Theories and More Theories...

I have been thinking for a while about my training and the different phases of it and when I will "come into form". I have a theory... it is mostly me trying to rationalize why my form seems to be lagging behind several of my teammates... this was proven yet again on yesterday's effort. I was dropped during a hard rotation and just could not put anymore out.

Here is the deal... I rode with my teammates all last season... we all ebb and flowed along, some better one month, some better another month. I had worked harder and smarter than I ever have in the offseason... I lost 7 lbs since last season. I really expect to be much better this season than last season and still racing in the same category. Since I do not appear to be performing up to snuff (based on comparison to my teammates), I have developed the following fall back theory...

So, here it is... be patient, it takes some build-up

I weigh 180-185 lbs depending on the day and time that I weigh. I became convinced after much research, that my focus during the winter should be on L1 to L4 efforts. In particular, one L4 effort per week (40min FTP TT on Tuesdays) with several L2-L3 workouts throughout the week to build up to a certain CTL- thus "base miles". These would be base miles on steroids, though... I was really not holding back except to stay under threshold... I could ride as hard as I wanted up to 300 Watts. I spent most of my time at L3...

There arose a situation that I noticed during the winter. When I would go out on the Saturday group ride (I probably made it to half of the peach peleton rides this winter), the pace up the hills would force me into a wattage much higher than threshold, even though I did not feel like I was killing it, my weight was forcing my wattage above threshold and me into doing microintervals. Like I said, I realized this was happening, and based on further research, decided to minimize the peach rides I did, and minimize my time over threshold (other than 15 sec sprints). I started riding with some newbies and I would pull all of our long rides. With this strategy, I could keep a perfect wattage up hills, downhills, and on flats... never going into the red, but pushing the line all the time. The point is, at my weight, I dont ever ride like this with competitive riders... ever. If we are riding a moderately spirited ride, I will be hitting 500 Watts on power hills. There is no doubt.

I realized it one time when my waifish teammate commented to "keep it under 400 Watts" because he thought I was pushing to quickly up an incline. When I looked down, I was in the 550Watt range. This is foreign to a guy that weighs 145 lbs in Macon Georgia. The rollers here should not force him into that range unless he is really killing it...

SO... I decide to hold 300 Watts on all uphills during the offseason... this makes for a slow offseason racer, but a good pal to newbies.

Fast forward a month... now I go out with a bunch of folks that have been riding attack zones throughout the winter. Their anaerobic systems are not as untrained as mine are for sure... they should be beating me... but when and why?

Not in the mountains... they should have not advantage there (I am speaking of the guys that are my weight, of course)... those are threshold efforts (long climbs... not long, but long for the south... 15 minutes+... or threshold plus 10% maybe)... more of a VO2 effort with a little anaerobic system mixed in but mostly aerobic. My thought is that I was off my game for this one. One of my teammates rode the first climb and he hit at 10% over threshold... I rode (what felt like all out) at 10% below threshold and felt like it was all I had.

What about Saturday? I got worked with a thousand tiny accelerations... working through the echelon for hours. Was the workout intense... yes, my NP was 266 at 3:30 and I had spent the first 40 minutes before I met the guys screwing around at 210W NP. It looks like the NP for each of the long stints was around 280W... that should not have killed me... my FTP is close to 300 for heavens sake. The only answer (other than continuing this BS theory that I was off my game) is that I am accumulating lactic acid in my muscles due to an untrained anaerobic system. That the intensity in my training over the past months has not put me in a position to excel in these efforts I am faced with.

The good news... if my theory is right, I will build my anaerobic system over the next two weeks and then prepare both aerobic and anaerobic systems for peak output over 5 weeks of racing... recover for a few weeks... rebuild... and 5 more weeks of racing.

If the theory is right, things are proceeding perfectly and according to plan. If the theory is wrong... I will need to work hard to develop a new theory before my next entry... maybe harder than I have worked this entire offseason.