Small book review; the Time Crunched Cyclist

Last weeks I (or better said months) I took the time to read The Time Crunched Cyclist by Chris Carmichael. Who? The guy who has been training Lance Armstrong for ages. That's the guy.

 

 

Why did I buy the book? Just because I was curious about the training method he proposes for someone who hasn't got a lot of time to train because -of the more important things in life like- family, work, social activities, etc. , but still want to improve in a time effective way. Although I still read some on the internet about his approach I still wanted to have the book.

Well. What's it about?

If you want to improve with little training time it's fairly simple. If it doesn't come from the time factor of training it has to come out of the intensity. Pro's have time to create a strong aerobic base by doing hours and hours of riding. We (most of you probably) don't have so much time. Carmicheals plan is for people who have approx 6 hours a week available to ride. He also states that of you have more than 10 hours a week he would advocate more of the traditional endurance training model. This program is more of an ''on/off' and would not be even be appropriate if you go over 10-12 hours a week because there isn't enough time to recover.

The program takes 11 weeks and around week 8 you will get to your peakperformance. More experienced rider will see a decrease in performance after week 11. After week 3 there is some recovery week.

He immediately states that there is a drawback from the program that it won't really work for efforts longer than 3 hours. So if you want to do a cyclosportive of let's say the Marmotte caliber and want to ride a fast time this is not really the program to do because you will be sitting on your bike at least 9 hours (for the average rider that is) and you will need to do more long rides. Although he does make the suggestion that for these longers rides you can also use the program but then with lower intensities (that might be OK to finish but not for a fast time). Also the program leads to time crunched fitness that is you won't be able to hold your peak for very long nor will you be able to do more of this program than 9-10 weeks.

To set the starting value against which to set your training levels (intensities) he proposes the 8 minute test, or as he calls it The CTS Field test (Carmichael Training System). It consists of 2 8 minute all out time trials separated by 10 minutes recovery. An athlete with a good aerobic engine will do the second 8 minute test within 5% of average power of the first 8 minutes. If the two efforts become more equal he claims it is a sign that the training has improved the ability to buffer lactate acid and to process the lactate. The training ranges should be set around the highest average power (or average heart rate) of the two 8 minute all outs. In terms of FTP you should take 90% of this effort. I won't go into the details of the setup of the test but if you do a proper warm up with some fast pedalling, 1 one minute all out, a few more minutes fast pedalling, the first 8 minute effort, 10 minute recovery fast pedalling and again 8 minutes you're basically there. Average cadence, average power, average HR are the things to collect afterwards.

After that he defines 5 zones:

Endurance for basic aerobic development (45-73% of CTS field test power) or (HR 50-91%)

Tempo improved aerobic endurance (80-85%)  or (HR 88-90%)

Steady state for increase power at lactate level (86-90%) or (HR 92-94%)

Climbing repeat for again increase power at lactate level (95-100%) or (HR 95-97%)

Power interval for increased power at VO2max (max effort, min. 101%) or (HR 100-max)

There are a number of programs: Century, Competitor divided by new and experienced. The difference is simple. Competitive is more for races (more maximal training) and Century more submaximal (lactate tolerance). Next to that there is a commuters plan, a cyclocross plan (which he states is the perfect application of the program) and a program for endurance mountainbike races.

 

In addition there are nutrition tips and about strength training but if you want to have more knowledge on that take an other book(s). In my opinion he could have kept it out of this book.

 

In all I can say that the book is worth the reading especially for the target group. For people who race a whole season (mainly crit) you can get some relevant info from it but also take into account the limitations (only up to 3hours, quick build up but you loose it quickly). If you want to ride a fast time in a cyclo ride it's also not that usefull I think because end of the day you do need to do some long rides for that. For mountainbike I cannot really judge it because I never do that. If you're looking for a structured slicded and diced training program (i.e. you're not used to make your own plan, or are new to it) it can be of help. I can however imagine that if you're new to training that you have to read some of the chapters twice. If you're more experienced you might get some new workout ideas.

 

In a while I will be making a new review about the book Racing Weight: How to get lean for peak performance  by Matt Fitzgerald. Let's see if I can get leaner ;)

Return of the dead sheep

Terrible training week. That is, I couldn't do a lot since my throat hurt a lot. Because of that I only felt like I could do something last Friday. I did TR Gray but not at FTP, but at a manageable 240 watt per 20 minute interval. It felt alright. HR was not very high so I got of the bike with a good feeling.

 

Today I went for a 3 hour ride (3.15h it turned out) and rode 97km. First 55m wind on the front and then 42 from behind. I was just riding along next to a dyke towards a village called Kruiningen and suddenly my eyes fell on 4 little feet sticking up in the air. When I came closer it turned out to be a dead sheep. His friends already left him/her because they were standing 100 meters further away. The thing looked kind of stiff. Probably has been there lying for a while......

  

Anyway. I had a nice ride. I guesstimate my NP was about 200. O yes. And this time my fat breakfast did work. I ate some yoghurt, 2 baked eggs with cheese and a bottle of whey protein before I went riding. The last hour I got hungry however so I took a banana (I know...it has carbs in it....). The feeling when I got home it one to keep next weeks. Maybe I am still gonna do Tour of Sufferlandria....we'll see.

Bad start

Bad start of 2014. I have not been feeling too well last days and today my throat just really hurt. I wanted to do TR Darwin which are 4 10 minute intervals @95-99% FTP. The outcome can be predicted I guess....

When warming up I couldn't breathe properly. It felt like my throat was on fire. So after a minute or so trying to ride at around 300 watts I have it a day and just rode an hour at 200-210 watts so I didn't have to breathe in too deep nor fast and my throat didn't hurt that much. Basically a small fat burning exercise, but there was not much more I could do because of my throat. Hopefully I will soon get better so I can pick up where I left it.......

 

I also see that my heart rate is doing weird things. That is, the signal or something like that because my heart rate does not crazy (at least that is not what I feel...). Maybe I need a new battery in the strap....

Bye bye 2013

On Sunday I had the intention to do a low carb ride. I wanted to eat a fatty breakfast instead of one with carbs so stimulate fat burning on my endurance ride. However, I only ate a little bit of Greek yoghurt and to do a 2.40min hour ride is not a good idea ;) The last hour I suddenly rode into "that wall". It came all of a sudden; I didn t feel it coming. So, good idea but bad execution. Next time I am gonna do it better. Guestimated NP 210 watts, 83km. 

Too bad this was also the last ride of the year. I wanted to do TR Darwin on Monday but I felt kind of ill. The kids, the wife have been ill as well and until now I was able to keep it away. I guess I am picking it up a bit as well......

O well. I hope 2014 will be a good year with a lot of enjoyable rides. The moral will be good anyway with my new Pina Dogma Think 2 65.1 which will be ready in March 2014.

Happy new year!

The Thumb?

The Thumb. I do not know where this name comes from but I guess if you have finished this one it's thumbs up. What was it? "3 sets of 3x3-minute VO2max repeats @ 110-120%FTP (with an extra 105%‘er to kick things off & tack on a few extra TSS points) with 4-minute recoveries between intervals & sets of intervals. " (Trainerroad).

Very nice workout. But of the Vo2max training I did until now it was the hardest one. Especially the last three intervals.

HR is going up each interval. The first four peaks are some 'warm up peaks' @ and slightly above FTP. Then there are 3 sets of 347W, 362W and 375W. As you can see I was struggling through the second last interval. I could maintain the 375W the first minute but then had to slowly let is go.....the average for that interval was 362W. Since I had a good feeling about this training and I really did not want to have a bad feeling by not being able to accomplish the training properly I tried a little mental game. The last interval I just said to myself: Just ride and ride the first minute and just see what happens after the minute, but at least stay in the first minute. When I was in the last interval I did manage and at high watts then I had to. Then I said to myself: try to hold on for 30 more seconds, and when I did this try 30 more and just see what happens the last minute and it is OK to completely break down. While hanging on the last minute for dear life I did manage to do 375 W which was good.

 

Breaking the 3 minute into smaller time pieces did help me. Maybe it can help you too when you're really struggling: make the goals a bit smaller instead of 'looking up that hill'' of AGAIN 3 minutes.....