Switching from Criterium training to Triathlon training
This is a story of how I got serious egg on my face, and how I realised that I need to switch up my training a LOT before the triathlon!
I race pedal prix (human powered vehicles) for a team called Reload Racing. Thanks to them, I've had a huge amount of motivation to train, having joined them two years ago as a middling rider, and now pushing the team through as a strong rider.
The whole pedal prix scene is incredibly social, and so whilst we are in deadly competition with all our rivals, we are also really friendly. Our team manager Lewy is the kind of guy who will see our closest rival with a mechanical issue, run over, and get their bike working again immediately. He's the reason that our bike is never short of parts, because there is almost no one who Lewy hasn't rescued at some time in the past.
One of our main rivals is Unhinged/Underdog. This team is usually about 10 pits away from us, but is just as social and convivial as we are. They usually come 1-2 places above us in every race, but the rivalry is intense.
I noticed that my PB up the Freeway climb (on Strava) was exactly 30 seconds slower than that of James, from Unhinged. However, James's time had been set less than a month before, whilst my time had been set over 6 months ago. Since the last time I rode that hill though, I had been training. Seriously.
I had completed a full criterium specialty phase on Trainer Road, I had been racing crits all summer, and I had gone from E grade at the beginning of the summer season (in October 2017) to C grade by the end (March/April 2018). Since then, I had gotten even fitter and stronger, and I knew that I could beat my time by minutes up that hill.
I may have made some tactical mistakes here, and started talking shit about how much I was going to beat James's time. I knew that I could. And, finally, I decided to make it happen, and arranged to ride up the hill with a few friends. However, word got around, and a mutual friend put the event on Facebook, and now I'm riding up the hill with 20 people, from both teams, including James himself.
Now, I was still confident. I assumed that James' time was representative of his fitness, and I knew that I could beat it. But, he also seemed quietly confident, and so we started the climb, both expecting to win.
James raced off ahead of me. He's about 15kg lighter than me, and a foot shorter, but I assumed he would go too hard and burn up. I stuck with my plan, which was 260W the whole way up. I gradually started making up a bit of time on him, but I was struggling! My FTP is 291W, so I shouldn't have had any issue keeping up 260W for 25 minutes, but I was really hurting! On the flatter sections, I was struggling to keep it about 230W!
James, however, just got faster and faster, and ended up beating me by about a minute.
In my defence, I smashed his PB up the hill by about 45 seconds, and my own time by 75s. However, James smashed his own PB but the same amount, and so now I'm stuck with a harder target to chase.
Lessons learned:
After a few beers, I began to dissect what went wrong. I was simply unable to keep the power up for long enough! I'm sure that had I been able to put out close to my FTP for the whole climb, I would have beaten him, but because my training has been so specific, I don't have that long, 5-20minute power any more! I can attack and recover in a crit a dozen times, but I can't sit on the front and pull for 20 minutes.
I was staggered to see how much of a difference specificity in training made. I had assumed that I was so far from 'peak fitness' that it wouldn't matter if my training was tailored to one type of riding or other. I know that at the top level, you are either a sprinter or a climber, not both, but I assumed that for us mere mortals, an improvement in FTP would have similar improvements across all disciplines.
Apparently not.
So, since I'm going to be pushing similar ambitions for the 1/2 iron man, I think it's time to start a new approach to training. I'm dropping the criterium training plan, and have switched to a 1/2 distance Trainer Road plan.
And hopefully by November, I'll have beaten James's time up the freeway!
I race pedal prix (human powered vehicles) for a team called Reload Racing. Thanks to them, I've had a huge amount of motivation to train, having joined them two years ago as a middling rider, and now pushing the team through as a strong rider.
The whole pedal prix scene is incredibly social, and so whilst we are in deadly competition with all our rivals, we are also really friendly. Our team manager Lewy is the kind of guy who will see our closest rival with a mechanical issue, run over, and get their bike working again immediately. He's the reason that our bike is never short of parts, because there is almost no one who Lewy hasn't rescued at some time in the past.
One of our main rivals is Unhinged/Underdog. This team is usually about 10 pits away from us, but is just as social and convivial as we are. They usually come 1-2 places above us in every race, but the rivalry is intense.
I noticed that my PB up the Freeway climb (on Strava) was exactly 30 seconds slower than that of James, from Unhinged. However, James's time had been set less than a month before, whilst my time had been set over 6 months ago. Since the last time I rode that hill though, I had been training. Seriously.
I had completed a full criterium specialty phase on Trainer Road, I had been racing crits all summer, and I had gone from E grade at the beginning of the summer season (in October 2017) to C grade by the end (March/April 2018). Since then, I had gotten even fitter and stronger, and I knew that I could beat my time by minutes up that hill.
I may have made some tactical mistakes here, and started talking shit about how much I was going to beat James's time. I knew that I could. And, finally, I decided to make it happen, and arranged to ride up the hill with a few friends. However, word got around, and a mutual friend put the event on Facebook, and now I'm riding up the hill with 20 people, from both teams, including James himself.
Now, I was still confident. I assumed that James' time was representative of his fitness, and I knew that I could beat it. But, he also seemed quietly confident, and so we started the climb, both expecting to win.
James raced off ahead of me. He's about 15kg lighter than me, and a foot shorter, but I assumed he would go too hard and burn up. I stuck with my plan, which was 260W the whole way up. I gradually started making up a bit of time on him, but I was struggling! My FTP is 291W, so I shouldn't have had any issue keeping up 260W for 25 minutes, but I was really hurting! On the flatter sections, I was struggling to keep it about 230W!
James, however, just got faster and faster, and ended up beating me by about a minute.
In my defence, I smashed his PB up the hill by about 45 seconds, and my own time by 75s. However, James smashed his own PB but the same amount, and so now I'm stuck with a harder target to chase.
Lessons learned:
After a few beers, I began to dissect what went wrong. I was simply unable to keep the power up for long enough! I'm sure that had I been able to put out close to my FTP for the whole climb, I would have beaten him, but because my training has been so specific, I don't have that long, 5-20minute power any more! I can attack and recover in a crit a dozen times, but I can't sit on the front and pull for 20 minutes.
I was staggered to see how much of a difference specificity in training made. I had assumed that I was so far from 'peak fitness' that it wouldn't matter if my training was tailored to one type of riding or other. I know that at the top level, you are either a sprinter or a climber, not both, but I assumed that for us mere mortals, an improvement in FTP would have similar improvements across all disciplines.
Apparently not.
So, since I'm going to be pushing similar ambitions for the 1/2 iron man, I think it's time to start a new approach to training. I'm dropping the criterium training plan, and have switched to a 1/2 distance Trainer Road plan.
And hopefully by November, I'll have beaten James's time up the freeway!
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