There is pain to be found upon this road. Photo via Symonbike
My training hasn’t gone as I’d like it to be going. My days keep getting loaded up with things that pay the bills more than they add to the account at the V-Bank. It’s part of not being a Pro, I suppose, as if to spite my obvious talent which is a sort of talent sleeper cell where only I recognize my potential while the rest of the world perceives it as mundane mediocrity. I’ll show them, when I get around to it.
[rule number=10/]
To be an athlete is to mimic the animal world; this is the luxury of our age, stimulating the survival instinct through games rather than an actual need to survive which is itself a staggering accomplishment. It is our nature as animals that drives us to find the next level of achievement as athletes; as athletes, our success is rooted in our ability to process the act of suffering into a productive output, to push beyond the plane of perceived capability. What is left to the adventurer who walks along the path – the Velominatus – is to discover the complexity of suffering.
And, as Rule #10 implies, what lies hidden within the complexity of suffering is deceptively simple: more suffering, like some diabolical Mandelbrot Set set of pain where every point on its continuum contains an infinite set just like it.
The strange thing about suffering is that as you gain fitness, your lens shifts. When our fitness has the most opportunity for improvement, we alternate between pushing through a blockage either in the legs or the lungs – never both. The human mind is, after all, equipped to process only one pain at a time. But as our fitness develops, the mind learns to delegate the pain to the lesser organs and allows them to self-manage: the strength of one learns to support the weakness in the other. Over time, the suffering body becomes a holistic organism that can compensate for the most acutely weak unit with those which still yield some reserves. This is how we go faster; we transform how our body manages its resources.
When we speak of suffering, our minds shift to the climbs. Climbing is the easiest place to find suffering, a sinister gift of our old friend, Gravity. But suffering is to be found anywhere just as easily, provided you can motivate yourself to push as hard as gravity can pull. The Hour Record doesn’t have a climb in sight, but it scores a 100% on the Cycling version of Rotten Tomatoes (which, I am not too modest to suggest, finds its logical home right here at Velominati.)
As I suffer my way towards some level of condition, I am grateful for the opportunity to rediscover the pain behind the pain, to find some hint of control over the suffering, the ability to compensate one suffering unit for another. The ability to, despite every signal emitting from the body, push a little harder and resist the temptation to yield is perhaps the most noble gift our generous sport imparts upon us.
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@wiscot
Scottish west coast FTP? A not so friendly sentiment to the local Polis?
@1860
Paint the walls Eau de Nil?
@1860
errrrr - Group?? It's a track frame................
This whole thread rings so true for me this year. Last winter I had loads of home based work and was doing hill reps pretty much every other lunchtime and hit the spring in good form. This winter I'm out on customer sites working silly hours and living in hotels and my chest seems to be slipping down to my waist.
@JohnB
No, more a not-so-friendly sentiment to the Holy Father in Rome...
@Al__S
Ah gotcha. Not an issue that we on the east coast experience quite as much. Must be a Dundee sentiment to the local constabulary.
@wiscot
What you will see though, is the majority of the next challengers choosing to make their attempt at altitude...
For a reasonable, but not out of this world, TT rider like Dekker to get within a lap of Dennis' time when prior to the event no one really expected him to be much of a chance indicates that the thinner air is the way to go...either that or he's taking advantage of no longer being restricted by Garmin's medical policy.
@Teocalli
Correct! Rest assured, it's a steezy build, SRAM omniums, Dura Ace hubs, Campy Barcelona rims, and other bits. I did just order some 88mm Planet X rims though. I have certain Provincial championship aspirations this summer...
@ChrisO
The reason I we test my FTP using the hour time is twofold.  First, when I have tested using the 20 minute version, I had too many power spikes and had difficulty pacing myself.  Thus, the reading was less accurate  Second, when I do time trial, I am always in the saddle 40 minutes or more and I need to know that I can mentally accept the suffering for that duration.  Using the hour method, I have nothing left in the tank, the power is much more consistent and the result very accurate - and the suffering VERY real!
@VeloSix
Just to elaborate on that, in case you think it's just an interesting number...
FTP becomes the level around which all your training is based when you are using power. You establish training zones and work around them.
So a Zone 1 recovery ride would be no more than 60% of FTP, which is actually really difficult to do.
Z2 Endurance is 60-75% so that's the sort of pace you should be able to do for several hours.
Z3 is also known as Sweet Spot, 75-90% - if you can do a lot of time in that area it pushes the FTP up.
Then you get Z4 which is basically your FTP level and you would do sustained bursts, Z5 is 105-120% which is great to go in and out of to simulate racing and Z6 / Z7 (some scales stop at Z6) is your sprinting.
The Z4 and above levels tend to be done in structured exercises e.g. 1 min Z5, 4min Z4, 5 min Z3 and repeat or 20 seconds Z6 with 40 seconds rest x 10. Z3 and below are ones you crucnh out for a whole ride.
Apart from training FTP is also a good indicator of performance. When you hear people talk about watts per kilo comparison among pros they are typically using FTP for the watts. Tell me your w/kg FTP and I'll tell you what category you can race at.
Anything above 5 w/kg is pro-level and if you're getting up towards 6 w/kg you're a stage or race winner. At my very best I've made it up 4.4.
Roughly speaking between 4 and 5 w /kg is pretty good club and amateur racing from Cat 3 up to Cat 1/ Elite level. 3 to below 4 w/kg is sportive/Cat 4 level and below 3 your aren't trying.