Nov OS Week 5 Bike Thread
Now we are gettting in to the middle weeks of the OS and fatigue will start to build up. Remember the effects of outside life stress and later nights. Try not to get sick like me and keep the OS rolling.
Gordon
0
Now we are gettting in to the middle weeks of the OS and fatigue will start to build up. Remember the effects of outside life stress and later nights. Try not to get sick like me and keep the OS rolling.
Gordon
Comments
@Gordon, Thank you for all of the continued encouragment through out your sickness. Although I don't post a ton (honestly not sure what to put.) I get all of the posts sent to my email. I enjoy everyones posts and find them highly encouraging. I am encouraged that you are taking a much needed break for your body to heal. I think that that is a VERY hard thing to do for many of us.
Back at it in the basement! 44 minutes with 2x15 on 0.98/0.98. Total ride of 0.89. Felt 'good' to get back on the bike.
bike done. legs feel much better than last week (probably due to slightly easier week in terms of volume last week so rested legs + I didnt swim monday) . Took the advice and didnt dwell too much on staying in aerobars or high cadence and just put the power down- much better for the head.
got my bike + run in this morning
2 x 15' both at 99% (HR of 137, 146)
first one felt solid, but I was a huffin' and a puffin' the last 5' of #2 as you can see from the HR increase
have a good day all!
Do you know those days where everything is just slightly off? Well, that's today for me. I was really looking forward to the bike, b/c I kinda 'enjoy' the z4 stuff -- even went to bed an hour early to get some more zzzsss. And then ... first, my PM wouldn't calibrate. I tried a couple of times, but nothing happened. Then I remembered that people say they calibrate by pedaling backwards (normally, I calibrate before mounting the bike), and that finally worked (I re-calibrated the same way afterwards and had about -20 of drift. Someone (Dino?) mentioned that it takes a while for a new PM to settle in, so I'm not stressing yet, just watching...). Then I started to pedal forward and realized that when I'd set up the bike on the trainer after returning form t-day travel, I'd purposefully not tightened the wheel to remind myself to pump up the tires. Needless to say, I forgot, and at that point I was already stressing due to the PM and didn't want to deal w/ the pumping up tires. It was then that I realized that I also forgot to lube my chain... And then, I had a hard time staying in my power zones. Not so much physically, but the zone bands are so narrow, and my power fluctuated so much (like a yo-yo), even though I'm indoors and it's not like I'm doing anything crazy on the bike. So I spent a lot of mental effort trying to nail a number, which detracted form the physical work. I did get better at dialing in the power toward the end of set 1, but still underperformed relative to my target and did a much better job in set 2. It seemed that the power was more stable when I engaged my core. Has anyone else observed this? So all in all, a sub-optimal bike, in part due to personal stupidity (tires, lube), in part due to new gadgetness, but I learned a thing or two, which is good.
At least the run went off without a hitch, and I think my strides are looking better, so there's some positive...
Oh, and did I mention I'm having a bad hair day...
@kate: good job getting the workout done!
In my experience there are so many things that have to go right just to get the bike workout going, between making sure the fans are on, computer is on, tv is on and working, bike trainer is properly tightened, drink is nearby etc etc etc, launching the space shuttle seems easier. I have been doing this for several months and still routinely forget something, and have to get off the bike. I now try to make sure as much as possible everything is ready the night before to minimize the surprised in the morning when time is short. Just wait for when your power meter battery decides to die. That happened to me just before a workout last month.....
Oh and sadly, I only have fond distant memories of bad hair days......
@Aaron - posted a paragraph on your TR file to the same question on the EN Dashboard - do you have it? does this give you everything you need?
@Kate - "power was more stable when I engaged my core" - I definitely find this and I suspect it's because I go from "pushing" to "cycling", meaning more backward/up/forward as my feet move around the circle. I also believe this results in a higher sustainable power for me. As far as your morning goes - I slept in and will have to fit in the set tonight ~6:30 to 8:00. You're way ahead of me. Way to get it in.
I'll either update this post or post again later on after I get it in. Thanks all for your posts - reading them keeps me in the game.
Update: 9:30PM
Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night...
Got it in, barely in time for the morning workout, but in is in!
Enjoyed the run in the snow more than the ride in the dungeon.
Hi All,
I got the run in and then went downstairs to do the bike. I tried out TR for the first time today. Once, that is, I remembered that you have to run the app... I sat there for a good 10 minutes trying to get the TR web page for the workout to pick up the PM signal. I'm such a doofus.
Anyway, I looked for a workout similar to today and the closest I could find was one called 'Relay,' that had two 15' intervals somewhat above threshold. I plugged in my FTP (255w) and the app had me targeted for a power level 12 watts above FTP for those periods but I kept it to 250w and it was rather tough to hold onto that average. It was also a big struggle to keep the wattage steady over those intervals. Maybe it was the climbing posture I'd set up the front wheel for. I dunno.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/112956
Got it done - nothing spectacular, hurt like hell, and no zone 3. No run yet b/c it was thunderstorming outside. I had no idea it was even going to rain - guess I need to start looking at the weather more. Will get that in tonight - but worry about how that will affect tomorrow's run. Hmmm....
Feeling the fatigue with these workouts combined with tons of work travel and ThanksDay travel last week.
www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/112753
Got the bike in this morning and during warm-up, the HRM went to zero, "check wearlink" - thanks Polar, like I couldn't figure that out myself. So, after re-setting and making a note to self to buy more CR 2023 batteries, I got in the 2 X 15' @ Z4 and although I went at my AVSPD target (20-12mph), my AVHR was way up there in the Z4. Hmmn.
So, during lunch I went out for my 30' Run at a blissful Z1 and saw my HR zoom way up there while at a Z1 pace. So, not sure what is going on, but I bought the batteries and I'll just make it a point to get an hour more of sleep.
Oh yeah - watched this week's pod cast with Patrick talking about steps/min. I actually counted mine today and when I focus - I am at 90 steps/min on level ground. When I drift off and "gather wool" like my wife says (whatever that means), I go down to about 80. So there you have it!
So since I was at the beginning and hadn't started yet, I ended up going to get a new battery. Previously used a Rat Shack brand, but this was like the 3rd time their batteries died a quick death suddenly, so this time I sought out a name brand (Energizer or Duracell). Hopefully I'll have better luck with this one.
Anyway, 2 x 15' @ FTP (well, more like IF=0.975), with the rest @ 80-85%. Second week in a row this workout seemed noticeably easier than previous, so I'm thinking perhaps my FTP bumped up a bit (prior to the OS and testing, I'd have bumped up my FTP value by 3-5W in TR and observed how the change felt).
I've completed the transition from Int to Adv this week. My 2 x 15' session @ 0.998 is feeling " easier" in the sense that I am getting more tolerant of the work I have to do to keep my power level up and steady. it's still just as hard physically, but my head space for managing the work seems to be getting bigger, if that makes sense.
Or it may be that I've started up with Jack Bauer in 24, after 4 weeks of Torchwood. Every OS, I follow Jack thru one of his days (speaking of bad hair days), and he and his team provide just the level of predictable entertaining stupidity I seem to need to keep going on those longer FTP intervals.
@ Al: I spent a good portion of last OS watching 24 as well. I had to stop doing that after a while because the suspenseful portions were just too "slow", and in a way made the efforts on the trainer even more agonizing. The countdown clock really didn't help either.
2x15' @ (0.99 & 0.977)
1x15' @ (0.852)
Total bike 68' @ (0.864)
Jumped straight into a 34' brick on the DM - no strides though...
@Peter,
Ansel Adams is close.
I may just do the free-60 or free-90 and track it myself, but it does require more focus to do so.
Another way to go is to design your own workout. Haven't tried this yet, but I know a lot of others are.
Speaking of setting a target then, I may have missed its discussion earlier in the November OS bike threads but I am not sure about the target wattage I'm seeing in my workout tomorrow. Is it based on the FTP x 120% calculation or should the target be the VO2max I achieved during my test? I am one of those higher than usual roof (125% of FTP) and lower ceiling guys. Should I go for 320 or 306 like the workout prescribes?
Thank you all for posting your workouts and results. It makes the work a little easier knowing that you all are suffering too and is a real motivator seeing that everyone else has already done the workout... better get off my butt and do it too.
Have a great day team!
Good luck everyone and hit it hard.
Woohoo, got 'er done pretty good this AM
. This time, I remembered to pump up my tires, lube my chain, plus I figured out that the PM issues I was having on Tuesday were not PM issues, but head unit issues, specifically, the edge wasn't calibrating (which as I now know is kind of a misnomer - thanks, WSMs and Interwebs), or better put, zero-offsetting b/c it was busy looking for my HRM which I wasn't wearing that AM. So this AM HRM was back on and egde did all the admin stuff it was supposed to do. Of course, now that I type this, I realize that I forgot to offset at the end of the workout to see if there are any drifting issues. SIgh, there's alway something...
Felt full of energy this AM - probaby b/c I wolfed my way throuth a gianormous box of pretzel sticks for dinner last night instead of my usual salad. So, more energy, but also more ass fat on the body... Speaking of, I'm convinced there's a new musle bulge on my quads -- I'm getting stronger. It's subtle, and only I can see it, but I swear it's there!
One question though, relating to overcooking. WE've talked a lot about the danger of overcooking the run intervals, and I assume the same would apply to the z3/4 bike intervals, but is there such a thing as overcooking the V02 max intervals? Reason I ask is that my training plan only gave me a number (191), not a range to hit for the V)2 max, but I was averaging 220-240, b/c I always thought V)2 max was about going balls to the wall?