Build Your Best Bike Camp Info and Question Compilation Thread...
Let's use this space to add up our questions and feedback on the process..keep them coming below!!!
~ Coach P
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is email from today (07/09/2020):
Here is the video from last night's webinar: https://endurancenation.wistia.com/medias/otlicz6k0p
Here is the presentation for you to download: https://app.box.com/shared/static/ijewflqs8oepzkhkdkhbpv1tpjrzu5m6.pdf
Saturday ride is 9:05am EDT in Zwift...under your meet up options (you'll have to accept in the Mobile App). You need to join by 9:05 AM or you won't see us...but you can still discord.
If you want to test discord, you should plan on joining the EN discord public channel before the Saturday ride...call it 8:30-9am. You can also "test" anytime by texting the groupme and someone will jump in. If you are new to discord, you will need wired headphones (Bluetooth are tricky).
Comments
From @Derrek Sanks -
Question from last night's call. Greg briefly mentioned recovery intervals between intervals and how you recover better at higher watts vice lower watts. His example was recovering at 200 watts could be better than at 100 watts.
Can he/someone go into more detail and explain the logic behind this? Do you recover better aerobically or muscularly? Thanks.
From @Scott Giljum -
So VLaMax question. Does it have more flex? Meaning if mine was low (.28), I’m sure I can raise it, but will my biology never let me get up to the .8 to be more like a sprinter?
@Derrek Sanks I don’t think he meant higher watts are better. I believe he meant there is an optimal watt level for recovery and everyone has a different number. His example was it is better to continue pedaling than to get off the bike and lay down.
Question (prob jumping ahead): I see on the Inscyd website that there are some pretty cool performance reports that can be generated ... will we be able to get copies of those?
... or maybe more generally ... how should/will we interpret the cool metrics we got?
Question (prob jumping ahead): I see on the Inscyd website that there are some pretty cool webinars. I have signed up and downloaded one. Will watch today. Listened to a podcast yesterday. Should we be out learning about all this stuff or wait and go through this course first?
Can we use WKO to see the data too? Seems to me this chart with your aerobic and anaerobic contributions at various power levels is really looking at VO2 max and VLaMax. True?
I have always been a "sprinter" or short course triathlete... and perhaps my mediocre long course results through the years are related to over-estimating FTP in testing do to my high VLaMax. This problem has gotten progressively worse as I deny the age-related decline in FTP, and do a lot of anaerobic work "cause its hard." I suspect that the answer is to determine an accurate FTP and stick to intervals at IF .95 with plenty of true aerobic work at IF <.75 (80/20)
My FTP is currently 73.7% of my VO2 max. So am I correct in thinking that I should be able to raise FTP to around 80% before I focus on trying to increase my VO2 max. One training block, one focus. In the coming weeks, I'm interested in how Zwift racing fits into this. All training and no racing is getting old!
I am also interested in what to do with this new information.
I was intrigued by the one slide from last night showing Eric Griepel's season. It's obviously well planned out. How could we think about laying out a season, say a 12 week outseason and a 12 week build to an Ironman and then half year of "other"?
Also, I have always thought of myself as having a fairly high VO2 number so really have never worked on it, instead spending much more time at the FTP down to SweetSpot range for "hard" and then lots of easy stuff, so Zone 2 and below. Maybe my VO2 is high for an average guy my age, but not a fit age grouper. Is there any AG data on VO2? With a VLaMax of 0.3 and an FP of 85.9% of VO2, it appears that I should really be focusing on improving my VO2. I spent the Spring doing a ton of SweetSpot work - now I'm thinking VO2 work would have been a better idea! I'd also love some modeling of my FT if I moved my VO2 from 55.8 to 57/58/59/60.
@Brian Hagan Thanks. I always keep my legs moving after hard intervals (even if I have to back pedal) to help clear lactic acid or keep muscles moving. Watts are always between 90 and 120. I'm guessing/hoping we'll learn our optimal recovery watts during our camp.
@Derrek Sanks @Brian Gaffin You guys are are on it! Higher is not always better, neither is super easy. The testing results will give everyone a chart and range to target optimal recovery. That is what this next week is all about. Coach Patrick is putting together the learn / homework part this week. You will get your test chart, learn how to read it, and how to apply it to training and racing.
@Tom Glynn Yes, each week we will go over an aspect of your test results. We'll help you make sense of all the charts, lines, and numbers. You are welcome to read, watch, google search and data mine if you want or you can wait and we will put the greatest hits together for you each week. Yes, there are some areas where WKO5 and INSCYD are complementary, overlap. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. We can talk more about how to get the most from WKO5 vs INSCYD here or if it gets to data nerdy 😴🤣- we can move it to another post too.
@Tom Glynn @John Culberson RE: Season planning questions above. We have a few more metrics to go over. Once you have your complete picture, that should help you make some good decisions about what you want to focus or experiment with for the remainder of this year and how you want to frame your progression next year - starting with the OutSeason etc. The intent is to make you smart on your entire metabolic profile so you can decide what you want to improve of focus on now that you have some new metrics to gauge progess. We can run a few simulations of future you - to show you potential gains to help you decide on what you want to tackle.
@matt limbert Thanks for the update! I've been doing some digging around on Google and have found a few pretty good podcasts. I have also been thinking of ways to incorporate some of the ideas and analysis into WKO. At this point I think I'm getting ahead of myself and should probably wait for the train to catch up :)
Tom
@Tom Glynn RE: What makes you feel shelled? Or what are all the factors that contribute to the feeling and physical limitations of fatigue. Steve Magness covers all the exercise physiology, in "The Science of Running." I like the way he writes about it, he takes a holistic approach. He covers lactate production and clearing, and also gets into the rest of the body chemistry with enzymes, transporters, ions (Hydrogen, Sodium, Potassium, NADH etc). Its a real mess in there 🤣. It was detailed, but also readable. He references a lot of current research 2005+ on how your body senses the changes in all this stuff to come up with your sense of fatigue.
I think about this way. INSCYD gives us another lens or perspective to look at our training. FTP and PDC usage is like the first lens or level of detail. Like Coach Patrick said, PDCs give more complete picture and provide challenging targets for progression. Once you have consistency, structured training, and periodization - you have all the fundamental tools. Gains will be harder and harder to come by. These INSYCD reports give us that different perspective and hopefully provide that next level of detail. They can tell us "how" energy is used to generate that power, the cost of that power in terms of lactate, carb, and fat usage which could lead to new approaches to training and racing. They might help focus our training efforts in new areas that were not visible with only only a PDC perspective. The rest of the body chemistry is next level stuff. 😨
@matt limbert Thanks for the detailed response - still thinking about your thoughts from last night! I actually have "the Science of Running" sitting on my bookshelf. It looks a little intimidating but I guess it's time I get started!
I've really been enjoying the Inscyd program. I love the fresh approach. As you noted, those of us that have been at it a while see progress as an elusive goal and a different perspective is truly welcome to help shake things up.
On of the biggest takeaways for me so far is my neglect of VO2 type work, typically focusing on FT or sweet spot stuff and lots of easy Z1/Z2 stuff. and My FRC is way too low - working on that too :)
Tom
@Tom Glynn RE: "Also how can we track this stuff going forward? WKO calculates VO2Max but not VLaMax. It does calculate glycolytic capacity - which I believe is a metric similiar to VLaMax."
This is a tough one. WKO uses FRC (Functional Reserve Capacity) as a measure of how long and hard can you go above threshold. It is measured in KJ of work (time x power). I see it as related to VLaMax but not the same thing. How hard and how long I can go above threshold is certainly a function of anaerobic capacity, but it also has a aerobic component mixed in there that may be hard to separate out the two. The majority of the "FRC space" (the area above the FTP line) is 0-30 minutes and heavily influenced by the shorter durations. You migtht see a decrease in short duration sprint power ( less than a minute), but you maysee an increase in aerobic power duration 3-20 minutes. That is all rolled into a single metric.
We might be able to use it, I'm not quite sure. It seems at the outset to be too general of a measure because it combines the use of aerobic and anaerobic systems into a single metric. Just because FRC is lower, I'm not sure we can draw the conclusion that the VLaMax is lower. Maybe, but because it mixes in the aerobic system too, then I'm not sure I would be comfortable staying FRC can used metric to track VLaMax just yet. I guess we'll see.
@matt limbert Thanks for the note above. I agree that the FRC metric is pretty good but not a proxy for VLaMax.
I was watching one of their videos here: https://youtu.be/2l8s02nFMKc
I went digging through the WKO charts and found a few on glycolytic power. I don't know how to interpret them but thought if we could, it could give us some insight into tracking our VLaMax without having to test all the time.
Here are a couple of my charts:
dumb question - will you(@Coach Patrick ) be doing a new live webinar for the august group? or should we watch the recorded one above?
@scott dinhofer yes there will be a Wed video call on VLaMax and the ride this weekend.