of november then switch.... so....

Instead I thought we'd see if we could get a few more people to show up with a plan for everyone else. So the following is the Couch to Bike - Sebring 2018 Training Program. It's a 21 week plan and very gentle. It's mostly stock TrainerRoad Plan for Traditional Build; with a modified Sustained power build. This is suitable for 100, 12hour and even 24hour riders. It assumes you are starting from ZERO but that you would like to show up in 21 weeks and do very well in the ride. Time commitment is a not as step it's big brother plan an average of 8 hours a week; 4 days week; with a few exceptions. This is also very much target at anyone over 45 that needs more recovery time to foster proper improvement.

PDF Attached.

Thanks for posting this. It looks awesome. I’m new to training schedules. Could you tell me what TSS and IF stand for please? Also, are all the names referring to zwift routes or something similar? Sorry to be so such a newbie!

 

[ed72]

TSS stands to Training Stress Score and is a measurement defined and used by the TrainingPeaks software in a variety of ways to estimate workload to help tailor workouts and plans.

IF stands for Intensity Factor and is essentially the quotient of your Normalized Power (NP) divided by your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). One hour at FTP is by definition a TSS of 100 whereas one hour at an IF of 0.70 is a TSS of 70. 24 hours at an IF of 0.7 and you get a whopping 1680 TSS score raising the question to me, what is an appropriate CTL to be able to perform at an IF of 0.7for 24 hours. I think I know but wonder if RATZ could give advice.

These terms are not useful unless one uses a power meter but the general idea is to manage fatigue (balance rest and workout....TSB) and increase the chronic training load (CTL). The Performance Management Chart (PMC) in TP is very helpful in not over training as one builds CTL whereas XERT Biosystems is without peer in predictive capability for FTP and really at any duration. It absolutely nails your fitness signature and can tell you exactly when you have a fitness breakthrough. XERT lets you ditch FTP test forever.

Here are a few links that go into more detail.

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/230904648-Suggested-Weekly-TSS-and-Target-CTL
https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/204071874-Performance-Management-Chart

 

[Gary123]

Whaaaaat?

 

[Roger Underhill]

Wow! Thanks for that Ed. This is so exciting Signed up and am downloading the app. I’ve seen some of this before on GCN but never knew how to use it. Finally I can get some structure and motivation to improve. Thanks to all here.

 

[trapdoor2]

So...is this a pre-loaded plan we can access in Trainer Road (or Training Peaks or whatever)? Or, it is simply a list of 'rides' that we follow in TP? Last year I gave up partly because I could not get my PC and Phone and Trainer to function together...it was a total PITA (I never got thru a single FTP test without it locking up). I've been riding my trainer (Kickr Snap)...but just setting it in ERG mode and riding to a Watt/time goal.

 

[BJ686]

So...is this a pre-loaded plan we can access in Trainer Road (or Training Peaks or whatever)? Or, it is simply a list of 'rides' that we follow in TP.

These are all "workouts" in TrainerRoad that Ratz has put together for an ultra cycling plan. So basically, you would just follow Ratz's plan and upload the appropriate individual work out each time.

TrainerRoad generally recommends doing training in three stages, doing a base plan phase, then a build phase, and then speciality phase. This plan includes all three. Although TrainerRoad does have some endurance focused base plans and build plans, it does not have a true Ultracycling plan or specialty plan. Probably the closest speciality plan that it offers is training for a century ride or perhaps a full triathlon.

The plan looks great to me and I plan to try to do it next year.

 

[trapdoor2]

My plan for today is to try the "Fletcher" and see if I can simply ride within my 180-age HR. That seems very low (120) but I'm going to try!

 

[BJ686]

My plan for today is to try the "Fletcher" and see if I can simply ride within my 180-age HR. That seems very low (120) but I'm going to try!

Sounds good, let us know how it goes. Be sure to establish your FTP before doing the workout as that will adjust the plan for your fitness level. You may already know this, but you can set your FTP by doing the eight minute FTP plan on TrainerRoad

 

[ratz]

The fletcher HR limited phase is just to give people time to loose a little weight and get their trainers tuned up; we found last year that jumping right into the FTP stuff cause problems for people to debug; I've got some RAAM weight to loose before rebuilding base so that influenced this and let me give you the off the couch flavor. Most people can do several weeks of HR training with out problem and to "Find their legs"

 

[BJ686]

The fletcher HR limited phase is just to give people time to loose a little weight and get their trainers tuned up; we found last year that jumping right into the FTP stuff cause problems for people to debug; I've got some RAAM weight to loose before rebuilding base so that influenced this and let me give you the off the couch flavor. Most people can do several weeks of HR training with out problem and to "Find their legs"

Ahhh... I took another look at the plan, and see what you mean. Thanks for the clarification (and for putting this plan together).

 

[trapdoor2]

Sounds good, let us know how it goes. Be sure to establish your FTP before doing the workout as that will adjust the plan for your fitness level. You may already know this, but you can set your FTP by doing the eight minute FTP plan on TrainerRoad

Yes, that's the one I could never get to work last year. I not try that again until I can make sure the software is functioning. I got so frustrated trying to debug it last year that I just gave up (training rides).

"Eight minute" is a misnomer. It takes a full hour to complete and I never got more than 5 min into the test before it crashed.

 

[ratz]

Ok so here's a little insight on how this process works without taking an FTP test. The assumption on this plan for the non-racer or the seriously out of shape rider is that either the FTP test is going to be too much stress or pose a technical change. So we need to do several weeks of HR based training to get things jump started. TrainerRoad on which the plan is based is a power based program so we need a way to estimate the correct starting power for a rider with out testing. So how do we do that we? Simple we guess.

For my example ride I guessed at my FTP I set it to 150watts (in my case I know that's low as I'm historically never below 165watts after a long lay off) it does not matter if this estimate is high or low. With my Estimate set; I fire up my HR Monitor and Fletcher and start to ride.

The first 4 weeks of this plan are the, yo you need to burn fat and building up strength in your connectivity tissues and joints; so they are going to be long slow efforts. We use the MAF guide line and restrict ALL workouts during the first 4 weeks to a Heart Rate of 180 minus your age; not up for debate on which measure to use; this one works; so we use it. In my case that means my HR cap for the next 4 weeks is 132bpm.

I start riding Fletcher with my FTP set to 150 watts. Inside the program there is a "percentage offset control" that lets you scale the workout. In my case my heart rate after 10 minutes is staying down around 105bpm so I increase the percentage to 115% and my HR jumps to 128bpm which is about perfect. As it turns out that was all I needed to do; for the entire rest of the 90minute ride my HR hovered between 125-132bpm. In the graph below you can see my yellow power line is consistently above the Target. During the ride it matches but the summary data shows you actual 115% versus initial goal of 150watts.

If my HR had been too high I could have lowered the percentage offset to 95%, 90%, 85% until I stayed under 132bpm. In this way you don't have to guess correctly.


Now that the ride is complete I can estimate the FTP I should use for the first 4 weeks to be at MAF levels. Simple in my case 150FTP x 115% = 170 FTP. On my next ride, I updated my FTP to 170 and just rode. I did not have to scale the workout percentage at all. Now my yellow power line matches the goal blue line and my HR stays at the prescribed 128-132bpm.



At the end of this 4 week block my HR conditioning will be starting to come around and my joints and ligaments will again be use to turning the pedals without getting inflamed and irritated. I will also be able to finish dialing in my bike fit (I'm testing new seats and tweaks are needed)

At the end of the 4 weeks I will be able to take a proper FTP test without blowing out my body or injuring myself. If history holds I'll probably test out around 180 and I'll be ready to get down to the serious work of raising that using harder work outs.

Again this approach is not for the established riders that are already in shape; this is for beginners, people coming back from injury, people that need to drop weight first, or those that like me might have had a 6 months layoff from riding because hey life happens. If you are needing to loose weight first you can repeat this 4 weeks block up to 3 times before you really must move onward to make more gains.

 

[ratz]

These terms are not useful unless one uses a power meter but the general idea is to manage fatigue (balance rest and workout....TSB) and increase the chronic training load (CTL). The Performance Management Chart (PMC) in TP is very helpful in not over training as one builds CTL whereas XERT Biosystems is without peer in predictive capability for FTP and really at any duration. It absolutely nails your fitness signature and can tell you exactly when you have a fitness breakthrough. XERT lets you ditch FTP test forever.

One thing to note if you use XERT to track these initial workouts you will get some screwy results. XERT is based on the idea that you are out riding to your potential at most times and in a variety of variable conditions. The software and algorithm work well, but if I feed my data to them from a cold start program like this; they will tell me that my FTP is 121watts, so I have to really ignore that as I'm intentionally riding easy with a goal in mind. When I'm ready to do the hard training block I will need to do an FTP test. That one real test will kick start XERT versus reality into a matching situation.

From that point forward as long as the workout challenge me then XERT will do an good job of tracking my FTP. If the workouts are all indoors and a tad too easy then XERT is going to under predict my FTP. So I like the software but you if strictly indoor training; an FTP test at the beginning and then at least every 8-10 weeks would be in order to make sure you aren't sand bagging the workouts versus you potential. If on the other head you fall from the training dead exhausted after each workout; you can trust what XERT predicts.

Hopefully that insight will help someone.

 

[ed72]

One thing to note if you use XERT to track these initial workouts you will get some screwy results. XERT is based on the idea that you are out riding to your potential at most times and in a variety of variable conditions. The software and algorithm work well, but if I feed my data to them from a cold start program like this; they will tell me that my FTP is 121watts, so I have to really ignore that as I'm intentionally riding easy with a goal in mind. When I'm ready to do the hard training block I will need to do an FTP test. That one real test will kick start XERT versus reality into a matching situation.

From that point forward as long as the workout challenge me then XERT will do an good job of tracking my FTP. If the workouts are all indoors and a tad too easy then XERT is going to under predict my FTP. So I like the software but you if strictly indoor training; an FTP test at the beginning and then at least every 8-10 weeks would be in order to make sure you aren't sand bagging the workouts versus you potential. If on the other head you fall from the training dead exhausted after each workout; you can trust what XERT predicts.

Hopefully that insight will help someone.

Another limitation is if you don't post data......the software predicts a fitness loss. For sure that input of all steady state low power data doesn't give it what it needs. I always thought the Infinite Power or whatever they call it was too high but all the other points were spot on and the Maximum Power Available (MPA) is uncanny. But it needs or seems to need a number of workouts/files with varying efforts to create your signature. Apologize the reference to XERT is a detour but doing FTP tests are just so much fun........and it you don't know your FTP, the whole TSS and IP and NP is out the window.

 

[DavidCH]

Who says it can't be fun? Somehow I think these lovely ladies have reached their FTP