Time Crunched - Experienced Century.

The secret rider

Hi all,

On the advise of some on here I picked up this book (2nd edition) recently and have had a good read, seems good if not a little self promoting :-)

I am after some feedback on the experienced century programme, Looking for something to improve general group ride pace, muscular endurance and general riding fitness inclusive of the high effort endurance.

I have some worries as I don't have a specific event to target and he does speak of performance peaks and that performance is only maintained for a short period, is this the case ? I assume the results will be evident on group rides and although performance may dip after the 'plan' itll still be improved on before ?

Any feedback appreciated

salsamuffin204

I have used the Time Crunched program 3 times now.

First I used the new century program and twice I've done the experienced century. I find it to be extremely effective. The benefits are evident after the first week or two.

The training is very intense and there is quite a lot of fatigue. Eventually I am unable to continue with the training (after around 10 weeks of it) due to fatigue and loss of motivation. However I found a lot of the speed benefits stayed with me even after a month off the program.

I don't usually ride events either. I just thought of it in terms of when in the year would I like to be really fit and timed it to that.

I found it helped all aspects of my cycling but especially speed on the flats. Although there is no climbing in the program I found it helped me up hills too.

I think the length of time the benefits stay with you may be related to how many base miles you have in your legs and how much cycling you've done in the past.

I'm rambling on a wee bit here so to summarise I think it's very hard but very effective and relatively simple to follow. Hope that was of some use to you

bobmcstuff

I did experienced century last year and would recommend. As above it is hard work but it makes a very real difference although to some extent this is probably due to the fact that any structured training is likely to be beneficial if you've not done any before.

This winter I did one of the Strava ones (basically the same as TCTP) and substituted some of the workouts with Sufferfest videos.

I still do some of the TCTP workouts from time to time.

The secret rider

Thanks for the quick replies, great to here some good feedback especially in 'real world' gains, so much online its hard to filter out all the sh1t.

I agree with the base miles in the legs sadly this season has been a bit of a rush and a learning curve so not a huge amount of base miles in just a Zwift 12 week FTP builder finished about 5 weeks ago and since then i've just been bumbling about looking for something else slowly getting less and less powerful and less fit.

Is this type of programme best suited to the turbo ? I don't own a power meter only a turbo based power meter so would be ideal if i could do them on the turbo to use power.

Thanks !

salsamuffin204

The secret rider wrote:

Is this type of programme best suited to the turbo ? I don't own a power meter only a turbo based power meter so would be ideal if i could do them on the turbo to use power.

Thanks !

There's no reason you couldn't do them on a turbo.... If you have the patience for turbo sessions.

I'm lucky in that I live near a good cycle path that allows me to do 12 minute hard intervals with almost zero interruptions.

I did the TCC program twice using a heart rate monitor. I got a power meter this year and I'm really noticing a big improvement in the training.

There are pros and cons to doing the workouts inside and outside... I think one of the main benefits of doing it outside is getting used to handling the bike at faster speeds and harder efforts. It's also helped me stay in the drops and maintain a more aero position for longer.

markhewitt1978

The secret rider wrote:

I agree with the base miles in the legs sadly this season has been a bit of a rush and a learning curve so not a huge amount of base miles in just a Zwift 12 week FTP builder finished about 5 weeks ago and since then i've just been bumbling about looking for something else slowly getting less and less powerful and less fit.

How did you find the 12 week plan on Zwift? I'm riding Zwift 4-5 times a week at the minute but generally just rolling round in sim mode, some training would be a good idea.

The secret rider

Salsamuffin204 wrote:

There's no reason you couldn't do them on a turbo.... If you have the patience for turbo sessions.

I'm lucky in that I live near a good cycle path that allows me to do 12 minute hard intervals with almost zero interruptions.

I did the TCC program twice using a heart rate monitor. I got a power meter this year and I'm really noticing a big improvement in the training.

There are pros and cons to doing the workouts inside and outside... I think one of the main benefits of doing it outside is getting used to handling the bike at faster speeds and harder efforts. It's also helped me stay in the drops and maintain a more aero position for longer.

I assumed as much, I like the turbo (honest) as it allows for real structure, for example 300W is 300W and for real structure you can create workouts in Zwift and allow the trainer to keep you at 300W for example or step it 225, 250,275,300 etc very accurate. Outside is good too but just means spending money on a power meter.

I think perhaps if i said to myself stay in the drops, i could maybe do it. Preferred aero is palms on hoods elbows dropped but same thing i guess.

markhewitt1978 wrote:

The secret rider wrote:

I agree with the base miles in the legs sadly this season has been a bit of a rush and a learning curve so not a huge amount of base miles in just a Zwift 12 week FTP builder finished about 5 weeks ago and since then i've just been bumbling about looking for something else slowly getting less and less powerful and less fit.

How did you find the 12 week plan on Zwift? I'm riding Zwift 4-5 times a week at the minute but generally just rolling round in sim mode, some training would be a good idea.

I loved it, this is my first year road cycling and thus my first year training so this was my first stab at structured training, I know its not welcome to talk FTP but it should be ok here ?! My FTP went from 266W (first test on Zwift before beginning) to 296W on the final test. Thats over the 12 weeks, well not actually as there were complaints about the firt 4 weeks being too easy so Zwift has updated it now saying you can skip the first few weeks (4 weeks) if you have 'good base fittness' one word of warning though is even then it seems easy but stick with it as it gets hard. I found the structure brilliant and it kept me really focused and also I knew people would be watching (on strava) expecting week 2 day 2 for example. I also met other people on Zwift who were doing the same thing and again this helped as did have 4/5 workouts a week that needed to be completed. I could only train M/T/W/T so nothing on a F/S/S due to work so that gain was made training 4 days on 4 days off, i think with proper rest days in between I could have made more out of it no doubt as later in the programme i was fatigued during the tempo days which often fell on day 4 or 5.

Overall summary - great 8 week programme, i had great gains and while there is no prescribed pattern for the workouts i would not suggest 4 days on 4 days off like i did but resting in between harder days or all days if possible to maximise results. This being my first stab at road cycling and indeed training it suited me fine. The structure kept me focused and now without the structure (Thus the post above, searching for some) I am finding I am loosing power, fitness and motivation.

Hope this helps ?

markhewitt1978

Yeah, cool . My only issue is finding the time for that sort of thing, some of the workouts are several hours long, I'm lucky if I can scrape 30 minutes during the week!

bobmcstuff

I did the TCTP almost exclusively turbo because I don't have the roads local to me for 8-12minute intervals, especially for the shorter duration rides as I have several miles of traffic lights and roundabouts to negotiate before I hit quiet roads. The longer endurance mile rides I do outside (these are just my normal weekend rides mostly) - I'm not about to spend half my Saturday on the turbo!

bobmcstuff

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Yeah, cool . My only issue is finding the time for that sort of thing, some of the workouts are several hours long, I'm lucky if I can scrape 30 minutes during the week!

I would recommend 2x10 interval sessions. Productive way to spend 30 minutes

As I remember the sufferfest revolver is about that length too

The secret rider

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Yeah, cool . My only issue is finding the time for that sort of thing, some of the workouts are several hours long, I'm lucky if I can scrape 30 minutes during the week!

Eh ?! Think we mush have crossed wires most of them are 1hr some 45 mins and there is the off 90 min one.

The secret rider

bobmcstuff wrote:

I did the TCTP almost exclusively turbo because I don't have the roads local to me for 8-12minute intervals, especially for the shorter duration rides as I have several miles of traffic lights and roundabouts to negotiate before I hit quiet roads. The longer endurance mile rides I do outside (these are just my normal weekend rides mostly) - I'm not about to spend half my Saturday on the turbo!

Again great feedback thanks - this is my plan if i can do it longer rides outdoor turbo for structured rides.

markhewitt1978

The secret rider wrote:

Eh ?! Think we mush have crossed wires most of them are 1hr some 45 mins and there is the off 90 min one.

Looks like I was looking at the winter plan! You're right, mostly around the hour, some 90 mins.

I would recommend 2x10 interval sessions. Productive way to spend 30 minutes

As I remember the sufferfest revolver is about that length too

Yeah, most of my morning rides are c.45 minutes so plenty of time to put in a couple of 10 minute intervals. What do you normally do the interval blocks at? FTP? Higher?

I've mostly just been bimbling around in sim mode at no particular pace.

bobmcstuff

I only use HR and normally go to threshold HR which I assume is around FTP (HR determined using CTS field test so should be roughly equivalent to FTP determined by the same method).

I was going to put together another where one of the 10 minute blocks was a bit more varied (over/unders or pyramid) just to make it more interesting.

The secret rider

Zwift have workout less than an hour and some that are 45mins so check them out to BUT i would advise adding or starting a structured plan to keep you focused ! FTP plan is great. (skip first 4 weeks and begin with an ftp test )

Anyway - more feedback on the TCC ?

cookeeemonster

Picked this book up last week and gonna start one of the commuter plans next week after my field test this weekend. Glad it seems to work!

Anyone tried the commuter plans? Just eyeing up places to do the intervals though... I'll either have to compromise a bit or go a little out my way to do them...hopefully will be worth it