Flat rate % improvement

supermurph09

As I begin to start my winter training I thought it would be useful to set some goals for next year. With that in mind I drew up a list of 8 climbs (2 of which are official HC events). I've looked at my PB now, and then set myself a target of 10% improvement in April and 15% by August. The climbs range fro 0.3 miles to 1.1 miles and from 4% to 14% average gradient.

The 10% & 15% targets came about from the improvement I hoped to make on 1 climb, by that I mean the time I wanted to achieve next year worked out to be 15% better. I feel with consistent training and given the results of the lab tests I had at loughborough Uni this was something to aim for. I then applied that to all the other climbs which led me to question whether its feasible/sensible to target that improvement and whether I can apply a flat rate of improvement across all climbs.

My LT is currently at 47% of my MAP / My AT is currently at 65% of my MAP. That would indicate I can make around 13-15% improvement on my thresholds at my current power output. The target is to improve everything. The 13-15% improvements have no relevance to my calculation on time improvements, just coincendence.

For information, I've only been riding for 15 months, weigh 77kgs, 6ft tall.

Be interested to hear peoples thoughts.

Tom Dean

If the target is to improve everything, I would suggest you test your fitness in a way that reflects this, rather than just using short climbs.

The demands of any all-out effort depend on the duration. Your relative ability at different durations will depend on your training and your natural physiology. So even if you improve 15% over 5 mins it does not follow that you have the potential to make the same gains over 1 minute. (that is not to say your goals are unreasonable) Is this what you mean by 'apply a flat rate of improvement'?

ric/rstsport

Supermurph09 wrote:

As I begin to start my winter training I thought it would be useful to set some goals for next year. With that in mind I drew up a list of 8 climbs (2 of which are official HC events). I've looked at my PB now, and then set myself a target of 10% improvement in April and 15% by August. The climbs range fro 0.3 miles to 1.1 miles and from 4% to 14% average gradient.

The 10% & 15% targets came about from the improvement I hoped to make on 1 climb, by that I mean the time I wanted to achieve next year worked out to be 15% better. I feel with consistent training and given the results of the lab tests I had at loughborough Uni this was something to aim for. I then applied that to all the other climbs which led me to question whether its feasible/sensible to target that improvement and whether I can apply a flat rate of improvement across all climbs.

My LT is currently at 47% of my MAP / My AT is currently at 65% of my MAP. That would indicate I can make around 13-15% improvement on my thresholds at my current power output. The target is to improve everything. The 13-15% improvements have no relevance to my calculation on time improvements, just coincendence.

For information, I've only been riding for 15 months, weigh 77kgs, 6ft tall.

Be interested to hear peoples thoughts.

how did you measure your LT, "AT" and MAP?

Ric

supermurph09

Hi, I went to loughborough University to their lab. http://www.loughborough-sports-science. ... tness.html

supermurph09

Tom Dean wrote:

If the target is to improve everything, I would suggest you test your fitness in a way that reflects this, rather than just using short climbs.

The demands of any all-out effort depend on the duration. Your relative ability at different durations will depend on your training and your natural physiology. So even if you improve 15% over 5 mins it does not follow that you have the potential to make the same gains over 1 minute. (that is not to say your goals are unreasonable) Is this what you mean by 'apply a flat rate of improvement'?

Tom, that is what I meant. Thanks for the reply.