Thanks for the input! We have a lot of trash talkers in the area. So a few faster(use to be much much faster) guys told me two years ago that I was not one the same level and would pretty much never be. Someone can throw an elbow during a race, but nothing motivates me like someone else’s doubt. These guys pretty much take the winter off(or at least 3 months), so when I know they are sipping beer at the ski lodge I am sweating it out in my pain cave!
I am going to try some solid base work with a weekly hard VO2 workout. Steve Neal who was on some of the recent Flo podcasts seems to like to mix in a few hard higher intensity workout into his base plans. I know last winter when did TB to SSB it was hard to get back in the mindset of pain once build phase came!
VO2 kinetics and HR aren’t connected (not really). There are lots of parts that go into a VO2max interval, I do my best to keep it as simple as possible. HR is used only as a pseudo-proxy for the process as it (>90% HRmax) correlates somewhat well for most people.
Not sure what it means if your HR is reacting that fast, and rising at threshold power to a level similar to VO2max power. I suspect neither scenario is a perfect one.
Thanks. I will try that. And increase the recovery time between intervals. I wud defo agree there is a quick drop off between my threshold n vo2 max. I see this a lot when keeping up with better climbers. I try n keep up and fail badly. If i drop off n go at my own pace i have much better overall time.
I agree… im relatively new to training and was told to not go above 140bpm in off season … instead build base with v long rides. This advice was terrible for me. I lost loads fitness. Im keeping up intensity now so have stronger base for next yr
you may just be more of a diesel engine. some athletes can do 120% no problem, whereas others hit 108-110% and really struggle. So while it may be a weakness, also look at your goals in cx and xc; clearly you need to be able to go hard in those types of races, and over and over again. Work on that as you build fitness into this spring, but don’t go too ham too early, because CX isn’t until fall as you mentioned.
