The cyclists' achilles heel

If you could collect as much data as you needed on every club or competitive cyclist, analyze it and determine what everyone's weakness is, what do you think it would be for most?

My hypothesis: "mid-range power". As I see it, most folks with little cycling background can easily ride for hours (think charity century rides). This is what we call endurance and is on the low-range of the power band. Most riders (especially those under 30) with some experience can accelerate to and maintain a high speed for a short time period. This is top end power which is achieved anaerobically. But that middle range where you need to sustain a hard effort for 60 minutes (CP60) to up to 3 hours (CP180) remains elusive for many. This power range is important even if you're doing 4+ hour rides as this is what will allow you to comfortably respond to changes in pace and incline.

Part of the problem may be mental -- you can feel it's hard but maybe you're not aware that you can actually sustain this for much longer than you think. As a result I think many people don't train at this level and don't develop the underlying physiological adaptations to make themselves stronger in this power band. It becomes a feedback loop which further reinforces the weakness. The other potential cause of this weakness is nutrition -- within the CP60 to CP180 power band you're burning a mix of carbohydrates and fat. The metabolically efficient will obtain a higher percentage of their energy from burning fat, while the inefficient will rapidly burn through their glycogen stores and then "hit the wall". If any of this sounds like you I'm going to give you a few suggestions on how to begin to address both sides of this.

Workouts are intentionally simple and designed for folks without heart rate monitors and/or power meters. One could make these more quantifiable if you had one or both.

Workout A:
After a thorough warmup, ride for 20 minutes at a comfortably hard intensity. Effort level similar to what you might do if you were pulling the group (except you maintain for 20 minutes). Recover and cooldown afterwards at an easy pace for another 20 minutes.

Workout B:
After a thorough warmup, attempt three 6-8 minute intervals at a slightly higher intensity than in workout A. Imagine you had to bridge the gap with another group of cyclists a half mile away but didn't want to go all out. Recover for 3 minutes in between. Can be done on a flat course or a slight incline. Recover and cooldown like in workout A.

What not to do:
I would generally recommend against max-effort hill repeats on a short/steep incline. I see too many folks doing this without having done multiple workouts similar to the ones above.

Nutrition Suggestions:

• A simple fix is to make sure you're taking in enough carbs during your rides. A mix of energy gels (one every 45 minutes) plus sports drinks (20 - 40 oz per hour) should keep you going strong for miles and mile and miles. If you sweat more than the average rider and/or have issues with leg cramps, make sure to also supplement with extra electrolytes too.
• The other solution is to become more metabolically efficient. It's a pretty advanced topic so I'll just give you a simple recipe to "try at home." Attempt a few 1.5-2 hr rides (on the trainer) with no carbs and at pace enough to cause a "bonk". Continue to hydrate with electrolytes and drink plenty of water. Don't experiment on a group ride as the last thing you want is to end up bonked and stranded 20 miles out. After a few of these rides, you'll notice that you'll be able to a) go longer b) at a higher intensity and c) without the bonk effect. At this point, reintroduce carbs and watch the magic. It would be akin to adding a high octane fuel to a sports car that has been running on regular -- immediately noticeable power increase.

Address both aspects (training and nutrition) and after a few weeks you'll find that you have more mid-range power and can easily hang on to the group/peloton even through the various surges and changes in incline. The key is to have enough excess power to comfortably respond to those surges aerobically rather than relying on fatigue inducing, top-end anaerobic power.

Why is it so hard to ride the trainer?

Does anyone else have this problem? It always feels so hard to push the pace on the trainer. I did what felt like a HARD workout this morning but when I looked at the data I straddled zones 1 and 2 for most of duration. I hit a few minutes of zone 3 and it felt like sprint triathlon race pace... just plain brutal. Had I done the same workout outside while maintaining the same perceived exertion I probably would have averaged more of a mid-zone 3 workout.

Everyone seems to report the same feeling (though perhaps not quantified by zones, power outputs, etc). Why is there such a mismatch between the perceived exertion of riding the trainer vs riding outside? I have a few theories as to what contributes to this disparity but I want to hear your own too.

• Motivation and focus - When you ride outside it's probably either with a group or maybe on a path/road that has other riders. Riding with others seems to add significant motivation. You end up focusing on things like catching that rider or keeping pace with your friends. When you're alone riding the trainer you have almost nothing to focus on but yourself and your own pain.
• Highly repetitive motion - When you're locked in that trainer, there's no steering, there are no bumps, and there's no need to navigate around obstacles, react, or switch positions. You're just stuck in that one position doing that same motion over and over. You start feeling every single imbalance... a weird feeling in your hip, a tight quad muscle on one side but not the other, tight calves, etc. The repetitive motion and static position seems to amplify the effect of these conditions.

So tell me... what do you think? I want to hear your thoughts.