When riding long climbs, maintaining threshold intensity without big fluctuations is the way to go. The effort should be the maximum that you can sustain without dropping the power from one effort to the next. Nate Wilson describes this as the gold standard of FTP work due to spending 60 minutes riding at the threshold. This session is great for all cyclists including triathletes and mountain bikers.
Each Wednesday I’ll post a Windtrainer Workout that you can do in about 60 minutes to enhance your cycling. See a previous post about training intensity (Levels) to know how hard to work. If you are working directly with Coach Ray he will in most cases prescribe either a Power Zone or Heart Rate Zone to work within if you are training with these tools.
The inspiration for this session comes from Nat Wilson from Catalyst Coaching which he wrote about in an article on Training Peaks. Read the full article here.
Nate Wilson’s Threshold Climbing Work #3
- 10min WU Level II;
- 3x 20min Level IV-V, 10min Level II RI;
- 10min CD Level II;
- 10min Stretching
Start the workout with a ten-minute Warm Up (WU) riding at Level II. Keep your cadence above 90Rpm for the warm-up.
The main set is made up of three, twenty-minute reps at the top end of Level IV/bottom end of Level V (100-110% of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP)). Take a ten-minute Rest Interval (RI) after each rep.
Conclude the intervals with ten minutes of riding at Level II for your Cool Down (CD).
Finish with ten minutes of stretching to assist with your recovery.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.
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Download the Garmin (.FIT) and Zwift (.ZWO) files for this workout for FREE
If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published previously.
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