Improving whilst improvement rate is set to maintain

General
1

Is this possible? I’ve a pretty much a guaranteed 6hrs training available each week but might be able to squeeze a bit more in here and there. I’ve used various platforms over the last 3 years or so and this year from Feb to May focused on endurance because I was planning to do a long ride over 2 days back to back (8-10hrs per day).

Having completed my charity ride I’ve jumped back in with Xert but now I’m not sure what to do in terms of settings etc.

My aim is to race the UK hill climbs later in the year so probably want to up my 5-8mins power. From recent rides my endurance is good and my very top end (10s to 1min) power is where I’d expect it to be but my aerobic threshold seems low.

My question is whether, without changing my weekly training hrs I can bump up my threshold (if that’s what I need) and at the same time drag up my 5-8 min power? I’ve no real interest in training my ability to go very long and slow for the rest of the year.

Many thanks

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Since Improvement Rate is ultimately governed by XSS, not training time. Then yes, it is possible to have an Improvement Rate > 0 without increasing your weekly training time. However, this means that most of your Improvement will take place through increased XSS of your High-Intensity rides, since you aren’t able to extend your endurance rides (or do more of them). This could mean you may need to select higher-difficulty HIIT workouts in order to meet the improvement rate, since HIIT workouts with higher XSS values are often accompanied by higher difficulty ratings.

TLDR: In your case, I’d recommend Continuous Improvement, Slow Improvement Rate, and an Athlete type of Breakaway Specialist, Rouleur, or GC Specialist. Hope this helps!

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