THE PYRAMID OF POWER
WHETHER OR NOT YOU BELIEVE IN THE FOOD PYRAMID, here's a pyramid you can believe in: The Old Diesel's pyramid of power.
I came up with this years ago, and it's pretty simple.
Could you get more scientific? For sure.
Could a high level coach like Brian McCulloch or Jeanna Miller do better? Yep.
Will this do in a pinch? Be good enough for most? Make a helluvalotta sense? I think so, especially if you have no idea what you're doing.
The pyramid is 10-30-60.
10% of you time should be in the Imagonnadie range.
30% in the Icoulddothisforawhile range.
60% in the Icandothisalldaylong range.
Of course, I could break that down into heart rate and power zones. And, I might. But, before I get there it's critical to think of this as big blocks vs every ride is 10-30-60. For that my dear pedalertothemedaler would be assured failure... and it's precisely what most newriders do.
On just 2 of my days I'll hit that Imagonnadie effort. For me, that's Tuesday and Saturday. And even then, it's only a fraction of the ride. Let's say I'm riding 10 hours a week. That means no more than 1 hour total will be in the Imagonnadie/redzone/zone5... for me that's north of 175bpm.
By default I'll also pick up a fair amount of Icoulddothisforawhile miles on the way up and way down to maximum effort. The other place I'll get that is on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are my tempo days, and they're usually dirt days as well.
The other days of the week I'll be at the Icandthisalldaylong pace. Easypeasy miles. The ones most fools skip. I get these miles in on Monday and Friday for sure... warming up and cooling down on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday... and if I ride Thursday.
More than half of my time is in zone1 and zone2.
What few understand or know is that it's in zone2 that your body will build more capillaries, not in 3, 4 or 5. It's in zone1 that your body recovers and can actually get stronger.
For most of you wily veterans of wheel this is a ho-hum review... but, you might find it a helpful way to share with the newriders.
Tomorrow is Tuesday... and if you read last Wednesday ya might recall I was a little hacked off with myself for being a wheelsucker that last few weeks/months. I went easy today. I skipped my usual 2-3 mile Sunday walk in the sand yesterday.
Right now I gotta getta to sleep.
Because we all know tomorrow we gotta ride hard!
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165 lbs
Stretch n Roll
7 hours sleep
https://www.strava.com/activities/3959446037