This may be the world’s longest thread!
Ok, I completely skimmed this post. I’m Chris Thornham, the owner of FLO Cycling and the guy who interviewed Dr. Seiler on the Faster podcast by FLO. A few things I’d like to make clear.
- I don’t want people to get the impression that we/I think threshold training does not work! As Nate said, there are many ways to get fit and a polarized model is simply one approach.
- I love the guys at TR—I consider them all friends—and I’m in no way saying what they do doesn’t work or is less valuable than a polarized model.
- I’ve had great success with polarized training, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have had success with a threshold model.
For those more interested in what I’ve done, here is some info based on our podcast and a few more private conversations with Dr. Seiler.
I started riding again on May 14, 2018, after a long layoff—4+ years of little to no training. I estimated my returning FTP as 250W and have an actual test on May 28th of 262W. I ramp up pretty quickly in the beginning so I estimated 250W. On November 2, 2018, 5.5 months later, I had an FTP of 300W. All FTP tests were done with a ramp test. So that’s a 40-50 watt jump in FTP. A lot of those are easy “returning to training” watts. I’m 69-70kg for the record.
Here’s what my training looked like:
I spent the first 14 weeks strictly in Z1 totaling roughly 85 hours. Nothing else. I had a long layoff from cycling and a long injury history so I wanted a slow introduction to give the musculoskeletal system time to get used to cycling again. Even on my outdoor MTB rides, I climbed hills at 2mph or lower to keep my HR low. There were short moments were I snuck above 130, but when I did I brought my HR back below LT1 as soon as possible. I was VERY strict with this.
After the first 14 weeks, I introduced Z3 work, but not 10% right away. More like 5% or less. I’m still not at 10%.
My current training totals look like this:
- Total Training Time Including 14 week intro phase: 158 hours
- Total Time in Z1: 151 hours (96%)
- Total Time in Z3: 7 hours (4%)
My experience with Z3 workouts is as follows.
- Z3 work is done in intervals of 4, 8, or 16 minutes with 2 minutes of recovery.
- Intensities are between 102% and 110% of FTP. I did some math to figure this out but it’s not an exact science. I was trying to convert %HRMax and %VO2Max to Power and this is what I came up with.
- Maybe I’m still building mental toughness but I find right after an FTP test, 4-minute intervals at 102% of FTP are really hard.
- At the end of an 8-week training block, as fitness increases, the intervals become a lot easier allowing you to extend the interval length to 8 or 16 minutes. This, of course, is all based on the 102-110% of FTP numbering.
I hope this helps a bit! If anyone has questions, let me know.
And, if I didn’t make it clear enough already, the guys at TR are great. I recommend their product, and training programs all of the time, and I’m not on the payroll. I just know a good product when I see it.
Chris
FLO Cycling