Co2uT Training Plans information and Docs

Greetings Gravelers,

A quickie for you based on questions I’ve been getting about your training plans. If you’d rather watch a video than read you can see this conversation here

Your training plans are based on two primary fundamentals.

1-Developing your high-end punch, or power, for the very short but often very steep hills, you will climb across Co2uT. This training comes in the form of short to very short, very demanding intervals. Usually 5 X 3minutes or 10 X 30seconds.

2-Developing your aerobic endurance for cruising through the long flowing beautiful miles. This training comes from long intervals, 30, 45 or 60 minutes in length at a very moderate but very specific heart rate zone. In your training plans these workouts are called Endurance Intervals. These workouts specifically are prompting a bunch of questions. Here is why.

Many of you want to train on Zwift during the winter months. To accommodate this I have to create structured workouts that will apply to Zwifts protocols. Zwift won’t work with “zone” workouts and require a percentage of heart rate or a percentage of power workouts. So, for the Aerobic Threshold workouts, I have to define a percentage of your heart rate. (I selected 70% of your max hr) as a template. This is an educated guess only and for many of you will not provide the correct target for you. Apologies but I haven’t found a workaround.

As explained in the workout details and your required reading documents, link at the bottom of this post.  Each of you must do a FTP test to determine your current Lactate threshold heart rate. This is the average heart rate of your 20-minute test. You then multiply this average by .95, subtract 30 beats, then add 2 and subtract 2 to create your target zone. Example

Average HR for test. 150 beats per min (BPM) X.95=142.5. minus 30 bpm = 112.5, -2, +2 = a target zone of 110.5-114.5. THIS 4 BEAT RANGE, 110.5 – 114.5 IS YOUR TARGET HEART RATE FOR EACH INTERVAL. If you are training in zwift, you’ll need to adjust your effort to elicit this heart rate. For all of you, it generally works better to warm up and get above this zone, slowly lower your effort (and thereby your heart rate) and slowly drop into this zone. Versus, gradually working harder and harder to climb into this zone.

I hope this clears up this sometimes confusing topic. Everything else seems to be coming across pretty clear. Of course, any questions please shoot me an email morgan@desertgravel.com

In a couple of weeks, we’ll go live on Instagram for a Q & A session for you.

On a more fun note – we’re about to lock in our order for Kit – It’s super cool, and contrary to implications of “Italian Manufacturing” and our past jerseys – these are accurately sized and comfy (sizing chart is below the items on the order page). The 5 pocket gravel bibs are the bomb! And, the woman version are “shorts” without bib straps. The chamois in both are superb. Click the pic for more info and to place an order.

Happy Training all!

Morgan and the Dino Wranglers

Co2uT-2022-Training-plan-information-and-FAQs