Raising the Attic
There have been some great discussions elsewhere on increasing one’s FTP through raising the attic space.
I am now in my second year of the OS and seem to be on track to replicate the previous year. That is, at the beginning of the OS I will start with an FTP that has drifted down through the end of the season, then over the 20 weeks, I will slowly but surely bring it back to, or close to, what it was at its height during the previous year.
And to be clear, this is not a result of sandbagging through the OS. I rarely, if ever, miss a session, and always push to meet the bogeys that have been set. In short, I, like virtually everyone else in the November OS, am suffering and pushing.
So I guess my observation seems to be that after 33.5 years of running and a number of years of biking, it appears that, at 60 plus years on this rock, maintaining my current levels, or gaining a bit to get back to where I was a couple of years ago is perhaps close to the best I can hope for.
Thoughts?
Comments
Al, I believe there is still room for improvement but they might be small given your long training history. Also just being able to maintain what you have is a great accompishment as you get older. I mean look around at some other people my age (44) or yours.
Good Luck and crush it
Sometimes, we hit a plateau because we are as fast as we are physiologically capable of getting. This does happen, but it's very rare in the AG ranks. Sometimes, there's a plateau because we're just not working out enough to stimulate the adaptation desired. I'd suggest that this is rather rare for people following an OS style plan.
Other times, we hit a plateau because we haven't found a way to make the next leap forwards. Rich is quick to suggest that the best way to get faster is to ride with faster riders, and hang on for dear life. This has two effects: a training effect on the muscles, and a re-definition of what 'hard' is in the brain. I saw this first hand trying desperately to hang on to the wheels of Halligan, Patrick, and Bob this spring. I blew up spectacularly, but saw a big bump in FTP after that ride.
So, if you're having a hard time getting the big bump while riding the trainer, I'd say keep the faith. Do the work, and you will build the foundation for that big bump when you can get some rides in with faster folks. In the mean time, try not to over think it!
I'm impressed by anyone who can accomplish this at our age. I've finished 15 IMs between age 51 and 61, and my six fastest were that last six. That's what gives me continued motivation to just try and maintain. Better to burn out than to rust.
Also, for those in the Nov OS, this is the dark hour before the dawn. The real measure of your work is not the numbers you put up this month, but what yo do in your goal races.
I do think that extended recovery requirements make it challenging to keep increasing FTP and Vo2max in older athletes, however, I try not to get too concerned about the numbers. Back in the day, I used to spend the winter on the trainer doing anaerobic threshold and VO2 max work according to Dave Scott's Triathlon Training book. I didn't have a power meter, and just tried to follow the interval duration, intensity, and rest intervals. (I didn;t even have a HRM for many years). What I was doing was an OS protocol of limited time training and plenty of intensity. I did not like the trainer, and was just not willing to sit there for three hours watching TDF videos. When spring came, I was fit and prepared to start riding longer and already had a solid foundation of intensity on which to build my race-specific endurance.
While I am as OCD about my "numbers" as anyone else... the reality is that my Ironman time will depend on a lot of things. If I follow the OS the best I can and try not to sweat the numbers, I know from experience that, in reality, I will increase my FTP to a level that translates to an Ironman time significantly faster than I will probaably actually accomplish on race day. While not exactly "training to train," I am using the OS to enter Race Specific Training mentally fresh with plenty of SAU's. If all goes well... I do expect an Ironman PR at age 52... at least, that's my goal :-)
Doing this stuff at 50+ is awesome. Just keep it rolling and HAVE FUN!
...having 'pinged' my hamstring last Sunday at the end of the first week of the January OS, and therefore having to take a light run week...bike is still going great...getting that recovery/how-much-can-I-really-take balance is going to be the trick to see how much of increase I can actually squeeze out without breaking something
@ Steve - During my twelve years of training for 20 IMs over the age of fifty, I have never had an overuse injury - really no injury of any kind except for the major bike accident I had last fall. The three months after that event has been the only time I have been unable to train since 1999. And now as I am ramping back up again from basically square zero, I still do not have any "pings" appearing anywhere.
I attribute this to close attention to a long slow build-up. IM FL is a long way away; there is a lot of time to slowly build to the heavy weeks you'll have in Sept and Oct. My "A" race this year is two weeks after that, IM AZ, so I am not at all interested in testing my limits at this stage of the season. At this point, I think we are simply "training to train"; the real work begins in August.
Yes, the speed work is potentially risky for us. But I do several things during each workout to work a little prevention. First, maybe a little more warm up than prescribed. For my runs, I run about 20 minutes to the local bike trail, which has half mile intervals marked off on it, where I do the "speed" work. Then, for the rest intervals, I do one of two things a little outside the standard recommendation. I either walk for about a minute at the start of each rest interval, until my HR gets below about 100, or I lengthen the rest interval by about 10-20 %, jogging with my HR around 115 (for reference, my HR during mile intervals of 7:20 is 144 now; in a 5K, I'l be at 155).
@Al, thanks for taking the time to drop a note...I love your injury-free track record...I'm usually pretty sturdy as well, although not as spotless
...the hamstring thing was in the first 1/2 mile interval of the workout, which happened to be on a downhill section...note to self..._no_ fast stuff on downhills...
Luckily, on light jogging this week for the prescribed 'time' of each workout, no pain anywhere, so that's good
...so I'll start easing back into it a bit next week again...expand my warm-up and rest intervals...and keep the intensity well below spec in the short-mid term
...and continue to hammer the bike stuff which has been going well
Reading this post has brought a question to the forefront of my brain. One of the factors that I have had to deal with is that I have been at this game a long time. I started in 1982 with my first IM in 1986. Yes it was the time before triathlon specific wetsuits, the Boone aerobars were just coming out, lime green Tinley shorty shorts, (yes I digress). One part of my brain says that I cannot see the running or triathlon race times that I had in my 20s and 30s. But on the other hand I see other athletes in my age group doing AMAZING things. So I have the 2 sides of my brain battling like it is mile 20 on the IM run course.
Part of me is to be realistic and the other part is to dream of times gone by......
I hope that I am not alone.
Yano,
A word of comfort and hope: in 2009 I followed EN's OS and IM plan, executed (finally!) a great IM and broke my 21 year old IM PR. It can be done!
Guys - I completely agree with Al's comments about taking more time to warm up. While I'm new to triathlons in the last year, I've been running since high school, and the big thing I KNOW I MUST DO is warm up slowly and completely before taking on any intervals. So I always do at least the minimum 15' standard warm up for both running or biking. Often I'll make it 20'. If I'm pressed for time, I never shorten the warm up, do the full MS as best I can and then shorten the back end Z3 stuff to leave time to stretch. For me the post stretch is just as important as the WM. I find if I do these things consistently, I stay fairly injury free. I'm not as injury free as Al, but at least I am able to avoid a major blowout that shuts me down for an extended period of time.
I like Al's idea of walking for the first minute in the rest interval or adding 10% more time to the rest interval. Will give it a try (no pun intended).
@ Bill - Way to go on setting a PR 21 years after first PR. Quite impressive.
I attribute my injury free experience to training in three separate disciplines - four if your count my usually twice a week weight lifting sessions. Following the EN plan causes me to work hard, however the schedule of bikes and runs (I try to swim a couple of days a week during the OS as well) seems to generate a solid, balanced training effort. As a several decade runner with specific muscle overuse and counterbalancing lack of use issues during those days, I find the swim/bike/run aspects of triathlon to be a welcome improvement and something that will, hopefully, keep me healthy and strong going forward into the future.