If you are a cyclist, sooner or later, you're going to hit a plateau. This happens when your performance just doesn't improve, no matter how hard you try.
This can occur for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is training without a proper plan. In order to get the most from your workouts, it is important to approach training from a scientific point of view. Knowing what you are trying to accomplish with each day's effort as well as knowing what not to do can greatly improve your performance.
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Hitting a performance plateau can be a very frustrating experience. Follow these four tips to figure out where you've gone wrong.
A journal provides context for your workouts and helps you understand how your training is progressing. It paints a picture of what you have accomplished over a particular period of time and how you were able to accomplish it. For example, if you set a personal best in a particular event, you can take a look at the weeks leading up to that event to gain perspective on what you did that enabled you to maximize your performance.
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Conversely, by examining your training in the weeks prior to a plateau, you can gain a greater understanding of what's happening, and why you are stuck. To maximize the effectiveness of your journal, keep track of the following information:
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In other words, it should consist of extremely intense riding or racing, which are the efforts that help facilitate the physiological adaptation process that leads to improved performance (i.e., the training effect). The 75 percent rule helps you avoid the "Zone 3 syndrome" where you spend too much time riding at an intensity that is too hard to facilitate recovery, but not hard enough to promote the training effect. This is one of the most common reasons cyclists hit plateaus.
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For instance, if you want to improve your lactate threshold and functional threshold power (FTP), you would train in zone 4, which is 98 percent to 105 percent of LTHR, and 91 percent to 105 percent of FTP.
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Likewise, if you want to improve your aerobic endurance, you would ride in zone 2 (75 percent to 85 percent of LTHR, and 56 percent to 75 percent of FTP). Training zones work by letting you know how hard you are exercising, and by providing you with the feedback needed to modify the intensity of your workout if you are exercising too hard or not hard enough. They offer an easy way to continuously monitor intensity in order to keep it at the desired level, which makes it much easier to apply the 75 percent rule.
For example, many cyclists benefit from a 28-day block with a 23/5 training pattern. This consists of 23 days of relatively hard work followed by five days of recovery and easy spinning. Conversely, an older or less experienced cyclist may opt for a 16/5 training pattern (i.e., a 21-day mesocycle) that includes 16 days of hard training followed by five days of recovery. This will provide you with ample opportunities to train hard and then recover, which increases your chances of maximizing performance and reduces the likelihood of hitting a plateau.
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