Question regarding Pete Reads Black Book

jacksun22
jacksun22 Posts: 11
edited January 2013 in Training, fitness and health
Hi there all, i was wondering if anyone could shed any light on a question i have regarding Pete Reads Black Book. In the base training parts of the year (i.e now!) Peter is quite adamant in no high intensity at all during the base building period. I think he even states that doing a high intensity session will be detrimental to the aerobic work done before. Now, i was wondering if there was any scientific evidence to back this up? it was written in 1997, which is scarily a long time ago now (getting old? ....) so was just wondering if there has been any progress on this, or are we still not to do HIT?
Any thoughts people?

Comments

  • Froomes Edgar
    Froomes Edgar Posts: 359
    Nah, that's pretty much been debunked now. Intervals all year FTW
  • bigpikle
    bigpikle Posts: 1,690
    not true...
    Your Past is Not Your Potential...
  • twotyred
    twotyred Posts: 822
    Like you said 1997 is a long time ago. I doubt even Pete Read trains like that any more. Apart from being pseudo scientific nonsense it must be hugely boring
  • joe.90
    joe.90 Posts: 171
    Yeah, I did all my base work in November and December following Pete reads black book and it was horrendously boring.

    BUT, to be fair. It did build a very good base to work from. But thats it,

    This part of the year it's just not practical to work in HR zones...Intervals all the way.

    I don't know why he says no high intervals until February. It's just nonsense, if you ride too much in your aerobic zones it's comes as a shock to the system when you have to actually start pushing anaerobicly

    My advise is to use his base training guidance in the early part of training, and from the new year: hard intervals all the way.
  • SBezza
    SBezza Posts: 2,173
    joe.90 wrote:
    Yeah, I did all my base work in November and December following Pete reads black book and it was horrendously boring.

    BUT, to be fair. It did build a very good base to work from. But thats it,

    This part of the year it's just not practical to work in HR zones...Intervals all the way.

    I don't know why he says no high intervals until February. It's just nonsense, if you ride too much in your aerobic zones it's comes as a shock to the system when you have to actually start pushing anaerobicly

    My advise is to use his base training guidance in the early part of training, and from the new year: hard intervals all the way.

    That is why it is in there, trying to do quality higher intensity stuff off very little base fitness can be difficult, especially if you are new to cycling. Build a strong base fitness, and then build on top of this and you wil probably find you will make bigger gains over the longer term.

    The lack of intervals is mainly due to that fact that for alot of people if you start doing them early, you will be doing them for a long time, as once you do them, gains come quickly, but they are lost pretty quickly ( a common fault of those that stop doing them when they start racing), so you have to do them for a very long period. This can be mentally challenging espcially if you are also racing to do for a huge chunk of the year.

    There is nothing wrong with putting a few efforts in during an endurance ride, but race specific interval sessions don't really need doing until you actually get near racing IMO, either that or be prepared to have lower training load (when ideally you should still be building this at this time of year), or possibly very tired if you try and do your best quality intervals as well as trying to build up the training load.
  • GiantMike
    GiantMike Posts: 3,139
    It's amazing how training plans come and go but the body remains the same.

    "The Black Book is so 1990s and nobody trains like that anymore". If it's wrong, why did people believe it in the first place? If it's right, why is it widely debunked now?

    Intervals all year or a structured periodised training plan? I don't think it really matters what you do as long as you are training for how you are racing, before and during the racing season.
  • joe.90
    joe.90 Posts: 171
    i agree with what SBezza says.

    i could not do the intervals im doing now if i hadn't done the base work to start with.

    in the past i have gone straight into interval training, and it burnt me out pretty quick. but now with this base that ive created, i feel i can do so much more, whilst maintaining form.

    in terms if interval training, my belief is to train as hard as you race. %100 in training = %100 in racing IMO.
  • GiantMike
    GiantMike Posts: 3,139
    All my power records over 1 minute are from training rather than racing. For me, 100% in training > 100% in racing*

    *unless I'm TTing when 100% in training < 100% in racing.

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