Ok I promised to post some of this outside the TR paywall so people could review; but we are fast getting into the details that only work if you are joining the project and actually doing indoor training in a controlled environment. So keep that in mind when reviewing. Step 3 will also get posted, but after that additional steps will be of extremely limited value to someone not using Trainer Road as we'll be diverging into specialty training based on individual goals.
Step 2 – MAF Capacity alignment to FTP Capacity process
Ok you have completed your FTP test. Excellent; and a whole lot of fun it was right? Ok maybe not. Please send me your FTP result so that I can enter it into Training Peaks; and calculate your power zones. We will be using Strava’s power zones because so many people like to get mutual encouragement there. This saves you having to translate in your head. These are based on Andrew Cogans standard traditional six. Heart Rate Zone will also be Coggan bases using a Threshold value that aligns you with 180-age. This yields zones that perfectly match Training Peaks and are can be mimicked in Strava.
If you explore the TrainerRoad interface, you find that you can record your weight in the system and it will calculate your Watts/Kg, this is a very fun stat to know. Those willing to share their weight can do so; simply weigh yourself weekly and enter the number into your Training peaks web interface. If you are lazy like me, you can get a Wi-Fi scale that does it automatically. We use a Withings.com WDS50, which I like because it does both body fat and weight, and withhings.com auto updates my weight at Strava and TrainingPeaks so I do not have to. If you want accurate graphics in TrainerRoad.com you’ll need to manually update your weight at least once a week. The Training Peaks entry is more useful to me as it rolls into the analysis software and it will make your graphs more accurate.
Ok now that you have your FTP you can be begin to conduct your MAF Base line work. At this point, you should have selected whether you are going to do Low, Medium or High volume Traditional base.
If you review each of the plans, you might think they are a little boring. Yes, the first 4-week block is indeed boring from a variety standpoint. Each week the training block is the same workout each time. This repetition is intentional; it will let you begin to create a solid aerobic base. Non-Ultra riders will ride the 4-week block as specified. Ultra riders will repeat weeks 2 and 3 a second time before doing week 4. For Ultra’s the a sequence is (1,2,3,2,3,4).
A sidebar: if you primary goal is weight loss until you hit XXX weight; then you will repeat the first 8 weeks over and over until you hit your target weight. That will allow you to build an aerobic base that will either increase your FTP or maintain it; while you continue to drop weight. It is incredibly difficult to loose weight and gain FTP; this approach is one of the few that seems to work really well for a broad spectrum of people. Diet of course plays a huge role and there are several approaches you can be pointed to depending on your lifestyle if you need help there just ask and we'll see if we can point you to the resources to get you going and that align with your Dietary preferences.
So for each of these rides you will:
- Get on the trainer
- Make sure you have a fan to keep you cool and control your heart rate
- Make sure you have water to drink,
- Calculate your MAF heart rate (180 minus you age.)
- Ride the ride with Cadence of 85-95 if possible. (This may not be feasible your first 2 weeks)
- Try and be consistent with your RPM
- Monitor you heart rate during the session. If you get close to exceeding your MAF limit you will need to either: slow you cadence to lower your heart-rate, or lower the percentage difficulty level of the workout.
- The app has a lot of great form drills in it; try and do them when you can, but mind your HR make MAF the priority over the drills. Most of the drills will make you a better MBB pedaler.
The number 1 goal of each ride for the first 8-weeks will be to keep you HR below the 180 minus age limit, 3-4 points below is optimal but 10-12 is still good too. If you are younger you may be prone to staying even slightly lower because your ceiling is so much higher. This just fine. After week-8, we will start introducing brief harder sprint work during the workouts.
You will find this to be harder than you think. It is not uncommon to find yourself thinking this first workout is too easy on day 2; and then after 30 minutes you will think it is just awful and you'll never finish it, hang in there is you'll be able to finish it. As you proceed through each workout, it will become easier as you adapt. It may take up to 5-6 weeks before you can ride the workouts at the prescribed difficulty and stay in an aerobic HR zone. Patience will be key here. The first few rides can be very frustrating. I will be providing feedback on the first rides to let you know how you are doing based on what the data says.
You will likely experience decoupling on all of your first rides. Decoupling will show up as you riding along at X watts for Y heart Rate. Y will be below your MAF limit; and then all of a sudden your heart rate Y will go up 20% and you will be over your MAF Limit. You will then need to lower your Watts or Cadence to get back under the MAF limit. Your Heart rate has then decoupled from your Watt production in the wrong direction. This is normal and it means your training is working and the stimulus has pushed you over the boundary. This effect is what we seek for rapid improvement. The balance of that training session will then become hugely valuable. Suffer strong and finish in the limits. The body will take this input; and begin to adapt. As you rest and recover it will start to metabolically adjust; after a couple rides like this the decoupling will happen later and later; and eventually it will stop.
To recap, the goal here is to align your Aerobic Capacity with your Muscular Strength. Most people new to training, but not new to riding, will have a certain amount of strength endurance. You will likely have generated your FTP by gutting through the workout using everything you have to work with. That includes both your Aerobic (FAT burning Capacity) an your Anaerobic (Sugar burning Capacity). Most of "America" and other parts of the “Western Culture”; has crap for Aerobic capacity. Default diets and lifestyles in the western culture just do not foster or promote strong aerobic development. During the 12 - 16 weeks at the start of this program; we are going to focus on getting your Aerobic base inline with your Muscular Strength. This will allow you to ride for much longer on your body and dietary fat; thus spreading your limited and finite glucose reserves over a much longer time scale. If you successfully complete this phase you will be able to ride much farther, at a faster pace; and you'll be holding court as the king or queen of conversation, meanwhile others riding with you will be sucking wind begging you to shut-up so they can focus on their un-trained pain.
To close I want to cover the timing of eating around the workouts. These are long fat burning workouts; they are designed to train your body to burn fat. You will get maximum advantage from them if you can align them around fasting. If you are a ride in the morning person; then hold off on Breakfast until after your workout. If you are a ride at night person, try to go to bed after the workout without anything more than a little protein heavy (food hardboiled eggs are the classic example) pick something aligned with your Diet of choice, but make a good choice. The theory here is simple. It takes an average person 1.5 hrs to burn through their glucose then at that time the body has no choice but to switch to fat to run on and that intern forces it to adapt to burn fat better. These workouts are in the fat burning zone and they are all at least 1.5 hours. They strive to have you burn off your glucose. If you are aerobically weak this will almost always force you onto the fat for fuel. If you come in fasted from the night sleep you will have a very low blood glucose reserve and you will get into fat training mode much sooner, as the muscle glucose is exhausted and thereby getting you a longer training stimulus on the fat as a fuel source. If you do an evening ride you will get to fat burning state by the end; then as long as you do not slam carbs back into your system right after the ride you will stay in the fat burning mode for many hours after. This after glow period has the same adaptive effect as the morning riding training session does, but more of it is occurring post ride. If you ride midday then try to eat very moderate at lunch and delay dinner until at least 2 hours after your ride; the result will be almost as good as the other two approaches; it just that sleeping time advantage that you lose out on. With these type of workouts you do not need to worry about slamming carbs back into your system to replenish the glucose. They are sufficient time with rest to let that just happen naturally; thus allowing you to stay in fat burning mode as long as possible.
Step 3 will be posted in about 5 days. Step three will explain using what your indoor data says about your Aerobic capacity and how to ride and develop it outdoors even-though outdoors, due to temperature, your HR meter become useless for tracking your Aerobic zone output. This will only be useful to people that have at least 2 weeks of step 2 done; and for most it's more like 4 weeks of step 2. It does require a power meter (powercal HR meter will work too). So stay tuned. In the meantime we will focus on making people successful with Step 1 and 2.
Because of that I'm waiting for them to allow us to upload our ride .FIT files into their database it's on the roadmap. (A good place for trainerroad members to vote for features is https://trainerroad.uservoice.com/forums/131395-general/filters/top my personal top on is: https://trainerroad.uservoice.com/f...ions/3439645-garmin-workout-format-fit-export )
