The Stay the Course Thread
Hey folks,
I just went strolling through the OS Groups and saw all of the incredible gains that so many of you are making, on the bike and run. In short...I'm friggin' pumped!! Awesome to see the workworking and so many people learning that they can do more work and that workWORKS!!
We're going into the holidays and in a few short weeks your Old Skool training partners will begin their own training. You'll start chatting with them about their training, they'll ask you what you've been doing...and will look at you like you have horns growing out of your head. They're going to question your high intensity focus, say should be building your base and other recycled, Oct-Feb training advice.
Here's the Deal:
There is No Fast without Fast, Especially on the Bike
You need to have absolute confidence that your new 200w FTP self is faster, at all distances, than your former 170w self. The Old Skool says that Base Building Mr 170 has some pixie dust endurance mojo that will allow him to ride faster on a longer ride than you, Mr 200w FTP. That is, at some ride time > X, the endurance created through base building rides will allow Mr 170 to catch and beat Mr 200. In our experience, this is bullshit.
Given equal weight, equal bike set up, and equal pacing (ie, two people each pacing a long ride well) the winner will ALWAYS be the guy with the higher FTP. Period.
The run is a little different, as durability issues begin to surface at runs longer than about...1:20. But, all things being equal, the cat with the higher VDot will always run faster than the cat with the lower VDot, at "most" distances, but certainly at the distances we are concerned with on December 21st, with months and months on the calendar to address these durability and endurance issues.
Volume is Overrated
Remember that we have 4yrs of experience with the Tour of California with OS-training peeps going from 3-4hrs/wk on the bike on a trainer to 20-25hrs+ the next week on crazy challenging roads.
Also, I personally have many, many years of experience, across many, many athletes, with bringing both warm and cold winter athletes to the same early season (April-June) HIM's and IMs. Basically, between Crucible Fitness and now EN I've been running a lab since about 2002 where I would have two sets of people training for the same races. Let's pick IMCDA:
- Cold Winter Group: peeps stuck on trainers, doing OS flavor work, until they were able to get outside consistently, usually about April
- Warm Winter Group (me and local hommies) doing "mostly" OS flavor work, but with HIM style volume (2-3hr long ride, 1:30ish long run) as early as January.
In my experience (I coached 27 people to IMCDA in '03, about 15 to '05, and 17-~30 every year since) there was no appreciable difference between the two groups come race day. At least not any difference you could attribute to lack of endurance, saddle or road time.
All I would see was that April was a weird month from the Cold Winter Peeps, as they go from 1:30 long trainer rides to 3hr rides. But after about a week or two, they were just as fit, just as fast as their Warm Winter Peers who had been doing more volume since January.
How Big is Your N?
"N" is geekspeak for the size of a data sample.
- There's what your training partner thinks, based on "a" book he's read, maybe, and his N = 1 sample.
- There's what the local fastguy/coach thinks he knows, based on the "few" books his read, his N = 1 x the several IM's (maybe) he has done, + the N x however many local athletes he's coached.
- Then there's the big friggin' 34pt font "N" of R + P + EN = the above is absolutely true. Period, full stop.
So, our guidance:
- Believe in the power and knowledge of the EN "N"
- Ignore the n of your training partners and local coaches.
- Do the workworks. Put weight on the bar, lift it, recover, repeat. Your ONLY JOB between now and the end of the OS is to think like and become a little friggin' monster. A mad, pissed off, crank ripping and asphalt shredding little monster that's locked in a cage and scratching hashmarks on the bars with a rusty nail counting the days until...
- We let you out of the cage and you rip everyone's legs off, including Old You, in about April.
Here endeth the lesson.
Comments
I'm going to copy the above post and email it to my dear friend. Probably won't change their mind, but perhaps it will plant a seed of doubt on what the Tri mag plan states is the thing to do.
How I worship the WorkWorks Gurus....
I drink the koolaid, mash the peddles, drool on the PM..... "luctoret emergo" (I struggle and emerge)
Power to me thru you the Great "N"
..... sorry I got carried away..... =:-]
Just in time. I'm working my race calendar for 2011 and I was wondering when I was going to start "up-ing" my volume. I am now committed again to the entire Nov 20 week OS plan! As a civil engineer I understand the significance of a large sample set to deduce conclusions - I trust RnP with their large "N" !
WORD!
My N=1: I did last year's OS, beginner's version. Run and bike, the whole deal.
I then gave up the running, chose to explore the world of endurance cycling. Never rode more than 65 miles during the OS. Off this "base" I successfully rode a full "Super Randonneur Series": 200k, 300k, 400k, 600k. I was consistently in the top 5, using my powermeter to pace myself then kill 'em at the end. Lots of guys can ride hard for 150-200 miles; very few pace themselves well enough to be strong at the end.
I'm no aerobic monster: 55 years old, started the OS@195 watts, in season I was@240 watts.
The point? The long winter base miles I once held so dearly have nothing to do with in-season success.
P.S. I also went on to complete a 1000k brevet and many other shorter ones; I'm at 3700k in sanctioned brevets since April! A 300k hilly brevet in 12:30, 400 flattish k's in 16:00. Fast! The triathlon transition killer in me served me well at controls; I dropped lots of riders there.
Amen.
Besides, I kind of like my pain cave...
Solid advice and a great reminder to not get sucked into the volume vortex of our non-EN friends and training partners.
It is also funny because one of them, after seeing the gains I made last OS, said he wanted to do that this year. Told him what it entailed, namely hard work, and he politely declined. Instead he's running 9 miles at around a 10 min/mi pace looking for that pixie dust.
"Droppin' science like Galileo dropped the orange"
Very inspirational - thanks Coach R.
You can't argue with success !! EN's method is validated at every IM. Great post.
A common phraze we all hear is " old age isn't for sissies" Well neither is training the EN way, only the highly motivated and the strong willed stick around and follow through, we are a unique group.
Very happy to be associated with all you training Ninjas !!!
A group I ride with does a day of interval work on the drainer... 6x3'@Zn4. I skip that and do 2x12'@Zn4 on three separate days this week. Hmmmm... seems like more speed entering my body!
Wait until this spring John when you're ripping the legs off your buddies on the group ride, you'll be hearing " Hey John give us some of whatever you are taking" Workworks, Baby !!!
Thanks Rich! I just read your post and can't wait to go down into my pain cave and shred some more bike intervals... Hoooo-Raahhhhhhhh!
I was at work yesterday and started chatting with a guy who did his 1st IM last yr and he followed the long slow training approach... Most of the other folks at work think I'm crazy for trying an IM next yr considering the overall volume of training that guy had to do. He asked me what I was doing for training and I described my intervals and power on my bike and high intensity stuff and he rolled his eyes at me. He said something like "but you seem strong and reasonably fast already... Aren't you just strengthening your strengths? You've never run a marathon or done even a Century ride... Shouldn't you be worried about building your base and making sure you can actually cover the distance?" I just smiled and said "I'm drinking the EN Kool-aid man and I'm not just gonna cover the distance at my race, I'm gonna crush this thing!" I simply got another skeptical eye roll as we politely went our separate ways!
John you will crush it, stay true to the Koolaide bro and it will pay off during the tough hours of the race.
I did my 1st IM last year. Never ran more than 18 miles but had stayed true to the coaching, the plans, the pacing and the fueling. Followed everything like a text book completed a 12 hr (12:05) IM in Louisville.........ran the whole marathon without stopping.
I was completely amazed I did not break down and walk during the marathon but workworks!
SS
I am starting to dig some scratch marks into my cage. May have to go outside and hammer on Christmas in layers. But believe me i will be doing OS style. No old school long bike rides in the cold for me......
Carrie, I am scared to ride with you, too. You fooking ROCK girl.
Merry Christmas.
With folks getting ready to hit the OS in a week or so, I thought a "bump" of this post would do us all some good. For those new to EN read Coach R's post at the beginning.
Good call! Topic pinned to the top of the forum!