Maintaining (Top-End) Power!

INTRODUCTION

First time trying out this storyteller function, exciting!

Today I will talk about my results in mainting power levels as a cyclist and my own conclusions. With doing own comparisons between power output for different time durations, I have come to some interesting conclusions.  I am very curious what YOUR results and conclusions are with your data. The goal is to see if my hypothesy and conclusion is true.
Are you ready? Let's do it!

1. TRAINING

To be an alround good cyclist we have roughly 4 energy systems we need to train: Endurance, Threshold (TT), VO2Max and Anaerobic. By combining and targeting balanced training each week we can hit each of these zones effectively and improve. Genetics can make you excel in differant areas of this spectrum but then we are talking about specialism. We will not go into that in this discussion.

By training these 4 energy systems I noticed some are harder to train and maintain then others. In general the lower power zones are easy to train due to less suffering, mentally and physically. When you go sub threshold, threshold, VO2Max and Anaerobe the body has to cope with more fatique and mentally it will be more tough. Hence why most cyclists are training these zones not enough. I fell prey to this and was on a plateau for a good year. When I started to get a coach I discovered that its key to spend more quality time in these zones when you do a (HIT) training. HIT stands for Hi Intensity Training. Its all about getting quality time in the right zones in order to maintain or improve your top-end. 

2. POWER CURVE FOR DIFFERENT DURATIONS 

By doing maximum effort for differant efforts you can plot a so called "power curve". By making a power curve you can see trends in your fitness. Is it improving? Am I peaking? Am I lacking certain zones or time durations? By knowing your power outputs and current fitness level you can track your progress and improvement with knowing your power curve. 

This is the foundation of my discovery. Because I have compared my power curve during peaking and after my peak. We will use 4 time durations to keep it simple. The time differance between peak vs current fitness is around 2 months. All I did was maintain training. Volume was cut and less time longer threshold training.

Here are my numbers during my peak:

1 min: 476
5 min: 396
10 min: 373
20 min: 360

​Here are my numbers after my peak and less training:

1 min 482
5 min 395
10 min 357
20 min 334

3. CONCLUSION

Anaerobic and VO2Max are less influenced by less training then (sub, slightly above) Threshold. My Anaerobe and VO2MAx numbers are the same after 2 months of training! 
There is a drop in power after the 5 minute mark. It indicates that I have to train these zones to improve them. 

- So the cool thing I discovered is that a single HIT training each week will hold your top-end power in good condition.
- Add a dedicated threshold training each week to extend your lactate threshold zones by improving lactate acid buffering and muscle endurance on the longer durations (10 & 20 minute).
- Do riding or cross training accordingly to keep your body active. Just have fun on these rides or activities, do whatever as long as you keep a steady pace. (120-135 HR)

I hope you liked this information and that it could help you ?

COMMENT BELOW!
PLEASE SHARE YOUR OWN DATA AND CONCLUSION WITH US TO SEE IF MY FINDINGS ARE TRUE FOR MORE PEOPLE! #transparency

 

Title: 
Maintaining (Top-End) Power!
Language: 
English
Cover image: 
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