Weekly Workouts

I'm currently following a program which Realgains kindly showed me on a PM :-

Monday.... 1.5 hours total>>>3 X 20 at 95% FTP(very tough workout by the way)
Tuesday... 60 minutes total>>>2 X 20 at 95-100 FTP%
Wednesday... 75 minutes total>>60 minutes at 85% FTP(tempo) non stop and work up to 90 minutes by Spring but not on the trainer or you'll go banana's. Trainer rides should never be longer than 1.5 hours and only once a week at that length.

Thursday...High endurance for 60 minutes...high L2 that is.
Friday... recovery ride for 30-45 minutes tops. HR 110...NO PRESSURE..this is NOT a training day.

*** If you are tired do not do Thursdays ride. You will have some fatigue by Wednesday but if you are toast Thursday then you need two days of recovery before Saturday.
Recovery is Key!

Saturday ...group ride....push the pace. DO NOT draft much in the pack. DO NOT let your power drop below L2. Most of the time you want to be at tempo and then include some L4 and L5 work. L6 and L7 too...especially L7.

Sunday...walk with girlfriend or wife.

I've tweaked the workouts for Monday by doing 3 x 25mins and Tuesday's to 2 x 25mins.Also I've increased the time for Saturday from 3 to 4.5hrs because I've been feeling good. I'm now into my 4th week of this program. I will be having a rest week soon!

I'm doing my workouts on Tacx Swing turbo and use a Powetap SL. The data is loaded up onto Cyclingpeaks software.

This is the first time I've done block training and really thought I would struggle as in the past I use to ride only 6hrs a week and still feel a bit tired between work outs but I also looked @ my diet as I identified I was not eating enough carbs and protein.

I believe the increase in hours which is raising my CTL (chronic training load) is helping with recovery/fitness.

Only supplements I take in Vitamin C & multivatims.

This is the best I felt since resuming back to cycling in 2012.

Thanks RG!

I learned block style training from reading Lemond and Cyrille Guimard in the 80's.
Latter I looked into the single energy system block training promoted by physiologist David Morris and others.

I tweaked things based on my experience and my experience coaching others.

Block training works....and there are variations on this "theme".

You train 2-4 days in a row and follow that up with a recovery day or days..whatever it takes to recover. Recovery is an individual thing that depends on a lot of things like diet, sleep, your work and the type of work you do, wife, kids, age, genetics etc etc.
DO NOT SKIMP on recovery!
Recovery days are either off the bike(go for a walk) or a super easy and short ride...NO PRSSURE, NO HILLS....heart rate like 110...power sub 200 watts...time 30-60 minutes. Recovery days are NOT ENDURANCE training rides...they are NOT training days!

DO NOT "train" more than 5 days a week! You need two recovery days at least...either off the bike or super easy riding.
ALWAYS take at least one day a week off the bike.

Take a recovery week every 4 to 6 weeks. The week should be 5-7 days long with way less intensity and volume... with NO sustained efforts at or above threshold. Two days off the bike MINIMUM.

Most guys ride way too much and too long in recovery weeks.

You can focus on one energy system or mix it up.

Always work from most intense workouts to the less intense workouts in the block.

If you are doing 2-3 days of threshold work then this principle remains....the first day is always the hardest...day two might be intense but with less volume....or a little less intense with the same volume....day three a reduction again.

NOTE: You often "feel" better on day two of threshold training ...energy systems are "primed" after day one. If that is the case then don't be afraid to take advantage of this.

Stage races are block training....works really really well. In fact nothing makes you stronger than HARD multi day racing...as long as you allow for recovery after the stage race is over.
Do hard stage races as often as possible!

More of my .02

RG

I can personally attest to the effectiveness of RG's workouts and training style. Don't be fooled by the low amount of volume, these are DAMN hard workouts, especially done indoors with no cheating. Damn hard. But they work, and you feel strong as hell when you get out on the road on some group rides.

The hardest part of this type of training is absolutely the recovery - most guys call 1.5 to 2 hr rides "recovery" rides -but these same men lack the willpower or motivation to complete the hard work on the actual training days. Don't make this mistake!

Like I said, this training works, you will build more endurance doing FTP work - when you get out on a 2 to 4 hr group ride you will be surprised how much endurance you have built and it's fun watching the other guys tire out after some steady efforts.

Trust me - it works, I have the "jersey" to prove it. RG knows his shit, we are lucky to have him share his knowledge and experience here for free.

Can i get a hallelujah!! Thanks for all the great posts RG! I know he has sent me some great advice via the pm. Maybe we could put all of RG post/articles in one place. Any thoughts mods?

RG do you believe this style of training could be paralleled in other endurance based sports ie. swimming ? a 2 minute race being the main event. what adjustments would you make?

i'd like to know just out of curiosity more or less

I agree with the block fashion training. It`s (at least for me) the training method that gives me the best bang for the buck...And as bikerider wrote, don`t think that by doing 7-9 hours per week you are loosing fitness...HELL NO, this workouts are really hard and when you recover from them you are getting a lot more stronger than riding for endless hours per week.
You need GOOD RECOVERY after this workouts...

Posted by: 1942

RG do you believe this style of training could be paralleled in other endurance based sports ie. swimming ? a 2 minute race being the main event. what adjustments would you make?

i'd like to know just out of curiosity more or less

I am glad you brought this up.

I am friends with a former 400 IM champion...swam at the Olympic level. We have talked about this very question a LOT.

There is NO DOUBT that this "style' of training can be done in any sport were aerobic power is most important.

Runners have always done WAY LESS "hours' than cyclists out of necessity....that cannot do the high hours and not get injured.
You have elite runners that have a "long run" once every 12 weeks of about 2 hours. These marathoners have VO2 max's just as good as cyclists.

Training for swimming is so nonsensical I don't even know where to start. My buddy, in his day, trained "two a days" almost every day and over 20 hours a week!!!>>>all for an event that lasted 4.5 minutes!

Even the 1500 freestyle is a short race and this is the longest pool race.

If you event lasts 2 minutes it will require a lot of anaerobic work capacity and a decent maximal aerobic capacity. About 30-40% of the energy requirements in your 2 minute race would come from the AEROBIC energy system.
In your training you need to be doing a lot of all out 60 second to 140 second intervals with a three to one work to rest ratio.
Also, include some longer 3-5 minute vO2 max intervals with a one to one work to rest ratio.
Also include some longer 10-20 minute threshold intervals.
Long easy swims should not be done more than once a week in my opinion.
You need some muscular force/strength too..so weight training a couple days a week is a good idea I think. Seems flyers need more strength than the other specialists.

Bro...you could max out in your event with as little as 6 hours a week in the pool...seriously bro

RG Last edited by Realgains on 01-07-2008 at 02:51 AM

yeah thats very interesting

the standard as your mate noted is still 25+ hours, 60km a week and absolutely NO ONE at olympic level trains the way you have described. it would be a VERY interesting experiment but no squads train that way unfortunately.

what were the thoughts of your 400 IM'er mate on the above style of training that you described? i'm very interested more from an intellectual perspective than actually implementing it as i noted no squads train this way and it'd be more or less impossible to try due to that.

much appreciated

Triathletes are forced to train in the water in a similar manner to the theory that RG has put forth. It would be impossible to swim 25+ hours p/w and still have the time and energy to work the other two disciplines.

Although most triathletes, except those with past swim team experience, are not considered world class swimmers. There are plenty that put in very impressive swim times by training anywhere from 4-7 hours p/w.

Great post R/G After my marathon this weekend I really want to focus on my cycling leading up to Ironman Lake placid. The bike leg is my weekest sport and I really need to improve it if I want to place in my age group. I still need to run 2-3 times a week, How would you incorporate that into the cycling block. Thanks
Going long

Posted by: going long

Great post R/G After my marathon this weekend I really want to focus on my cycling leading up to Ironman Lake placid. The bike leg is my weekest sport and I really need to improve it if I want to place in my age group. I still need to run 2-3 times a week, How would you incorporate that into the cycling block. Thanks
Going long

You might have to do two-a-days to fit in the running. And you'll need to do a long run once a week if you are doing an IronMan.
I would run in the am...be damn sure to eat well throughout the day..and ride in the pm.

Make the long run Saturday and don't do anything at all Sunday except for a 30-45 minute recovery ride on your trainer...super easy like a walk on the bike.

RG

When I raced Tri's two-a-days were almost the norm, hell, some days I did 3 workouts! Most high level tri guys do 2 workouts/day as standard fare.

Re: Re: Weekly Workouts

Posted by: sbc205

I'm currently following a program which Realgains kindly showed me on a PM :-

Monday.... 1.5 hours total>>>3 X 20 at 95% FTP(very tough workout by the way)
Tuesday... 60 minutes total>>>2 X 20 at 95-100 FTP%
Wednesday... 75 minutes total>>60 minutes at 85% FTP(tempo) non stop and work up to 90 minutes by Spring but not on the trainer or you'll go banana's. Trainer rides should never be longer than 1.5 hours and only once a week at that length.

Thursday...High endurance for 60 minutes...high L2 that is.
Friday... recovery ride for 30-45 minutes tops. HR 110...NO PRESSURE..this is NOT a training day.

*** If you are tired do not do Thursdays ride. You will have some fatigue by Wednesday but if you are toast Thursday then you need two days of recovery before Saturday.
Recovery is Key!

Saturday ...group ride....push the pace. DO NOT draft much in the pack. DO NOT let your power drop below L2. Most of the time you want to be at tempo and then include some L4 and L5 work. L6 and L7 too...especially L7.

Sunday...walk with girlfriend or wife.

(snip)

How would you adjust this schedule for racing season, since Sunday is often a race day ? I'll be doing mostly criteriums (often 2 per day).

Posted by: Realgains

You might have to do two-a-days to fit in the running. And you'll need to do a long run once a week if you are doing an IronMan.
I would run in the am...be damn sure to eat well throughout the day..and ride in the pm.

Make the long run Saturday and don't do anything at all Sunday except for a 30-45 minute recovery ride on your trainer...super easy like a walk on the bike.

RG

Thanks RG. I can't wait to see what new fitness awaits me