Dylan is the guy who is VERY good at what he does, spoon feeds everyone with research and race proven facts, adds a comic side for zing, AND... is just a very awesome guy. Subscribers and the bike community are very lucky to have him. Stay safe Dylan.
i know im asking the wrong place but does someone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb lost the account password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me!
Spot on Dylan! In the region I am from there is one race that counts for the pro's: The Tour of Flanders. This years winner, Van der Poel, did a 5 day stage race (1st) in the weeks before and since it was shortened with one day he added 'Liege-Bastogne-Liege' (6th), one of the toughest 1 day races there is, the day after the stage race. Two hard races in the following 8 days and no racing the week before. - He and Van Aert are interesting cases as they train very different than most 1 day specialists, changing what was seen as the best way to plan a season, worth to look into.
Good stuff. I love block training and I’ve seen some of my best results after them but like you mentioned, the key for me, especially being a masters racer, is the post block recovery. I’ve found that I need almost 10days of solid recovery after a hard block to reap the benefits of the block but the overall gains seem to last for weeks. Thanks for sharing!
@@sebpig9956 you know actually I have been surprised how long the fitness gains last. I’ve done this now a few different times, and although it’s been a learning process, I tend to see the gains last 3-4 weeks before seeing any real significant drop in CTL or (fitness). For example I performed a 10 day (Friday to following Sunday) block at the end of September, with the goal of the fitness gained from that block lasting me through a fall, 6 race xc series and a few gravel races that all wrap up in early December. So far I’m undefeated amd have set several all times PRs in my 10min, 60 and 90 min power numbers.
i did just this recently. I gained weight during the offseason. After 4 months of no Vo2 workouts just trying to burn kjs i have done 7 Vo2s in 20 days while sustaining current volume. I had never done this type of thing. I am a distance rider riding with power for years. Today i may have did my best century ride to date. Fitness came on fast. Thanks for the great content!
This was great. Thanks. We did this in college for rugby a bit and a lot in track for 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile training. Key was recovery. The the science is great to read. Thank you!
Great video! Block periodization is really unbelievably effective. I switched from triathlon to cycling 6 months ago because of a running injury although cycling was my weakest discipline (I only rode my bike 2 times/week). I did 6 months of structured block training and could increase my FTP from 290W to 385W (5,3W/kg) and my VO2Max from 80 ml/min/kg by now. Now I have these numbers but haven´t even raced a single cycling race in my whole life because everything was cancelled due to Corona...
I can tell you spend a lot of time researching for your content. Much appreciated. Love your videos!! You Inspired me to start my own channel and I just got 100 subs!!
Hi Dylan....Really great and informative video......Seeing your exact training peaks pages really helped give meaning and context to your description....Thanks again.....Greetings from Hungary....Mark.
Dylan these videos are great! One thing I haven’t heard anyone talk about is trail days scattered into training. Since trail riding isn’t as controlled as road/trainer and you get those big power spikes constantly it seems to get removed from training plans. Would love to hear you speak a bit about how to best include mtb days in a training plan (do similar races just way slower :D ).
You're videos have always been among the most helpful and insightful in training, that's for sure. But your humour is getting noticeably better with time! Great content and humour!
I just noticed you're already at 72k. Amazing how successful you've been with this channel. And I love it when good things happen to good people. Can't wait to see one of those 100k awards behind you.
I don't normally comment on anything, but I wanted to let everyone know that block training followed very strictly works quite a bit. I purchased "The Time Crunched Cyclist" as per Dylan's recommendation in another video and am four weeks into the beginner competitor program. Two things. One, ow! Interval pain is insanity. Two, my endurance miles speed is up a lot already. I am a beginner beginner to road biking and have just hit one year of riding with the past month being proper riding with a goal to get faster so I get that my initial progress will be higher. I used to have a HR of 125BPM going 12.5 MPH and now I can maintain 15.5 MPH with the same HR. I also don't feel like I'm working as hard for the extra 2MPH. It feels like endurance pace. Six hours a week is a must, which can be a challenge (I'm a full time student currently), but committing to it has paid off. There is a climb waiting for me when I reach peak fitness in four weeks and I'm starting to feel more confident I will be able to do it by simply following block training in a book that cost me $25. Keep up the interesting content Dylan! I am interested to see what winter training tips will be covered...
thanks.. I have only 6 weeks to prep for Cascade Gravel Grinder my first gravel race - 58 yrs old mostly road biking - confirming my intuition of doing sprints on way back home. my main goal will be climbing - loosing 20 lbs would help lol..
As always; a great and informative video + some great shots from the "Atlantic Coast Highway". A must ride location close to some of the most beautiful cycling terrain found in Norway!
First, thanks for the Eli Manning pic at 3:20. Second, I've been doing "Block Periodization" by accident for years; I'll usually train my brains out the week before I have to be off the bike (for vacation, work travel, or whatever) 2-3 times a year. I'm not sure if it works, but mentally I feel like I'm working hard if I go nuts right before being forced off the bike for a bit.
I have used this once before during our local track race season highly effective as long as you take the rests, there was five of us who ride together who used this, me and one other ( both the vet riders ! ) really did the rest and recovery element the others just kept going in order to keep up that strava average speed ! Come the race days me and the other Vet rider basically smashed it best placing best lap speed the three riders who didnt use the rest periods 2 DNF one is still whinging now three months later about how his legs were heavy etc but hey they have a great Strava average speed !!
I love how I don't need to wait until I do an "ftp test" to track my fitness using Xert. None of this "monty" business. This week I got a great sig update with a simple warm up and 4 min max effort, then z2 for the rest of the ride. Beautiful.
I'm using it currently too, issue is you have to do those max efforts periodically to keep the numbers accurate. If I do my training right I don't ever do all out efforts when I'm fresh enough for it to be a breakthrough.
Also, as someone targeting longer events, I find the MPA modeling not so useful as it doesn't take into account fatigue accumulated in the ride thus far (useful at the start, but not many hours in unless you took it really easy before that point). Still, I find it worth the money.
@@jeffreythompson6282 set your decay rate to "no decay" if you have a good history of accurate data. I do that when I'm doing strict Z2 blocks, it tracks the signature really well based on accumulated strain.
Hey Dylan, thanks a lot for this great video! It was very instructive and well done. There's something else though that I'd really appreciate having discussed by you in a video: Heart Rate Drift over long endurance sessions, how to deal with it (e.g. ignore it or adapt power), how to minimize it (nutrition, hydration etc.) and how the drift is affected/reduced by training. I frequently see people asking questions related to this and personally, I'm also kind of disturbed by the huge amount of drift - basically a shift by one zone! - I still see in long (3h+) sessions, even though my power numbers have improved to a Cat1/2 amateur level (quickly, kudos to you! ;-) ).
Good! The scientists live or stay in Lillehammer (the host of 1994 winter Olympic games), probably the best region for both single track mountain biking and cross country skiing in Europe, I think. Over 600 kilometers with groomed skiing tracks in the region and more singletracks for biking in summer. The region hosted the 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Lea Davison won bronze medal in XCO. Lillehammer also hosted the 2005 UCI Marathon World Championships. Since 1993 we have the Birkebeinerrittet: "the world's largest MTB event, and more than 17 000 bikers participate in the 94 km race every year". Mostly dirtroads up and across the mountain area where all the singletracks can be "discovered". Enjoy :-)
This is the closest I've seen to someone putting together the reasons why cycling stage races have such an amazing effect on form. As a national team racer and pro with many international stage wins with fields that included Olympic, World Championship, Tour de France winners etc. I will tell you what was true for me: Stage racing (and what seems to be a simulation here, although harder to do by yourself) is the key to quantum leaps in performance. One race I did had 3 teams of Soviets and the pace was killer. You are knackered after 3 days, but on day 4-5 you get into a hyper-mode, where you can go at a higher level (with maybe an off day or two) and hammer to the race end. For an 8-12 day stage race the recovery might be 2-4 days. When I did 14-20 day stage races where there were 1-3 rest days, you did not rest otherwise your body would shut down. What you did was go easy with a couple of hard efforts of 1-2 minutes. At the end of the 14-20 day race, I would take about a week off, just going easy and then the following weekend I would have amazing power. As for preparation before the longer stage races, there was two schools of thought. One, an eastern European coach (who won the Peace Race and multiple World and Olympic medals) advocated rest the few days before to have reserves for later. The other coach, who had riders who won the Giro and the Tour of Switzerland, had us do 3 hard days before the race, so we were in hyper-mode coming into it. That worked best for me. I know few people have access to long stage races, but I put this out there to help the understanding of why, for example, riders come out of the Tour and can totally crush everyone. And I think the principles Dylan's talking about echo that.
Hey Dylan, season is about to end, yourself talking about your last race this season, could you do some off season content in the upcoming weeks? Nutrition, workouts, and of course resting :)
Yes please, I was wondering what to do in the off season because I've heard a lot of people talking about how you should stick to zone 1,2 and 3, but I find that I much prefer to still do some hard zone 5 intervals, and still improve my base endurance as well as short 1-2 minute power. I am a youth so that might explain part of why that is, as it means I'm getting better all the time, but regardless it would be great to know what kind of training would be optimal for the off season
@@HumaneNewt He has this one. How to Do Base Training the RIGHT Way and How to Get Fast on a 15 Hour Training Week, The Benefits of Increasing Your Volume. There is a 6 hour video and a 10 hour video.
Great video Dylan! I always learn something useful and it’s always backed by science and experience. Now, I’m going to go take my recovery very seriously...hardest part of training if you ask me
Great topic...Makes sense because you’re fit but rested...The real problem is most people don’t take rest seriously. You should write up a rest plan separately but in parallel to your training plan. That rest plan would incorporate ‘tricks’ and techniques that come from the latest research. It would also include an investment in rest promoting services like massage and acupuncture.
This made me realize that my running coach had us do block periodization my last season. We did 5 interval workouts in a week and I was cooked the next few days, but eventually the gains started to roll in
Honestly thank you for sharing your estimated FTP, as I see many "serious cyclists" say that "not serious cyclist" talk about FTP all the time so often that it made me think that in order to become a "serious cyclist" you should never ever say the word FTP, but luckily I was wrong. :D
Hello @Dylan Johnson, I am a big fan of your videos! With off-season now well underway for much of the northern hemisphere, I would love to see a video on nutrition for the off-season. With weight training being a very important factor in the off season and when looking for strength gains, I was wondering whether a kind of “winter bulk” would actually be a worthwhile consideration. I am not talking an epic bulk, where you gain dozens of pounds of low quality mass, but a controlled slight gain in weight to support strength gain and aid with recovery. In strength training something like this is very common, while I couldn’t find many cyclists doing this. Would be awesome to here your opinion on this.
Hi Lars. Just throwing my 2 cents. This is my second off season weight lifting, basically since I saw Dylan's first video. By following the workout progression he outlined I found that while I didn't bulk up, only gaining a pound in 4 months, my strength did improve a lot. I basically started lifting 35% of my body weight, being sore as hell the first few weeks, to end up at 95% body weight by the end of the 4 months. So increase in strength, but keeping my weight. Hardest part is beating the agony of the first weeks when everything hurts.
I was actually thinking about doing the same thing, but then once I start training again, and need to fuel my body so my training can be effective, weight-loss is the last thing i want to think about.
It's like I have my own personal trainer, but he lives across the ocean and doesn't know me. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos. Since I post this anyways, guys, how much do your gravel bikes weigh?
Heavy - maybe 25lbs with bottles, top tube, and saddle roll - but I still have more weight to lose off of my body than I do my bike. So I'll start with that before shelling out big bucks.
My hybrid off road bike weighs 18.5 kg before water, spares & food are added. I use that for strength & Vo2 max training. I weigh 57 kg's so the hybrid is 1/3rd of my body weight ! It's a great training tool. My road bike is 7 kg's, so after the hybrid, feels as light as a feather, especially on hill climbs.
@@OGillo2001 Hi Rory, just to prove the point, on Monday I rode my heavy hybrid at max effort for 61 km with the 40mm gravel tyres at 20 psi (exhausting). Then on Wednesday, on my road bike, I took a whole minute off my PB on a local time trial route. Wednesday was the easier ride.
here are a few questions that i can't find answered anywhere (i only use an HRM btw): 1. at what zone-, and how long should a warm-up be? when i'm on a stationary trainer, it usually takes me up to 50 minutes for a proper warmup to get to upper zone 4 (my hr graph looks like an up-hill saw-tooth). if i just warm up at upper zone-2, and then try to go bang out VO2max intervals. that just would not work what so ever. or is that what the point is? to go from an easy warm-up pace, to zone-5 as fast as possible? 2. when should the timed interval start? when you start to exert effort in order to reach target HR? or when you reach target HR? 3. when should you start timing your recovery period? when you stop your interval and start to ease up? when you cool down to target rest HR? 4. what HR zone should be the recovery part? even after a 50 minute warm-up, it takes a while to get up to my target interval HR. my VO2max interval graph NEVER looks like the one on the white board. the upward HR slopes aren't nearly that steep
I had an 8 day in a row mountain bike ride trying to get to an elevation goal . Took 2 days off and then did a big ride with distance and allot of elevation climbed and I was quite strong and felt really good after completing the ride and not really tired . I took a mild ride the next day and I lacked energy and was sluggish with chronic leg muscle burn . I am not a professional type rider . I race from time to time . I like to challenge myself and it appears your theory Dylan has some merit with what I did which is not as scientific as with what you do . I feel really good today after yesterday's sluggish mild ride and will take the weekend off from riding . Normally I ride 3 days a week but have been experimenting with 4 days but like you said I dont want to burn out and not enjoy riding by overdoing it . I usually like taking the weekend off . So when XC racing starts up again in california I might go hard for 5 days and take a couple days off before the race to recover but I will have to test the hypothesis at lest a couple more times to see if its repeatable . I am almost at 60 so recovery may take a bit more time and I do have to be careful of injury and overdoing it .
Hi Dylan, love the channel! Block periodization seems like something relative fit amatures can make use of. Please may I suggest a video: the concept would be looking at something like looking at the Sufferfest MTB plan (or similar) and seeing if it's doing stuff like block periodisation. Or perhaps giving suggestions for changes (to said plans) to make for (eg) an upcoming marathon MTB race. It's pretty difficult for mere motals to understand the complexeties of 12 week plans. Thanks a million.
So that explains it. In 2019, I completed the Sufferfest's "Tour of Sufferlandria", which is basically a week of mostly back-to-back HIIT sessions. I went into it expecting I would only make it halfway through, because those are HARD workouts. I was very surprised when I actually seemed to feel stronger after the fourth of fifth day than on the first. I didn't even realize that I was doing block periodization!
Had the same experience. Though the workouts are hard, it’s sometimes harder to hold back in the later part of the following week when you’ve mostly recovered. But, you really gotta let that CTL drop. That’s when all the gene expression altering perfusion and lactate clearance is still persisting.
Hi Dylan! Can you do a video about polarised training and on how it works and it's effectiveness and when to use polarised training? Really be appreciated if you do one. Anyways keep up the good work! Cheers!
Tabata training is a block of 20 sec on/10 sec off efforts at a power level which exhausts the athlete after the 7th or 8th effort. Anything different isn't Tabata training (Tabata, 2019). Things like 30/30s are a different form of high-intensity ‘interval or intermittent’ training (HIIT). Seiler calls them Short Interval Blocks.
At 1:01: What counts as "high intensity" in these studies? At 2:00: It sounds like it's anything over zone 2 - which would mean sweet spot workouts are 'high intensity' and should only be performed 3 times a week, yet many training plans for riders on around 10 hours of week of training include more than 3 sessions a week of sweet spot - especially during the base phase!
This is a great question, most of us simply can't train this long in one week, could we do it effectively in less time? That said, I love seeing exactly what you did as 4th in BWR is quite the accomplishment!
I'm fairly certain the answer is "yes". All that you would do would be to cut back on the zone 1 and zone 2 work. Don't cut back on the HIIT parts, though.
Dylan, I love your scientific approach accompanied by personal experience. Thanks for all the work you do researching these topics. I live in Southern California, so I ride outdoors year round. Most of my rides are hammering up local hills (roughly 3-8 minute climbs). Since I do so much climbing, are leg workouts using weights really going to help me much? Secondly, how important is it to ride with less intensity over the “off season”, given that I don’t really need to take an off-season, weather-wise (plus I’m not a racer and tend to ride similarly year round)?
Thanks for making these amazing videos, learned a lot! Can you make a video about heart rate and power zones? Every platform has it's own system and TP has to many options. What to use 🤔 thanks!
Hi Dylan, really interesting training that you are simplifying for "the normal people" I am a beginner cyclist and I am trying to get better and faster. Your interval training 30x30 and 4x8 are the ones that i am tring to master but i am struggling where i should do these kind of training's. Do you have any tips? Near my home there is one cycling club that has some tarmac at their disposal open for the public, som kind of weird cycling pist or I have to go further out of my city were there is an open road in the middle of nowhere between farmers that could be considered also as a cycling pist. I am curious where you do this kind of training. and if you just find one spot and do that sport over and over until you have hit the amount of runs that you wanted to achieve. Thank you very much. Please try to make it easy for the nubies. What kind of power meter would you suggest for a beginner? I do have an easton crank an BBR. but i just bought my rediculouse could gravel bike/ road bike and i can not afford to lose an other 500 euro :s
I've done 40s/20s and 6min/3min rides and these seem to work best for me (slight variations on what Dylan used).The best thing about the 30/30 or 40/20 is that it keeps you focused as the intervals are so short. And, like Dylan said, you can just do them until you can't any more.
Dylan-These videos are great. I have been doing a lot of research on the biology and physiology behind block periodization and trying to understand how this all works. If I am understanding things properly, for a block week or microcycle the focus is really on the same types of zone rides, let's say V02 max type intervals of one type or another for instance, and for the mesocycle or larger block after the big week the number of those sessions goes from 5 to 1 in the subsequent weeks. So a couple of questions. 1-should the remainder of the rides in those subsequent weeks be below VT1 or are they mixed? If they are mixed does that cause conflicting physiologic reactions between the stress adaptation mechanisms of the V02 Max high intensity work and the homeostatic regulatory adaptions of the lower intensity work? Second question is this. After completing a block mesocycle that has focused on V02 max, for example, then moving on to one that would develop hill climbing strength or some other aspect of riding, how does one maintain the gains made in the previous cycle's focus area. Thanks Dylan.
Wow, impressive power! Ive seen similar great results. I had an insane week a few weeks back where I had done 2 50+ min zwift races at 0.98% IF, on the third day I set my best 20 min power ever (328w). Legs felt sore but somehow kept on going and didn’t really get significantly more sore throughout the effort, as it felt my aerobic ceiling had been lifted. Still hit a high HR though. Then had one rest day, proceeded by me riding at my “new” FTP of 310w for 50 minutes straight. Followed by another insane 2hr zwift race the next day, setting a new 8 min PB of 367w o:! And a PB over 2 hrs I had a few easy weeks due to other life commitments but since then have seemed to retain an ability to handle repeated high IF workouts multiple times a week :) though tend to balance it as 2 hard, 1 moderate. When i had a 5 intense session week, it hadn’t been planned, just felt great and kept smashing it.
That was really inspiring. Last summer I was on a fitness plateau and could't figure out why. Now I'm pretty sure that block periodization would have brought me to the next level. Since I didn't change my training routine it is now obvious that improvement would stagnate at some point. Now I know what to do before my next race. Or would it make sense to put in blocks once in a while?
Hi Dylan, thanks for a great video once again! Great job all in all! Do you think that block periodization can be transferred to running or is the load (physical on muscles and bones) too high? maybe by adjusting the total load. And do you think it is as effective when doing bike-run duathlon session, e.g. I your 1. week 1. day run intervals, 2. day bike, 4. Run, 5. bike and final day a bike-run session? Probably the gains in each discipline is not as much as in only bike as yours. Any opinion on that? Thanks ahead! BR and cheers from Finland, Kai
Dylan - great video and well done on the result. Just wondering how much notice you give to Training Peaks fitness, fatigue and form numbers during this process? Do you adjust the training based on the projected form number for your event at all or just trust how you feel in the legs?
Hey Dylan, tip for another video maybe? I commute to work almost every day on a bike, a cx bike. Each trip is at least 30 minutes, mostly around 40-50 minutes, that gives plenty of time in the saddle during the week. I'd like to know how to maximize the gains out of that scenario. And I am sure I am not alone on this one :) any sort of insight would be appreciated. I checked all your training videos, and everywhere you are talking about one ride per day... so what to do when I have two? :) Thanks for any answer or consideration. Your channel is great, thanks for that as well :)
Dylan is the guy who is VERY good at what he does, spoon feeds everyone with research and race proven facts, adds a comic side for zing, AND... is just a very awesome guy. Subscribers and the bike community are very lucky to have him. Stay safe Dylan.
No, he is pseudo pro, and is disgusting
@@czechstoic799 Elaborate?
@@czechstoic799 explain
i know im asking the wrong place but does someone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..?
I was dumb lost the account password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me!
@Conner Jairo instablaster =)
ultimate chad move: share your training and do the research for others and still win
He always shows us what he just did and never what he’s about to do. For a guy as innovative as he is, it makes sure he’s always a step ahead.
Spot on Dylan! In the region I am from there is one race that counts for the pro's: The Tour of Flanders. This years winner, Van der Poel, did a 5 day stage race (1st) in the weeks before and since it was shortened with one day he added 'Liege-Bastogne-Liege' (6th), one of the toughest 1 day races there is, the day after the stage race. Two hard races in the following 8 days and no racing the week before. - He and Van Aert are interesting cases as they train very different than most 1 day specialists, changing what was seen as the best way to plan a season, worth to look into.
Good stuff. I love block training and I’ve seen some of my best results after them but like you mentioned, the key for me, especially being a masters racer, is the post block recovery. I’ve found that I need almost 10days of solid recovery after a hard block to reap the benefits of the block but the overall gains seem to last for weeks. Thanks for sharing!
Joseph would these gain last four weeks?
@@sebpig9956 you know actually I have been surprised how long the fitness gains last. I’ve done this now a few different times, and although it’s been a learning process, I tend to see the gains last 3-4 weeks before seeing any real significant drop in CTL or (fitness). For example I performed a 10 day (Friday to following Sunday) block at the end of September, with the goal of the fitness gained from that block lasting me through a fall, 6 race xc series and a few gravel races that all wrap up in early December. So far I’m undefeated amd have set several all times PRs in my 10min, 60 and 90 min power numbers.
Younger riders have faster recoverys.
Dylan I just want to thank you and let you know that if I ever find out who gives your videos a thumbs down, I will destroy them
i did just this recently. I gained weight during the offseason. After 4 months of no Vo2 workouts just trying to burn kjs i have done 7 Vo2s in 20 days while sustaining current volume. I had never done this type of thing. I am a distance rider riding with power for years. Today i may have did my best century ride to date. Fitness came on fast. Thanks for the great content!
This was great. Thanks. We did this in college for rugby a bit and a lot in track for 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile training. Key was recovery. The the science is great to read. Thank you!
What an animal, crushes it all week and finishes it of with a race win! BHD was awesome in this video!
Great video!
Block periodization is really unbelievably effective.
I switched from triathlon to cycling 6 months ago because of a running injury although cycling was my weakest discipline (I only rode my bike 2 times/week).
I did 6 months of structured block training and could increase my FTP from 290W to 385W (5,3W/kg) and my VO2Max from 80 ml/min/kg by now.
Now I have these numbers but haven´t even raced a single cycling race in my whole life because everything was cancelled due to Corona...
why?
Backward Hat Dylan is my spirit animal.
I can tell you spend a lot of time researching for your content. Much appreciated. Love your videos!! You Inspired me to start my own channel and I just got 100 subs!!
Why is there no Dylan Johnson for all challenges in life? 😄😄
Just getting into cycling in a serious way after a lifetime of just riding for transportation. This is very interesting. Thanks from Australia 🇦🇺
Hi Dylan....Really great and informative video......Seeing your exact training peaks pages really helped give meaning and context to your description....Thanks again.....Greetings from Hungary....Mark.
Dylan these videos are great! One thing I haven’t heard anyone talk about is trail days scattered into training. Since trail riding isn’t as controlled as road/trainer and you get those big power spikes constantly it seems to get removed from training plans. Would love to hear you speak a bit about how to best include mtb days in a training plan (do similar races just way slower :D ).
Best video I've ever seen
You're videos have always been among the most helpful and insightful in training, that's for sure. But your humour is getting noticeably better with time! Great content and humour!
I just noticed you're already at 72k. Amazing how successful you've been with this channel. And I love it when good things happen to good people. Can't wait to see one of those 100k awards behind you.
I like how Dylan looks like a total cycling bro and yet he's like the only person I believe with his science based methods
Great video! Incredible information!
I don't normally comment on anything, but I wanted to let everyone know that block training followed very strictly works quite a bit. I purchased "The Time Crunched Cyclist" as per Dylan's recommendation in another video and am four weeks into the beginner competitor program. Two things. One, ow! Interval pain is insanity. Two, my endurance miles speed is up a lot already. I am a beginner beginner to road biking and have just hit one year of riding with the past month being proper riding with a goal to get faster so I get that my initial progress will be higher. I used to have a HR of 125BPM going 12.5 MPH and now I can maintain 15.5 MPH with the same HR. I also don't feel like I'm working as hard for the extra 2MPH. It feels like endurance pace. Six hours a week is a must, which can be a challenge (I'm a full time student currently), but committing to it has paid off. There is a climb waiting for me when I reach peak fitness in four weeks and I'm starting to feel more confident I will be able to do it by simply following block training in a book that cost me $25. Keep up the interesting content Dylan! I am interested to see what winter training tips will be covered...
thanks.. I have only 6 weeks to prep for Cascade Gravel Grinder my first gravel race - 58 yrs old mostly road biking - confirming my intuition of doing sprints on way back home. my main goal will be climbing - loosing 20 lbs would help lol..
This method really works, I’ve been going since you released the video last year had best ever thank you Dylan !
"I managed to take the win, but more importantly I got some great training numbers".
Suggestion for another video: best way to warm-up and cool down in different training sessions.
Great content 👍
This channel is fascinating and so, sooooo far beyond my abilities!
As always; a great and informative video + some great shots from the "Atlantic Coast Highway". A must ride location close to some of the most beautiful cycling terrain found in Norway!
Just awesome advice as usual coach. Hope to meet you at the 24 hrs. Old Pueblo in 2/2021 this time. Cheers!
Xert, interesting. Care to do a video about TP, Xert, or WK05. Differences, advantages, and if their science and algorithms are really helpful
First, thanks for the Eli Manning pic at 3:20. Second, I've been doing "Block Periodization" by accident for years; I'll usually train my brains out the week before I have to be off the bike (for vacation, work travel, or whatever) 2-3 times a year. I'm not sure if it works, but mentally I feel like I'm working hard if I go nuts right before being forced off the bike for a bit.
I have used this once before during our local track race season highly effective as long as you take the rests, there was five of us who ride together who used this, me and one other ( both the vet riders ! ) really did the rest and recovery element the others just kept going in order to keep up that strava average speed ! Come the race days me and the other Vet rider basically smashed it best placing best lap speed the three riders who didnt use the rest periods 2 DNF one is still whinging now three months later about how his legs were heavy etc but hey they have a great Strava average speed !!
So glad you're using Xert now - can't wait for a video showing your insights about the platform!
I love how I don't need to wait until I do an "ftp test" to track my fitness using Xert. None of this "monty" business. This week I got a great sig update with a simple warm up and 4 min max effort, then z2 for the rest of the ride. Beautiful.
I'm using it currently too, issue is you have to do those max efforts periodically to keep the numbers accurate. If I do my training right I don't ever do all out efforts when I'm fresh enough for it to be a breakthrough.
Also, as someone targeting longer events, I find the MPA modeling not so useful as it doesn't take into account fatigue accumulated in the ride thus far (useful at the start, but not many hours in unless you took it really easy before that point).
Still, I find it worth the money.
@@jeffreythompson6282 set your decay rate to "no decay" if you have a good history of accurate data. I do that when I'm doing strict Z2 blocks, it tracks the signature really well based on accumulated strain.
Dylan thank you so much for all your advice! You can't even imagine how useful it is for us!
Hey Dylan, thanks a lot for this great video! It was very instructive and well done.
There's something else though that I'd really appreciate having discussed by you in a video: Heart Rate Drift over long endurance sessions, how to deal with it (e.g. ignore it or adapt power), how to minimize it (nutrition, hydration etc.) and how the drift is affected/reduced by training.
I frequently see people asking questions related to this and personally, I'm also kind of disturbed by the huge amount of drift - basically a shift by one zone! - I still see in long (3h+) sessions, even though my power numbers have improved to a Cat1/2 amateur level (quickly, kudos to you! ;-) ).
Great video. That’s just about cleared up all the questions I had about BP, thanks.
Good!
The scientists live or stay in Lillehammer (the host of 1994 winter Olympic games), probably the best region for both single track mountain biking and cross country skiing in Europe, I think.
Over 600 kilometers with groomed skiing tracks in the region and more singletracks for biking in summer.
The region hosted the 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Lea Davison won bronze medal in XCO.
Lillehammer also hosted the 2005 UCI Marathon World Championships.
Since 1993 we have the Birkebeinerrittet: "the world's largest MTB event, and more than 17 000 bikers participate in the 94 km race every year". Mostly dirtroads up and across the mountain area where all the singletracks can be "discovered".
Enjoy :-)
Impressive numbers, and super useful insight into this training method.
Thank you, Dylan.
Thanks Dylan epic stuff
This is the closest I've seen to someone putting together the reasons why cycling stage races have such an amazing effect on form. As a national team racer and pro with many international stage wins with fields that included Olympic, World Championship, Tour de France winners etc. I will tell you what was true for me: Stage racing (and what seems to be a simulation here, although harder to do by yourself) is the key to quantum leaps in performance. One race I did had 3 teams of Soviets and the pace was killer. You are knackered after 3 days, but on day 4-5 you get into a hyper-mode, where you can go at a higher level (with maybe an off day or two) and hammer to the race end. For an 8-12 day stage race the recovery might be 2-4 days. When I did 14-20 day stage races where there were 1-3 rest days, you did not rest otherwise your body would shut down. What you did was go easy with a couple of hard efforts of 1-2 minutes. At the end of the 14-20 day race, I would take about a week off, just going easy and then the following weekend I would have amazing power. As for preparation before the longer stage races, there was two schools of thought. One, an eastern European coach (who won the Peace Race and multiple World and Olympic medals) advocated rest the few days before to have reserves for later. The other coach, who had riders who won the Giro and the Tour of Switzerland, had us do 3 hard days before the race, so we were in hyper-mode coming into it. That worked best for me. I know few people have access to long stage races, but I put this out there to help the understanding of why, for example, riders come out of the Tour and can totally crush everyone. And I think the principles Dylan's talking about echo that.
I'm going to have to watch this video like 10 more times to take in all that information.
Once again, great explaination of training and recovery.
Hey Dylan, season is about to end, yourself talking about your last race this season, could you do some off season content in the upcoming weeks? Nutrition, workouts, and of course resting :)
And how to build a good base fitness during the winter.
Yes please, I was wondering what to do in the off season because I've heard a lot of people talking about how you should stick to zone 1,2 and 3, but I find that I much prefer to still do some hard zone 5 intervals, and still improve my base endurance as well as short 1-2 minute power. I am a youth so that might explain part of why that is, as it means I'm getting better all the time, but regardless it would be great to know what kind of training would be optimal for the off season
Ride slow to ride fast
He already has a video on that topic
@@HumaneNewt He has this one. How to Do Base Training the RIGHT Way and How to Get Fast on a 15 Hour Training Week, The Benefits of Increasing Your Volume. There is a 6 hour video and a 10 hour video.
Great video Dylan! I always learn something useful and it’s always backed by science and experience. Now, I’m going to go take my recovery very seriously...hardest part of training if you ask me
great video Dylan, well said. Love the big kitchen sink weeks to boost the fitness. Thanks for posting this
Great video as always. Inspirational and informative - keep them coming!
Solid video, solid content as always man.
Great topic...Makes sense because you’re fit but rested...The real problem is most people don’t take rest seriously. You should write up a rest plan separately but in parallel to your training plan. That rest plan would incorporate ‘tricks’ and techniques that come from the latest research. It would also include an investment in rest promoting services like massage and acupuncture.
Genuinely impressed you raced at the end of that block!
Question: managing technical/technique (XC) training with the need for intervals, next video?
This made me realize that my running coach had us do block periodization my last season. We did 5 interval workouts in a week and I was cooked the next few days, but eventually the gains started to roll in
Honestly thank you for sharing your estimated FTP, as I see many "serious cyclists" say that "not serious cyclist" talk about FTP all the time so often that it made me think that in order to become a "serious cyclist" you should never ever say the word FTP, but luckily I was wrong. :D
Hello @Dylan Johnson,
I am a big fan of your videos!
With off-season now well underway for much of the northern hemisphere, I would love to see a video on nutrition for the off-season. With weight training being a very important factor in the off season and when looking for strength gains, I was wondering whether a kind of “winter bulk” would actually be a worthwhile consideration. I am not talking an epic bulk, where you gain dozens of pounds of low quality mass, but a controlled slight gain in weight to support strength gain and aid with recovery. In strength training something like this is very common, while I couldn’t find many cyclists doing this.
Would be awesome to here your opinion on this.
Hi Lars. Just throwing my 2 cents. This is my second off season weight lifting, basically since I saw Dylan's first video. By following the workout progression he outlined I found that while I didn't bulk up, only gaining a pound in 4 months, my strength did improve a lot. I basically started lifting 35% of my body weight, being sore as hell the first few weeks, to end up at 95% body weight by the end of the 4 months. So increase in strength, but keeping my weight. Hardest part is beating the agony of the first weeks when everything hurts.
I was actually thinking about doing the same thing, but then once I start training again, and need to fuel my body so my training can be effective, weight-loss is the last thing i want to think about.
It's like I have my own personal trainer, but he lives across the ocean and doesn't know me. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos. Since I post this anyways, guys, how much do your gravel bikes weigh?
i don’t have a gravel bike
Heavy - maybe 25lbs with bottles, top tube, and saddle roll - but I still have more weight to lose off of my body than I do my bike. So I'll start with that before shelling out big bucks.
My hybrid off road bike weighs 18.5 kg before water, spares & food are added. I use that for strength & Vo2 max training. I weigh 57 kg's so the hybrid is 1/3rd of my body weight ! It's a great training tool. My road bike is 7 kg's, so after the hybrid, feels as light as a feather, especially on hill climbs.
@@philiphookham8135 Good thinking, train heavy, and get the lightweight steed out for leading up to events etc etc
@@OGillo2001 Hi Rory, just to prove the point, on Monday I rode my heavy hybrid at max effort for 61 km with the 40mm gravel tyres at 20 psi (exhausting). Then on Wednesday, on my road bike, I took a whole minute off my PB on a local time trial route. Wednesday was the easier ride.
Diggin that Francis Cade B-roll
Great vid mate!!
Great as usual man! 💪🏻😎
Great video Dylan.
Incredible content!
here are a few questions that i can't find answered anywhere (i only use an HRM btw):
1. at what zone-, and how long should a warm-up be? when i'm on a stationary trainer, it usually takes me up to 50 minutes for a proper warmup to get to upper zone 4 (my hr graph looks like an up-hill saw-tooth). if i just warm up at upper zone-2, and then try to go bang out VO2max intervals. that just would not work what so ever. or is that what the point is? to go from an easy warm-up pace, to zone-5 as fast as possible?
2. when should the timed interval start? when you start to exert effort in order to reach target HR? or when you reach target HR?
3. when should you start timing your recovery period? when you stop your interval and start to ease up? when you cool down to target rest HR?
4. what HR zone should be the recovery part?
even after a 50 minute warm-up, it takes a while to get up to my target interval HR. my VO2max interval graph NEVER looks like the one on the white board. the upward HR slopes aren't nearly that steep
Very interesting, and well damn that's some amazing training hours. Good work!
I had an 8 day in a row mountain bike ride trying to get to an elevation goal . Took 2 days off and then did a big ride with distance and allot of elevation climbed and I was quite strong and felt really good after completing the ride and not really tired . I took a mild ride the next day and I lacked energy and was sluggish with chronic leg muscle burn . I am not a professional type rider . I race from time to time . I like to challenge myself and it appears your theory Dylan has some merit with what I did which is not as scientific as with what you do . I feel really good today after yesterday's sluggish mild ride and will take the weekend off from riding . Normally I ride 3 days a week but have been experimenting with 4 days but like you said I dont want to burn out and not enjoy riding by overdoing it . I usually like taking the weekend off . So when XC racing starts up again in california I might go hard for 5 days and take a couple days off before the race to recover but I will have to test the hypothesis at lest a couple more times to see if its repeatable . I am almost at 60 so recovery may take a bit more time and I do have to be careful of injury and overdoing it .
BHD was on point this video.
Great, informative video. Thanks!
Eli as the poster boy for Hail Mary is not lost on me.
Just wanted to let BHD know my new I9 wheelset came in this week and I immediately set new PR's on all my local trails.
that handle bar tape,cannot accept that i see the metal clamp from the shifter, love your videos btw
I'd kill for that kind of FTP. Thanks for the great information.
Hi Dylan, love the channel! Block periodization seems like something relative fit amatures can make use of. Please may I suggest a video: the concept would be looking at something like looking at the Sufferfest MTB plan (or similar) and seeing if it's doing stuff like block periodisation. Or perhaps giving suggestions for changes (to said plans) to make for (eg) an upcoming marathon MTB race. It's pretty difficult for mere motals to understand the complexeties of 12 week plans. Thanks a million.
So that explains it. In 2019, I completed the Sufferfest's "Tour of Sufferlandria", which is basically a week of mostly back-to-back HIIT sessions. I went into it expecting I would only make it halfway through, because those are HARD workouts. I was very surprised when I actually seemed to feel stronger after the fourth of fifth day than on the first. I didn't even realize that I was doing block periodization!
Had the same experience. Though the workouts are hard, it’s sometimes harder to hold back in the later part of the following week when you’ve mostly recovered. But, you really gotta let that CTL drop. That’s when all the gene expression altering perfusion and lactate clearance is still persisting.
Hi Dylan! Can you do a video about polarised training and on how it works and it's effectiveness and when to use polarised training? Really be appreciated if you do one. Anyways keep up the good work! Cheers!
This is such a well though out & helpful video. Great job!
Another great video! Thanks for sharing this informations!
Tabata training is a block of 20 sec on/10 sec off efforts at a power level which exhausts the athlete after the 7th or 8th effort. Anything different isn't Tabata training (Tabata, 2019). Things like 30/30s are a different form of high-intensity ‘interval or intermittent’ training (HIIT). Seiler calls them Short Interval Blocks.
Great stuff!
Very interesting take
Great insight and much appreciated!!
Dylan Johnson on Xert aswell?! How nice! I'm a Xerter too. By the way that Xert-Fitness-Signature is of the hook! Almost backwardhat-Dylan style :p
At 1:01: What counts as "high intensity" in these studies? At 2:00: It sounds like it's anything over zone 2 - which would mean sweet spot workouts are 'high intensity' and should only be performed 3 times a week, yet many training plans for riders on around 10 hours of week of training include more than 3 sessions a week of sweet spot - especially during the base phase!
I might try it! I usually stick with the 2 HIITs a week but willing to try this out!
I do 2 hitts a week since 2014... I think I need to try it 😁
Superb, thank you
1200 TSS in one week? 😅. My God! Love the videos, good job!
For me 550 a week is a very good week
I did 1300-1400 TSS haha Afterwards its crucial to recover properly but as he says huge gains can be made "fast".
@@raphaeltiziani7476 you're lucky and well trained to do that 💪
@@edgarpereira4865 I cannot complain but you always want to become faster!
Thanks @dylan, love the channel. Would this work with reduced hours volume per week and have similar benefit? i.e ~10hours/week
Great question! I train +- 12 hours a week. Love to know what DJ thinks about ut
This is a great question, most of us simply can't train this long in one week, could we do it effectively in less time?
That said, I love seeing exactly what you did as 4th in BWR is quite the accomplishment!
I'm fairly certain the answer is "yes". All that you would do would be to cut back on the zone 1 and zone 2 work. Don't cut back on the HIIT parts, though.
You threw in a race at the end of your training week, and won?? Do the others know that? :D Anyway, great video, as always!
That was bhd’s training week so they definitely knew.
BHD Dylan was leading that race up until mile 4, when all of a sudden excuses #23, 456, and 78.9 all happened at once.
I tried it once before, did the race at the end and got dropped after 5 laps . You need to be really fit for it to work.
This was great. I would like to see your Fitness chart showing CTL and Fatigue and see how the graph predicts your form for the race!
So would I. We KNOW he was fit but did those Fitness charts show it?
excellent dude
Love the Pisgah and Brevard area!
Would you only recommend this 4 weeks out from an A event as you showed? Could it be done a couple of times through a season?
That’s what I’m wondering too... why not do this all year? So long as you recovery correctly
Dylan, I love your scientific approach accompanied by personal experience. Thanks for all the work you do researching these topics. I live in Southern California, so I ride outdoors year round. Most of my rides are hammering up local hills (roughly 3-8 minute climbs). Since I do so much climbing, are leg workouts using weights really going to help me much? Secondly, how important is it to ride with less intensity over the “off season”, given that I don’t really need to take an off-season, weather-wise (plus I’m not a racer and tend to ride similarly year round)?
Thanks for making these amazing videos, learned a lot!
Can you make a video about heart rate and power zones? Every platform has it's own system and TP has to many options. What to use 🤔 thanks!
I just have to laugh because of how many of my friends videos you use. Ben Goyette is everywhere 🤣
Hi Dylan, really interesting training that you are simplifying for "the normal people" I am a beginner cyclist and I am trying to get better and faster. Your interval training 30x30 and 4x8 are the ones that i am tring to master but i am struggling where i should do these kind of training's. Do you have any tips?
Near my home there is one cycling club that has some tarmac at their disposal open for the public, som kind of weird cycling pist or I have to go further out of my city were there is an open road in the middle of nowhere between farmers that could be considered also as a cycling pist.
I am curious where you do this kind of training. and if you just find one spot and do that sport over and over until you have hit the amount of runs that you wanted to achieve.
Thank you very much. Please try to make it easy for the nubies. What kind of power meter would you suggest for a beginner? I do have an easton crank an BBR. but i just bought my rediculouse could gravel bike/ road bike and i can not afford to lose an other 500 euro :s
I've done 40s/20s and 6min/3min rides and these seem to work best for me (slight variations on what Dylan used).The best thing about the 30/30 or 40/20 is that it keeps you focused as the intervals are so short. And, like Dylan said, you can just do them until you can't any more.
Hi Dylan. Would you consider sweetspot as one of the weekly HIIT training or not?
Thanks
Dylan-These videos are great. I have been doing a lot of research on the biology and physiology behind block periodization and trying to understand how this all works. If I am understanding things properly, for a block week or microcycle the focus is really on the same types of zone rides, let's say V02 max type intervals of one type or another for instance, and for the mesocycle or larger block after the big week the number of those sessions goes from 5 to 1 in the subsequent weeks. So a couple of questions. 1-should the remainder of the rides in those subsequent weeks be below VT1 or are they mixed? If they are mixed does that cause conflicting physiologic reactions between the stress adaptation mechanisms of the V02 Max high intensity work and the homeostatic regulatory adaptions of the lower intensity work? Second question is this. After completing a block mesocycle that has focused on V02 max, for example, then moving on to one that would develop hill climbing strength or some other aspect of riding, how does one maintain the gains made in the previous cycle's focus area. Thanks Dylan.
11:25 Looking Glass Falls!!!
Wow, impressive power! Ive seen similar great results. I had an insane week a few weeks back where I had done 2 50+ min zwift races at 0.98% IF, on the third day I set my best 20 min power ever (328w). Legs felt sore but somehow kept on going and didn’t really get significantly more sore throughout the effort, as it felt my aerobic ceiling had been lifted. Still hit a high HR though. Then had one rest day, proceeded by me riding at my “new” FTP of 310w for 50 minutes straight. Followed by another insane 2hr zwift race the next day, setting a new 8 min PB of 367w o:! And a PB over 2 hrs
I had a few easy weeks due to other life commitments but since then have seemed to retain an ability to handle repeated high IF workouts multiple times a week :) though tend to balance it as 2 hard, 1 moderate. When i had a 5 intense session week, it hadn’t been planned, just felt great and kept smashing it.
That was really inspiring. Last summer I was on a fitness plateau and could't figure out why. Now I'm pretty sure that block periodization would have brought me to the next level. Since I didn't change my training routine it is now obvious that improvement would stagnate at some point.
Now I know what to do before my next race. Or would it make sense to put in blocks once in a while?
Either way, body needs different sorts of stimuli for growth. Same same all over again results in stagnation, as you have expierenced.
Hi Dylan, thanks for a great video once again! Great job all in all! Do you think that block periodization can be transferred to running or is the load (physical on muscles and bones) too high? maybe by adjusting the total load.
And do you think it is as effective when doing bike-run duathlon session, e.g. I your 1. week 1. day run intervals, 2. day bike, 4. Run, 5. bike and final day a bike-run session? Probably the gains in each discipline is not as much as in only bike as yours. Any opinion on that?
Thanks ahead! BR and cheers from Finland, Kai
Dylan - great video and well done on the result. Just wondering how much notice you give to Training Peaks fitness, fatigue and form numbers during this process? Do you adjust the training based on the projected form number for your event at all or just trust how you feel in the legs?
great content as always. what is your weight?? :)
Crackin the code!
Hey Dylan, tip for another video maybe? I commute to work almost every day on a bike, a cx bike. Each trip is at least 30 minutes, mostly around 40-50 minutes, that gives plenty of time in the saddle during the week. I'd like to know how to maximize the gains out of that scenario. And I am sure I am not alone on this one :) any sort of insight would be appreciated. I checked all your training videos, and everywhere you are talking about one ride per day... so what to do when I have two? :) Thanks for any answer or consideration. Your channel is great, thanks for that as well :)