What is FTP? The FTP (Functional Threshold Power) concept has been around as long as we have known about the lactate turnpoint, or the intensity at which out body produces more lactate than it can clear. The figure above is from a book published in 1979 by Dr. David Costill. …
Adding strategic periods of rest and recovery are necessary to improve fitness. In fact, the only time we improve our fitness is when we allow our bodies to recover! So, how do you know when it’s time to recover? How long should you recover?
This post consists of excerpts from one of my mentors in the early 2000s, Chuckie V. His advice and guidance changed the type of bike training I did and, as a result, brought me to a level of biking I had previously only hoped to achieve. I eventually became one of …
Maximally work the aerobic and anaerobic systems and turn on the fat-burning furnace in four minutes What if I told you that you could get similar endurance gains as a 2+ hour session in less than 20 minutes? Too good to be true? Read on…
There are many ways to find your training zones. In this video, I explain two methods for finding training zones: laboratory testing and field testing. Visit this post for background on training zones. The take home messages from this are: Proper workouts/sets must be adhered to to get accurate, usable …
I’m going to start with the take-home message first, then go into the explanation. The take-home message from this article is this: You are given a limited budget of ‘training stress.’ Think of it as a bank account. Every training session you perform has a ‘cost’ (training stress). These sessions withdraw a bit …
The FTP (Functional Threshold Power) concept has been around as long as we have known about lactate threshold. FTP is a relatively recent term, trademarked by someone (I think Coogan and Allen for their book), but is simply another name for LACTATE THRESHOLD (VT2, lactate turn point, anaerobic threshold, etc… …
This 10-minute video provides valuable insight into how to translate the concept of ‘threshold’ to a workout. Before one of our group bike workouts, Joe spent 10 minutes explaining how he wants a particular workout done. He describes a combination of data (power, heart rate) and perceived exertion (how does …
