Ten Minute Tips #83: Making Unstructured Training Effective

This episode details our approach in coaching high quality training that isn't based on traditional intervals and power targets. We go over advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, and discuss how cyclists who don't enjoy intervals can still make progress. We advocate for a middle ground of "semi-structured" training, and different ways to take this approach in workouts as well as periodization. Plus your listener questions.

After discussing testing and getting descriptive with power profiling, we weigh the merits of several things power profiles are typically used for like training needs, fractional utilization and underestimated FTPs, race selection and scenarios, potential for training response. We also answer your listener questions on nature vs nurture, normalized power, and much more.

We take a very deep dive into the world of lactate. Starting out with "metabolic logic" to illustrate how and why lactate gets formed during exercise, we then get into the idea of "glycolytic strength" as well as the lactate shuttle hypothesis. Then we tackle lactate testing, with a critical eye on first threshold (LT1), lactate concentrations and various threshold definitions, as well as sources of variability that affect how valid test results may be. We end with your listener questions, including lactate gels.

This episode goes into our approach to periodization and training around holidays with and without bike access, injury and illness, extreme heat and cold, including how to adjust mid training block. Plus your listener questions on exam stress, weight loss, and more.

We discuss our process for learning from a season and applying it to the next one. Goals, roadblocks, recovery, availability, progressive overload, health, and more. We also answer your listener questions about what we're looking for in all that data, spotting limiters, race specificity, planning around holidays, and more.

Today we discuss navigating training and racing when it gets difficult to assess and find confidence in your fitness, including how this is common during and following hard training blocks, mid race season, amidst off bike stressors and poor recovery environments, and more. Included are ways we do and don't track fitness during these times, the reliability of fitness in season, the impact of removing stressors, nutrition, weight, and more. We then answer your listener questions.

​We examine the the ins and outs of training plans and the ways they can help or hurt our short and long term goals. We discuss plans in general and our approach, and tackle items like adaptability and rigidity, goal setting and expectations, time in zone distributions and more. We also answer your listener questions.

This episode deconstructs a recent study showing unexpectedly low reliability of individual training responses in people undertaking the exact same training program twice. We go down several avenues of reasoning for why this might be the case, apply these lessons to trained cyclists, and answer your listener questions.

We talk about the summer slump that many cyclists experience, where it can originate from, how to think about maintenance to balance event demands with training and more fun, unstructured riding, and how goals and expectations can come into play. We also answer your listener questions.

We delve into the recent large scale replication project in sport and exercise studies, their methods and findings. Then we try to understand why it found the results that it did in light of known statistical phenomena, similar findings from other research fields, and why an apparent replication crisis depends on how you already view and interpret published literature. Plus your listener questions.