EVOQ.BIKE Cycling Podcast

Interval progression: when do we add more watts, and when do we add more time? Let’s talk about 4 scenarios: FTP, vo2max, over unders and tempo. My former coach, Tom Bell, just spoke about this on That Triathlon Show. He talked about his strategy (which was used when I worked with him last season as an athlete) 25:50 * If only some workouts are optimal for the athlete, I think repeating the same workout design for a period is helpful. * You might add an arbitrary amount of repeats to a single interval, but no one knows if that is the right thing to do.   if you did 4 x 10, who knows if you could have done 4 x 12…. * We ask athletes to repeat the same protocol, with the difference of going long on the last interval (let the athlete find the right level of progression). We trained vo2max from a physiological aspect, not just adding watts. Progressive overload with steady state intervals is fairly obvious and what we were doing a lot of in 2009-2010 For the following examples, let's assume athlete has an FTP of 300W FTP intervals: 4 x 10m @ 300-315W, rest 5m between. Do we add more time?   max around 1hour. Other coaches will add more, I just don’t find the fatigue to create any more success for athletes. american athlete, listen to grant koontz 8-12m power is a big decider in road races. When do we ride at 330W? Higher level athlete, or one-off effort when feeling good. If you can knock out one, can you do two? Then what is the third? where does the athlete get dropped? is it at the end of the race on a 10m climb….then more important to get those repeats in. is it a random just lack of power, I want more watts! 4 x 8m over and over with higher watts until we hit 110%…. When do we PR? VO2max intervals: 5 x 5m @ 360W? How do we look at repeatability? When do we do longer but lower watts? (Variety and slow component…race specific, very supra threshold!) When do we PR? When do we focus on shorter and harder? (before races, super hard starts are nice) Over Unders: 3 x 12m with 30s @ 120% and 2m @ 75-85% Most hit a homerun with this Just elongating to 45s makes it much harder. Or: 4m @ 110%, then 1m @ 106% and 1.5m @ 70-80% let’s talk over unders: if it’s 3 x 12m, If they absolutely crushed them, I’m NOT going to 15m, i’m going to a little longer over….i might start them with a 3m min over, and then the work.do they have a big anaerobic capacity? we might really need to make the overs harder ATHLETE SPECIFIC….what is their event? TEMPO maybe 80m-100m over a 3-4h ride, 15-20m chunks, actually quite tough. Great muscular component quite fun ride really goes along quickly Email me with questions or comment below! Brendan @EVOQ. BIKE  training packs: https://www.evoq.bike/training-packs Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4n Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889

down about training or racing? wow, I got in my head on racing for a bit...a combination of a lot of missed races due to broken equipment and freak things (shearing off a crank before the early races in FL), then cancelled races in NC, then covid, then a seized seat post and missed the race with Bodo, then covid dragged into a horrible nationals, then on the road for 10 weeks waiting waiting waiting to move into my house, just got exhausted. then, started thinking "Wtf am i doing with my life. Riding training racing....but I'm an amateur, why spend so much time doing this?"  the race in ecuador, and therefore not much offseason, really just strung things out too long for me.  just Went for 3 weeks with no bike, didn't miss it, and that worried me a bit. Had i been blinded the past few years with all the riding?  so then i looked back at what I'd been doing, why did I start racing., what did I do before racing? Thinking back not as a whole, but season by season, it was nice to think of the different events and accomplishments. also to realize, It doesn't take many races to feel like you've had a great season. With social media, there's a race nearly every day it seems, and when you're only doing 10 events, it's like "I'm not even racing".....10 weekends of racing IS A LOT.  Came home, got on my bike, a 2h ride is quite difficult, and going back to normal human fitness, it really made me appreciate the rewards of being an endurance athlete....being fit, being able to ride 5 hours in one day (I could not do that yesterday if i wanted to), feeling accomplished.  So why post this????? If you are feeling down, or questioning your training, look back in small chunks at all that you have accomplished. Look back at life without the bike and honestly ask yourself, was it better? Look forward to maybe some new events, new adventures, NEW GOALS. Gotta have goals!   Then go ride for the sake of riding. It really just helped make everything click.  xo

Love that people are planning their next seasons! Planning equates to success. Athlete reached out with “What’s best way to make offseason gains? aside from weights” I asked him, what do you think? His initial response: Recover a bit and look back at season. Assess Strengths, weaknesses, and set goals For racing, training, and key improvement areas. this is my first true off-season from “real volume and racing.” Last year any time on the bike was almost good time so this year I’m going to focus more. by mid October base miles, find some tempo, and get the lifting form down. November and December longer tempo. Heavier lifting progression 2-3 days a week, and sniffing first low end efforts toward late December (I think). January start itching for motivation so find some vo2 or super shorty Zwift races for fun and opening things up… lifting still, more focused and a hair lighter but higher volume. Feb- getting back to specificity. My reply: yeah this all sounds pretty close to good. Some things I'd change are a bit less long tempo; really focus on hours at endurance as much as u can handle if it's mainly indoors. Lift heavy even as race season approaches; scratch the lighter/higher volume; that's usually very tiring with a lot of residual fatigue. Zwift races sparingly are great to keep the motivation going. MOTIVATION FOR THOSE WHO FOUND CYCLING LATER IN LIFE. Please watch from 07:30 and on after he said, "I Am 37 so I know I have a little time left in the legs and lungs." A LITTLE?!?!?! Man, I am Fastest at 40!  and listen in on Bodo crushing Leadville at 50!!!! brendan@evoq.bike tempo post: https://www.evoq.bike/blog/tempo-cycling-important training packs: https://www.evoq.bike/training-packs Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4n Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889 Please like and subscribe, it helps us so much; we're close to 3k subscribers!

A great question from our discord. If you aren't there, join the conversation today! https://discord.gg/ThTYry6kuE  How to use Post-Race, Pre-Winter months for cycling training. I could use some advice on where to take my training at this point into my 2nd season... I initially built towards a 40k TT in May, then did tons of unstructured Z2 (60-70 hrs/month, only high-intensity was on a weekly group ride) to build for a 12hr event in mid-August. 1. Now I have a couple more 100-200 mile gravel races I could do early to mid October, but on the fence about those. 2. We've got about 2 months till winter here, at which point I'll shift to primarily lifting. But I don't know what to do till then. Is there a point to high-intensity this late in the season when I've already neglected it for so long? 3. Can continuing z2 now still benefit me for next season? 4. Also considering using it to just lose some weight without worrying too much about specific training. Or start the gym early. Tl;dr how can I effectively use post-race but pre-winter months? What are his strengths and weaknesses? If he’s a huge anaerobic beast, then no, I wouldn’t use this time for high intensity. Anaerobic Capacity Blog:  https://www.evoq.bike/blog/anaerobic-capacity-cycling 1. do the long gravel if they’ll be fun because long rides are gold, and it could be a blast. 2. If he needs work, this is a great time; learn how to go super deep. USE KOM’s. I use this time for more familiarity with these efforts; HOW TO RIDE above threshold, really hard 5-8, efforts. Just death tolls. 3. Endurance: z2 will benefit you forever. seriously. i still ride z2 and i'm 150,000 miles into training. IT NEVER SHOULD STOP (sorry for the yelling). Why ride endurance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uld9mAlF7Y He’s NEW, keep riding! can't be adamant about that enough esp since you are SO SO SO NEW. i'd go for some free rides, KOMs, and a little less structure....keep it fun, just riding will benefit you massively. 4. LOSE WEIGHT in November and December. ALSO focus on making lifetime changes, not just losing weight! YEARLY HOURS: we’re only talking about 2 months; what about an 80h goal or bump up hourly hours by 10h. don't burn out from workouts, it's a long road ahead. 🍕 🍟 🍺 Season Planning Blog: https://www.evoq.bike/blog/cycling-season-planning Anaerobic Blog: https://www.evoq.bike/blog/anaerobic-capacity-cycling

YT: https://youtu.be/jpzcq03Re0o I wanted to go for a mega climbing day out of Blowing Rock, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I made a route with 17,500 of climbing, and hoped to do it in 7-8 hours. Someone asked me to discuss the recovery from a 7,000kj day, but some other pearls popped up as I started to put that together for them. Hope this video helps you ride farther and ride faster! Goal: complete 17,500 foot day in 7.5h Pacing: 3-4 hours of tempo or higher avoid zone 5, muscular strain. I did’t want to be wrecked, I wanted to ride half the ride the next day (different route, but 50% of the distance and elevation) Strategy: Tempo+ goal, thinking of the last 15 miles (hot, climbing nonstop.). Avoid VO2Max efforts. Research Comparison: Gravel Nationals 2019 5.5h, 104m, 430tss, 5600kj Gravel Worlds: 7h, 150m, 476 tss, avg 278, np 332, 7000kj…4th hour the hardest, 381w NP, 22m of vo2max or higher Final stats of this ride: 8h, 131m, 18,500f elevation, 7300kj, 440 tss, 302NP, 251W Topics: 1. Looking at all the climbs 2. Gearing on bike (how steep are the climbs?) 3. Preparation: some simple additions of stretching and lifting were key! 4. nutrition carb goals 5. Pacing strategy 6. where in training i’d put this (only if racing this…2 solid recovery days after) 7. how to recover from it Breakfast: Oats, banana, honey, almonds, chia seeds, COFFEE! (Follow on IG if you like coffee) carbs for the ride: 1050g 3 bottles 170g 350g syrup 6 gels = 132g 120g extra drink mix leave house 772g planning to get 300g more = 134 divided by 8h = 134    7.5h = 143g per hour Taper before? Not even close to needed. How to recover from it -planning post ride relaxation - reishi https://www.realmushrooms.com/ - cbd: https://www.hellobluecbd.com/ (Code Brendan) - Lactigo: www.lactigo.com/brendan - foam roll - stretch - healthy food - water! - Walk - Massage gun - cerave: https://amzn.to/3TEnX02 SUNDAYS ride: 4.5h, 80 miles, 9500f, 240 tss 1600tss week, 26,000kj ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4n Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889 EVOQ Training Packs: https://www.evoq.bike/training-packs Chapters: 00:00 Welcome! Big Ride! 01:43 The Climbs (the huge ones) 03:54 Final NP, 302W NP 04:06 Comparing to Gravel Nationals or Gravel Worlds!? 05:25 Tactic for Pacing? 06:36 Gearing 08:06 How Do We Get Dropped? 08:36 Carb Goals, 1000g+ 09:58 Where would I put this on Training Calendar 11:46 Rant on tapering 12:50 Recovery: Post Ride Planning! 16:08 2023 Plans

Unfortunately, there is no perfect equation; but hopefully this video helps you with YOUR art of coaching. Some show notes/bullet points: Grossly untrue: Athlete with a CTL of 85 will last longer than an athlete with a CTL of 70 https://youtu.be/-nRcySlOJ40

3hour ride, given different amounts of rest or temps, the same ride on a different day could be 10bpm higher than it was previously question is: even if the perceived exertion is similar, physiologically does it make more sense to shoot for HR instead of power? part 2, what about shooting for different targets within the zone, low or high zone 2? More on this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m1nT-4n99Q I like this because he’s focused on not going too hard, and also staying within the proper zone. this is a topic of contention between people. some will shoot more for HR but as you said, so many things can affect it: sleep stress caffeine TEMP etc....so it's better to use RPE in my opinion. are you SLUGGING IT OUT to hit zone 2 #s? If so, you're going too hard. dial it back. is the HR 10bpm higher but mainly because of heat and a long ass ride, but you feel fine, keep pedaling. Power within zone: same thing. if you are dying trying to hit 75%, its too hard that day. chill and ride at 60%. you will get a better sense of this as u get more expefienced. some days endurance is hard, and thats okay. for me, if I’m super fresh, I know my HR is going to be higher for z2 rides, but also really hard efforts. so as I get fitter, the HR drops a bit and is stable across z2 rides, and if I go and do some z4-5, it’s not skyrocketing. To me, that is GOOD. I don’t want my HR beating out of my chest.I’ve had athletes that get fit and then say “I couldn’t get my HR up, I wonder if I’m tired”. Well, are you? Do you feel tired? Are the watts suffering? If not, it’s just fitness! Lower HR is good https://youtu.be/OcQXo_2yp7o

Produce more power by burning more fuel  1  why do you want a strong aerobic metabolism for short 1 hour races? 2. who wants a high anaerobic capacity or high VLaMax 3. what does the big aerobic base do for you besides long endurance rides? This might surprise you. 4. interval trick that i learned from inscyd Endurance video link: https://youtu.be/4uld9mAlF7Y   Training Packs comments and critiques! https://www.evoq.bike/training-packs  riders generate lactate every time they jump out of a corner when produced by glycolysis glycolytic metabolism produces lactate. aerobic metabolism consumes lactate. you’re always producing lactate. even on an endurance ride; but it’s such a small amount, and the aerobic system gobbles that up. road racing repeated attacks; criterium racing. back to the race; you produce these big bouts of lactate, and then it’s consumed in the less intense moments (as long as you keep pedaling) when it’s transferred from fast twitch fibers to the slow twitch fibers. head nod to Sebastian Weber  so #1, if you have a BIG aerobic base, you can make this huge glycolytic efforts, and your aerobic system will still consume the lactate. You will have a better sprint at the end versus someone who is not aerobically trained; they will be more fatigued and you will have greater fatigue resistance. said differently, if you are poorly trained aerobically or have a high vlamax, you can throttle insane watts but don’t have the metabolism to consume this.   2. who wants high vlamax? PURE SPRINTER or kilo rider (they want HUGE power output from glycolytic system, raw power, because their race is over after the last sprint or one mega effort) high vlamax, u need a big vo2max, because lactate is the fuel for the aerobic metabolism. 3. the more aerobic you are, THE MORE FUEL YOU BURN; the more you burn, the more power you have.  Cooling system on a car; you want to get more oxygen in to burn more fuel and produce more power 4. keep pedaling between intervals what’s next: How to structure base miles; redesigning 5 blocks to racing. It’s not sexy, less intervals. I know athletes “want to train”, but it’s AEROBIC TRAINING. Go Ski! https://youtu.be/vKrfmur8yP8 

Why did we ride at threshold ? Why should we still ride at threshold? What should we do to increase ftp? Training Packs mentioned, with new time crunched athlete pack on the way: https://www.evoq.bike/training-packs Why did we ride at threshold? * Riding solely at threshold in order to increase our lactate threshold is somewhat of an outdated training philosophy. I’m not knocking it! I was brought up on a threshold model, and did well, but I now know that it was not optimal. So, why did we utilize so much threshold training? We were under the impression that this was how we would increase it: ride at threshold, you’ll adapt, come back stronger, and push higher watts. * This does not improve the lactate threshold which is related to your FTP Lactate threshold is the inflection point where lactate exponentially increase, whereas FTP is the power you can put out in a quasi-steady state for around an hour why ride at threshold? * Increased endurance at this power * Increased muscular strength * Familiarity with tolerating these levels of lactate. What should we do instead Vo2max intervals over unders some threshold test #s at threshold Constant power intervals should still be in your training diet for most of us, but NOT the main driver of FTP improvement. Training Peaks Store with Pre-Built Workouts and access to some training guides: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/search?language=en&sort.field=soldCount&sort.dir=desc&keyword=evoq&index=0 Brendan @EVOQ. BIKE https://youtu.be/_Vn4kficu5I

"These Vo2max workouts typically give me major anxiety but I didn’t let it get to me this time - just got it done. Let the numbers be whatever they were. And they ended up being pretty good. Dug deep for sure."  Me: Ooooh man that is a break through! don't overthink these, and happy to chat about this if needed. a good podcast! when u wake up, whatever numbers you're going to put out are set. it's not like you're going to think harder and worry about them and have 20 more watts. Just show up and rip it. I'd rather you spend that mental energy on talking through a rehearsal of how it will go, or positive talk (altho this doesn't work for everyone).   i just think, "I'm going to go really hard today, and i know if will hurt, but it's only for x minutes. That's so freaking short. And if i want to win something this year, this is what it takes. I'm doing this workout to win."  Then it all seems worth it, and I'm hungry to try my hardest, versus being worried about it.  Please Like and Subscribe to the channel!  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4nFollow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889