Winter Training

whoawhoa said:

How should my Winter training differ from the rest of the year, if at all? Currently I'm doing 2 or 3 interval sessions a week, vo2 max or lactate threshold, and 4 or 5 Endurance rides. This sound about right? Should I go more or less intense.

That's way too much intensity for normal road cycling traing (TT, crit, and RR). Most guys do more long slow rides right now. Maybe the same hours but mostly z2 and z3. There are people I know that won't even use the big ring right now. You must develop your base or lower aerobic ability in order to build with intensity. If your season were a house, your long z2 work would be your slab and frame, while your intensity would be your bricks and roof. The frame allows your bricking, but the bricking is what makes you strong. MTB works on the same rules in most places. CX is an exception.

whoawhoa said:

How should my Winter training differ from the rest of the year, if at all? Currently I'm doing 2 or 3 interval sessions a week, vo2 max or lactate threshold, and 4 or 5 Endurance rides. This sound about right? Should I go more or less intense.

it depends on what you've previously done and currently how fit you are, along with your goals and when you start racing. in most instances it's imperative to do some moderate-intense training over the winter period. if all you do is base endurance training - you'll most likely lose fitness and be squandering valuable training time.

most people (and some coaches) suggest that base training should be done at low intensity (i.e., lots of volume) to build capillary density and muscle mitochondria. This premise falls down on two points (and probably others); 1) to stay reasonably fit from such training you'd need to do many hours of training per week -- this may be acceptable if you're a pro, but the vast majority of people here will go to work/school and not be able to do 6 hrs a day -- you may be limited to e.g., < 90-mins after work on the trainer.
2) muscle mitochondria and capillary density is linked to a high VO2max, and those adaptations occur (unsurprisingly) by training at intensities close to and around VO2max (and at ~ TT power). Some idiot coaches think that high intensity work (such as this) damages or bursts the capillaries. this is untrue.

Ric

"That's way too much intensity for normal road cycling traing (TT, crit, and RR). Most guys do more long slow rides right now. Maybe the same hours but mostly z2 and z3. There are people I know that won't even use the big ring right now. You must develop your base or lower aerobic ability in order to build with intensity. If your season were a house, your long z2 work would be your slab and frame, while your intensity would be your bricks and roof. The frame allows your bricking, but the bricking is what makes you strong. MTB works on the same rules in most places. CX is an exception."

Okay, I understand the house analogy, but I have a few questions with this:
1. Why do so much low intensity training? I can already ride double the distance of my longest goal race, so I don't think I need distance. And how can you get better without overload?
2. Why is cyclocross different? I understand it is only an hour or less, but so are most tt's.

"it depends on what you've previously done and currently how fit you are, along with your goals and when you start racing. in most instances it's imperative to do some moderate-intense training over the winter period. if all you do is base endurance training - you'll most likely lose fitness and be squandering valuable training time.

most people (and some coaches) suggest that base training should be done at low intensity (i.e., lots of volume) to build capillary density and muscle mitochondria. This premise falls down on two points (and probably others); 1) to stay reasonably fit from such training you'd need to do many hours of training per week -- this may be acceptable if you're a pro, but the vast majority of people here will go to work/school and not be able to do 6 hrs a day -- you may be limited to e.g., < 90-mins after work on the trainer.
2) muscle mitochondria and capillary density is linked to a high VO2max, and those adaptations occur (unsurprisingly) by training at intensities close to and around VO2max (and at ~ TT power). Some idiot coaches think that high intensity work (such as this) damages or bursts the capillaries. this is untrue."

Racing: 2 years.
Goals: Mostly road races. Longest big race will be maybe 2.5 hours.
Training: about 14 hours a week, or in that neighborhood.
Fitness: Mid to upper level Cat 4 (US)
Also: I am a junior rider, 15 years old, I don't know if this makes a difference.
Okay, this seems to make a little more sense to me. I've read a lot about "base" but was looking for an alternative view. I'm sure Pro's ride six hours a day, but their races are six hours, and they don't have a job/school as you said. It looks like me doing V02 Max and Lactate Threshold intervals is a good thing then, since it should grow Capillaries and Mitochondria, correct?