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 ;)
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