You hear it everywhere: " To improve, you need to ride more"So you add another ride, you extend the weekend, you go up to 16, 18, 20 hours a week. Yes, we see you, triathletes or amateur cyclists who want to improve! You come home tired, with heavy legs, stinging eyes, proud of having..." Well done! "And yet... the times aren't changing anymore, the FTP istagNo, the sensations remain average. You tell yourself that it still lacks a bit of volume, that it needs to " keep the pace "For longer. What if it were exactly the opposite?"
By Guillaume Judas – Photos: depositphotos.com
The real problem is almost never a lack of willpowerThis is a targeting error. We all know that one cyclist or triathlete friend who always pushes themselves too hard, but does it incorrectly. Yes, you there, we see you, we know you, and we'd like to help you. Like most amateurs (and quite a few good local athletes), you spend most of your training time in what we might call a gray area: a little too fast to truly recover, a little too slow to create a powerful stimulus.
Result: you pay the physiological price of a hard outing every day (residual fatigue, inflammation, lack of energy, worn-out nervous system) without ever reaching the maximum benefits on VO2max, threshold power or anaerobic capacityYou arrive already exhausted on Tuesday after Sunday's run. On Thursday, your legs are still heavy during the essential VO2max session, and you ease off without daring to admit it to yourself. Then you compensate by adding a long run on Sunday. because you have to produce volume The circle is complete, the stagguaranteed nation.
Faster and in less time
Science, however, has been unequivocal for over twenty years. The athletes who progress the fastest, from WorldTour pros to top masters, are not necessarily those who train the longest.These are the ones who best polarize their training loadwith approximately 80% of the time spent at very low intensity (Zone 1, completely fluid conversation, calm heart rate) and 20% at truly high intensity (Zone 3 and above, short or long intervals near maximum). In between, they avoid this gray area as much as possible. no man's land metabolic processes that wear down the body without transforming it.
In short: easy days should be ridiculously easyYes, that means riding very, very gently on certain hills rather than pushing hard with the big chainring at 300 watts and 160 bpm just to… stay in rhythm "That means accepting to see your name drop a few places on a Strava segment Because we're riding at 28 km/h instead of 33. That means coming back from a four-hour ride with the feeling that you could do the same ride again immediately. It's unsettling for the ego, but it's exactly what allows you, two days later, to handle 6 x 5' at threshold or 8 x 30"/30" at full speed with legs that are finally responding.
We shouldn't just be satisfied with looking at the TSS (Training Stress Score) ou normalized power displayed by the monitor. The same number can hide two completely different realities depending on the level of accumulated fatigue. This is why the perceived effort of the session compared to the actual heart rate usually observed during this type of effort is important and should also serve as an indicator. When the heart rate climbs ten beats higher than usual at the same pace, or when an easy run is rated 4/10 instead of 1 or 2, it's not a lack of mental strength: it's a clear signal that the internal charge is too high and that you need to slow down before your body does it for you.
We put on the brakes and we plan.
The golden rule is simple to understand, difficult to apply: The easy days have to be truly easy so that the hard days can be truly hard… and truly productive.When this rule is followed, the total volume required often drops by 20 to 30%, and performance skyrockets. This is counterintuitive, almost insulting to someone who built their reputation on " I drive more than others "But the data doesn't lie."
So, What type of cyclist or triathlete are you really? The one who piles up the hours hoping that quantity will eventually pay off, or the one who begins to properly structure their training load and rediscover what it means to be fresh and available means ?
