Measuring the Benefits of Training Consistency
Today we’re going to dive a bit deeper into the Kimberly Lucie (Instagram) case study to examine some measurable benefits of training consistency and compliance. Hopefully, this will give all of us the confidence and motivation to trust the process of fully committing to your goals and to your coach to help you reach those goals. We will take a look at Kim’s 2024 goals and examine her outcomes. Because Kim is a veteran professional athlete, it’s inevitable that her goals would be relative to 2023. That is, she wants to be better than last year, just like all of us.
In the previous installment, Training Consistency and Compliance, the Fundamentals of Success, we explored the unsung heroes of athletic success: consistency and compliance. We learned how crucial consistent training is for long-term gains, and how compliance with a guided, well-structured, and ever-evolving plan ensures progress and prevents setbacks. We also saw what consistency and compliance look like through the training of Kimberly Lucie.
Standard practice is to invite each client to complete a self-evaluation questionnaire following the end of the season. The coach will then discuss the self-evaluation and offer further insight. Finally, the athlete and the coach together sort goals for the upcoming season. These goals should be SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, REALISTIC, and TIME-TABLED.
Kim’s 2024 Goals
- Increase off-bike strength for on-bike domination. The bulk of this work would be done from October to February.
- Improve Functional Threshold Power (FTP). This goal should be achieved before mid-June to apply to the imminent competitive season.
- Improve durability—time in zone for supra-threshold outputs. Seasonal, ongoing.
- Keep or improve explosive ability and repeatability. This will be a product of 1 and 3.
Kim's commitment to her training has paid dividends deeper than her initial goals. These hard-earned benefits of training consistency translated to improved performance in competition, allowing her to more effectively contribute to the team's objectives throughout the year.
But simply doing the prescribed training without input and the intent to “shut up and be a good soldier” will rarely lead to this outcome. It will always be imperative to communicate with your coach and understand that the process is not set in stone. Changes will be required to advance and consolidate gains. This is something Kim and I did on a weekly basis, and we were very effective at doing it. Here’s an overview of what Kim was able to accomplish and realized gains from her 2024 campaign.
Strength Training
Kim’s 2024 preparation included more high-level strength development than in 2023. We immediately followed this up with powerful movement-based training like plyometrics. As we worked through the process, we were able to incorporate more emphasis on plyometric and explosive movements off the bike.
Pedal Force
Benefits of training consistency from the strength and plyometric training applied specifically to cycling should yield improvements in both torque (pedal force) and peak power. In this instance, we see an improvement in peak torque of 12%.
Max power
Kim was able to realize a 3.8% improvement better than her 2023 performance. In the world of professional sport, 2% is a significant gain. 3.8% is a very, very big deal.
Improving FTP
Another benefit of training consistency for Kim was seeing her Functional Threshold Power (FTP) improve by 3.5%. Again, 3.5% is a massive improvement for an experienced elite athlete. Building an aerobic engine is hard. The training stimulus needs to be beyond her habitualized level and high enough to elicit improved oxygen delivery and cellular structure building to utilize the oxygen yet low enough to systematically apply the stimulus (going big, bruh, one day per week doesn’t really do it). This harkens back to the “Zone 2” craze that has been employed in various fashions for decades, albeit with different names. Kim was able to tolerate the high volume at sub-threshold intensities and also had the discipline to avoid the pitfalls of high-volume Z2 training, and she reaped the benefits from it.
These charts generated via Training Peaks, WKO5 dive a bit deeper. They compare 2023 vs 2024 days with high FTP impulse training without concurrent corresponding high anaerobic impulse rides. Kim executed 21% more days like this in 2024 vs 2023. I give her massive kudos for the discipline it takes to make this happen.
Improving durability and time in zone for supra-threshold output
We worked on VO2 and threshold extensively for Kim’s upcoming crit season. Athletes tend to avoid workouts that would help them the most. That’s because they’re really hard! Kim definitely complained (we all do), but rarely did she skip or miss the workouts, and the results of all that hard work were telling. While we hadn’t yet seen it in a race setting, it quickly became obvious that her 5-minute VO2 performances in training were eclipsing her best race efforts from 2023. This was confirmed following the 2024 season in this chart showing Kim’s ten best 5-minute efforts from the last two seasons (green dots).
Kim’s hard work and skillset coupled with the benefits of training consistency mean she’s typically a highly effective teammate in the criterium realm. Frankie Andreau calls her the “Problem Solver,” and rightfully so! The team had her on a “high use” calendar that featured 42 race days in the 130 days from 25 April to 2 September. We suspected this could happen based on her past seasons and were able to build her form throughout the season.
Our program, at first glance, resembled an “old school” approach. Because Kim was particularly adept at playing the part of a role-player, we were able to pivot away from peak performance and focus on consistent performance as a reliable and effective teammate. Training was targeted to provide a base of fitness and VO2 to be able to develop the FRC/anaerobic capacity through consistent race starts, supplementing deficiencies with training during breaks in the action.
In a previous article, I talked about how it’s not always possible to swing a bigger hammer, but that swinging the same hammer longer and more often is a viable way to victory. This same concept applies here. We acknowledge that she may not be able to hit hard enough to break a race. If we could enable her to hit hard more often during a race, then that could make a real impact. We were able to work on Kim’s high power resiliency and repeatability in what can only be described as a tough block of training, both mentally and physically. The results were astounding.
Time in Zone: FRC
This chart below shows time at and above FTP, and we see a distinct difference between 2023 and 2024. In what is yet another benefit of training consistency, Kim’s ability to produce more FRC (anaerobic capacity) efforts on race day dramatically increased!
22.5% difference.
Twenty-two and a half percent difference. That’s incredible. Imagine the impact on a race if you could produce ~185% of FTP for 22.5% more time. An athlete like Kim, with her skill and knowledge, can not only influence a race dramatically with that sort of effort, but she can, and has, single-handedly changed the outcome of several races simply by applying the right amount of throttle at the right time.
To bring this entire discussion full circle, let’s review what we discussed.
First, consistency and compliance are the two most important aspects of training and performance. There is no variation of Over-Unders, HIIT, VO2 Max, Micro-bursts, or Fartlek intervals that haven’t been used, abused, or ignored in training. Without consistency and compliance, robust improvements or maintaining a high level of performance simply isn’t possible.
Many things in life need to come together in order to make consistency and compliance come together at scale to enable the volume necessary to compete at an elite level. The more elite an athlete, the more mundane their lives tend to be, which enables the benefits of training consistency and compliance. We definitely see accomplished athletes' photoshoots and uber-exciting trips, outings, and whatnot. What we don’t see is those same athletes doing the hard work it takes to be successful at an elite level. And we definitely don’t see the massive amount of proper recovery and sleep it takes to repeat high-level workouts. Mundane recovery makes for bad Instagram content, and all those “workout” videos we see are just that—videos meant for you to spend your time doing instead of training.
Kim's journey underscores a crucial truth in elite athletics: consistent, dedicated work, guided by a structured plan and open communication, yields remarkable results. While flashy workouts and social media highlights might grab attention, it's the mundane, day-in, day-out commitment that truly elevates performance. Kim's ability to not only embrace this consistency but to actively engage in the process allowed her to accomplish her goals and become a truly reliable and impactful teammate on DNA Cycling. This case study serves as a powerful reminder that for any athlete striving for peak performance, the foundation lies in trusting the process, collaborating with your coach, and relentlessly pursuing consistent execution.
Thanks for reading.
About the Author:
Adam Mills has raced at the elite level since 2002 and graduated with a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Kansas in 2005. His true talent comes with his ability to combine his vast experience with his knowledge of sport. He is indeed a student of science, sport, athletic performance, strategy, and tactics. He continuously educates himself by keeping up to date with current research trends and methods in sport and his clients have reaped the benefits from this work with over 28 national championships in 11 disciplines on two continents. Adam is able to incorporate these attributes on a daily basis to help his clients reach and exceed their goals whether they are a beginner or a seasoned professional. Learn more about Adam and Source Endurance here.
