Hi, Advice please…
Last 6 months I have been working on my sprint with success. I’ve won the Green Jersey in Flamme Rouge Racing on Zwift and improved my w/kg to almost 12 from 9 in sprints
However my endurance and TTT have suffered big time. I just can’t hang on either in time trials or races. My FTP has dropped from 2.48 to 2.18.
I’m pretty clueless so any help would be appreciated. I have 2 rock solid commitments per week. 1 TTT and one race on Zwift, other than that I can commit to 4 to 5 training sessions per week ideally between 60-90 minutes per session.
Should I be looking at a particular plan in the Trainer Jack section(ie base or something else) or just do hr training using the Maffetone method? Or a combination of both?
Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
John
Hi, John, you are doing TTT? I did not even realize that existed outside the pro ranks… I just helped work on the TTT strategy for the Trek female’s team and they won using my strategy (really all based on math problems/solutions). Very strong chance it was more their skills than my (our) strategy but I can pretend it was my contribution that made the difference 
Congratulations on your green jersey… super cool.
It’s funny I really don’t know that much about racing but I know a lot about cycling math and training. I also was working on TT estimates for the Trek mens ITT Giro today… So I am living in this world at the moment… Generally the answer you are looking for depends on a bunch of factors. One of the most important is how soon do you want to get there? The best would be for next spring and think in terms on an annual plan. But that’s not always what people want to hear.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the reply. TTT is a huge weekly event on Zwift. I’m in a team but I’m very average!
I’m just looking for advice on improving endurance so the question revolves about what Trainer Jack plan should I opt for? ie base or something else or should I concentrate on hr training or a combo of both.
I’m a D Grade rider so by no means elite!
Advice would be appreciated
Hi John,
To help you with this question you need to know a little bit more about your body. There are 2 types of muscle fibers. Type I and type II. The type I fibres are endurence fibres. They are perfect for long distances.
The type II fibres can be devided into type IIa and type IIb. The type IIb fibres are dedicated to pure sprinting. Very explosive and excellent for very short durations at high power.
The fibres I just explained are trainable within their functions and also define the baseline of the athlete. So Usain bolt has dominated the world 100m sprint for years simply because he has a lot of type IIb muscle fibers. Same as Tadej Pogacar has a lot of type I fibres.
So, for these fibres your genetics lay the base foundation and you can only get so much better by training them specifically.
The interesting part are the type IIa fibres. These fibres are anaerobic by nature. So high power output, but not as explosive as a sprint. Think powerzone 6. With training however, you can use these for endurance too.
So, when your focus is completely on high intensity, these fibres will be highly anaerobic, making you a puncheur/ sprinter. When you focus is endurance only, these fibres will enhance your abillity to do longer rides.
In your schedule there are a few things that (could) play part in your result.
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The focus to do sprint training. What you train is what you get. I hope you understand this principle better. Want more endurance? You will need to train more endurance. Slow zone 2 trainingsessions.
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A lot of races. Racing every week is not a training. Race will drain you and most of the time they will overload our body too much. A regular training asks for a 6 - 48 hour recovery period, with 48 hours being the exception. A race usually needs at least 48 hours of recovery. So if you are doing two races every week it means that you will need 4 days of rest to recover from that. Together with the two days that you are racing on, you are left with one day of serious focussed training. You can do some recovery rides, but I hope you see that two races every week is not a recipe for better results.
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Finally the duration of your training sessions. Since your focus seems to be racing on Zwift, you don’t really need long trainingsessions. However a proper zone 2 training for an athlete like you will take at least 2 to 3 hours.
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There might be a nutrition part in this too, but let’s not get in too deep. First focus on the right training plan.
My advice would be to choose a few (max once a month) races where you really want to be at your best. If the competition is more seasonal, only in spring for instance, that would be more difficult, but racing is draining and demanding.
Build a program of two High intensity sessions per week. The rest of the week are easy, zone 2 trainings. You could use the polarised training program from coach Jack. You could even use the custom traininigs in the program. Do vo2 max and threshold.
Make an effort to free up time to do one longer zone 2 session each week. This will make your baseline so much better.
Have lots of fun training and racing
Robert,
Wow. Thanks so much for the detailed response. I’m so addicted to racing on Zwift but I’m completely hearing what you are saying. I’m going to try and reign myself in and do more z2 work so I can develop some endurance!
I’m going to re read your advice several times as well.
Really appreciate the time you’ve put in your response.
All the best and have a great day
John
Hi John,
I like Zwift Races too. Sometimes I ride to win (I never do, but I’ll ride top 5-10), sometimes I ride it as a training. Most Zwift races play out the same. So there is not much of a surprise of what is going to happen. I try to escape more than once at regular intervals as a training.
Remember: you have to test to find your optimum of endurance vs sprint. So train for a couple of months in a certain routine, than test and maybe try a different routine.
If you have any questions, I’ll be right here.