Winter Training Improvement with Rod Diaz

When athlete Rod Diaz and I discussed results from last season, we also discussed what he wanted to do in the 2014 season. The focus? Rod primarily he wants to improve his 15 km ITT (to sub 20:00) and 40 km ITT (to sub 55:00).

Since 2007, I have had the privilege to work with Rod and we have we have now improved his 20 minute threshold from 240 watts to 343 watts. Last summer he produced between 315 and 330 watts.

Over the last few years he has bought a home, gotten married, and now has two babies under 2 ½ years old! For those of you trying to train under these conditions, you know what I mean when I say WOW! When he can still improve?

This winter the focus was to NOT increase volume but to cycle through adding torque and neuromuscular response. We did a 20 minute TT test on a CompuTrainer on December 21^st, the beginning of Rod’s winter cycle. We built more torque into each subsequent week, without raising the watts into the workouts.

On February 8^th, we retested the 20 minute TT. Rod’s results were as follows:

December 21^st, 2013: 20 minute CompuTrainer TT = 292 watts
February 9^th, 2014: 20 minute CompuTrainer TT, with the same course and calibration = 323 watts

How does this compare? This is Rod’s BEST 20 minute winter TT since beginning work together in 2007! Great job, Rod!

PCG Coach: Jim Glover