Introduction
    Let me first start by saying I’ve contemplated writing this piece for the past couple months now. I’ve gone back and forth on if my thought matters and if I even feel qualified enough to comment on this matter. However, being a coach in the endurance market, I feel that I need to voice my opinion on the nature of the industry and the over-saturated market of coaches selling themselves as experts in the field. With that being said, I write this blog understanding that it will create controversy but I do so in the best intentions possible. 


What Creates an Expert?
    I suppose the frustration that I have lies within the question of what makes an “expert” in the endurance setting. Is it a top-notch athlete? Is it a PH.D? Is it a coach of a world champion? To me the answer is simply none-of-the-above. In this industry I honestly feel that you can never be a true expert. Sure you can know more than others and my athletes would tell you that I may have more knowledge in training or racing than they do, but there is always so much to learn that I feel we will never truly grasp every situation and how to best customize a training plan to any specific individual. That doesn’t mean we can’t make people extremely fast or extremely efficient, it just means that you can learn something new from every single athlete that I feel there is always a certain level of uncertainty in everything we do as coaches. Sure you can feel very confident in following CTL or FTP and making decisions that are very logical based on scientific evidence or past experiences, but its amazing how many unique things you will experience every year that you have to make an educated guess on in terms of the art of coaching and the athletes balance of life. With all of these things to consider, this is where my pet peeve really begins. 
    With a ton of coaches coming into the endurance industry and claiming to be “experts” as a selling point, it really hits me on a deeper level. They may have great personal experiences as an athlete, but do they understand interactions, balance, data, science, programming, etc? Does anybody fully understand that? I mean, I have my Masters in Coaching Sports Performance and I consider myself lucky to have great athletes who allow me to coach them, but I by no means consider myself a true expert. I know how to help an athlete go from an FTP of 285 to 365 in 1 season, I know how to guide an injured runner with a 2:05 half marathon to a Boston qualifying time 1 year later, but I can honestly tell you that I’ve never gotten 100% out of an athletes physical ability that maximized their own human potential. I don’t know if anybody has. Even Bradley Wiggins who took the hour record.. could he have gone 1KM further? That is a question that will always sit on my mind with every athlete and why I feel we have not mastered the human physiology and artistic interaction of motivating athletes on a continuing basis. 
    Beyond myself, I have talked with other coaches with many more years in the industry and they tend to share the same ideals. What is possible, how far can we develop as coaches to help our athletes, are we even experts? 
    You can see why I become so angered when you get an elite athlete who comes onto the scene and starts to market as a coach strictly off his/her results and why they are an expert of the sport. Maybe that shouldn’t bother me, but for the sake of coaching moving into the future and the development of the sport as a whole, it does. 


My Start as a Coach
    I realize I’m calling the kettle black on this to a certain extent. I started out coaching 4 years ago simply based on my own personal experiences. While I didn’t market myself as a coach and simply helped people who asked, I was coaching my first year based on what had worked for me and what didn’t. This is a pet-peeve of mine now, but it is how I started as well. Upon finding this passion for coaching, I obtained a certification from both USAC and AFAA as well as returned to school for 2 years to complete a Masters in Coaching Sports Performance. I felt it was important to note this in the argument because while many coaches will continue to seek further education, my real issue is with the coaches that won’t seek further education and rather than contribute to the development of coaching going forward, will plateau and take clients away from those looking to excel in their coaching career. 


HTFU
    This phrase stands for “Harden the f**k up”. That is what many will say to this post. Go out and recruit more clients, put in more time, don’t focus on others, etc.  I agree.  But what I don’t agree with is others coming into my future career and setting a benchmark for some athletes that doesn’t go beyond where it currently is set. Athletes that are being trained by other athletes are continuing the circle that is already in place and we aren’t developing them or the sport. If their athlete/coach starts continued education and gets themselves to a level that promotes growth in the sport then that is great! However, there are so many out there that will refrain from this route and simply look for the quick paycheck from being and “expert” athlete. 


Certs or Experience? 
    Can a coach be amazing without a cert: yes. Can a coach be amazing without experience: if their lucky. What does it take to be a great coach: continued education, experience, making informed decisions, being confident in your approach, being humble to always try and be better,  artistic interactions with individuals, etc.  I think all of these aspects come into play in a coaching decision and help to shape the overall experience for the athlete and the overall performance that they achieve. While you don’t always need to be seeking out certifications, you should be seeking out new knowledge and studies to help inform you on your decisions.  Again, what makes you an expert? I simply don’t know at what point you truly become an expert. 


Where to Go From Here
    I don’t want to turn this into a long blog and I want to keep it short, but all I would like to see is the coaching industry and endurance industry as a whole progress. If coaches coming in continue to educate themselves then everyone will be much better for it. I understand this was a rant of sorts, but for the future of the sport and development going forward, I think its important to keep this conversation going. 


Conclusion
    While I’m confident in my abilities to coach and make athletes better, I don’t ever want to get to the point where I feel I know everything and begin to close off my mind to new ideas. There are so many factors at play with each and ever athlete that while general principles will apply to their training, how you introduce those principles and communicate them will always differ. For coaches out there that are solely looking to capitalize on their athletic achievements and make a quick buck, I fear that they are neglecting the overall duty of helping each individual athlete and therefore creating a plateau of sorts within the industry. While I’m not sure what creates an expert as we have never truly maximized the human potential, I do know that those claiming to be an expert are often the furthest from achieving that level of knowledge. I simply want to see coaching and athletics continue to progress towards improved results, but in the current state of the overpopulated coaching industry,  I’m not sure if we are progressing or simply hitting a plateau in how we are developing our athletes.

Different Style Cyclists: Different Specific Training
    There have been many athletes both coached and non-coached that have asked what separates their training from a different style of cyclist. Beyond their schedule, life responsibilities, goals, and other aspects, there are different types of cyclist that will dictate a different style of training program. For example, you may have either a crit specialist, mtb rider, road racer, cyclocross individual, time-trialist or triathlete. Therefore, as a coach you need to understand how races play out in each category so you can best prepare your athlete for success. 

Key Aspects to Success
    Regardless of the style of rider you are coaching, there tends to be three things in common with each athlete. First is your base and overall aerobic fitness. Regardless of whether your preference is dirt, gravel, road, or swim/bike/run… it will always be critical that your aerobic fitness is nearing peak levels as race season approaches.
 
    The second aspect that will improve every cyclists results is a higher Functional Threshold Power (FTP). I can promise you that I’ve never heard a racer say they wish their threshold was lower. FTP is a great predictor of overall success but it isn’t the key component to overall success. With that being said, there are points in every cyclists season where FTP is the main goal as it will give the racer a higher ceiling in which to race. While it is the 2nd component all racers have in common, it isn’t the only key to success. 

    Lastly, every racer will have their aerobic fitness levels which should be nearing a peak on race day and a high FTP if trained properly. However, the final key component is specific training. Specific training is what prepares the body for those race day efforts that are going to be key to either winning or being dropped. These specifics differ amongst both riders and disciplines. 

Training Specifics
    While races can sometimes dictate what type of power or fitness you should be training, it also depends in large part to the riders genetics and if they are an anaerobic or aerobic athlete. Do they dominate in 1 minute efforts and sprints or do they take off from the pack from 5 minutes and beyond. When an athlete comes on board initially they will undergo power testing to see if they are an anaerobic or aerobic athlete. Sometimes you will find athletes that do well in both areas (all-arounder) but that tends to be rare. Once you understand where an athlete excels, you can begin to specifically devise training plans or tactics to maximize these strengths and even help build their weakness. You’ll find that athletes with aerobic strengths tend to go towards time trials, triathlons, road races, and other longer distance races. Athletes with anaerobic strength tend to focus on flat land road races, crits, short CX races or punchy MTB races. This is because they will tend to do well and have more fun. 

Training Each Style
    This is always an interesting question because you want to prepare for the races, but you also want to play into your riders strengths. For example, both an anaerobic high sprint quality rider and a high FTP but no kick rider can do road races… but how you train them will be different. The race may dictate a sprint finish in all likely hood, but the aerobic athletes strength may be to look for a break or help a teammate down the stretch if they have better sprinting capabilities. 

    While you do want to play into the strengths of your riders, you also want them to be in a situation to utilize their strengths on race day. This means that if the race has a ton of climbing or you know there are going to be some serious 1 minute efforts, then you need to specifically train for those aspects of the race. For example, the Iceman race in Traverse City, MI is a long 2 hour event (aerobic) but it has some punchy climbs that often separate groups or riders. In this situation you will want your athlete to maximize their 2 hour power and training going into the race, but you can’t completely neglect short/hard effort. What this may look like in a training ride would be a 3 hour 65-80% effort with the 2nd hour being more threshold and integrating some hard 1 minute efforts.  This would put an overload on their aerobic fitness while also building their ability to recover from hard anaerobic efforts. This of course will differ for all athletes based on discipline, race profile, and strengths, but you can begin to see how you really do need to break everything down specifically in order to maximize the athletes performance.  While just going out to ride will touch on key aspect #1 (aerobic fitness), they will be missing out on a high threshold and specific demands. 

Timing of Everything
    While you may be training for an event as far as 10 months in advance, you can’t train specifically for this event for that long. I mean, you could… but you wouldn’t maximize your training time. You would hit what is called a plateau and most likely waste 3-4 months. Rather, you need to really keep in mind the 3 keys to success and how long each will take. 

    #1 is aerobic fitness: This is constantly growing and if monitored correctly can be a 9-10 month build. This is a combination of everything you do and should always be monitored to ensure building or when recovery is needed

    #2 is functional threshold building. This is key to helping your overall performance grow. This can’t happen for 9-10 months unless you are new to the sport. Rather, this should be a dedicated 4-6 month build and will leave you ready to switch training techniques upon completion. 

    #3 is the specifics. Specific training should take place those last 2-3 months before your event. This is where you peak. If you are getting ready for your race season, you have about a 2-3 month window to have everything come together. This is where you mix in your sprints, anaerobic efforts, long rides for triathlon, etc.  Doing specifics for longer than 2-3 months could cause a plateau or burnout eventually.  Don’t make the mistake of trying to be in peak form all year. That is a big mistake. 
Conclusion
    There are different styles of riders and different requirements for each person. There are also different genetics at play which could contribute to how you race. All of these factors should constantly be monitored in order to ensure race day success and maximizing your training. I know it can seem daunting at first, but as you get into the process, things tend to play out very well if you are in control of your training and know how to properly build!

Written by: Joe Siegel

​A power meter (PM) can be one of the most valuable tools for a cyclist. Think about it - all bias uncontrolled variables are thrown out the window, there's no more lying to yourself. For all (well, most) intents and purposes, a watt is a watt is a watt. The same can't be said for heart rate and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). Add to this the current market trends in power meter availability and pricing (the former rapidly rising and the latter rapidly dropping) and a power meter has almost become a de facto part of not just racers but enthusiast and recreational cyclists.

A power meter is a very powerful tool when use correctly and essentially a very expensive bike computer when not. To get the best value out of your investment it is important to understand what the data is and how to use it. The "what" of the data is well documented, so I'm not going to focus on it. What instead I want to talk about is the use and misuse of the data.

Setting your zones

A PM biggest and most basic function is to provide you with your training baseline - your FTP and your training zones. FTP (i.e. the power you can sustain all out for 1 hour when highly motivated and rested) is most commonly estimated using some version of a shorter test (usually 20 minutes) and taking a percentage (95% for a 20 minute test). Many other tests also exist, including doing an actual 60 minute effort (however, I think this approach, while it is the definition of FTP, is a worse approach for most cyclists*).. The point here is to test and use the same test so that it is repeatable. I'm personally less concerned with which test you use or which one provides the best estimate of FTP. Why? Because a few % doesn't really matter. Training zones are wide and a few watts in either direction will not make or break your workout. Add to that your own feeling, and it's easy to tell if your workouts are slightly too hard or too easy and adjust. Additionally, you would never want to pace a 1 hour TT race based solely on a short test. The test will get you in the ballpark and then through training at that FTP intensity you will dial in your race day goal watts.

Tracking your Stress

Tracking training by miles or by duration does not cut it. Neither has any indication of your intensity. The best metric to track is time AND intensity - a combo neatly combined in the Training Stress Score (TSS) metric. Daily and weekly goals for example are much better tracked by TSS than miles or hours. It is a more true sense of the stress done to your body. Additionally, watching TSS is very useful in a race situation. I have a good sense of how my fatigue tracks with TSS during a ride/race. I can see my current TSS load and make smart decisions during a race and know whether I can take some risks attacking or if I'm better off sitting in and conserving as much as possible.

Tracking your Stress - Part 2

Now that you have your total stress, TSS, for each ride calculated, people smarter than I developed a way to match the training responses of your body. The result is the Performance Management Chart (PMC) in Training Peaks (TP). Strava also implements it as their Fitness and Freshness (F&F) chart, however there are major flaws with their implementation so I do not recommend its use**. Chronic Training Load (CTL), aka fitness, is a weighted measure of you TSS/day over a long period, typically 42 days. Acute Training Load, aka fatigue, is also a weighted measure of TSS/day, but over a short time scale, usually a week. The differing time scales represent how our bodies react to training stress - fatigue builds faster than fitness and this is why we get tired after periods of building stress. However, fatigue also goes away quicker than fitness leaving you stronger than you were after a rest or recovery. The PMC models how your body naturally reacts and adapts to the training stress. The final concept to track is your Training Stress Balance (TSB), which is just CTL-ATL, your fitness minus your fatigue. When negative you are more fatigued (typical during training and build phases) and positive means you are more rested (typical for executing peak performance, e.g. a race). Tracking these numbers and learning how your body reacts to the inputs is a huge training advantage (e.g. what TSB is optimal for your race? How far negative can you get and for how long before needing recovery? What rate of building CTL is sustainable in the short and long term.)

What Type of Racer are You?

Testing shouldn't be limited to just FTP. With a PM you can test short and long duration (and also collect the data naturally through normal riding and racing). Typical durations to track are 5 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, and 20 minute (or FTP). Then, a cyclist can use what's called a Power Profile Chart (developed by Andrew Coggan, who also developed most, if not all, the power metrics I've mentioned) to see how their efforts compare. Coggan sampled many different cyclists of all levels to make the chart and determine how to relate a 5 second through 60 minute power. Training peaks has this feature built in for premium users and coaches to track. Using this chart, and comparing your 5 second through 60 minute powers, you can determine if you are a sprinter (higher short duration power), TTer (higher long duration power) or all-arounder (even through all durations) phenotype (or some combination there-of). It can also identify strengths and weaknesses to know how best to win races and where to train more. The chart is not done in pure watts, but Watts/KG, that is power divided by weight, which is typically used to compare efforts when weights vary greatly, however there are some caveats***.


Summary​

With PMs becoming much more available and affordable (but by no means cheap), they are seeing increasing proliferation among all levels of cyclists and triathletes, from weekend warriors to seasoned racers. However, simply buying the PM is only the first step in the process of using the tool. Understanding the data and how to apply it to your training is a critical next step. As a coach, one of the most valuable services we can provide is taking care of the application for the cyclist so there is no learning curve and there is an immediate return on your investment. Through working with a good coach, they will explain the concepts and the athlete will see them in action and learn themselves.




* A true all out 20 minute effort takes good pacing, strong motivation and practice. Most cyclists will have sub-optimal (i.e. less that a true all out effort) results their first few tries and even when more experienced. They are not fun and take a lot of mental and physical effort to accomplish. If you now try to extend that to a 60 minute test, multiply all the difficulties by a factor of 5. A slight miscalculation in minute 1-30 might break you 50 minutes in. The margin for error is so small. Additionally, a cyclist cannot simply go out any day and ride an hour at FTP - they must be highly motivated (e.g. in a race situation) and optimally rested and tapered. Both of those are VERY hard to nail down on a regular basis in training. FTP testing does not usually create a lot of excitement. Because of this, I trust what will probably be a more accurate 20 minute test with the inaccuracy of using a generic model over a less accurate 60 min test.


** The TSS of a ride is a function of your FTP at the time you did the ride. However, when you update your FTP in Strava, they recalculate all of your old ride data with the new FTP, which changes the TSS! Now you have incorrect TSS values feeding the F&F chart, making the F&F chart also wrong.


*** Watts/kg does not always tell you who the stronger cyclist is or who will be faster. On hills, it is a very good measure - a higher W/kg will usually climb faster than a lower W/kg. If a 60 kg rider and 80 kg rider both ride up a hill at the same W/kg, they will be very close in speed. However, for less steep climbs and flats, weight becomes a much less important variable. Aerodynamic drag becomes more meaningful as well. A better measurement might be Watts/drag (also called CdA). It will be likely that the 60 kg and 80 kg riders from before on a flat road riding equal W/kg will NOT ride the same speed because the 80 KG rider will be doing more watts and the increase in drag will not negate the larger watts

 With the new year right around the corner, it also means that race season is quickly approaching. I have been contacted by multiple athletes over the past month regarding if they should be coached this next year or not. Here are the things that a coach can help with and why you need to find the best fit for you!

Finding the Right Fit
 When seeking out a coach, it should resemble a job interview. Each coach has a different twist on how they interact, coach, plan, break down movements, etc. Due to all of these perspectives, each coach is going to have a different philosophy and create a unique culture of training that is a reflection of them as a coach. Just as in your job interview, you need to ensure that the fit is right so both parties can be happy and operate to their potential. Coaches may differ in:
​ 
Philosophy of training (long and slow, short and fast, etc)
Generic vs Custom (is your plan prepared by the month, or catered to your schedule?)
Utilization of Data (do you go off of pace, or are you using Power and Heart Rate)
Periodization vs General Fitness (are you building and peaking, or do you want to keep base fitness?)
Goal Setting
Sports Psychology 
Authoritative/Submissive/Cooperative (does your coach tell you, work with you, or give in to your demands?)
ETC ETC ETC. 

 You will begin to realize that while coaches are offering you the same end result, how you get there could be different and that process may affect your motivation along the way. 

What a Coach can Help With. 
 When getting a coach there is an obvious thing that you’re taking away right off the bat. This is going to be your training plan. Now how that plan looks may differ, but every coach I know gives training plans. This training plan will lay out all the workouts needed to achieve your goals in an effective manner. 
  After the training plan though, your coaches worth really starts to show through. I can only speak for myself here but these are some of the areas that athletes have noted growth in. Using your coach as a resource in terms of equipment optimization to ensure that you didn’t just buy a $5,000 bike and actually get slower. Also, when working with a coach you should have a solid goal setting process in place where your coach is able to break down the outcome oriented objective into small attainable pieces to help you throughout the process. To ensure goals are being met, your coach should be breaking down and analyzing your workouts through the data you are uploading. By tracking the data, your coach is ensuring your build and specific training for specific goals you’ve laid out. 
  While there are many areas a coach can help with, all of the areas above are catered around your physical performance. Another great tool though that a coach can bring is the ability to help with your sports psychology. Are you visualizing your event and working on relaxation or motivational cues? Do you know where your optimal level of performance is (stress levels?) Are you consciously aware of these things in training and past race performances? Are you continually building your mental toughness and “flow” state for future performances? Again, when being coached, this is a great tool that you can draw on and discuss with a coach. 

Cost of a Coach
This is something that many athletes struggle with. However, one of my athletes, Peter Post, said it best. Athletes will spend $8,000 on the newest training equipment and gain 30 seconds over a 40km TT. However, they will bat an eye at using a coaching service that could save them 3-5 minutes over a 40km TT and cost them $2k-3k/year. To put this into context, let me break down an effective Time Trial bike with money left for coaching. 

Option A:
$8,000 bike because its cool and you train with friends and by yourself doing what you’ve always done
Result A: FTP (power figure) stays the same (250 for this example) and rider goes from 1 hour 40km TT to 59:20 TT


Option B:
Cervelo P2 used ($1800)
Aero Helmet ($250)
Deep Front wheel and training wheel with disc cover ($1500)
Race tires ($120)
Race tubes ($20)
Front end brake to clean up front end ($300)
Power Meter ($1000)
Race skinsuit ($250)
Coaching for 1 year ($2400 < Dalzell Coaching LLC cost)
Result B: FTP jumps from 250 to 310 over the year. Rider goes from 1 hour 40km TT to 55 min 40km TT and wins Cat ¾ state time trial championship
+ Saves money


Option C: 
Keep your same bike
Upgrade Race tires + Tubes ($140)
Power Meter ($1000)
Pay Coaching for 1 year ($2400)
Result C: Increase FTP by 60 watts and crush all your friends at your training rides, be competitive in races. 
+ save $4,440

Conclusion
  A coach is going to take you to that next level and push you beyond your current levels of fitness. While the training plan is great for accountability and not having to spend hours creating it yourself, a coach is much more than that. You are going to gain insight into the sport that makes you much more effective with your time and helps you achieve your goals that were only ever dreams before. While the new $8000 bike is fantastic to look at, you are still going to have to pedal it. Forget the high end bike for now, invest in your own engine instead.

Peaking for your Race
  Over the past 6 weeks we have discussed how to ride safely on roads when first starting out, how to build fitness, setting goals, setting training zones, periodization, and specific training. It is a lot to take in, but it is also the recipe for success. However, have you ever tried a recipe that was just lacking that extra kick of taste? That is what the peak is for your race.  Don’t put together the entire recipe and forget that little extra kick… learn how to peak at the right time. 

Taper
  This is a word that a ton of athletes like to use when preparing for races. You may hear it in the terms of a 3 week taper, 2 week taper, 10 day taper, or 1 week taper. For athletes that understand how to taper correctly, it can be a very effective tool for optimal performance. However, for a majority of athletes they tend to think of this as just “rest” and often become stale in the process. The goal of any taper is to keep fitness high, but limit fatigue that was placed on the body. This is done through a calculated manner which is discussed below. 

Limit Fatigue
  If you have been following the blog series all the way through, then you are well aware of training zones, TSS, and the stress on the body that training creates. The taper is when you put all this data together to ensure a peak in “freshness” and overall fitness. It needs to be stated that Dr. Coggan came up with this method of tracking data and I will do my best to describe it in an effective manner. 

  With every workout you do, your body takes on additional stress which results in both fitness gains and fatigue accumulation. The goal of training in the build period (periodization) is to build fitness. This will without a doubt create fatigue that starts to accumulate. As your fitness gets higher and higher, you are becoming more and more fatigued with each workout. When you enter the taper phase, your goal is to reduce all of the fatigue while still maintaining your high level of fitness that you achieved. This often means that you are still working out (not resting) but rather training at a low level which allows the body to recover but also maintain that work you put in. This is where many amateurs mess up. If you rest too much you become stale (too much freshness) but if you don’t rest enough you go into a race without being 100%. (see picture for taper, yellow line is freshness)

How Much Rest Should I have
  This really depends on the duration of the race and the demands of the race. Just like all the other data points, there is a number associated to freshness. 0 would be neither fresh nor fatigued. -25 would be a fatigue level that would be expected during a build. +25 would indicate an individual is very fresh and has reduced overall training load.  When racing, each distance has different levels that are associated with optimal success, but you would like to see an “A” race, regardless of distance, somewhere in the +10 to +25 range.  Anything over +25 and you start to get close to being “stale”. Again, look at the picture above and note fatigue during the build and the freshness going into race (IMTX).

Why Data is Great
  I realize I stress data a lot and that is because it makes training very objective. Yes there are days when subjective feelings should be noted and you may not train off numbers. In fact, there should be days like this. However, when training for a serious event and trying to peak performance, data points create a process driven training plan that can take a lot of the guessing and stress out of it. Training becomes very easy when you start to trust the numbers and know that I have to hit 100 TSS today and I have to be at +20 freshness going into my race. All of your worrying about taper, training correctly, specifics, etc, is taken out of the equation. For someone who used to constantly worry about if I was doing enough, it has made training much more enjoyable and concrete. I urge you all to start digging into the data world if you aren’t already there. You’ll be amazed at how straight forward and effective it can be!

Subjective Disclaimer and Conclusion
 After all that talk about data, you still need to be in tune with your body. This is where the art of coaching comes in and something that I really can’t put into words. The principles and theories are out there for us to use, but the art of coaching will always remain as individuals have different life circumstances and demands. This is the beauty of it all and why I’ve fallen in love with this career. At the end of the day, you can understand all of the data I’ve provided and theories on training, but you still have to make it work for you. That is why athletics will always remain great and a true challenge. How do you mix the theories into your life. That is the million dollar question!

Specific Training = Success
 In blog #4, I outlined periodization and when you should be doing unfocused (non-specific) and focused (specific) training for your goals. It is important to understand there are periods of the season for both and that prolonged periods of time spent specifically training can result in overtraining or burnout. The purpose though of this blog will be to focus on specific training and what it means for each discipline. 
​
Aerobic Exercise and its Many Forms
Aerobic exercise (exercise with oxygen) is what most of us think about when we think of endurance events. The biggest limiter for athletes in any endurance setting is their aerobic engine which consists of a base, threshold, and capacity (V02). The higher or more miles an individual has in their aerobic base, the better overall fitness, the higher the threshold means the athlete is getting faster, and the higher the capacity means the higher the ceiling for success (speed and fitness). All of these things work together but yet different races have different specific demands. This can get confusing but I’ll do my best to break it down here. 
If we go back to our zones that I discussed in blog 4, we can see what percentage of lactate threshold (1 hour max power output) is associated with which specific training:
Z1: Recovery 0-60%
Z2: Aerobic Endurance 60-75%
Z3: Tempo 75-90%
Z4: Threshold 90-105%
Z5: Aerobic Capacity (V02) 105-120%
Z6: Anaerobic Capacity 120-150%
Z7: Neuromuscular 150%+

So lets break down specific training in the form of Ironman training. Ironman is interesting because it will actually utilize Z2/3/4/5 in its training to maximize the aerobic engine, but actual race day demands should all be in the z2/3 range. So here is how training would look for that in a specific manner. 
#1 The biggest limiter to speed for the Ironman athlete is their threshold levels. The higher the threshold level of an athlete, the more watts they can put out in Z2/3 specific race day performance. The more watts they put out, the faster they go. So the strategy from the start for Ironman racing is to build their z4 levels as high as possible before race day. 
#2 While building z4 numbers are a focus, we still need to remember that specific training results in optimal performance. Again, for Ironman this means Z2/3.  So while we have been working on their Z4 for overall ability, the last 2-3 months of specific training needs to have a heavy dose of Z2/3 in order to prep the body for these long rides in the aerobic endurance/tempo zones. 
#3 these long rides are doable for an athlete from an aerobic standpoint and energy production platform, but their muscles may not be used to 4.5 hours in the saddle of consistent work. This is why specific work is critical for both aerobic development but also muscular recruitment and conditioning. 

To summarize everything from an aerobic engine standpoint. you can have a phenomenal engine in place, but if you aren’t being specific in the lead up to the event, you are risking a poor performance due to limited abilities to recruit the same demand on muscles as your aerobic engine can produce. 

​Anaerobic Exercise
Anaerobic Exercise (exercise without oxygen) is z6 in the scale above. This type of exercise is tricky because it can be beneficial to help pull the string upwards for aerobic capacity, but a ton of anaerobic training isn’t going to help increase your specific ability to work at aerobic levels. Anaerobic training for the Ironman athlete above could pop up for quick bursts to help round out the athletes form, but it shouldn’t be the main focus of his/her training plan. That wouldn’t be specific to the demands of the race. 
Where anaerobic does get very specific though is in the example of a cyclist. Most cyclists have to have a well-rounded aerobic and anaerobic engine for race day performance. Many races come down to the last 5 minutes of the race and more specifically to the last minute. With your anaerobic engine being responsible for efforts ranging from 15-90 seconds in length, a specific training program focused on these efforts will go a long way in helping a cyclist perform well in the final key moments of a race. 

In training for a cyclist, anaerobic training may look something like this:
Warm up spin
90 minutes at z2/3 with 4x3 minutes of z4 mixed in
then 
5x30 sec hard attacks (z6+)
2 minute recovery between. 
This would be a set that would resemble the first part of a race with short bursts of threshold followed by the final part of the race with the hard attacks leading up to the sprint. 

Conclusion
It is critical that you as an athlete understand that training isn’t all the same all the time. Things need to be focused in different manners to create a well-rounded athlete that is capable of the demands needed for optimal performance. It is a good idea to think about the race or events that you are targeting and break down what specific demands are needed to perform well. Once you understand the requirements of the race, then it is just about putting together a training program that maximizes the athletes ability to handle all situations they may find themselves in. Again, you can’t be specific year-round, but you should be very specific in those 2-3 months leading up to the event. By having a solid plan in place, you are maximizing your opportunity to have the race day that you want and deserve.

Introduction
  You hear stories of athletes training 20 hours a week for an Ironman and logging 10,000 miles a year on the bike. This is great for some athletes, but in analyzing all of my athletes data and files, I have realized that these huge hours are not needed for many typical athletes looking to make progress and improvements. This blog is meant to show you why data is so important to track and how it can make your training time both effective and efficient. 
Note: To become a world class athlete you will need to put in many long hours, but to become an elite-amateur I don’t feel that these hours are necessary. 

What Type of Data Should I Track?
 The data that is most valuable for a coach are the metrics of watts (power), heart rate, run pace, or calories. Depending on your goals and what you are trying to accomplish will determine what metric should be used for your training. The metrics that you want to stay away from on the bike are mph and miles ridden. The reason we want to stay away from speed on the bike and overall miles is because they are subjective and influenced by other factors outside of your control. From a coaching perspective, I may hear someone tell me they rode 23 mph for a ride and they are ecstatic about it. I am not here to discredit their ride at all. Riding 23 mph on a bike is very exciting. However, what I am wondering is what does 23 mph even mean? Was there a tailwind, was it a group ride, was it rolling hills, did they do a mountain descent, was it all uphill? Do you see how speed is subjective and doesn’t actually tell us what your body was going through for that effort? 23 mph has no implications on how much you stressed your engine. 

For example: Lets look at what 23 mph looks like from different perspectives
23 mph in a group ride = 200 watts
23 mph with a strong tail wind = 175 watts
23 mph on a descent = 0 watts
23 mph on a  mountain climb = 450 watts

Huge difference in training days for all four of these examples.. don’t use mph for tracking purposes. 

How to Properly Track Data
  You need to find the metric that is reflective of your work. The best two modes are heart rate or power which I listed above. Once you have determined which one you will use, you then need to test your training zones which I discussed in the previous blog (click here to read). Now is when the magic starts to happen. Everyone has their own zones that are catered to them and thanks to the brilliant minds of Dr. Andy Coggan and Hunter Allen, we have a way to track overall workload in a non-subjective manner for effective training. 
 This non-subjective manner is called Training Stress Score (TSS). What this metric does is takes your duration of activity and and multiplies it by your intensity (which zone you are working in) to give you an overall stress score for your workout. The calculation is more detailed than that, but for our purposes we will just think of duration and intensity to give us an overall stress score. In theory, a score of 100 would be your overall 1 hour maximum effort based on your training zones. If you rode at zone 2 for 1 hour you would be looking at a TSS of somewhere around 40-50 TSS. You can start to see that by tracking this number you will start to gauge how hard rides were in comparison. 
This is a much better way to track your fitness than by mph. Imagine if you rode with a tailwind at 23 mph in zone 2 for 1 hour and had a TSS of 45 but the next day you rode into a headwind for 1 hour at 16 mph but because you were in z3 you had a TSS of 70.  If you only tracked by mph you would feel day 1 was far better than day 2. However, by tracking the actual stress to your body, Day 2 far outweighs Day 1. 


Building Your Fitness with Data
  Once you start to compile multiple days of data (TSS),  you begin to see that you can track TSS on a weekly or monthly scale. Now instead of of saying I want to ride 200 miles this week (what does that really even mean?), you might say I want to register 600 TSS this week. If we go back to blog number 2 of this series (click here), you will see that the 10% rule should be used for safe and effective building. So if last week was 600 TSS, then this week should be 660 TSS. Now you are programing an effective program that is going to make progress because you are measuring stress to the engine (body), not some theoretical concept that more miles is more stress. I hope you can see how we are starting to loop all of the blogs together now to create a much bigger picture. To loop periodization and specificity back in, you know that you will have  portions of the year were TSS grows much higher and then you will have specific times where TSS is mostly all one type of zone for race day specifics.  This is fun right :) ?!

Being Efficient and Effective for Time Crunched Athletes
  So this brings us back to the purpose of this blog, how can you utilize this information for the athlete that is time crunched. In my coaching endeavors I have found great improvements to be made in 6-12 hours/week by athletes ranging from 1st time finishers to elite-amateur’s. The reason is simple, because we tracked the stress to their bodies and followed the efficient methods laid out in blog 2 for building fitness. I tracked their TSS and gradually built their engines to a point that maximized their time, and then once the athlete was used to this training load, we began to get very specific (training zones) to their race demands and goals. By periodizing their season and knowing how long you can get specific, we were able to maximize their results and peaks for race season on only 6-12 hours a week. Here are some examples of results that can take place within this time frame
Cyclist: From an FTP of 320-380 in 14 months
Cyclist: From an FTP of 290-345 in 7 months
Cyclist: From an FTP of 170-215 in 5 months
Runner: From running a 2:04 half marathon to running a 3:40 marathon in 15 months
Swimmer: From swimming a 28 min 1500 to swimming a 22 min 1500 in 6 months


Note: To reach the top levels of their sport the next step would be to take these athletes higher in volume, but that wasn’t needed to obtain these goals and results. 


Conclusion
  Its all about tracking the right metrics and having the correct tools for progress. I urge you all to stop measuring subjective data and thinking it is the difference between a strong athlete and beginner. True progress happens when you track your workload and constantly monitor it for progress and performance. I hope that this showed some of those looking to improve their abilities a new way to think about tracking progress. To become as efficient and effective as possible with your time, this tactic needs to be utilized in your scheduling of workouts.

Catering Training to Your Goals (Specific Training and Periodization)
 As part of this series we have discussed starting to ride, methods to build fitness, and goal setting for your own specific purposes. Now we get into some of the meat and potatoes of training as we create a specific approach to your goals and what you want to get out of all this. Below you will find information on when to work easy, hard, specifically, and without a focus. After all, training should be specific to you and you should have the understanding of how to do so!

Periodization of Training
 Depending on who you ask, you will come to find there are different blocks to each season. Generally speaking, these can be broken into off-season, pre-season, season, and post-season. Based on which part of the overall cycle you are in will determine how specific you should be in your training. An example of an athlete I coach can be seen below for season periodization


Dec 1-April 15: Pre-Season (building fitness)
April 16-August 31: Season (peak performances taking place)
Sept 1-Oct 1: Post-Season (fitness is trending down, but still competitive)
Oct 2- Nov 30: Off-season (body and mind are recovering)


It is important to know that the time of year can change based on your desired peak performance. In general though, a pre-season or base period should consist of 4-5 months, season with peak performance should consist of 2-4 months, post-season should be roughly 1 month and then your off-season is around 1-2 months.  Based on your individual preferences and how your body reacts to training will determine how long each of these blocks are in your yearly training cycle. 

Training All the Time
 After discussing periodization, I hope that you can see there is a designed off-season when the focus shouldn’t be on performance. The ramifications of focusing on performance year around can be overtraining or burnout if you aren’t careful. Overtraining is a symptom that results in injuries to the body in the form of tendonitis, micro-fractures, and any other stress related injury that requires you to take time off. If you are lucky enough to avoid overtraining, you still could experience burnout which is an injury to the mind. This is when you feel the overall stress to perform at an optimal level but no longer can achieve the fulfillment of a workout. When this happens your mind starts to shut off and you begin to resent the activity as a whole and find no reason to continue. This is extremely detrimental to your performance and will often sideline athletes for months or even years.  I hope you are starting to see the need for an off-season and overall decline in fitness. This decline in fitness will result in the motivation and desire to regain your performance and come back even stronger the next year. 

Specific Training with Periodization
 Specific training is key to peaking for your optimal success. That being said, you need to be aware that you can’t peak year-round and you really only have 2-3 shots to get it right each training cycle (year). Therefore, you need to understand when specific training should take place and when it shouldn’t.  But before we go into those details, we need to understand your training zones for specific training

Training Zones
 Your training zones are generally developed in regards to your threshold. If you are on a bike and using a power meter, then generally speaking your threshold is the amount of watts you can hold for 1 hour. If you are using a heart rate monitor, then a good test to use is a 30 minute 100% effort where you take the last 20 minutes average heart rate and classify that as your threshold. Once you have either of these numbers, then a general way to break these down are:
Zone 1: 0-60% Recovery
Zone 2: 60-75% Aerobic Endurance
Zone 3: 75-90% Tempo
Zone 4: 90-105% Threshold
Zone 5: 105-120% Aerobic Capacity
Zone 6: 120-135% Anaerobic Capacity
Zone 7: 135+  Neuromuscular


Note: These zones are more specific to cycling, but rather close for heart rate as well. There are different zones you can utilize for heart rate that could prove more effective for your own personal ability/fitness.  (Karvonen Formula or other methods)


Example of zones with a 300 watt threshold
zone 1: 0-180 watts
zone 2: 181-225 watts
zone 3: 226-270 watts
zone 4: 271 -315 watts
zone 5: 316-360 watts
zone 6: 361-405 watts
zone 7: 405+ watts

When you start to develop your own personal zones, you can start to get very specific. 

Specific Training
 We are going to assume that our example athlete is looking to do time trials (40km) on their bike. This is how we would specifically train them utilizing their zones and periodization. Their main event will be the state time trial championship in late July. 

  Pre-season: 4-5 months in this case from Jan-the beginning of May.  So starting on Jan 1 we would focus not on intensity or volume just yet, but rather frequency (see week 2 blog) to build them in a safe an effective manner with reduced risk of injury. Our training zone shouldn’t be specific to race day just yet because we can only peak 2-3 times a year and we want to save that. Therefore, this racer is going to do a lot of z2/3 work for the first 2-3-4 months in order to develop a strong aerobic base in which to work. 

  As we start to get closer to season, we need to understand that the race demand for this athlete will be a lot of threshold due to the race lasting roughly 1 hour and some aerobic capacity to help the athlete when they need to make surges over a bridge or coming out of a turn. This athlete won’t need much anaerobic power (30-90 seconds) and it will only be put in the training to spice up the training from the mental perspective. Some won’t hurt, but a lot won’t help. 

  So, we have the cyclist who has done a lot of z2/3 time and once a frequency of 5-6x a week was established, we started to add in volume to increase fitness. Now we are getting close to the actual season and we are going to start adding in specific intensity to build fitness and the ability to perform at the desired race. As we get closer and closer to race day we will advance the length of the intervals in the desired performance zone (zone 4: threshold) and build the body’s ability to remove lactate from the muscles while under stress at a certain level. 

The build of z4 training may look like
May: 6x4 min z4, 5x5 min z4
June: 3x10 min z4, 2x20 min z4
July: 2x20 min z4 (creeping into z5) 1x40 min z4 with every 5th minute adding a z5 minute

     As we near the competition, we will overload the athlete with a high amount of stress and then back off training and let the racer recover for the amount of time needed. This is when the athlete will peak in their specific training for threshold results and have a great race day at the event. 

     Post-Season: The athlete will more than likely be tired mentally from the extreme specific training. This is normal and to be expected. This is the part of the season where fitness will still be high and racing should take place as the athlete sees fit. You don’t want to press the athlete in this portion of the season as burnout or overtraining can take place.  A great example of this is when a Professional rider wins the Giro but can’t podium at the Tour de France. This is because they peaked their fitness for the Giro and couldn’t maintain those levels for another big race. Again, this is normal and to be expected. You’ll still be fast during this time, but you won’t be 100%. Training zones to follow during this time should be back to z1/2/3 and at the riders discretion. 

  Off-season:  This is where fitness is brought back down for the body to recover and the athlete to take care of other things in their lives. Training zones here are at the riders discretion but the coach should keep an eye on total workload. The coach is keeping an eye on workload so the athlete is properly recovering and they aren’t going to peak to early next season.
 
Theory of Specificity
 I just want to put this in here because a lot of people ask me if they can get faster on the bike from lifting weights. The theory of specificity states that you only get better at what you are specifically training. Therefore, when doing squats or lunges, you are not utilizing the muscles of the legs in the same way that you would if you were riding a bike. While doing squats and lunges will help in balancing out the muscles and preventing injury, you aren’t going to increase your threshold by 40 watts if you increase your squat by 40 pounds. That simply isn’t how it works unfortunately.  Train for how you want to compete!

Conclusion:
 This was a lot of information for a blog, but its one of the most important aspects to get right for optimal race-day performance. By periodizing your schedule and training specifically for a goal you are in a far better place to perform to your peak ability. I hope this proved useful for your idea on how to tackle this winter and what you should be doing when.  Next week we will get more involved with heart rate and power training and how effective it can be for time crunched athletes.

Write Down Your Goals
    In the previous blogs of this series, I have written about the process of getting started with a new bike as well as the basic principles to building fitness. In this next entry I want to create a template for you to use for creating goals and why they are so important. As I’m sure you’ve heard or read many times, a goal without a plan is just a dream. Therefore, after this entry I hope you can use the template I create to realize what you want to accomplish and how you will do so. 

Parts of a Goal
    Where a majority of the population goes wrong with goal-setting is that they stop at just the outcome goal. For example, you might hear someone say they want to be the CEO of a company or they want to lose 15 pounds over the next 3 months. In my opinion those are fantastic things, but there is no plan in which to act. The most important part of any goal is the action plan and breaking down these lofty outcome goals to more realistic performance and process oriented tasks. Let me touch on what this might look like a bit further. 

Performance Goal
    For the sake of this blog and being a beginner cyclist, lets say that you have a goal to complete a 300 mile cycling tour next summer. This is a great outcome goal, but now lets break this down into performance. The first thing you need to see is that you’ll need to cycle 300 miles in a span of several days. This should be the foundation in which you work from and lay out a plan with performance goals along the way. 

Example: 16 weeks to 300 mile cycling tour
Week 16: 300 miles
Week 12: 200 miles
Week 8: 150 miles
Week 4: 100 miles
Week 1: 50 miles

You need to have tangible goals in which to shoot for that are within your control and realistic. If you remember last weeks entry about the 10% rule in volume, this would be a great place to use this principle along with performance goals.  The performance goal is the 2nd part of the equation. 
Note: Performance goals have numbers tied to them

Process Goal
    This is the bread and butter. This is where the magic happens. Process goals are small goals that if done repeatedly, lead to the big outcome goal. If we use the example above of the 300 mile tour rider, then a process goal might look something like this. 
Example: 
Ride 5-6x/week
Ride 1 long ride a week

 These goals are tasks that are easy to do, but will help lead you to your performance goals. As we know, your performance goals will lead to your outcome goal. What I often tell my athletes is that the performance will happen and the performance will help towards the outcome. However, if you can just limit your focus to obtaining those process goals, you will be in a fantastic spot to achieve all of the goals you set out for. If you were to talk to any of my athletes, their process goal is simply to achieve and upload all of the workouts I set out for them. They know that if they can control that and hit their workouts, then the rest of the equation tends to come together in the end. 

SMART Goals
    I feel obligated to put this section in here because of how many times it was drilled into my head in graduate school. 

Specific
Measureable
Actionable
Realistic
Timely

    Basically what this is saying is that your goal should be something that is obtainable if you work at it and can be achieved in a certain amount of time. Again, a goal without a plan is just a dream.

Template for Goal Setting


Outcome Goal: _______________________________________________________________


Performance Goal:____________________________________________________________


Performance Goal: ___________________________________________________________


Process Goal:________________________________________________________________


Process Goal:________________________________________________________________


Process Goal:________________________________________________________________


Timetable for Goal:____________________________________________________________


Specific Example
    I’ll leave you with one example of how my athletes set goals and how we achieve them. 


Outcome Goal: Qualify for Boston

Performance Goal: Build up to 55 miles/week

Performance Goal: Increase Run Threshold Pace from 8:45-8:00

Process Goal: Run 6 times a week

Process Goal: Upload heart rate data after workout

Timetable for Goal: 8 months

• What this was able to do for my athlete is take the stress of qualifying away by having her focus on small process goals of completing workouts and uploading data. By just focusing on these small tasks, she was able to accomplish her outcome goal and continue on with her journey. 

Intro to Part 4
    We now have a bike, a understanding of building fitness, and an understanding of how to develop goals. In part 4 we will get more catered to the athlete and talk about specifics and periodization of your training. By knowing the right times to train specifically, you can start to peak your performance for days that matter!

 In part 1 of the series for beginner riders, I focused on buying a bike and the proper steps needed to find safe equipment and  adequate roads. In this second entry, I will discuss the principles of fitness and what you should focus on when first beginning your journey. There aren’t many secrets to building fitness, but hopefully some of these principles will hit home with you and you’ll have a different outlook or approach as you start down your own path. 

The Three Ingredients to Building Fitness
    I can’t tell you how many times I hear of someone buying a bike or new pair of shoes because they want to “get in shape”. What I often find out is that this individual went out and worked really hard for 1 or 2 days and then either came down with an injury or burned themselves out rather quickly due to the sheer volume of work they put in. This often will sound like, “I haven’t ridden a bike in a while, but I just rode for 2 hours on Saturday”.  Or, “I ride 3 times a week with a group, and they are all really hard efforts”.  I hope after reading this entry, you realize there is a safe and effective way to build your fitness that will not only help your performance, but also help your longevity within your sport. These safe and effective ingredients are frequency, volume, and intensity. The rest of the entry will touch on when to incorporate each one of these ingredients. 

Avoid Injury
    Before I talk about frequency, volume, and intensity, it is important that I put a disclaimer here that you don’t try to build all three at the same time. Each one of these are a stressor to your body and current level of fitness or performance. By increasing all three at the same time you could overtrain and come down with sickness or an injury. Rather, you should focus on one ingredient at a time and work at it until you have a solid foundation in which to advance upon. Experienced athletes can get away with building 2 of them at the same time if they have a solid level of fitness, but even then proper steps should be followed in building one’s performance. I urge you to focus on just one at a time in your initial steps to building a better you and you’ll find that your body will thank you over the long haul. 

Frequency
    I’m starting with frequency because this is the first ingredient that you should start with as well. When first starting out with your new bike, your goal shouldn’t be to ride fast or ride far. Rather, your first goal should be to ride frequently. Yes, you will want to get out there and work hard, but that will come with time and will only be effective if you’ve laid a foundation beforehand. This foundation is the frequency in which you train. So what I do with all of my athletes that are looking for increased performance is try and build their frequency before we do anything else. This usually means starting at 3-4 days/week and trying to build up to 6-7 days/week. Your workouts during this time should be casual in intensity (think 50-60%) and generally stay at the same duration (example: 45-60 min) that you have time for. During this portion of the build, you don’t want to be stressed about certain intervals or mileage, that will come with time. Your only thought right now is training your body to get out on the bike and build a consistent routine. As your body becomes more accustomed to riding each day and you become better and making time for this, then that is when the volume or intensity can start to increase. A good general rule of thumb that I use with my athletes is that we don’t do really hard efforts until they are up to a general base level of fitness that is usually signaled by 5-6 days a week of training. This all depends on the athlete and their past, but this is a good general idea. 

Volume
    I’ll touch on volume second, but intensity could be here as well. These two ingredients are the ones that can be substituted based on time and life demands. 
    Volume is interesting in that it is different to everyone. For someone going out for their first long ride that could mean a 20 mile journey. For others preparing for Ironman that could be a 100 mile century. With that being said, it is good to know that volume is different for all and the requirements that come with the race. We will touch on specifics later in this series, but for now lets just lump all volume in together. 
    So, when to add Volume you ask? Simple, when you feel comfortable with the frequency in which you’ve built. I generally start adding weekly time as a whole for new athletes opposed to just 1 or 2 big days. The reason for doing so is because if you give a new athlete all 1 hour workouts and then ask for a 3 hour workout on Sunday, this is a huge increase in workload (overtraining possibly) and a huge increase in stress level (mentally) as they are unsure if they can handle it. So a good strategy to implement here would be weekly adjustments in volume such as add 1 hour/week. 
Example: 1 hour a day, 6x/week = 6 hours total 
You could increase to 1:15 a day, 6x/week for a new total now of 7:30 hour a week. 

• This example is much easier on the mind than 5x1 hour and 1x3 hour for 8 hours a week. That being said, there is a time for the 2nd option, but again this comes in with specific training and periodization that will come at a later point in this series. 

 Another rule of thumb for beginners is the 10% rule when increasing volume. This says that your weekly volume should only increase by 10% each week for a safe build. Building higher than this for beginners could lead to overtraining or burnout depending on how you do this and at what point of the season. 

 There are always going to be different circumstances for each individuals life, but these principles are widely accepted and should be put into your plan if you are just starting. 

Intensity
    This is the final piece to the puzzle but could be switched with Volume if you are a time-ridden athlete or later on in the build. Again, it all depends on where you are at and what your life is looking like. 

    When building intensity it is very important that you know what your goals are and what type of intensity you should be working at for specific training. Again, a later blog in the series will touch on this. Depending on what you are looking for, there are intensities that range from recovery to threshold to maximal oxygen uptake to anaerobic to neuromuscular. You can see how I could rant about this for a long time!  The important part to know is that whatever your goal is with fitness, there is a specific intensity that you should be working on to maximize your results. Hopefully after this series you have a better idea of all of these and can start to understand what type of training should accompany you on your path to better fitness or performance. 

Part 3 Intro
 You’ve bought a bike, you understand some of the basic principles to building fitness, now it is time to set a goal for what you want to accomplish. The next entry will focus on breaking down your goal into process driven tasks that you can tackle in a timely manner. By having a goal in place you can then start to look at specifics needed to build fitness/performance and start bringing your entire picture together!
Week 1: You just bought a new bike
Week 2: How to build fitness (volume, intensity, frequency)
Week 3: Realizing your intentions and setting goals
Week 4: Using metrics (heart rate/power) and setting baselines. 
Week 5:Periodizing your season and goals
Week 6: Specificity of training and its importance
Week 7: Peaking for your goal