December 24, 2025 • 46 mins
OVERVIEW
Anaerobic capacity is the work you can do above your lactate threshold. Another term for it is Functional Reserve Capacity (FRC), and it acts like a battery that contains a finite amount of energy that runs out quickly and must be recharged before a subsequent use. FRC is your high-intensity, explosive power for winning sprints, creating breakaways, closing gaps, and riding competitors off your wheel. In the final episode in this series with WKO Data Leader and Coach Tim Cusick, Tim and CTS Coach Adam Pulford discuss what FRC is, how to train it, the consequences of focusing on FRC (you may have to sacrifice some FTP for it), and therefore when and how much FRC work to incorporate into your training plan.
Topics Covered In This Episode:
- Definitions of anaerobic capacity and functional reserve capacity (FRC)
- Anaerobic Capacity adaptation from 1-2 weeks of training
- Anaerobic Capacity adaptation from 2-5 weeks of training
- Why FRC training intensities must be SUPER HARD!
- Recommended interval workouts for FRC training
- When to incorporate FRC workouts into your training
Resources
- Tim at Basecamp: https://www.joinbasecamp.com/tim-cusick
- Tim on IG https://www.instagram.com/tim.cusick_coach/
- Stress vs Strain: Difference Between Stress and Strain - GeeksforGeeks https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/physics/difference-between-stress-and-strain/
Guest Bio:
Tim Cusick is a world-class cycling coach, a leader in data analytics for endurance sports, an educator, and an innovative business leader. Tim works with Olympians, world champions, and more, including Amber Neben and Rebecca Rusch. As a data analytics leader, Tim is an acknowledged expert in the field for endurance athletes. He is the TrainingPeaks WKO product leader,
codeveloper of WKO5, and Instructor: Advanced Training with Data. As an educator, Tim has presented at USA Cycling summits, TrainingPeaks Endurance Summits, TrainingPeaks University, and more. Tim is also the founder of BaseCamp, which is driven by Tim’s philosophy of bringing together the science of data and the art of coaching. His values-based approach focusing on shared vision and team building allows for the construction of dynamic and purposeful organization development.
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
From the team at CTS, this is the Time Crunch
Cyclist Podcast, our showdedicated to answering your
training questions and providingactionable advice to help you
improve your performance, evenif you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, Coach AdamPolford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches who makeup the team at CTS.
(00:27):
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
other coaches, and experts inthe field to provide you with
the practical ways to get themost out of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now, on to our show.
(01:03):
Tim, welcome back.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
Thanks for having me.
It's gonna be I'm gonna miss younow after all these four
episodes.
It's gonna be crazy tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
No, you're not gonna know how to podcast without me,
Tim.
So last week we talked about howFTP improves alongside VO2 Max,
meaning as one goes up, so doesthe other.
And an important strategy toalign training is to get FTP
high enough, close to VO2 Max,in order to maximize aerobic
(01:32):
performance.
But assuming we do thatproperly, it is time to move on
to the anaerobic side of things.
So today let's discuss anaerobiccapacity, what it is, what to
expect from the adaptation, andhow to train it.
Tim, could you get us going withuh some much needed definitions?
And I'll first just start withmy like general anaerobic
(01:56):
capacity definition uh is if youlook it up in a textbook or
Google it or anything like that,it says the ability to perform
high-intensity work withoutoxygen.
But I feel like that's just likelacking, especially in the in
the way of cycling, because evenwhen you're going full tilt, you
know, full ham, you're stillusing oxygen in some sense.
(02:17):
You're breathing it and whatnot.
So could you describe to ourlisteners uh how we use
anaerobic capacity and some ofthese other tools in the
coaching world to help athletesgo fast?
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Yeah, I mean, anaerobic capacity, this concept
of you know, a good simple wayof saying this, and it, you
know, we think about it.
It is your anaerobic battery.
So think about a car, a hybridcar, right?
Your aerobic system is burningfuel.
It's it needs oxygen and fuelworking together to produce
(02:50):
horsepower, watts, energy,whatever we want to call it.
When we start thinking aboutanaerobic, like a hybrid car,
anaerobic is the battery, right?
The booster battery that we havesitting on top of that.
And that booster battery is highenergy, but it burns down pretty
quick.
It fatigues pretty quick, andthen it will need to be
recharged.
Anaerobic capacity is just that.
(03:13):
What is the size?
How much energy is in thatbattery?
And you could actually measurethat in kilojoules of energy,
you know, is a great way tothink about it.
And we can even kind ofunderstand the burn down rate of
that.
So we can measure that batterypretty clearly.
Anaeric capacity, there's alldifferent types of concepts to
(03:34):
look at that.
It tends to be often andfrequently modeled.
We see it modeled in CP andcritical power modeling.
We see it modeled in powerduration curve modeling, which
we do in WKO5.
So that's all it is in itssimplest process.
It's a high burn, high-energybattery that has a pretty fast
burn rate.
The burn rate, how long thatbattery will last, it's like
(03:56):
your cell phone.
Open all your apps at once andburn everything, and the cell
phone battery burns down prettyfast.
Open just a couple and it'lllast a little bit, not super
long, but it'll last.
So we conceptualize this, myhistorical approach, as uh
functional reserve capacity orFRC.
(04:16):
That's data metrics you'll findin WQL5.
By uh defining this asfunctional reserve capacity, a
modeled construct, what it doestake in is into account is
exactly what you just said.
Anaerobic capacity is power,it's it's in the absence of
oxygen.
But if you went out and did amaximum one minute effort, you
(04:39):
absolutely know you'rebreathing, right?
And you're doing a whole lot ofit.
So there's some aerobiccontribution to the power
output, the energy uh supplythat's actually happening.
So functional reserve capacityrepresents that battery both
from what's happening in theabsence of oxygen and the small
amount that's happening withoxygen to produce that.
(05:01):
Functional reserve capacity ismore of a functional application
in that sense, hence the namefunctional.
We can model it easy.
We can use it to measure in adynamic way when we look at
interval work and higherintensity work.
So it gives us insight into thesize of that battery, the
(05:23):
efficiency of that battery, andin training, when we do things
that we should do, like totallydrain that battery at times.
If that battery, it's also likeyour cell phone, if you don't
do, if you don't drain it fullyenough and let it recharge
fully, um, the battery kind ofgoes bad.
It doesn't store as much as itused to.
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
That's a that is a great analogy there.
Um, especially if you don't ifyou don't drain it enough,
because that's that's thestimulus, right, to improve it
as well.
So you need to drain it uh aswell as let it rapidly um uh uh
recharge.
And I think like with this, uhfolks, for for you listening, I
(06:07):
mean, I I want you to understandthat this is a metric that's not
on training peaks online justyet.
Um, but it is uh conceptually,think about it like a one-minute
full tilt effort.
When we're measuring it, it'sgoing to be the total amount of
work measured in kilojoules,like Tim said, that can be done
continuously above FTP beforeyou fatigue.
So it has to be continuous.
(06:28):
That's what we're measuring.
Okay.
Um, so I want everybody torealize that, and then the model
is based off of that.
And and um Tim talked aboutcritical power and W prime.
I did a bunch of podcasts withum Cody from uh Training Peaks
on that, and we talked about howW prime is adjacent to FRC.
(06:48):
And you could go philosophicallyabout how critical power is not
FTP and FRC is not W prime.
Essentially it is, and I wouldsay just think about it
simplistically like that, andit's gonna be totally fine, and
it's not reductionistic to uhview these two systems in that
way.
Um, but one thing I want todrive home here is uh we were
talking about how the you knowaerobic capacity, if you build
(07:12):
aerobic capacity, it's gonnaraise that FTP and it's gonna
raise VO2 max, and a lot ofthose things are going in line
with each other.
Anaerobic capacity is verydifferent.
Tim, could you talk about theinverse relationship of FTP and
FRC?
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
Yes.
So you give me all the bad news.
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
So good cop, bad cop.
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
The reality of all training is you have a
cost-benefit relationship.
Sometimes the benefit's high andthe cost is just a little bit.
Sometimes it's more equal.
So think about we're makingenergy aerobically and
anaerobically.
We've talked through thatthrough each series.
Now let's think about that as ateeter-totter.
So when we raise one, when we dospecific, we apply specificity
(08:00):
to our training to erase aspecific anaerobic capacity,
that teeter-totter goes up onthis side.
The cost is this side couldoften go down a little bit.
And this is the challenge,right, as cyclists, so much
because, and when I say in thisside, I'm doing it to a camera,
you're listening to a podcast,but you can hopefully visualize
(08:22):
what I'm thinking.
One side's going up, the other'sgoing down.
And this is important as we getinto these level intensities,
um, you know, and and we becomebecause it's you are now when
you're working on anaerobiccapacity, you're doing a very
specific time and intensityrelationship.
You are focused on a veryspecific part of your overall
energy making capacity, that'sthe cost.
(08:44):
You can, and in my observation,typically will give up a little
FTP to gain that.
So you have to think about theend desire, demand of your
event, what you're trying to getto before you invest in this
type of training.
Um as cyclists, we want it all.
(09:05):
Like we want this concept ofyes, but I've gotten this much
faster and I'm betteraerobically, and my FTP went up,
and I'm putting out more powerat VO2 max, not to spark the
feud there again, but power atVO2 max, max aerobic power.
And then um the and now I wantmore anaerobic power.
At some point, all those things,you can't have them all.
(09:29):
Simple analogy.
I'm gonna date myself for my agehere.
We used to have performers wouldcome out and they'd spin plates
on sticks.
Yes, for all the young peoplelistening, you have no idea what
I'm talking about, but that'sokay.
And a performer would come outand they'd have five sticks with
five plates on it, and they'drun from one and spin it, and
they'd get them all balancingbecause they're all spinning,
and one would slow down andwobble, and they'd run over
(09:51):
there and spin that one.
Welcome to training all of yourphysiological systems.
That is a relationship oftenapplied by timing.
How do we keep all that split,those plates spinning?
Well, the reality is if we'regonna really invest in one
plate, particularly one thattakes a big heavy push,
anaerobic capacity, we're gonnaspin some of those other plates,
(10:13):
they're gonna wobble.
We want to make sure they don'tfall off.
That's cost benefit.
When we're investing in thisside, we're investing in
anaerobic capacity, we'reprobably gonna lose a little
threshold, a little bit ofaerobic capacity.
And that's very metabolicallydriven, how you make energy,
your glycolytic efficiency, youryour the impact of that input,
(10:35):
that stimuli, that strain inputuh when you're doing anaerobic
work is high stimuli, rapidresponse, higher cost.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
Okay, so what type of athlete or perhaps what type
of event should athletes wantmore FRC going into versus FTP?
Like when would I for atime-crunched athlete, when
would they want more FRC?
SPEAKER_01 (11:05):
If you're to say a classic periodization schedule
closer to the event, because youwant to be evolving.
Remember, you're moving towardsspeed.
A concept I talked about, youknow, you we want power to equal
velocity.
We'll win races at 100 watts ifwe can.
I'd be pretty happy with that,right?
SPEAKER_00 (11:22):
Do as little as it takes to win, too.
That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01 (11:25):
So when we need to go fast, we want speed.
So you want that progression tooccur.
This is very close to race.
This is the ultimate, you know,very close to the end goal, uh,
end game of sharpening andpreparing for performance.
Um you need to be careful whenyou time this because of the
cost.
(11:46):
Like you don't want tooverextend this period at all,
very much so risk on shorteningthis period too much because you
don't want to drive down thatthreshold pre-event, pre-race,
whatever.
Um, so it's a it's a close toevent performance goal, it's a
rapid response expectation.
(12:06):
Um it's a dangerous little tool.
You gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_00 (12:13):
It it is, and but I'm gonna I'll say this.
You can you can go against me ifI it's a dangerous tool, but uh
it's a fun tool, and you shouldexperiment with it before you
get into the main event, so youkind of like know how you
respond.
SPEAKER_01 (12:31):
Absolutely.
And I think it's dangerousbecause it is fun.
SPEAKER_00 (12:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just like just like fast bikes,Tim.
SPEAKER_01 (12:39):
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (12:40):
They're super fast, but they'll cost you a lot.
So but what I guess what I wasgetting at as well is like,
okay, okay, if somebody if youhave somebody do an unbound or a
local crit, do they both wantFRC equally?
Or how should they prioritizethat?
SPEAKER_01 (12:55):
Great question.
I should have answered it as youasked.
Um absolutely the demand of theevent is going to more dictate
here.
Your your late periodizationtraining, you're more focused on
the specific demands of theevent, not the limiters kind of
of the athlete to think aboutthe classic model.
If I'm going into unbound, I'mnot really that concerned about
(13:20):
FRC.
Now, don't get me wrong, you'restill contributing.
At some point, fatigue will uhinstitute the recruitment of
fast muscle fiber, and thatneeds to happen, that's going to
function anaerobically to somedegree.
So you need to be prepared forthat.
But I wouldn't be aggressivelytrying to improve my anaerobic
capacity or functional reservecapacity.
(13:40):
I'd be doing just enough work tomaintain it because I don't want
the cost, particularly inunbound of driving down FTP.
Now I'm a crit racer, I'm doing,you know, uh crit series,
national crit series, orwhatever I'm in, local crit, um,
shorter, more intensive events,um, invest away.
(14:01):
Like you need to be sharp atthis.
Most of the activity that willresult in performance
improvement in winning willabsolutely be and occur in this
physiological zone and willrequire it for success.
So you need to invest in it.
So this is a highly uh the needfor this as a training cycle and
(14:25):
a heavy investment is highlyspecific to the event demand.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yes.
And then I will throw in onecaveat and go back to what I was
saying before is like it'sdangerous, but it's fun, but
spend some time with it in atime period of your training
where it maybe doesn't makesense to utilize it all that
much, but use it as like acanvas to understand how your
body reacts.
(14:50):
Because the main point here isI'm a firm believer that
everybody needs some FRC, um,some cyclists and whatnot,
because there's even a certainamount of upper end work that
will make you durable on therace starts or the hard pushes,
um, you know, the super steepclimbs of just having anaerobic
(15:11):
capacity.
When you hit it, it doesn't takeaway from you.
You know, the acidosis isn't umuh new to you, and you can just
handle it better, durability ifyou if in some sense.
And so you shouldn't neglect it,even though time-crunched
athletes and long distanceathletes double down on FTP.
Just don't neglect FRC.
(15:32):
And if it is a limiter, if ifanaerobic capacity is a limiter,
which I will raise my hand andsay, you know what, if Tim is
sprinting again, I'm gonna getdropped.
But go to the hill climb, yeah,all day for me.
Right.
So if it is a limiter, do someFRC work further out from your
race so that it's less of alimiter.
And that's one training strategythat goes against the timing of
(15:56):
what we talked about is likecoming into the main event.
I sometimes use anaerobiccapacity training like early,
early in the phase, just so thatit's it's a little bit higher uh
once I hit it again coming intothe main event.
SPEAKER_01 (16:11):
Excellent advice.
SPEAKER_00 (16:13):
All right, so Tim, if we follow the non-caveid
approach of what I just saidthere, and we have done proper
training leading into the mainevent, uh what how in general,
uh when would you how many weeksout from the main event would
you start hitting some FRC work?
And in the first one to twoweeks, what should we expect?
SPEAKER_01 (16:35):
It would be pretty tight and close.
Again, depending on the event.
I I you know, for me, I like tokeep this.
It would never be more than six,my approach, and more likely
four or five.
It depends how much taper, wherewe're at with some things.
Um, but this is a rapid responseuh uh training zone.
(16:56):
In those first two weeks, yourneuromuscular improvement is the
driver.
You simply, at that levelintensity, the motor unit
recruitment, the coordination,the synchronization, your brain,
and by synchronization, youthink about your brain has to
talk to the muscle, and themuscle has to send a signal back
that actually gets faster.
It's not only more synchronized,it gets faster.
(17:18):
So you can move faster.
Things, your brain, everything'sresponding faster.
That because that recruitment isin the correct order and
quicker.
And you just you feel snappy.
I mean, you get energized.
I'm quicker.
Um I've got more punch, I'mpunchier.
And it's funny, like, I I've hadthis conversation a couple of
times.
Like, do you just get stronger?
(17:40):
Like that immediateneuromuscular improvement, that
neural coordination improvement,you just feel stronger.
Like, and bam, that comes reallyquick, particularly when it's
built on a well into awell-designed, you know, online
plan.
That neuromuscular improvementis probably go back to your
(18:00):
point, the one that kind ofspreads out over all the other
performance demands the most,because that neuromuscular
improvement also will have apositive impact on your overall
efficiency.
And you could break that downbetween physiological and
actually biomechanical, butthat's a whole nother podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (18:19):
It it it is, but I think here's how I describe it
to my athletes is if we haven'tsprinted in a while, and I tell
them to go do a sprint, they'relike, man, I just was all over
the place.
Yeah.
And I'm like, Yep, but tomorrow,if you go do a sprint, you'll be
fine.
And and this is theneuromuscular connection.
What's actually happening is ifyou don't recruit the motor
(18:41):
units uh in the way that Tim istalking about, meaning like low
to high, and then get all ofthem by going close to max, if
not maximum, and going at speed,if you don't do that in a while,
the brain to muscle synapse uhgets underutilized, right?
And then all of a sudden youstart to go super hard again and
(19:02):
you start to shootacetylcholamine that innervates
nerves and muscles to coordinateand synchronize everything again
for the big muscles and fastmoving uh aspects of your body
to move.
And so that's why it's a veryquick, even like from one
session to the next.
That's what happens in the gym,that's what happens in jumping,
that's what happens insprinting.
And sometimes you just need todust off the cobwebs to not feel
(19:24):
like Bambi when you're sprintingagain.
Do a sprint, open up, good to gothe next day.
SPEAKER_01 (19:30):
It's a great example.
I mean, that, and I thinkpeople, because the
neuromuscular coordinate, theneuromuscular improvements in
this phase are crucial.
Um, because I think they giveyou the biggest bang for the
buck across the board.
Don't get me wrong, there's someother improvements that are
important.
I know you're going to talkabout those in a moment, but
here's an example, right, that Ialways give.
(19:50):
Let's say I picked up asoftball, I had a ball here in
my desk, a tennis ball,whatever, and I was to throw it
with my right arm, it might go50 feet.
If I was to throw it with myleft arm, it might go 20.
20, right?
Because I'm right hand dominant,I'm right side dominant, and
that's the coordination, the waymy brain is talking to my arms.
That's what it knows.
But if I went into the gym and Iwas going to bench press 100
(20:12):
pounds and I put 50 pounds oneach side, you know, assuming
the bar has no weight, and Ibench press, both arms would
probably do pretty much the sameload management in that.
So it's the difference wemistake strength and
coordination so much, like, oh,I can't sprint, I'm not strong.
Well, maybe you just haven'tdone the neurological work, the
(20:34):
neuromuscular side, and taughtyour body proper recruitment.
Because if I spent months tryingto throw a ball with my left, it
would improve and eventuallyover time, it would probably
come pretty close to my right.
This phase in a very condensedlittle way, that's what you're
investing in.
You don't get strongernecessarily, but you get so much
(20:54):
better at the coordination side,it feels and pretends and
performs like strength.
And what do you care?
Like, I don't really care ifit's I'm stronger, I'm more
coordinated, I'm faster.
Yay, right?
And that's what you're doing.
So it's a great investment inhere in places.
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that first, you know, one totwo weeks, I see a lot of people
just uh improving very quicklyand feeling that snap, like you
talked about, which is superimportant.
That next like two to fourweeks, and I would say this
one's I mean, it's not morecrucial, but uh, because you
need the first two weeks to getthere.
But the the next two to fourweeks, this is where it gets a
(21:32):
little complicated, but there'slike some muscle chemistry and
muscle physiology that starts tooccur.
And you can uh uh sift throughthe details with me here.
But there's there's two maindrivers of this um when it comes
to the enzymes that actuallyimprove anaerobic capacity.
And the first one's PFK, andthat's phosphofructose kinase.
(21:54):
And it's man, without gettingsuper deep into this, it's a
rate-limiting enzyme when itcomes to anaerobic glycolysis.
So anaerobic glycolysis, that'sreferring to the without oxygen
going really hard aspect of whenwe were talking about anaerobic
capacity.
So correct me if I'm wrong, Tim,but there's there's no uh chart
(22:15):
in WKO5 that tells me uh howmuch PFK is going on, is there?
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
There is not.
SPEAKER_00 (22:20):
Um But we know it's there, right?
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
We can measure some glycolytic glycolytic
efficiency, which may or may notuh you know give insight.
That's you're talking about verytough things to model here.
unknown (22:33):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:34):
I mean, but there is a like a glycolytic capacity uh
uh uh measurement and stuff onWKO5 and things like that.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
Glycolytic capacity.
I said efficiency, sorry, thanksfor the correction.
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
Yes, uh yeah, and VLA Max, and we can do there's
some cool models in there, okay?
But it we're not we're justconceptualizing.
We know what happens like in thecell, we know what happens from
a physiological state, but thisthis is important, and the
stimulus needs to be enough forthat enzyme to come through.
And this is where I say a lot ofpeople don't go hard enough when
(23:06):
they should.
And we can use analytics to makesure that they're going hard
enough to get that driver going,to get PFK going into the
system.
Additionally, there's anotherenzyme called LDH or lactate
dehydrogenase.
And this is the final step inlike anaerobic efforts, and it
helps to convert the pyruvateinto lactate, and that's and
(23:30):
that lactate then goes intofueling um these long the
aerobic glycolytic energy systemthat Tim was talking about.
So to bring this all back in,when you got a sprinty athlete
who front loads an effort,power's going real good, and
they're like, Yeah, let's go,but they hate dragging that out
longer into the you know thethree and the five minute sort
(23:51):
of genre of things.
You they need to do that, okay?
But their PFK and LDH probablyoptimized.
It's grand in a high FRCathlete, they have a lot of
those enzymes going wild intheir system.
For me, somebody like me, Idon't know if I got any PFK and
LDH going on in my systembecause I'm happy if I see over
(24:12):
a thousand watts on a on a on anice day.
So with that said, the where Ishould be working right on my
physiology, or where a lot ofpeople really need to focus on
is this two to four weeks in,uh, going deep, and we'll go
through some example workoutshere, but this is where the the
switches get flipped to get theenzymatic um uh stimulus
(24:38):
occurring to develop deepanaerobic capacity.
Tim, did I get that right?
Anything that you want to addon?
SPEAKER_01 (24:44):
Yeah, actually you got a correct better than I
could have said it, but you saidwhat the key things you flip the
switches for this response.
Like, and imagine that's like aheavy Tavel switch, and you
gotta push it really hard, andthen suddenly it'll just go
click and you begin to get.
And that's the hard work youneed to do.
And it is the ability to switchthis on.
That's the training intensityand volume targeting that you're
(25:08):
really looking at.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, in that two tofour weeks, I mean, this is this
is where I start to uh monitorthe athlete, make sure and I
rear I monitor the athlete and Ilook at a few things to make
sure they're they're holding up.
I might stretch it into weekfive.
Um, and this is where likephysiologically what's occurring
is phosphocreatine levels areincreasing, and that goes in
(25:32):
line with the PFK and the LDH umuh uh to enhance the capa the
anaerobic capacity.
But in that fifth week, I mightlook to more like repeatability
of the power.
Like, can I repeat that verygood in a high quality sense?
And this is goes back to likebuffering capacity and dealing
(25:53):
with acidity and all this kindof stuff.
And after that, though, I'mgonna I'm gonna pull the plane
up because go longer than that,I it gets dangerous.
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Very well stated.
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
Yeah, yeah.
And if you're even thinkingabout eight to ten weeks of FRC
training, I would call you asilly person.
You need some rest, you need tobalance it out, and you need to
use concurrent aerobic training,in other words.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Yeah, I know the only thing I would couldn't
agree more.
That's again a very short uhblock for me.
Like it might be a cycle and ahalf with some rest.
It depends on your restingschedule, and if we're two, one,
three, one in that stage.
So there's you know, someelements in there, but it's
short, it's intensive, it's verypurposeful.
(26:36):
And, you know, it is the timewhere you're, you know, most of
the interval sets are max.
Like you're going at max.
Now it might be max uh knowingthere's a couple more intervals,
but it's still max, like you'repushing that ragged edge, not
only in the overall intervalload, but in the individual
(26:56):
intervals themselves.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
So for a self-coached athlete listening
to this, and they they're youknow gearing up for uh some good
FRC work and they're gonna goout there and do it tomorrow.
What percentage of FTP shouldthey target, Tim?
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
For me, I'm a little higher here.
I think, and it depends, itdepends.
Let me answer.
You really should be going ashard as you can go.
And as hard as you can go withthe expectation of finishing the
workout.
So I am a believer when you getinto this phase of really
pushing.
So if you want to put apercentage to that, you know, we
(27:32):
could say um I might, Itypically I'm gonna go off
script here a little bit in thesense of the classic zone model.
I want to be 130 to 135% of FTPor above.
Now, classically in a seven-zonemodel, I think that's 121 to
135.
Um, and that's where all of thathas impact.
(27:54):
But I want my athletes to goback all the way to the first
episode.
I like riding in kind of thebottom of the aerobic zone and
not here's where I want you, ifyou can get to the top, to find
a way to fight to your top.
I think once we invest in this,we want to switch on all of
those positive impacts.
It's a heavy switch to push.
(28:15):
It takes a hard, hard effort.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
Wow, that's a more concrete answer than I was
anticipating from you, Tim.
I thought it would be a very, itdepends and individualized
approach, which you you did saythat.
And and I will say, I mean, thatwas an awesome answer, mind you.
But I I think what what everyoneneeds to learn from what Tim Sim
is like it's hard.
It's max.
(28:38):
Yeah.
And this is where I prescribe inRPE.
Sure, there'll be a percentageof FTP.
And yes, I do individualize thatbased on how they make how my
athletes make their power.
Um, and I'm usually also goingto what was their max, say it's
a one minute, I'll go to whatthey've done in a one minute for
maybe the year or the past sixmonths.
I'll make that the top end andthen drop it down to probably
(29:01):
like a 130%, like Tim said.
Um, and that's how I designedthe workup, but like max is max.
RPE, this is where this reallyprevails.
And I would say don't hang on toa number necessarily because if
if we're doing it right, youmight go beyond it, right?
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You know, it's funny.
You said a couple of things likewe talked earlier about, I think
it was episode two, about firstwe use a power meter meter to
calibrate our feelings, then weuse our feelings to calibrate
power.
Here's another great example ofit.
If you're my two cents,everybody, if you're looking at
your power meter, you're notgoing hard enough.
Like this is a classic casewhere the number is descriptive.
(29:44):
When you're done with theinterval set, load it on up to
training peaks and take a reviewand be like, hey, cool, I did
this.
The prescription is hard.
And that's why I said 130 andone, I want that or above.
Like, that's the minimum.
I don't want to prescribe 121 asa range because I don't want the
(30:04):
athlete doing that.
Like more.
Everybody's, even a highlyaerobic athlete can do more, get
closer.
And I find that pretty mucheveryone can perform in that 130
plus range, but there's wherethen we see repeatability become
an issue.
I also very focus on like whenI'm in phase, what you have is
one to two weeks and two to fourweeks, which I agree with.
(30:26):
Honestly, most of my intervals,I'll do two things I'm doing.
One one minute is a mainstayhere.
Sometimes I'll do 75 seconds fora manipulated finish, like a
standing, because I'm going torecruit while you're full of
lactate, we're going to recruitsome additional muscle, make it
even more sucky and painful.
Um, so there might be someelements like that, but say one
(30:48):
minute.
One of the things I'll measurein sets is the drop-off rate
that happens after around 40seconds.
Physiologically, when we'regoing max and we're really
thinking about this concept ofbeing anaerobic, we're burning
that anaerobic battery downpretty fast.
At around 40 seconds, the phoneis flashing the warning lights.
(31:10):
That's when you really start tohurt because all the signals are
we're running out, we're almostempty.
And that last 20 seconds, andit's not always, but yeah, it's
actually always kind of look at20 because it's just a block of
time.
I want to see from hard start todrop off, like how hard do they
start?
Where do they drop off from likefive seconds in to 40?
(31:32):
That usually has one angle.
I'm doing it for the camera,that might have a certain slope,
but it's the slope from 40 to 60that really tells me where the
athlete's at.
And then I'll manage throughcoaching advice more than a
power number.
Like, hey, here's a slightlybetter way to execute that
that's still max, or you know,here's a different approach or a
(31:55):
different terrain, even canimpact, and then uh still try to
hit them the same numbers, butmaybe not, and the drop-off is
the control element for me thatI'm looking for.
If they can manage that drop-offmore, that you know that gives
me an indicator of to race ofphysiological and psychological
(32:19):
readiness.
unknown (32:21):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (32:22):
Like that athlete's not ready to suffer in that last
20 seconds the minute, they'reprobably not ready to race.
And that's a tough message tosend athletes, but there's a
relationship there that's true.
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
Yep, it's very true.
Um, so you described, you know,one minute is kind of a
mainstay, maybe out to 70seconds.
Do you have a short uh likebelow 60 seconds or when you're
doing FRC intervals?
Um so what would be like thevery minimum duration that you
would use for an FRC interval?
SPEAKER_01 (32:51):
I like my minimum would be 30 to 40 seconds,
depending on the athlete.
There's a there's a lot of barebecause you can put out more
power, obviously, for that attimes sustain a higher power
output.
And here we're playing in therange where power is probably
more I shouldn't say thisbecause somebody I'll get hate
mail, but power is almostprobably more impactful than the
specific length of the interval.
(33:13):
But that really depends on theathlete.
Like if I find you can do moreintervals at 30 seconds and get
100 watts, 150 watts more out ofdoing it that way, um, I'll I'll
lean into that a little bitmore.
Um I because uh you as a coachhave the responsibility to get
max too.
You're asking the athlete formax, you have to find the uh the
(33:36):
interval environment that allowsthem to get the most out of that
type of intensity.
SPEAKER_00 (33:43):
Yep.
And how many intervals like persession would you be doing uh as
an example workout?
SPEAKER_01 (33:50):
I start low and move high.
And often sometimes like meaningI I want to I always want to err
on the lesser side of that.
One of the things you saidearlier, if you're thinking for
everybody thinking targeting,even after what we've just
talked about, you said it, butyou didn't put enough emphasis
on it.
Your history is the greatestindicator of your anaerobic
capacity interval format.
(34:12):
So I will always base that onwhat's the athlete history.
Meaning, I might go back to aprevious year where they've done
some workouts.
I'm like, wow, they really canonly do four times one minute
and they crap out.
I might do a little more andthen manipulate the rest
environment.
There's a real complexity here.
Am I trying to build capacity ordo I want to push a little
(34:32):
power?
I might change the rest inbetween.
Generally, I'm going for max.
So I would start four to six oneminute.
SPEAKER_00 (34:42):
Now the and how much how much time in between?
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
Um, full recovery.
So uh anywhere, depending on theathlete, from five to eight
minutes.
Um there's some occasionalthings like I have some workouts
that are really specific toperformance, like crit sprints,
where I'll limit the recovery alittle bit more from that
because it brings down thepower, but it really is more
(35:08):
specific to the demands of beingin that crit.
So to mimic that demandspecific, I'll give up a couple
of watts.
But in general, it's that typeof spread.
Because again, max is theindicator.
I want you to.
SPEAKER_00 (35:21):
And you'll drain the FRC uh quite rapidly when you do
that too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
Absolutely.
Yeah, you need to restore thatbattery in between enough to be
able to pull because the the thewhat flips the uh uh the
anaerobic enzyme switch isdraining the battery, restore
it, drain the battery, restoreit.
That's the driver.
You get the neuromuscularresponse, that better
coordination we've got just fromgoing harder.
(35:45):
But the real uh response in theenzymes we're talking about,
they need that drain restore.
And it never restores fully upin five to seven minutes.
It gets back up.
There, you're ready enough togo.
And that that sawtooth drainthat we we can see in certain
charts, that really is whatyou're driving.
You want to just empty it,restore it as best you can,
empty it, and that's the goal ofeach interval.
SPEAKER_00 (36:09):
Now I'll go off script here and pull it almost
back to episode one because wetalked about how say FTP and FRC
are inversely related.
But would you would you say thatif somebody has trained
aerobically well, would theanaerobic battery or FRC does
(36:32):
that recharge more quickly in ahighly fit person, or is it just
genetically driven?
I'm a fast twitch person, so myanaerobic is always tuned up and
ready to go.
What does the aerobic side playin recharging the anaerobic?
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
Wow, that's a great question.
So, conceptually, as humans, wehave a pretty tight range of how
we burn that battery down.
That's reasonably predictable inmodeling.
It's the restoration of thatbattery which gets very
difficult to predict because ofall the variables of which
you're now talking about one keyone, the athlete, uh one of the
key variables, the athlete'saerobic uh fitness, their
(37:13):
aerobic capacity.
As a whole, I'll make that thisstatement.
Your aerobic capacity and havingaerobic fitness improves your
recovery in all elements oftraining.
Like it is an aerobic exercise.
You recover, it's not like yourecover just because everything
stops.
There's activity going on in thesystem that's driving that
(37:34):
recovery, the response to thebreakdown, which is exercise.
The more aerobically fit we are,the more that recovery is
optimized.
It happens better and faster,and therefore improves our
ability to do work and do morework at higher intensities, and
actually improves the adaptationto the stimuli, as long as we
(37:56):
don't have too much fatigue andwe've properly rested in cycles.
So that's where go all the wayback, and again, I forget what
episode two, that's probably oneof the biggest challenges of the
time-crunched athlete, becausethey don't have quite the time
to really invest in fullydeveloping that aerobic
capacity.
And you still then um have todeal with some of the impacts of
(38:20):
that.
And as you get into higherintensity, which then the
athlete will feel like, well,I'm doing more work.
This is good.
Actually, you could do more workyet if somehow you could have
spent some more time throughyour foundation phase doing
aerobic and improving thataerobic capacity and fitness.
SPEAKER_00 (38:38):
Yeah, exactly.
And I and I think that justspeaks to uh the complexity of
some of this physiology and someof the questions that came from
our audience.
I mean, these were richquestions, and I mean it spurred
on four, actually five podcasts.
And and so I even if you're acrit racer, you need aerobic
(38:59):
training because that will makeyour anaerobic better.
And if you're a gravel racer oran altar racer, you need some
FRC to make you more durablewhen the hard times come.
So it's it's not just oneintensity, it's not just one
metric, it's it's all of them.
It's all the stuff that Timtalked about.
SPEAKER_01 (39:17):
My example of spinning all the plates, right?
This is this is when we thinkabout it endurance athletic
versatility.
Like we tend to get very focusedin training, and we're looking
at this and we're doing that,and we have a neat little plan,
and everything else is workinggreat, but the map is not the
territory, right?
There's this reality is then youget into a race and things go
bananas.
(39:38):
Like hard start, I'm in a group,everybody's now going too slow,
and somebody started this littlehill, and we all charge up the
hill at 600 watt.
Great athletes are versatileathletes.
So, what you're investing in,even though there's areas you're
doing a lot more focused due toyour limitations and the demands
of the events, um, but you needto be versatile too.
(40:00):
Don't fall for the concept, andyou were great to keep bringing
this back up.
Don't fall like this one answeris me, or wow, the demand of the
event is unbound, and I'mtargeting 11 hours, and I just
need to go in 140 watts, youknow, to achieve that.
You still need to be versatileto deal with the dynamics of any
(40:22):
event you're going to be in.
And investing some capital andkeeping all the plates kind of
spinning is usually a worthwhilething to do in your, you know,
endeavor, in your in yourtraining, in your athletic uh
event performance.
It's important.
SPEAKER_00 (40:38):
Yes, it is.
Yes, it is.
Um, and with that, Tim, I mean,I I feel like we've created
almost a handbook of uh, youknow, how to adapt, uh, what to
expect in that adaptation andsome example workouts along the
way.
So I really uh appreciate allthe hours that you've spent with
me uh in making the outline andjumping on this podcast and
(41:02):
going late into the day.
So uh I really do thank you.
Um and I hope our listeners,well, I know our listeners will
get a ton from it.
So thank you for taking time uhto share your knowledge with all
of us.
Well, thanks for having me on.
It's been fun.
Yeah, well, before I let you go,um, you know, I'm gonna speak to
all the caps that you do wear.
(41:22):
Um in my original episode numberone, I talked about uh uh an
educator and uh analyst at WKO5.
We threw out a lot of nerdyterms, and I know that there's a
ton of nerdy athletes listening.
Um, if they're curious aboutusing a tool like WKO5, uh, how
do they do that?
Where do they go?
Uh, and who should use it andwho maybe should not use it.
SPEAKER_01 (41:44):
Great question.
So WKO5 is an advancedanalytical tool, and there's a
lot of things that you canunlock with it.
Um, but it there's a learningcurve.
There definitely is, you have toinvest in understanding of
concept and how to make thesystem work, how to work within
the, you know, analytics arecomplex.
Once we master it, it's greatbecause it can crunch a whole
(42:06):
bunch of data and gives us clearinsights.
We call that, you know,actionable intelligence.
That's what analytics, that'sthe end output.
Analytics help us make betterdecisions.
So you can go totrainingfeaks.com, you can
certainly download WKO5.
Um, it has a two-week freetrial.
So if you want to experiment andsee what you see in there.
(42:27):
If you go to the help section,there's actually a robust
WKL5.com website, which talksabout how to use the software,
the concepts are in it, there'sguides to how to get started.
There's actually a full-oncoaching with WKL5 guide in
there, which is a very helpfulguide, even if you do or do not
(42:48):
use WKL5.
I mean, of course, we'd like youto use it, but it kind of lays
out some really good concepts injust coaching and developing
coaching strategies and how toutilize.
Um, just know that you're gonnahave moments of frustration
because it's a learning curve.
Um, it is not as easy to use astraining peaks because you're
looking at data presented indeep analytical approach.
(43:13):
So it's not necessarily just achart showing you what you've
done.
There's a lot of analytics goingon in there, showing you some
complex concepts and ideas.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
Yeah.
Yep.
So if you do have time that youwant to invest in and uh explore
deeper analytics, I'd definitelydo it.
Um, but it's not for everybody.
I have some uh very smartathletes that uh understand it
uh greatly and they use it andthey're like it's a little too
much.
So I guess, coach, I'll just letyou do this.
Uh but then I have some otherpeople that pick it up like that
(43:46):
and then Matt, this is great.
And they they love Zoom sessionswith me and just uh understand
it more.
Um so it's a it's a pretty cooltool.
I wanted to mention it herebecause Tim uh is a big uh
driver of that.
And last episode we did talkabout uh joinbasecant.com.
And I know uh Tim has um a bunchof stuff coming up on that,
particularly some like indoorriding opportunities.
(44:08):
Uh Tim, you mentioned thatbefore, but when does that
start?
Because it's usually around likethe Thanksgiving holiday time
period, right?
SPEAKER_01 (44:15):
December 1 this year falls neatly on the calendar.
Uh you know, you you can find usriding online, you can join our
community.
There's things that you can do.
Um it it's a pretty crazy, itmakes for crazy winters, but
it's fun.
It's a a lot of community, a lotof learning.
There's a whole group of peoplein there.
Shared values, you know,learning, growing, exercising,
(44:37):
sweating, all that.
It's great.
SPEAKER_00 (44:39):
And entertainment.
Uh, because I I know uh mepersonally, I don't ride indoors
all that much, but when I do, Iwant some entertainment and I
need somebody to cheer me on.
And uh I've joined, I've joineduh uh Basecamp in Tim and
heckled with him um uh a fewtimes.
So if you need somebody to justkind of kick you in the butt and
uh virtually go along uh withthem, check out uh Tim and
(45:02):
Rebecca, and I think Amber mightbe on the bike this year.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (45:05):
Amber's not on the bike this year with us on our
Swift rides.
Um we have a whole group of newpeople.
You can look at Swift onSwift.com and there are forward
slash events, forward slashbasecamp, and you'll see all of
our future rides coming up inSwift.
Come join us one.
It's just jump in and join us.
All the rides are coached.
(45:25):
Uh I do the 10 a.m.
ride, which I've seen you onsometimes.
It's great, Rebecca Rush and Ido the 10 a.m.
ride and always have some fun.
We always have some crazydialogue and learning going on.
So come on out and go.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
Coach AP is just suffering from all the FRC work.
So uh but yeah, check them out.
Uh in in all honesty and in umuh genuine terms, they do a good
job over at Basecamp.
So check that out.
WKO5 is for all the nerds outthere.
And speaking of nerds, Tim,thank you again.
I really appreciate all yournerdiness.
Thanks for having me on.
(45:59):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist Podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even more actionabletraining advice, head over to
trainright.com backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast that'll help you take
(46:19):
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart.
Train right.
From the team at CTS, this is the Time Crunch
Cyclist Podcast, our showdedicated to answering your
training questions and providingactionable advice to help you
improve your performance, evenif you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, Coach AdamPolford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches who makeup the team at CTS.
(00:27):
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
other coaches, and experts inthe field to provide you with
the practical ways to get themost out of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now, on to our show.
(01:03):
Tim, welcome back.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
Thanks for having me.
It's gonna be I'm gonna miss younow after all these four
episodes.
It's gonna be crazy tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
No, you're not gonna know how to podcast without me,
Tim.
So last week we talked about howFTP improves alongside VO2 Max,
meaning as one goes up, so doesthe other.
And an important strategy toalign training is to get FTP
high enough, close to VO2 Max,in order to maximize aerobic
(01:32):
performance.
But assuming we do thatproperly, it is time to move on
to the anaerobic side of things.
So today let's discuss anaerobiccapacity, what it is, what to
expect from the adaptation, andhow to train it.
Tim, could you get us going withuh some much needed definitions?
And I'll first just start withmy like general anaerobic
(01:56):
capacity definition uh is if youlook it up in a textbook or
Google it or anything like that,it says the ability to perform
high-intensity work withoutoxygen.
But I feel like that's just likelacking, especially in the in
the way of cycling, because evenwhen you're going full tilt, you
know, full ham, you're stillusing oxygen in some sense.
(02:17):
You're breathing it and whatnot.
So could you describe to ourlisteners uh how we use
anaerobic capacity and some ofthese other tools in the
coaching world to help athletesgo fast?
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Yeah, I mean, anaerobic capacity, this concept
of you know, a good simple wayof saying this, and it, you
know, we think about it.
It is your anaerobic battery.
So think about a car, a hybridcar, right?
Your aerobic system is burningfuel.
It's it needs oxygen and fuelworking together to produce
(02:50):
horsepower, watts, energy,whatever we want to call it.
When we start thinking aboutanaerobic, like a hybrid car,
anaerobic is the battery, right?
The booster battery that we havesitting on top of that.
And that booster battery is highenergy, but it burns down pretty
quick.
It fatigues pretty quick, andthen it will need to be
recharged.
Anaerobic capacity is just that.
(03:13):
What is the size?
How much energy is in thatbattery?
And you could actually measurethat in kilojoules of energy,
you know, is a great way tothink about it.
And we can even kind ofunderstand the burn down rate of
that.
So we can measure that batterypretty clearly.
Anaeric capacity, there's alldifferent types of concepts to
(03:34):
look at that.
It tends to be often andfrequently modeled.
We see it modeled in CP andcritical power modeling.
We see it modeled in powerduration curve modeling, which
we do in WKO5.
So that's all it is in itssimplest process.
It's a high burn, high-energybattery that has a pretty fast
burn rate.
The burn rate, how long thatbattery will last, it's like
(03:56):
your cell phone.
Open all your apps at once andburn everything, and the cell
phone battery burns down prettyfast.
Open just a couple and it'lllast a little bit, not super
long, but it'll last.
So we conceptualize this, myhistorical approach, as uh
functional reserve capacity orFRC.
(04:16):
That's data metrics you'll findin WQL5.
By uh defining this asfunctional reserve capacity, a
modeled construct, what it doestake in is into account is
exactly what you just said.
Anaerobic capacity is power,it's it's in the absence of
oxygen.
But if you went out and did amaximum one minute effort, you
(04:39):
absolutely know you'rebreathing, right?
And you're doing a whole lot ofit.
So there's some aerobiccontribution to the power
output, the energy uh supplythat's actually happening.
So functional reserve capacityrepresents that battery both
from what's happening in theabsence of oxygen and the small
amount that's happening withoxygen to produce that.
(05:01):
Functional reserve capacity ismore of a functional application
in that sense, hence the namefunctional.
We can model it easy.
We can use it to measure in adynamic way when we look at
interval work and higherintensity work.
So it gives us insight into thesize of that battery, the
(05:23):
efficiency of that battery, andin training, when we do things
that we should do, like totallydrain that battery at times.
If that battery, it's also likeyour cell phone, if you don't
do, if you don't drain it fullyenough and let it recharge
fully, um, the battery kind ofgoes bad.
It doesn't store as much as itused to.
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
That's a that is a great analogy there.
Um, especially if you don't ifyou don't drain it enough,
because that's that's thestimulus, right, to improve it
as well.
So you need to drain it uh aswell as let it rapidly um uh uh
recharge.
And I think like with this, uhfolks, for for you listening, I
(06:07):
mean, I I want you to understandthat this is a metric that's not
on training peaks online justyet.
Um, but it is uh conceptually,think about it like a one-minute
full tilt effort.
When we're measuring it, it'sgoing to be the total amount of
work measured in kilojoules,like Tim said, that can be done
continuously above FTP beforeyou fatigue.
So it has to be continuous.
(06:28):
That's what we're measuring.
Okay.
Um, so I want everybody torealize that, and then the model
is based off of that.
And and um Tim talked aboutcritical power and W prime.
I did a bunch of podcasts withum Cody from uh Training Peaks
on that, and we talked about howW prime is adjacent to FRC.
(06:48):
And you could go philosophicallyabout how critical power is not
FTP and FRC is not W prime.
Essentially it is, and I wouldsay just think about it
simplistically like that, andit's gonna be totally fine, and
it's not reductionistic to uhview these two systems in that
way.
Um, but one thing I want todrive home here is uh we were
talking about how the you knowaerobic capacity, if you build
(07:12):
aerobic capacity, it's gonnaraise that FTP and it's gonna
raise VO2 max, and a lot ofthose things are going in line
with each other.
Anaerobic capacity is verydifferent.
Tim, could you talk about theinverse relationship of FTP and
FRC?
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
Yes.
So you give me all the bad news.
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
So good cop, bad cop.
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
The reality of all training is you have a
cost-benefit relationship.
Sometimes the benefit's high andthe cost is just a little bit.
Sometimes it's more equal.
So think about we're makingenergy aerobically and
anaerobically.
We've talked through thatthrough each series.
Now let's think about that as ateeter-totter.
So when we raise one, when we dospecific, we apply specificity
(08:00):
to our training to erase aspecific anaerobic capacity,
that teeter-totter goes up onthis side.
The cost is this side couldoften go down a little bit.
And this is the challenge,right, as cyclists, so much
because, and when I say in thisside, I'm doing it to a camera,
you're listening to a podcast,but you can hopefully visualize
(08:22):
what I'm thinking.
One side's going up, the other'sgoing down.
And this is important as we getinto these level intensities,
um, you know, and and we becomebecause it's you are now when
you're working on anaerobiccapacity, you're doing a very
specific time and intensityrelationship.
You are focused on a veryspecific part of your overall
energy making capacity, that'sthe cost.
(08:44):
You can, and in my observation,typically will give up a little
FTP to gain that.
So you have to think about theend desire, demand of your
event, what you're trying to getto before you invest in this
type of training.
Um as cyclists, we want it all.
(09:05):
Like we want this concept ofyes, but I've gotten this much
faster and I'm betteraerobically, and my FTP went up,
and I'm putting out more powerat VO2 max, not to spark the
feud there again, but power atVO2 max, max aerobic power.
And then um the and now I wantmore anaerobic power.
At some point, all those things,you can't have them all.
(09:29):
Simple analogy.
I'm gonna date myself for my agehere.
We used to have performers wouldcome out and they'd spin plates
on sticks.
Yes, for all the young peoplelistening, you have no idea what
I'm talking about, but that'sokay.
And a performer would come outand they'd have five sticks with
five plates on it, and they'drun from one and spin it, and
they'd get them all balancingbecause they're all spinning,
and one would slow down andwobble, and they'd run over
(09:51):
there and spin that one.
Welcome to training all of yourphysiological systems.
That is a relationship oftenapplied by timing.
How do we keep all that split,those plates spinning?
Well, the reality is if we'regonna really invest in one
plate, particularly one thattakes a big heavy push,
anaerobic capacity, we're gonnaspin some of those other plates,
(10:13):
they're gonna wobble.
We want to make sure they don'tfall off.
That's cost benefit.
When we're investing in thisside, we're investing in
anaerobic capacity, we'reprobably gonna lose a little
threshold, a little bit ofaerobic capacity.
And that's very metabolicallydriven, how you make energy,
your glycolytic efficiency, youryour the impact of that input,
(10:35):
that stimuli, that strain inputuh when you're doing anaerobic
work is high stimuli, rapidresponse, higher cost.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
Okay, so what type of athlete or perhaps what type
of event should athletes wantmore FRC going into versus FTP?
Like when would I for atime-crunched athlete, when
would they want more FRC?
SPEAKER_01 (11:05):
If you're to say a classic periodization schedule
closer to the event, because youwant to be evolving.
Remember, you're moving towardsspeed.
A concept I talked about, youknow, you we want power to equal
velocity.
We'll win races at 100 watts ifwe can.
I'd be pretty happy with that,right?
SPEAKER_00 (11:22):
Do as little as it takes to win, too.
That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01 (11:25):
So when we need to go fast, we want speed.
So you want that progression tooccur.
This is very close to race.
This is the ultimate, you know,very close to the end goal, uh,
end game of sharpening andpreparing for performance.
Um you need to be careful whenyou time this because of the
cost.
(11:46):
Like you don't want tooverextend this period at all,
very much so risk on shorteningthis period too much because you
don't want to drive down thatthreshold pre-event, pre-race,
whatever.
Um, so it's a it's a close toevent performance goal, it's a
rapid response expectation.
(12:06):
Um it's a dangerous little tool.
You gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_00 (12:13):
It it is, and but I'm gonna I'll say this.
You can you can go against me ifI it's a dangerous tool, but uh
it's a fun tool, and you shouldexperiment with it before you
get into the main event, so youkind of like know how you
respond.
SPEAKER_01 (12:31):
Absolutely.
And I think it's dangerousbecause it is fun.
SPEAKER_00 (12:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just like just like fast bikes,Tim.
SPEAKER_01 (12:39):
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (12:40):
They're super fast, but they'll cost you a lot.
So but what I guess what I wasgetting at as well is like,
okay, okay, if somebody if youhave somebody do an unbound or a
local crit, do they both wantFRC equally?
Or how should they prioritizethat?
SPEAKER_01 (12:55):
Great question.
I should have answered it as youasked.
Um absolutely the demand of theevent is going to more dictate
here.
Your your late periodizationtraining, you're more focused on
the specific demands of theevent, not the limiters kind of
of the athlete to think aboutthe classic model.
If I'm going into unbound, I'mnot really that concerned about
(13:20):
FRC.
Now, don't get me wrong, you'restill contributing.
At some point, fatigue will uhinstitute the recruitment of
fast muscle fiber, and thatneeds to happen, that's going to
function anaerobically to somedegree.
So you need to be prepared forthat.
But I wouldn't be aggressivelytrying to improve my anaerobic
capacity or functional reservecapacity.
(13:40):
I'd be doing just enough work tomaintain it because I don't want
the cost, particularly inunbound of driving down FTP.
Now I'm a crit racer, I'm doing,you know, uh crit series,
national crit series, orwhatever I'm in, local crit, um,
shorter, more intensive events,um, invest away.
(14:01):
Like you need to be sharp atthis.
Most of the activity that willresult in performance
improvement in winning willabsolutely be and occur in this
physiological zone and willrequire it for success.
So you need to invest in it.
So this is a highly uh the needfor this as a training cycle and
(14:25):
a heavy investment is highlyspecific to the event demand.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yes.
And then I will throw in onecaveat and go back to what I was
saying before is like it'sdangerous, but it's fun, but
spend some time with it in atime period of your training
where it maybe doesn't makesense to utilize it all that
much, but use it as like acanvas to understand how your
body reacts.
(14:50):
Because the main point here isI'm a firm believer that
everybody needs some FRC, um,some cyclists and whatnot,
because there's even a certainamount of upper end work that
will make you durable on therace starts or the hard pushes,
um, you know, the super steepclimbs of just having anaerobic
(15:11):
capacity.
When you hit it, it doesn't takeaway from you.
You know, the acidosis isn't umuh new to you, and you can just
handle it better, durability ifyou if in some sense.
And so you shouldn't neglect it,even though time-crunched
athletes and long distanceathletes double down on FTP.
Just don't neglect FRC.
(15:32):
And if it is a limiter, if ifanaerobic capacity is a limiter,
which I will raise my hand andsay, you know what, if Tim is
sprinting again, I'm gonna getdropped.
But go to the hill climb, yeah,all day for me.
Right.
So if it is a limiter, do someFRC work further out from your
race so that it's less of alimiter.
And that's one training strategythat goes against the timing of
(15:56):
what we talked about is likecoming into the main event.
I sometimes use anaerobiccapacity training like early,
early in the phase, just so thatit's it's a little bit higher uh
once I hit it again coming intothe main event.
SPEAKER_01 (16:11):
Excellent advice.
SPEAKER_00 (16:13):
All right, so Tim, if we follow the non-caveid
approach of what I just saidthere, and we have done proper
training leading into the mainevent, uh what how in general,
uh when would you how many weeksout from the main event would
you start hitting some FRC work?
And in the first one to twoweeks, what should we expect?
SPEAKER_01 (16:35):
It would be pretty tight and close.
Again, depending on the event.
I I you know, for me, I like tokeep this.
It would never be more than six,my approach, and more likely
four or five.
It depends how much taper, wherewe're at with some things.
Um, but this is a rapid responseuh uh training zone.
(16:56):
In those first two weeks, yourneuromuscular improvement is the
driver.
You simply, at that levelintensity, the motor unit
recruitment, the coordination,the synchronization, your brain,
and by synchronization, youthink about your brain has to
talk to the muscle, and themuscle has to send a signal back
that actually gets faster.
It's not only more synchronized,it gets faster.
(17:18):
So you can move faster.
Things, your brain, everything'sresponding faster.
That because that recruitment isin the correct order and
quicker.
And you just you feel snappy.
I mean, you get energized.
I'm quicker.
Um I've got more punch, I'mpunchier.
And it's funny, like, I I've hadthis conversation a couple of
times.
Like, do you just get stronger?
(17:40):
Like that immediateneuromuscular improvement, that
neural coordination improvement,you just feel stronger.
Like, and bam, that comes reallyquick, particularly when it's
built on a well into awell-designed, you know, online
plan.
That neuromuscular improvementis probably go back to your
(18:00):
point, the one that kind ofspreads out over all the other
performance demands the most,because that neuromuscular
improvement also will have apositive impact on your overall
efficiency.
And you could break that downbetween physiological and
actually biomechanical, butthat's a whole nother podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (18:19):
It it it is, but I think here's how I describe it
to my athletes is if we haven'tsprinted in a while, and I tell
them to go do a sprint, they'relike, man, I just was all over
the place.
Yeah.
And I'm like, Yep, but tomorrow,if you go do a sprint, you'll be
fine.
And and this is theneuromuscular connection.
What's actually happening is ifyou don't recruit the motor
(18:41):
units uh in the way that Tim istalking about, meaning like low
to high, and then get all ofthem by going close to max, if
not maximum, and going at speed,if you don't do that in a while,
the brain to muscle synapse uhgets underutilized, right?
And then all of a sudden youstart to go super hard again and
(19:02):
you start to shootacetylcholamine that innervates
nerves and muscles to coordinateand synchronize everything again
for the big muscles and fastmoving uh aspects of your body
to move.
And so that's why it's a veryquick, even like from one
session to the next.
That's what happens in the gym,that's what happens in jumping,
that's what happens insprinting.
And sometimes you just need todust off the cobwebs to not feel
(19:24):
like Bambi when you're sprintingagain.
Do a sprint, open up, good to gothe next day.
SPEAKER_01 (19:30):
It's a great example.
I mean, that, and I thinkpeople, because the
neuromuscular coordinate, theneuromuscular improvements in
this phase are crucial.
Um, because I think they giveyou the biggest bang for the
buck across the board.
Don't get me wrong, there's someother improvements that are
important.
I know you're going to talkabout those in a moment, but
here's an example, right, that Ialways give.
(19:50):
Let's say I picked up asoftball, I had a ball here in
my desk, a tennis ball,whatever, and I was to throw it
with my right arm, it might go50 feet.
If I was to throw it with myleft arm, it might go 20.
20, right?
Because I'm right hand dominant,I'm right side dominant, and
that's the coordination, the waymy brain is talking to my arms.
That's what it knows.
But if I went into the gym and Iwas going to bench press 100
(20:12):
pounds and I put 50 pounds oneach side, you know, assuming
the bar has no weight, and Ibench press, both arms would
probably do pretty much the sameload management in that.
So it's the difference wemistake strength and
coordination so much, like, oh,I can't sprint, I'm not strong.
Well, maybe you just haven'tdone the neurological work, the
(20:34):
neuromuscular side, and taughtyour body proper recruitment.
Because if I spent months tryingto throw a ball with my left, it
would improve and eventuallyover time, it would probably
come pretty close to my right.
This phase in a very condensedlittle way, that's what you're
investing in.
You don't get strongernecessarily, but you get so much
(20:54):
better at the coordination side,it feels and pretends and
performs like strength.
And what do you care?
Like, I don't really care ifit's I'm stronger, I'm more
coordinated, I'm faster.
Yay, right?
And that's what you're doing.
So it's a great investment inhere in places.
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that first, you know, one totwo weeks, I see a lot of people
just uh improving very quicklyand feeling that snap, like you
talked about, which is superimportant.
That next like two to fourweeks, and I would say this
one's I mean, it's not morecrucial, but uh, because you
need the first two weeks to getthere.
But the the next two to fourweeks, this is where it gets a
(21:32):
little complicated, but there'slike some muscle chemistry and
muscle physiology that starts tooccur.
And you can uh uh sift throughthe details with me here.
But there's there's two maindrivers of this um when it comes
to the enzymes that actuallyimprove anaerobic capacity.
And the first one's PFK, andthat's phosphofructose kinase.
(21:54):
And it's man, without gettingsuper deep into this, it's a
rate-limiting enzyme when itcomes to anaerobic glycolysis.
So anaerobic glycolysis, that'sreferring to the without oxygen
going really hard aspect of whenwe were talking about anaerobic
capacity.
So correct me if I'm wrong, Tim,but there's there's no uh chart
(22:15):
in WKO5 that tells me uh howmuch PFK is going on, is there?
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
There is not.
SPEAKER_00 (22:20):
Um But we know it's there, right?
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
We can measure some glycolytic glycolytic
efficiency, which may or may notuh you know give insight.
That's you're talking about verytough things to model here.
unknown (22:33):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:34):
I mean, but there is a like a glycolytic capacity uh
uh uh measurement and stuff onWKO5 and things like that.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
Glycolytic capacity.
I said efficiency, sorry, thanksfor the correction.
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
Yes, uh yeah, and VLA Max, and we can do there's
some cool models in there, okay?
But it we're not we're justconceptualizing.
We know what happens like in thecell, we know what happens from
a physiological state, but thisthis is important, and the
stimulus needs to be enough forthat enzyme to come through.
And this is where I say a lot ofpeople don't go hard enough when
(23:06):
they should.
And we can use analytics to makesure that they're going hard
enough to get that driver going,to get PFK going into the
system.
Additionally, there's anotherenzyme called LDH or lactate
dehydrogenase.
And this is the final step inlike anaerobic efforts, and it
helps to convert the pyruvateinto lactate, and that's and
(23:30):
that lactate then goes intofueling um these long the
aerobic glycolytic energy systemthat Tim was talking about.
So to bring this all back in,when you got a sprinty athlete
who front loads an effort,power's going real good, and
they're like, Yeah, let's go,but they hate dragging that out
longer into the you know thethree and the five minute sort
(23:51):
of genre of things.
You they need to do that, okay?
But their PFK and LDH probablyoptimized.
It's grand in a high FRCathlete, they have a lot of
those enzymes going wild intheir system.
For me, somebody like me, Idon't know if I got any PFK and
LDH going on in my systembecause I'm happy if I see over
(24:12):
a thousand watts on a on a on anice day.
So with that said, the where Ishould be working right on my
physiology, or where a lot ofpeople really need to focus on
is this two to four weeks in,uh, going deep, and we'll go
through some example workoutshere, but this is where the the
switches get flipped to get theenzymatic um uh stimulus
(24:38):
occurring to develop deepanaerobic capacity.
Tim, did I get that right?
Anything that you want to addon?
SPEAKER_01 (24:44):
Yeah, actually you got a correct better than I
could have said it, but you saidwhat the key things you flip the
switches for this response.
Like, and imagine that's like aheavy Tavel switch, and you
gotta push it really hard, andthen suddenly it'll just go
click and you begin to get.
And that's the hard work youneed to do.
And it is the ability to switchthis on.
That's the training intensityand volume targeting that you're
(25:08):
really looking at.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, in that two tofour weeks, I mean, this is this
is where I start to uh monitorthe athlete, make sure and I
rear I monitor the athlete and Ilook at a few things to make
sure they're they're holding up.
I might stretch it into weekfive.
Um, and this is where likephysiologically what's occurring
is phosphocreatine levels areincreasing, and that goes in
(25:32):
line with the PFK and the LDH umuh uh to enhance the capa the
anaerobic capacity.
But in that fifth week, I mightlook to more like repeatability
of the power.
Like, can I repeat that verygood in a high quality sense?
And this is goes back to likebuffering capacity and dealing
(25:53):
with acidity and all this kindof stuff.
And after that, though, I'mgonna I'm gonna pull the plane
up because go longer than that,I it gets dangerous.
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Very well stated.
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
Yeah, yeah.
And if you're even thinkingabout eight to ten weeks of FRC
training, I would call you asilly person.
You need some rest, you need tobalance it out, and you need to
use concurrent aerobic training,in other words.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Yeah, I know the only thing I would couldn't
agree more.
That's again a very short uhblock for me.
Like it might be a cycle and ahalf with some rest.
It depends on your restingschedule, and if we're two, one,
three, one in that stage.
So there's you know, someelements in there, but it's
short, it's intensive, it's verypurposeful.
(26:36):
And, you know, it is the timewhere you're, you know, most of
the interval sets are max.
Like you're going at max.
Now it might be max uh knowingthere's a couple more intervals,
but it's still max, like you'repushing that ragged edge, not
only in the overall intervalload, but in the individual
(26:56):
intervals themselves.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
So for a self-coached athlete listening
to this, and they they're youknow gearing up for uh some good
FRC work and they're gonna goout there and do it tomorrow.
What percentage of FTP shouldthey target, Tim?
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
For me, I'm a little higher here.
I think, and it depends, itdepends.
Let me answer.
You really should be going ashard as you can go.
And as hard as you can go withthe expectation of finishing the
workout.
So I am a believer when you getinto this phase of really
pushing.
So if you want to put apercentage to that, you know, we
(27:32):
could say um I might, Itypically I'm gonna go off
script here a little bit in thesense of the classic zone model.
I want to be 130 to 135% of FTPor above.
Now, classically in a seven-zonemodel, I think that's 121 to
135.
Um, and that's where all of thathas impact.
(27:54):
But I want my athletes to goback all the way to the first
episode.
I like riding in kind of thebottom of the aerobic zone and
not here's where I want you, ifyou can get to the top, to find
a way to fight to your top.
I think once we invest in this,we want to switch on all of
those positive impacts.
It's a heavy switch to push.
(28:15):
It takes a hard, hard effort.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
Wow, that's a more concrete answer than I was
anticipating from you, Tim.
I thought it would be a very, itdepends and individualized
approach, which you you did saythat.
And and I will say, I mean, thatwas an awesome answer, mind you.
But I I think what what everyoneneeds to learn from what Tim Sim
is like it's hard.
It's max.
(28:38):
Yeah.
And this is where I prescribe inRPE.
Sure, there'll be a percentageof FTP.
And yes, I do individualize thatbased on how they make how my
athletes make their power.
Um, and I'm usually also goingto what was their max, say it's
a one minute, I'll go to whatthey've done in a one minute for
maybe the year or the past sixmonths.
I'll make that the top end andthen drop it down to probably
(29:01):
like a 130%, like Tim said.
Um, and that's how I designedthe workup, but like max is max.
RPE, this is where this reallyprevails.
And I would say don't hang on toa number necessarily because if
if we're doing it right, youmight go beyond it, right?
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You know, it's funny.
You said a couple of things likewe talked earlier about, I think
it was episode two, about firstwe use a power meter meter to
calibrate our feelings, then weuse our feelings to calibrate
power.
Here's another great example ofit.
If you're my two cents,everybody, if you're looking at
your power meter, you're notgoing hard enough.
Like this is a classic casewhere the number is descriptive.
(29:44):
When you're done with theinterval set, load it on up to
training peaks and take a reviewand be like, hey, cool, I did
this.
The prescription is hard.
And that's why I said 130 andone, I want that or above.
Like, that's the minimum.
I don't want to prescribe 121 asa range because I don't want the
(30:04):
athlete doing that.
Like more.
Everybody's, even a highlyaerobic athlete can do more, get
closer.
And I find that pretty mucheveryone can perform in that 130
plus range, but there's wherethen we see repeatability become
an issue.
I also very focus on like whenI'm in phase, what you have is
one to two weeks and two to fourweeks, which I agree with.
(30:26):
Honestly, most of my intervals,I'll do two things I'm doing.
One one minute is a mainstayhere.
Sometimes I'll do 75 seconds fora manipulated finish, like a
standing, because I'm going torecruit while you're full of
lactate, we're going to recruitsome additional muscle, make it
even more sucky and painful.
Um, so there might be someelements like that, but say one
(30:48):
minute.
One of the things I'll measurein sets is the drop-off rate
that happens after around 40seconds.
Physiologically, when we'regoing max and we're really
thinking about this concept ofbeing anaerobic, we're burning
that anaerobic battery downpretty fast.
At around 40 seconds, the phoneis flashing the warning lights.
(31:10):
That's when you really start tohurt because all the signals are
we're running out, we're almostempty.
And that last 20 seconds, andit's not always, but yeah, it's
actually always kind of look at20 because it's just a block of
time.
I want to see from hard start todrop off, like how hard do they
start?
Where do they drop off from likefive seconds in to 40?
(31:32):
That usually has one angle.
I'm doing it for the camera,that might have a certain slope,
but it's the slope from 40 to 60that really tells me where the
athlete's at.
And then I'll manage throughcoaching advice more than a
power number.
Like, hey, here's a slightlybetter way to execute that
that's still max, or you know,here's a different approach or a
(31:55):
different terrain, even canimpact, and then uh still try to
hit them the same numbers, butmaybe not, and the drop-off is
the control element for me thatI'm looking for.
If they can manage that drop-offmore, that you know that gives
me an indicator of to race ofphysiological and psychological
(32:19):
readiness.
unknown (32:21):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (32:22):
Like that athlete's not ready to suffer in that last
20 seconds the minute, they'reprobably not ready to race.
And that's a tough message tosend athletes, but there's a
relationship there that's true.
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
Yep, it's very true.
Um, so you described, you know,one minute is kind of a
mainstay, maybe out to 70seconds.
Do you have a short uh likebelow 60 seconds or when you're
doing FRC intervals?
Um so what would be like thevery minimum duration that you
would use for an FRC interval?
SPEAKER_01 (32:51):
I like my minimum would be 30 to 40 seconds,
depending on the athlete.
There's a there's a lot of barebecause you can put out more
power, obviously, for that attimes sustain a higher power
output.
And here we're playing in therange where power is probably
more I shouldn't say thisbecause somebody I'll get hate
mail, but power is almostprobably more impactful than the
specific length of the interval.
(33:13):
But that really depends on theathlete.
Like if I find you can do moreintervals at 30 seconds and get
100 watts, 150 watts more out ofdoing it that way, um, I'll I'll
lean into that a little bitmore.
Um I because uh you as a coachhave the responsibility to get
max too.
You're asking the athlete formax, you have to find the uh the
(33:36):
interval environment that allowsthem to get the most out of that
type of intensity.
SPEAKER_00 (33:43):
Yep.
And how many intervals like persession would you be doing uh as
an example workout?
SPEAKER_01 (33:50):
I start low and move high.
And often sometimes like meaningI I want to I always want to err
on the lesser side of that.
One of the things you saidearlier, if you're thinking for
everybody thinking targeting,even after what we've just
talked about, you said it, butyou didn't put enough emphasis
on it.
Your history is the greatestindicator of your anaerobic
capacity interval format.
(34:12):
So I will always base that onwhat's the athlete history.
Meaning, I might go back to aprevious year where they've done
some workouts.
I'm like, wow, they really canonly do four times one minute
and they crap out.
I might do a little more andthen manipulate the rest
environment.
There's a real complexity here.
Am I trying to build capacity ordo I want to push a little
(34:32):
power?
I might change the rest inbetween.
Generally, I'm going for max.
So I would start four to six oneminute.
SPEAKER_00 (34:42):
Now the and how much how much time in between?
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
Um, full recovery.
So uh anywhere, depending on theathlete, from five to eight
minutes.
Um there's some occasionalthings like I have some workouts
that are really specific toperformance, like crit sprints,
where I'll limit the recovery alittle bit more from that
because it brings down thepower, but it really is more
(35:08):
specific to the demands of beingin that crit.
So to mimic that demandspecific, I'll give up a couple
of watts.
But in general, it's that typeof spread.
Because again, max is theindicator.
I want you to.
SPEAKER_00 (35:21):
And you'll drain the FRC uh quite rapidly when you do
that too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
Absolutely.
Yeah, you need to restore thatbattery in between enough to be
able to pull because the the thewhat flips the uh uh the
anaerobic enzyme switch isdraining the battery, restore
it, drain the battery, restoreit.
That's the driver.
You get the neuromuscularresponse, that better
coordination we've got just fromgoing harder.
(35:45):
But the real uh response in theenzymes we're talking about,
they need that drain restore.
And it never restores fully upin five to seven minutes.
It gets back up.
There, you're ready enough togo.
And that that sawtooth drainthat we we can see in certain
charts, that really is whatyou're driving.
You want to just empty it,restore it as best you can,
empty it, and that's the goal ofeach interval.
SPEAKER_00 (36:09):
Now I'll go off script here and pull it almost
back to episode one because wetalked about how say FTP and FRC
are inversely related.
But would you would you say thatif somebody has trained
aerobically well, would theanaerobic battery or FRC does
(36:32):
that recharge more quickly in ahighly fit person, or is it just
genetically driven?
I'm a fast twitch person, so myanaerobic is always tuned up and
ready to go.
What does the aerobic side playin recharging the anaerobic?
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
Wow, that's a great question.
So, conceptually, as humans, wehave a pretty tight range of how
we burn that battery down.
That's reasonably predictable inmodeling.
It's the restoration of thatbattery which gets very
difficult to predict because ofall the variables of which
you're now talking about one keyone, the athlete, uh one of the
key variables, the athlete'saerobic uh fitness, their
(37:13):
aerobic capacity.
As a whole, I'll make that thisstatement.
Your aerobic capacity and havingaerobic fitness improves your
recovery in all elements oftraining.
Like it is an aerobic exercise.
You recover, it's not like yourecover just because everything
stops.
There's activity going on in thesystem that's driving that
(37:34):
recovery, the response to thebreakdown, which is exercise.
The more aerobically fit we are,the more that recovery is
optimized.
It happens better and faster,and therefore improves our
ability to do work and do morework at higher intensities, and
actually improves the adaptationto the stimuli, as long as we
(37:56):
don't have too much fatigue andwe've properly rested in cycles.
So that's where go all the wayback, and again, I forget what
episode two, that's probably oneof the biggest challenges of the
time-crunched athlete, becausethey don't have quite the time
to really invest in fullydeveloping that aerobic
capacity.
And you still then um have todeal with some of the impacts of
(38:20):
that.
And as you get into higherintensity, which then the
athlete will feel like, well,I'm doing more work.
This is good.
Actually, you could do more workyet if somehow you could have
spent some more time throughyour foundation phase doing
aerobic and improving thataerobic capacity and fitness.
SPEAKER_00 (38:38):
Yeah, exactly.
And I and I think that justspeaks to uh the complexity of
some of this physiology and someof the questions that came from
our audience.
I mean, these were richquestions, and I mean it spurred
on four, actually five podcasts.
And and so I even if you're acrit racer, you need aerobic
(38:59):
training because that will makeyour anaerobic better.
And if you're a gravel racer oran altar racer, you need some
FRC to make you more durablewhen the hard times come.
So it's it's not just oneintensity, it's not just one
metric, it's it's all of them.
It's all the stuff that Timtalked about.
SPEAKER_01 (39:17):
My example of spinning all the plates, right?
This is this is when we thinkabout it endurance athletic
versatility.
Like we tend to get very focusedin training, and we're looking
at this and we're doing that,and we have a neat little plan,
and everything else is workinggreat, but the map is not the
territory, right?
There's this reality is then youget into a race and things go
bananas.
(39:38):
Like hard start, I'm in a group,everybody's now going too slow,
and somebody started this littlehill, and we all charge up the
hill at 600 watt.
Great athletes are versatileathletes.
So, what you're investing in,even though there's areas you're
doing a lot more focused due toyour limitations and the demands
of the events, um, but you needto be versatile too.
(40:00):
Don't fall for the concept, andyou were great to keep bringing
this back up.
Don't fall like this one answeris me, or wow, the demand of the
event is unbound, and I'mtargeting 11 hours, and I just
need to go in 140 watts, youknow, to achieve that.
You still need to be versatileto deal with the dynamics of any
(40:22):
event you're going to be in.
And investing some capital andkeeping all the plates kind of
spinning is usually a worthwhilething to do in your, you know,
endeavor, in your in yourtraining, in your athletic uh
event performance.
It's important.
SPEAKER_00 (40:38):
Yes, it is.
Yes, it is.
Um, and with that, Tim, I mean,I I feel like we've created
almost a handbook of uh, youknow, how to adapt, uh, what to
expect in that adaptation andsome example workouts along the
way.
So I really uh appreciate allthe hours that you've spent with
me uh in making the outline andjumping on this podcast and
(41:02):
going late into the day.
So uh I really do thank you.
Um and I hope our listeners,well, I know our listeners will
get a ton from it.
So thank you for taking time uhto share your knowledge with all
of us.
Well, thanks for having me on.
It's been fun.
Yeah, well, before I let you go,um, you know, I'm gonna speak to
all the caps that you do wear.
(41:22):
Um in my original episode numberone, I talked about uh uh an
educator and uh analyst at WKO5.
We threw out a lot of nerdyterms, and I know that there's a
ton of nerdy athletes listening.
Um, if they're curious aboutusing a tool like WKO5, uh, how
do they do that?
Where do they go?
Uh, and who should use it andwho maybe should not use it.
SPEAKER_01 (41:44):
Great question.
So WKO5 is an advancedanalytical tool, and there's a
lot of things that you canunlock with it.
Um, but it there's a learningcurve.
There definitely is, you have toinvest in understanding of
concept and how to make thesystem work, how to work within
the, you know, analytics arecomplex.
Once we master it, it's greatbecause it can crunch a whole
(42:06):
bunch of data and gives us clearinsights.
We call that, you know,actionable intelligence.
That's what analytics, that'sthe end output.
Analytics help us make betterdecisions.
So you can go totrainingfeaks.com, you can
certainly download WKO5.
Um, it has a two-week freetrial.
So if you want to experiment andsee what you see in there.
(42:27):
If you go to the help section,there's actually a robust
WKL5.com website, which talksabout how to use the software,
the concepts are in it, there'sguides to how to get started.
There's actually a full-oncoaching with WKL5 guide in
there, which is a very helpfulguide, even if you do or do not
(42:48):
use WKL5.
I mean, of course, we'd like youto use it, but it kind of lays
out some really good concepts injust coaching and developing
coaching strategies and how toutilize.
Um, just know that you're gonnahave moments of frustration
because it's a learning curve.
Um, it is not as easy to use astraining peaks because you're
looking at data presented indeep analytical approach.
(43:13):
So it's not necessarily just achart showing you what you've
done.
There's a lot of analytics goingon in there, showing you some
complex concepts and ideas.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
Yeah.
Yep.
So if you do have time that youwant to invest in and uh explore
deeper analytics, I'd definitelydo it.
Um, but it's not for everybody.
I have some uh very smartathletes that uh understand it
uh greatly and they use it andthey're like it's a little too
much.
So I guess, coach, I'll just letyou do this.
Uh but then I have some otherpeople that pick it up like that
(43:46):
and then Matt, this is great.
And they they love Zoom sessionswith me and just uh understand
it more.
Um so it's a it's a pretty cooltool.
I wanted to mention it herebecause Tim uh is a big uh
driver of that.
And last episode we did talkabout uh joinbasecant.com.
And I know uh Tim has um a bunchof stuff coming up on that,
particularly some like indoorriding opportunities.
(44:08):
Uh Tim, you mentioned thatbefore, but when does that
start?
Because it's usually around likethe Thanksgiving holiday time
period, right?
SPEAKER_01 (44:15):
December 1 this year falls neatly on the calendar.
Uh you know, you you can find usriding online, you can join our
community.
There's things that you can do.
Um it it's a pretty crazy, itmakes for crazy winters, but
it's fun.
It's a a lot of community, a lotof learning.
There's a whole group of peoplein there.
Shared values, you know,learning, growing, exercising,
(44:37):
sweating, all that.
It's great.
SPEAKER_00 (44:39):
And entertainment.
Uh, because I I know uh mepersonally, I don't ride indoors
all that much, but when I do, Iwant some entertainment and I
need somebody to cheer me on.
And uh I've joined, I've joineduh uh Basecamp in Tim and
heckled with him um uh a fewtimes.
So if you need somebody to justkind of kick you in the butt and
uh virtually go along uh withthem, check out uh Tim and
(45:02):
Rebecca, and I think Amber mightbe on the bike this year.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (45:05):
Amber's not on the bike this year with us on our
Swift rides.
Um we have a whole group of newpeople.
You can look at Swift onSwift.com and there are forward
slash events, forward slashbasecamp, and you'll see all of
our future rides coming up inSwift.
Come join us one.
It's just jump in and join us.
All the rides are coached.
(45:25):
Uh I do the 10 a.m.
ride, which I've seen you onsometimes.
It's great, Rebecca Rush and Ido the 10 a.m.
ride and always have some fun.
We always have some crazydialogue and learning going on.
So come on out and go.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
Coach AP is just suffering from all the FRC work.
So uh but yeah, check them out.
Uh in in all honesty and in umuh genuine terms, they do a good
job over at Basecamp.
So check that out.
WKO5 is for all the nerds outthere.
And speaking of nerds, Tim,thank you again.
I really appreciate all yournerdiness.
Thanks for having me on.
(45:59):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist Podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even more actionabletraining advice, head over to
trainright.com backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast that'll help you take
(46:19):
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart.
Train right.
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