'Another one' from coach Bill Gros. This time highlighting PCG athlete Annie Elemendorf's amazing winter/spring trips to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and the French Pyrenees. The last two athlete accomplishments from Coach Bill Gros are testament that PCG coaches can help you do way more than just reach the podium!
What are your endurance goals?
Check out below what Coach Bill had to say about Annie's wild spring season.
"And yet another one!
Annie Elmendorf presented with the most unusual spring campaign I've ever had to deal with as a coach. (Master/Elite Coach Bill Gros of Peaks Coaching Group) After a super strong tenure in Tenerife and Gran Canaria touring the gravel roads with Hunter Allen and Tenerife Bike Training. Which I highly recommend after hearing what Annie had to say about the trip. It is the true definition of a 'Power Training Vacation', combining Hunter Allen's power training knowledge with the expertise of Alberto and Marcos Delgado of Tenerife Bike Training.
She came home, rested and continued with her 2022 campaign that included the Holland Grand Prix road race in Texas on February 20th, placing 3rd in the women's event. Shortly thereafter Annie was taken out by two emergency abdominal surgeries in late February and well into March.
Annie was off the bike for 46 days! And that's not counting a 10-minute ride, that's....not really a ride! Her Chronic Training Load (CTL) dropped from what was a pretty steady +/-95 all the way down to 31! This was the off-season rests of off-season rests....in the middle of her season! Her weight dropped from about 138 pounds to 113. She claimed that it hurt to sit down because she had no padding on her backside!
So, back to training on April 26th, with a 184-watt 20-minute power test on May 5th to see where she currently stood. Not bad, down from her 205-210 level, as expected, and I had doubts about sustainability and repeatability of course. PT sessions two to three times per week and a steady diet of progressive on the bike work and she was off and running.....cycling!
Then she let me know that she still planned on taking her planned trip to the French Pyrenees in mid-June. This added a level of urgency to her training with the goal of building her aerobic base and Chronic Training Load (CTL) to as high a level as we could get without putting her back on the disabled list. May 1st CTL of 46, with subsequent weeks ending at 54, 59, 64, 79, 84, 83, and arriving in the Pyrenees on June 16th at 79 after a short taper, we were comfortable with what she faced moving forward into the weeklong trip. Annie lives in Southern Texas, so to get her ready for the terrain she would face we had her doing 3 x 15-min using 53x14 or gear that illicits 70-80 rpm, seated in saddle, still upper body, driving through hips, feel the pedal all around at 80-90% FTP.
The trick here was that this is pretty firm to hard work, so at the same time were trying to bring Annie back from major medical circumstances, so I didn't want to have her break down, but we had to get this work in so that her body and legs would become familiar with "climbing circumstances" once we arrived in the Pyrenees. The key was getting the cadence down into a climbing type of range but the at the same time, the wattage must be present to fully mimic a climbing scenario. It seemed to have worked!!
This trip was also lead by Tenerife Bike Training, they hit darn near every iconic climb that the riders of the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana hit and can be seen HERE! Needless to say, each day was climbing to the extreme and the six day block was far more than the Pro Tour riders would do in a Grand Tour as they would typically only be in the thick of the mountains for 3-4 days. Some stats from the week:
Monday June 20th: 5400' 4:57time 266tss
Tuesday June 21st: 11158' 6:54time 466tss
Wednesday June 22nd: 11631' 7:54time 431tss
Thursday June 23rd: 11640' 7:05time 418tss
Friday June 24th: 8176' 6:30time 354tss
Saturday June 25th: 6237' 5:53time 379tss
Six Day Totals: 54242' of climbing! 39+ hours of riding time, 2314 TSS. I've never had an athlete ever go over probably 1500 TSS in a week, let alone over 2000. Her CTL had climbed to 121 but her TSB was at -142. A rest was in order!
She has since leveled off to +/- 0TSB and a still impressive CTL of 108 while on a vacation in the Northwest. I had the pleasure of meeting her as she stopped by our home on her way to Portland Oregon with her two kids Max, and Zoe. We went for a ride, of course!
Needless to say, this was a very impressive week of riding in some of the most difficult back-to-back terrain any rider can undertake. Fortunately for Annie, she has the physiology to handle such loads and bounce back impressively from day to day to equal or exceed previous day levels. I couldn't be more impressed or proud of her!"
0 comments:
Post a Comment