Periodization

acoggan said:

Not working hard enough during your level 5 intervals.

If I did the math right, the Tuesday workout from earlier in the thread (since that sounds like the absolute hardest someone could go) yields 72 TSS points, very similar to what you might get from a set of 2x20's (despite the fact that IMO v02max intervals feel harder). Am I missing something?

whoawhoa said:

If I did the math right, the Tuesday workout from earlier in the thread (since that sounds like the absolute hardest someone could go) yields 72 TSS points, very similar to what you might get from a set of 2x20's (despite the fact that IMO v02max intervals feel harder). Am I missing something?

It sounds like you did the math correctly...indeed, to the extent that normalized represents a constraint on what you can do during any workout of duration X, it follows that regardless of the type of intervals that you do, the duration of the rest periods, etc., the maximum number of TSS that you can accumulate per unit time is essentially the same. But, that was my point initially: you implied that level 5 intervals resulted in less training stress (which TSS is supposed to represent), when this is not the case.

Of course, it could be that I misunderstood your initial comment, in which disregard everything I've said in response. 🙂

acoggan said:

to the extent that normalized represents a constraint on what you can do during any workout of duration X, it follows that regardless of the type of intervals that you do, the duration of the rest periods, etc., the maximum number of TSS that you can accumulate per unit time is essentially the same.

BTW, if you think about this a bit you'll quickly see the problem for the time-limited athlete: there's a limit to the extent to which you can compensate for low volume by raising the intensity. For example, when training only ~8 h/wk I can't get my average daily TSS over ~90 or so, even if I hammer myself every single day at an IF of ~0.9. Since the optimum training load for most people seems to be >100 TSS/d, it should be immediately clear that I'll always be undertrained unless I spend more time riding my bike. (OTOH, simply riding more won't necessarily solve the issue if all of my additional training is at a low intensity.)

acoggan said:

For example, when training only ~8 h/wk I can't get my average daily TSS over ~90 or so, even if I hammer myself every single day at an IF of ~0.9.

Aha! You just need to hit yourself with a bigger hammer. Let me introduce you to my little friend IF=.9-FIVE! 😄

frenchyge said:

Aha! You just need to hit yourself with a bigger hammer. Let me introduce you to my little friend IF=.9-FIVE! 😄

🙂

Actually, ~1 h on the ergometer at IF=0.95 is what I do on my "off" days, but by the time you factor in a little warm-up and cool-down, you don't get the full 90 TSS that you'd expect.

When training for the pursuit in '02, my wife's average daily IF was >0.9 for the last two months, and that was including all the slow rolling around that trackies tend to do when getting on/off the 'drome! :eek: Talk about the epitome of the "go hard or go home" training program...