Originally Posted by
aaronmcd
I've been wondering about this lately.
I've done many athletic activities in my 34 years, including running, swimming, gymnastics for several years, weights (back in college for a semester), pickup sports (street hockey, soccer, baseball), Spartan Race, aggressive inline skating.
I raced bikes for the past 5 years a LOT. Training was always confusing to me. My power always varied a lot day to day, and the progression is not intuitive.
I burned out last year, and after a crash in October I started weight training. To me, it is perfectly intuitive, how much to do, when to call it quits, when to do high reps vs low reps, etc. I can hit within 1% or 2% of target numbers. It's nice. Now I'm back on the bike training and it's hella frustrating how it doesn't work like that.
Here are my main questions/gripes/wondering what I'm doing wrong:
1) Power on the bike is always a mystery. I'll be hitting predictable numbers, and for no apparent reason sometimes the numbers change by 20-30 watts. It's probably fatigue/freshness, but the CTL/ATL/TSS model seems to not predict this with any accuracy.
2) How does fatigue on a bike work? With weights/muscular strength, I can rest 3 or 4 days and be 99% sure of hitting specific numbers. On the bike I can do a hard ride, then 3 days later be 20% sure of hitting anything close. Or I'll think I'm good to go, and not know until halfway into the first effort when power is down 30 watts. And this is with about 10 times more experience bike training than weight lifting. It FEELS like my muscles are tired, but is it really my aerobic system?
3) Why does it always feel like my muscles are giving out, even in aerobic activity? Threshold? Muscles get tired. VO2 max? Muscles get tired. Anaerobic effort? I breath super super hard, but my muscles get tired. It confuses me cuz running isn't like that. Running I get aerobically tired.
You can try looking at your HRV. There are cheap HRV apps for your phone. Takes some weeks before it makes any sense, but it's helpful. While doing your HRV, take your 3 minute resting HR every morning right after you pee. Then stand and record your HR after standing 3 minutes. That'll help, too, maybe more than the HRV. I do a resting HRV, and then a standing 5-minute HRV and add the RMSSD number for the two instances together. Some days, my standing numbers are way worse, a sure sign that I'm tired.
I find my TSB is a good indication of my performance that day. Not perfect, but very helpful especially for not getting discouraged. .
IMO day-to-day tiredness on the bike is a glandular thing. Complicated, lots going on there. I wouldn't worry about not hitting consistent numbers. Just do the work, it'll help. But do watch that the numbers don't drop every rep. You don't want that. If they do that, you really are too tired for the work to be helpful, to the contrary. As it is said, we get stronger when we rest.
If your muscles are getting tired doing interval reps . . .You can try muscle tension intervals. On a steady hill, climb at 50-55 cadence holding a steady HR or power in the middle or middle of the upper half of zone 3, say 3-4 10' reps or 3 15' reps, once a week. It's supposed to hurt like the devil. No upper body motion, prying on the bars, etc. Perfectly still, just the legs go around.
Another idea is that perhaps you need more aerobic conditioning. Try getting over an hour of threshold work every week. Do over-unders, too. I don't know, it's been a long time since I was that young. Maybe a lot more than that? How much of that can you do without getting cooked? Where are your limits? Do you know? You should.
On the weight training: you probably aren't going to failure every session. If you did that, you'd notice differences. it's pretty easy to squat the same thing every week as long as you aren't trying to fail it. And of course you're not! OK to do that on the sled or bench with a spot, though. Try that in the gym, I think you'll find that some days you really are stronger than others. Or don't. Just do the lifts and don't over-think it. I've found that cycling-specific weight training helps my endurance:
https://www.bikeforums.net/training-...e-athlete.html