How to Build Your Aerobic Threshold
Cycling, November 12, 2014
How to build a solid aerobic threshold, brick by fairly boring brick.....
Chances are that if you follow Joe Friel’s system of periodization you are either fully into a transition period or beginning to build your aerobic base as part of the Base 1 phase.
Don’t skip the transition period! For some it appears as the lone island in a sea of training and you cannot wait to get your toes in the sand. Others experience a kind of internal struggle that pits emotion against common sense and it’s tough to put the bike down. Trust me and trust Joe; get in the light and unregimented month or so necessary to re-charge your mental and physical batteries. Once that is over….
Dive into the high end of zone 2 as you dive into VO2max intervals in the spring. This stuff is not easy! In fact some people find it more difficult and you need to wrap your head around the effort. The goal is to build as much wattage as possible within your high end of zone 2 heart rate. Just focus on heart rate for the first few Aerobic Threshold (AT) rides. As an example, if your zone 2 heart rate tops out at 142 bpm’s, then keep heart rate between 138 and 142 for an hour to see where the watts fall. Do that 3 or 4 times to confirm the numbers.
Once you’ve established that then use wattage as your goal while keeping an eye on heart rate so that you can increase to suit. If you are at 200 watts and 140 bpm’s and see that your heart rate is dipping to 136 bpm’s at 200 watts then you’ve just increased your AT power. Bring the wattage up until your heart rate stabilizes at 140 bpm’s, make note and feed the higher wattage into your training. Now you have a new wattage goal of, say, 215 watts for your next AT ride.
The duration of your AT fitness is also of great importance. The point at which you experience decoupling is the duration of your current aerobic fitness. If you can hold 200 watts/140 bpm’s for 60 minutes then move on to a 75 minute duration. If, however, your heart rate goes up 50 minutes in and your wattage remains at 200 then you’ve decoupled at 50 minutes and need to stick with the 60 minute duration until both indicators are stable all the way through.
Keep on this track up to two hours and then you are ready to move on to more intense efforts. Move on to soon and you will invariably pay for it down the road. As mentioned it’s not easy! Take each duration to its end and then move on to the next:
15 minutes zone 1-2 warm up. 60 minutes at AT and 90-100 rpm’s. 15 minutes zone 1-2 warm down.
15 minutes zone 1-2 warm up. 75 minutes at AT and 90-100 rpm’s. 15 minutes zone 1-2 warm down.
15 minutes zone 1-2 warm up. 90 minutes at AT and 90-100 rpm’s. 15 minutes zone 1-2 warm down.
15 minutes zone 1-2 warm up. 105 minutes at AT and 90-100 rpm’s. 15 minutes zone 1-2 warm down.
15 minutes zone 1-2 warm up. 120 minutes at AT and 90-100 rpm’s. 15 minutes zone 1-2 warm down.
Sure it’s slow, but it’ll make you faster!
Rob Kelley
TRAINING BIBLE COACH