Jon Waring Jon has made a big step up in his Functional Threshold Power in the last 12 weeks. In the first 12 months of the year Jon has managed to improve his FTP by 10% through a combination of steady aerobic work and focussed turbo sessions designed to improve his lactate threshold on the bike. Jon has limited time with which to train as he runs his own business as well as being a Dad and a husband. This results in a routine which consists of two to three bike sessions a week, the first is a longer aerobic development session (about 3 hours) ridden at a 'steady' effort around 65-75% of FTP, the second has been a high intensity session which varies between 105 and 150% of his current FTP.
I often hear this being said but is it really true and what are the advantages of riding in either situation? Let's consider this with the Five Elements in mind. Physiology: Physiological improvements are dependant on time. Factors involved in improving aerobic fitness such as fat metabolism, cardiovascular adaptations (heart size, heart rate, cardiac output, etc:) require long durations to be spent training at the appropriate intensity. There are no short cuts for this one, sorry! Therefore the more time spent training at the lower intensities the better (to a point!), the turbo does not match a ride outside here. Factors involved in anaerobic energy systems generally need a lower proportio
The National Duathlon Championships are the curtain raiser for the Youth and Junior Superseries every year and this year a good number of athletes from the South West Academy went along to test our their winter bike and run training. Competition here is usually strong and the South West athletes did not disappoint putting in strong performances and like those racing in Quarteira (see other post), learnt plenty to take forward to future races. In the senior event Sam Pictor had a very successful race finishing 5th in the elite event. Sam’s main focus for the year is middle distance triathlons and to be able to perform to his potential in these events he needs to work hard on his swimming, whi
