How Fiona Gained 54 watts in 6 months [CASE STUDY]

Welcome back to another case study episode. In today's episode, we are looking at the case of Fiona. Fiona came to us just over six months ago hoping to improve her cycling but overall fitness. And she has improved a whopping 54 watts over this six months. 54 watts is a monster jump. And this isn't a beginner athlete either. This is someone that came to us with a lot of experience. She was what we would call an endurance monster. And when she came to you that her only question was, will you let me train as much as I want? And of course your answer was, well, no. But we'll explain what that no means in this case study. But this was another example of a highly motivated athlete. So in the episode we're going to go through where she was fitness wise, what she was doing wrong potentially. Where is she now, what does her improvement mean and what do we change? So dad, take us through, where was she and what was that conversation like?

Yeah, it's a good starting point. She wasn't doing a lot wrong. She was extremely fit, she had great endurance and she was after a coach who would help her improve her level. The thing was she wanted a coach who wasn't going to change anything about her training. And so we had a great conversation at the start and we almost had to agree to disagree that I would let her do some of her endurance training as long as she could match the high intensity sessions that I was about to give her. And that was an interesting scenario because it's important that I don't have a dictatorship as a coach. I have a transparent, coordinated team approach where the athlete has got their own desires and I have to hear those desires and listen to them and try and implement them and still get them to improve. Because the bottom line is they're reaching out to me because they want improvement. And if someone's reaching out and they want improvement and they don't want to change anything about their program, then I've got a real battle on my hands.

So the word I guess is compromise. And there's certain things, there's a certain point where as a coach you're just not willing to compromise. And you've had plenty of those conversations before where you just say, I can't be the coach for you because I'm not willing to go that far. But this was a great example of where you're both willing to come to the table and say, well, I'm willing to compromise here. Like you just said, you know, we make a deal about, you know, the sessions I need you to commit to and then I'll let you do a bit of, bit more of the injurance stuff that you love. So let's go through specifically the first point. Where exactly was she, as we said, she was super fit. Background endurance monster. She's done Iron man before. Her goal was to do another Iron man and she's done plenty of ultras, 310 to 315, about that, about that range of marathon runner, which is unbelievable running as a marathon runner. But she, as you said, she was just probably doing way too much volume in terms of endurance for the goal she had. And we're talking, you know, on the weekend, potentially six to eight plus hours of endurance riding, plus potentially two to three hours of endurance running. So really good endurance fitness. But that kind of had kept her being the same athlete for, you know, the last 10, 15, 20 years. And just like a lot of endurance monsters, they stay at the same level a long time. And she wanted to see if we could help her improve.

Yeah, and make no mistake about it, she was a really fit and talented athlete. And when she came to us, that, that was, that was really clear to me. She had, she had all the numbers on the board. She'd been very successful in ultra distance running, winning races. And she had done, you know, in her, in her past life, as she said, she'd done a lot of Ironman and was very competitive but she had maintained a fitness level that was really good. But she wanted improvement and that's where she reached out to us. And for me to agree to do that request would mean change. And that's a hard thing to do when someone has been doing something for 20 years. Yes, they want to improve, but they don't want to change anything because they're so used to the routine. And that's a challenge for both the athlete and for the coach. And I found that really challenging right from the outset. And I made no bones about it. I said, look, I want this. Certain high intensity sessions that I think you need to implement into your program will give you instant, instant change, but this will cause way more fatigue to you and you may have to compromise and the amount of time you're spending with endurance. And she agreed. And one of the stipulations was if you can't match the ranges in the power zones that we're asking you to in the high intensity sessions, then you have to reduce the amount of time you spend extra on top of the training session I'm giving you. And so we came to that compromise and to her credit, she absolutely put her head down and nailed almost all the zones I asked her and she started from not so high a base as a rider. She was more a runner. So her riding definitely got the spark it needed and so did her swimming and running. For that case, she hadn't swam for years. But once we started really implementing her intensity on the bike, that was giving her a lot of cardiovascular improvement which was going across to a swimming and her riding and you know, and, and really that worked a treat because we were getting, getting her to work and, and really get to a high level of intense training on the bike which was minimizing the risk of injury which she had had an experience of over the years. So, so that was exciting and she agreed to that. And, and instantly over, you know, the first four weeks we went from, you know, I think we improved 15 watts straight away in four weeks and that, that progressed every month to between, you know, 8 and 15 watts every month improvement over four or five months and to a point where, you know, if you look back from week one to, to where she is now, it's 50, 50 plus watts. So, so it's, it's, it's an absolute no brainer now. She, she actually got trust in the process once she started to see improvement and that was, that was really good from a coach and athlete perspective and working together and, and I'm having to convince her in the, she's not really believing that because she's done it a certain way her whole life and to her credit, she absolutely gave it everything. And then after the first testing week it was like far out. You're right, it does work and I knew it would, but I just had to see it for myself. And instantly we gained more confidence in each other. And it's been a really great journey. And she's someone I really enjoy coaching because she is super motivated to improve and she does everything plus extras and something. Sometimes the motivated athlete is really hard to coach because they're going way too beyond where you want as compared to the unmotivated athlete who you're trying to get to train. I'm trying to get fi to reduce her volume because it's not necessarily throwing a lot of volume at something is going to give you the benefit. Sometimes less is better. And I think that's the next point.

Yeah, I really love that example. It's such a key change that was made. But you just said, well, my rule almost or the agreement we have to come to is that you have to hit my midweek sessions. Properly and in the ranges. And if you're not hitting them, like you said, it means you're too fatigued, it means you're doing too much volume somewhere else. And so we need to reduce that volume so that you can hit them. I think that can't be understated. And that's just, that was a product of, you know, a real lack of intensity in a, in a weekly training. It was just a lot of zone two work. You know, if you talk about the 80, 20 rule, it was probably 99 zone two and 1% high intensity. And so the variation in training was, was kind of non existent. So I want to just clearly lay out where she is now and then we'll go through exactly, you know, some more steps about how she got there and what you guys did as a coach, athlete, team. Because yeah, it was a 54 watt FTP improvement, which is pretty crazy considering there was a bit of doubt at the start as to whether you could improve at all having such good fitness experience. But we want to know what does that mean? Because that's an FTP test result. But what does that actually mean for real world cycling? So take us through kind of how that's improved our cycling out on the road and that experience in the real world.

Yeah, and you're right. Improving your watts in a specific test is only one measurement. And as we've spoken on our podcast, many times you get a good indication when you're with your local bunch or you've got some Strava segments that you regularly do, or you've got a loop that you're. And all of a sudden now you're hitting better, better times on that Strava segment. The loop that you do used to take you an hour and a half, now takes you 1 hour 25. You know, the bunch you ride with, they, they comment on, far out. You're stronger now than you have been, you know, in the last 10 years of riding. What are you doing? I wanna, I wanna actually find out what you're doing.

So those golden questions, isn't it?

Yeah, they're the things that, that were happening and that's exciting for the athlete because they get feedback. That's not just numbers driven, it's actually real life experiences. And if you're experiencing that, you know that, you know, it's another motivator to go, oh, I like it when people say I'm going well and I want more of that. It's a little bit of a chemical release in your brain. Someone's giving me kudos. And it's real. It's not made up. It's. People are saying, far out. You're riding so much stronger and better, and you're coping with the pace better, and you look like you're pedaling better. Because one of the things that we really had to work on was her low cadence. And a lot of athletes have been riding the same way for a long time. Their go to cadence is under 80 rpm. No matter if they're on the flat, downhill or uphill, they're going to ride really low cadence. And that's a protective mechanism because we're trying to keep our cardio as low as possible. And the minute you start bumping up your cardio, your cadence, your cardio goes through the roof. Your heart rate increases.

From your go to.

Yeah, from your go to. So we really have been working on that. And she's really trying her best to get that. And I'm saying, well, we might have to drop down to the lower ranges of the power that we're asking you to get your cadence to the right zone. So we want cadence and power in the right zone so that you get the stimulus, the cardiac, the cardiovascular stimulus you get from riding a higher cadence in the same session is bizarre. So if I gave you 95 rpm for 5 minute efforts at 200 watts, compared to 75 rpm for 5 minute effort at 200 watts, you would have probably a 5 to 6 beats per minute lower level for the strength effort as compared to a high cadence. And that's evident every time I ask her to bump her power and her cadence to the level where I want it to be. And all of a sudden her heart rate's going through the roo. So that, that protective mechanism of dropping the cadence, we want to get rid of that. And that's, that's one of the things she's really done well.

And.

And it looks like she rides better out on the road because the comments are that, you know, you're not grinding anymore. You look like you're sitting in a better position, and you look like you're pedaling controlled and smoothly and not under pressure.

Yeah. And we won't go into the cadence rabbit hole because it's a whole Pandora's box. And there is, you know, plenty of evidence to suggest that your go to cadence is probably the one you're most efficient at and most economical at. But, you know, as coaches, we definitely don't want, you know, we. We want people to have the option of how they can ride and you know, and have the ability to ride at 80, 85, 90, 95 plus cadence and not be stuck below 70, because that's all I could do. But anyway, that's a whole other issue. I think before we go into the, the last parts of kind of some key changes we made, which just has to be mentioned, that her swim, in all this training, her swim has come down from 220 pace to 202 pace, so almost 20 seconds per 100, which is monstrous. And that's just down to a lot of commitment to the swim training. And her run has come down by one to two minutes over a 10k and half marathon PB as well. But she has had some, some running issues, so. But I just don't think they could be shirked at. You know, this is a massive cycling improvement that we're focusing on. But the swim and run has come down, which is awesome. So you mentioned that one of the key changes was the midweek sessions and you really just hit it with some intensity, right?

Yeah. So we know from all of the training that we've given to our athletes over, you know, years and years of doing this, that the minute you start to give VO2 and threshold work above zone two and just riding in that 75 to 90% zone where it's hard all the time, keep the numbers below zone two and then, and then hit the athlete with some VO2 stuff above 110% of their threshold and some threshold work and you will get instantaneous improvement. And that was what happened. We gave her that for the first 12 weeks. It was super high intensity VO2 work where she's really being stressed and it was hard for her. And in the beginning she had to reduce her volume because she was pretty tired from those two midweek sessions that were really taxing her. And an example of how well she's coping now with the load is she's able to add more volume to those high intensity days. And we've had to come to an agreement, do more volume, but it has to be in zone one or two and not add any more high intensity work to that high intensity session already.

Yeah. And I love the anecdote that she told you about her conversation with her physio, where her physio kind of said to her, I don't know who the no new coach is, but you must have some sort of influence because I've been trying to get you to stop doing so much volume for a long time and have failed. And now with this new system, you've finally Agreed to back off. But I think that is a testament to her willingness to trust the process, which is a really big thing for athletes. They really have to dig deep and mentally kind of let go a bit of, a bit of that control, which can be scary. And it's also about teamwork. You know, the athlete listening to the coach, but the coach listening to the athlete as well. And I think that's the final point I want to make. And can you summarize that for me about how, how important that is?

Yeah. And, and that trust thing between, between the partnership that you have and it is a partnership, not a dictatorship. And, and you know, the athlete has to give communication back about how they're coping and how they're feeling and what their, what their desires are, what their outcomes. Coach is not listening, then the athlete's going to be unhappy and the coach is going to be wondering why they're not improving. So to get that trust in the process, trust in what the coach is doing, change not for the sake of change, but change for the right things to happen, really resonated with her and the story with her physio. Just wondering how it's possible to change you after 20 years of me trying to change you to stop doing so much. And all of a sudden Johnny come late, coach comes on the scene and he can get you to stop doing so much monster endurance days and, and you start improving and, and that's really, you know, Fee, the athlete has actually has been, you know, really it's been tough on her to, to accept that she has to do things differently. And as humans, we don't like change. We like the, the continuity of the known and, and the unknown is what we're fearful of. And once the athlete sees that there's progress, then the trust is instantaneous and that's a really better relationship. But you have to give it a chance. You can't just go, I've had a go for this for two or three weeks. It doesn't seem to be working. That's not how it works. You need to give something. I'm the same. If I've bought a brand new bed and pastor's first four or five nights, it still doesn't feel like it's, it's perfect for me. I've got to trust that the bed I selected is going to be suitable to me down the track and eventually it will be as long as you give it a chance. And this is what I'm always on about with most people is you can't tell whether Something's working. If you don't trust it and embrace it 100%. And if you do it 50% and then say it's not working, we didn't actually give it a go. So these are the things that she's done very well. She has to her credit. It would have been hard for her because she's done this for so long.

Yeah, yeah. And also that's why testing is so important and why we're so adamant about it, because we're not just saying blindly, trust us and see what happens. You know, we're saying. We're saying trust us. And then we'll test it and we'll show you the improvement. And when you see a 15 watt improvement in the first FTP test, then you start to get some belief. And then when you keep seeing improvement and proof's in the pudding. So that's a great way to finish. A big congratulations to Fee on some great training, some great consistency and dedication to the program to get a monstrous improvement in this. And we can't wait to see how she keeps going. But it has to be said that, as always, she's the one doing the work. So it's another great athlete improvement. And we're stoked and excited to keep bringing you these case studies because we think they're really important to keep teaching you lessons about how you could apply these to your own training and see yourself improve. So that's it for this episode and we'll see you in the next one. Sam.