FAQ ~ Road Ride Zone Settings
One of these riders has pushed themselves
considerably harder than the other
Mick Heald foreground, yours truly,
slacking in the background
In your programmes the settings, levels and
efforts for the road rides seem incredibly hard. There's no
way I can ride at those levels for that time...
Many, Many Riders!
Zone 4 Descriptor for Hilly Road Ride in Base Build Programme
This does not mean ride for three and a half hours at Zone 4!
Read Me First
I get asked the question an awful, awful, lot. The answer is
highlighted a few times in the programme, but I'm the first to admit, there is quite a bit to take in
when you first read our packages.
They are like a small book when compared to other coaching packages I've seen. So it's easy to miss these sections if you've skim read it, or forget them, if you've read it all in one sitting; but here's the definitive answer...
How To use It
This graphic is from the "How to use it"
page. Each session descriptor box, gives you an "at a glance" overview of what
that particular session is all about.
As with all the sessions, the numbers in the boxes are not the intensity at which the ride should be ridden; they are the physiological adaptations you will accrue from undertaking those rides.
For instance, the Micro B3 Hilly Road Rides have a "Zone 4" adaptation. The graphic is indicating that these road sessions will develop your Lactate Tolerance. You can not physically ride for three plus hours at Lactate Threshold Levels! If you can, you should be in a lab being tested!
This page also indicates that these are the perception levels you should experience for the session, and are not the target to be aimed for.
Training Load
At the foot of this page, there is an explanation (and warning),
under "Adaptation & The Numbers" of what the top graphic means.
The Training Adaptation Numbers, 1 to 7, that correspond with the Continuum columns, show the expected benefit of that particular session undertaken.
It is not a level of perception, heart rate or power at which the session should be attempted; it is merely the overall training effect the session gives you.
With the efforts of intensity and recovery undertaken for three and a half hours, the adaptation benefit you get from the above Road Ride Session will be an uplift in Lactate Tolerance (4).
As ever with all these things, once you get to read it "in context" it all makes sense.
So please don't beat yourself up about asking the question. As with all questions, the answer is easy, when you know it.
Be Good, ride hard and suffer well. Just not at Level Four
for three and a half hours...
