 In this video today, which is part two of a four part series brought to you by Asioma. Power pedals. I'm gonna share with you as a road cycling coach how to effectively train your base engine using a power meter. Now, if you missed the first video in this series, I'll link it up there because in that video I shared with you a simple test you can do using your power meter and heart rate monitor in the comfort of your own home or outside to assess where your aerobic fitness is at. Now, if you're doing that test, I should have mentioned in the last video, wait until roughly the 10 to 15 minute mark until you're properly warm and your heart rate's elevated from roughly its resting heart rate before you start to monitor any associated drift. But either way, whether you're focusing on training base fitness or you're doing a high intensity training plan, aerobic base training should be part of any good cycling training plan. So in this video, we're gonna discuss three points. Point number one is selecting the right power range for aerobic base training. Part number two is a critical technique for training the base engine. And part number three is the best way to incorporate base training into your overall plans. Now at the RCA, where I'm a road cycling coach, we use 70% of your functional threshold power, your hour power essentially. And if you're looking to establish your FTP, go back and watch video number one. But we use 70% for most aerobic base training. Now I am aware there are other methods and more advanced base aerobic training zones, such as zone three and sweet spot, which is roughly 86 to 95% of your functional threshold power. But please keep in mind, particularly if you're training properly, which we'll discuss in point number two, these upper end aerobic zones can be taxing. And if you have not developed or worked on your base aerobic fitness, starting with these zones will probably be fatiguing for you. So I always recommend to members of the Road Cycling Academy, let's start with 70% of your FTP, your upper end zone two. And ride that way until you start to see your average heart rate coming down and also the amount of heart rate drift that occurs over a specific training session. Once these physiological adaptations occur, which you can monitor through your heart rate, you can start to transition to more advanced upper end aerobic training zones. But for the purpose of this video today, we're mostly gonna focus on my favorite training zone, zone two training 70% of your functional threshold power. So if you have an indoor smart trainer, let's aim to use ERG mode for our zone two rides, which means you can lock the power in at 70% of FTP and off you go. Just don't do more than 90 minutes to two hours max on the trainer. Unless you wanna tear your ass apart. Four on the road. I would aim for roughly 10, maybe 15 watts, either side of your zone two number, which is 70% of FTP, which would arguably be more accurate with these Asioma power pedals. Reason being, research suggests that you will get a more accurate reading with these Asioma power pedals, which we'll discuss in a second. And as a result, if you're getting more accurate readings, you can better target your training zone such as zone two, which we're gonna talk about a fair bit today and also your upper end zones. And that is because their pedal based system can deploy what's called instantaneous angular velocity versus average angular velocity. Now angular velocity or rotational velocity is a measure of the rotation rate that refers to how fast an object revolves or rotates relative to another point. So with Asioma pedals, which is the critical touch point when it comes to where the power is coming from, they can achieve an instantaneous or what they call the true reading from within each pedal rotation, whereas many other power based systems, they'll take an average reading, not a true reading, which can lead up to a 4.5% error rate. So as an example, if we're talking about training on the road, your zone two, let's say your 70% FTP was 160 watts, I would aim for 150 to 170 watts give or take. And don't forget to have your display reading as an average three second output. Of course, when you hit an incline, it will go above 170. I just say to people, focus on keeping a constant pressure on the cranks and look if it creeps up to 190 to 200 for a bit. No worries, just don't get out of the saddle and smash it up the hill at 300, 400, 500 watts, whatever it might be, because you start to disrupt the adaptations we're looking to achieve in that particular session. The same applies for downhill. You're not gonna have it at 150 watts, exactly 160 watts. It's gonna be a little bit below that, but just focus on trying to keep constant pressure on the cranks. We're trying to mitigate seeing zero watts as our power reading as much as possible. Now I know some of you will be saying, well Cam, that's great, where I live it's very hilly mountainous, whatever it may be. So that brings me to point number two. And that is a critical technique for training the base engine. Constant pressure on these pedals, cranks, that's what we need to aim for. Essentially what you're doing by applying constant pressure where safe and viable is you're not letting your aerobic system have a rest. Thus, there's a constant need to deliver oxygenated blood and nutrients to the working muscles. This unrelenting pressure will create a aerobic adaptation that you have not been able to achieve before because I see it all the time. The vast majority of cyclists are in this on-off washing machine of pressure on the pedals, pressure off the pedals, pressure on the cranks, pressure off the cranks. In other words, free pedaling when it's not necessary is just far too common. If people wonder why they struggle in a target event when there's a need to apply constant pressure to the pedals. So do this in training practice starting at an aerobic zone two level and then add it to your upper end zones over time and you will find over many months, you will condition yourself, you will become a different cyclist and when others are getting dropped, you are staying with the pack. Now, of course, if you're out training and you're descending a super steep hill or mountain, let's be logical. You will need to free pedal at times but keep constant pressure front of mind and incorporate it when possible. Also, consider riding up inclines at a lower cadence. Dial it right back to even 60 or 70 cadence at an aerobic zone two level and when you're going downhill, ride at a higher cadence. Maybe you can get up to 110, 115. What that will do is it will stop you having to change so many gears while training the base aerobic engine and you will also tap into different physiological systems, the cardio system, the muscular system while training the base engine. Part number three is the best way to incorporate base training into your overall plan. So we've got our target zone two power output, 70% of FTP. We understand where practical, we're gonna apply constant pressure to the pedals. So how do we now incorporate base aerobic training into our overall plan? So there's two scenarios here. There's scenario number one, is that you actually need to focus on base training and scenario two is you're focusing on high intensity training for an event, a race, or simply getting stronger. So scenario one, if we're focusing on base training, let's just say you've got eight to 10 hours per week and you train roughly five times a week. I would focus my training on three to four out of my five available sessions on zone two training until you get your heart rate drift under control. We discussed this in video one, which once again, I'll link to below. You also wanna think about progressively making your training harder over time. So with base training, you could increase the volume of your training as an example. Perhaps once your average heart rate has lowered at that zone two power output and your drift is under control, then you could step it up by implementing some zone three or sweet spot power training into your program using intervals of say between five and 20 minutes starting at the low end and building up over time. Once you feel like your base engine is solid, which could take you six, eight, 12 weeks, scenario number two is training at high intensity for general speed and strength or you might be targeting a specific event, which does not mean you throw aerobic base training out the window far from it. At the Road Cycling Academy, we strategically place aerobic zone two rides. In between high intensity sessions, which is designed to top up the aerobic engine, mitigate fatigue by doubling or tripling up on high intensity sessions, and it gives the body a chance to rest and recover between hard sessions, absorbing the fitness adaptations from the hard work we've done. However, it should be noted that base training, even zone two training 70% of FTP can also be quite taxing, particularly when you're doing it properly and particularly when you're increasing the volume. So in addition to base training rides to mitigate fatigue and enabling the body to absorb fitness adaptations, you should also consider incorporating zone one light spins and also complete rest days. So to give you an example, here's an idea of what one week within a high intensity plan could look like incorporating zone two base training, zone one and rest and recovery. So if you've gotten value out of this video, please don't forget to give it a like and you should now have a good understanding of how to leverage the power meter to build aerobic base fitness. What about building speed and strength on the bike using a power meter? Well, that's coming up in video number three in this four part video series. I'll catch you in the next one.