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Nov OS Week 9 Bike Thread

Holidays and perhaps a run week for some.  I'll be doing some travelling and adjusting a few workouts.

Gordon

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  • I did tomorrow's ride (60min including 2x20min) this morning because tomorrow is, well, Christmas! Trying to motivate myself to go for the 20min run. It's -4F/-20C with the wind chill and I'm such a wimp!!!! Maybe I'll wait until after work this afternoon when it's "warmer" for the run portion of the w/o. Merry Christmas! and safe travels to everyone.
  • Got up early to get in tomorrow's bike. Part of my hack for the week since today is a little less crazy than tomorrow. I will get in the easy run shortly. I hit the paces, it felt long in the 20 minutes, but it feels good to be done with it! Have a great one!
  • I too am moving the week ahead a day. Not only do I have Christmas tomorrow, but its also my wife's birthday. So its already a pretty full day.

    Anywho, 3x15 done and dusted, all on 0.97. That was a special kind of fun. Going to have to dig up some motivation somewhere to get outside for a run. We'll see.

    Train smart everyone. Make sure to put the family at the top of the list!
  •  After reading the posts today I decided to do tomorrow's bike wko today  right after work.  Boom! 2x20 at 1.0.  What a relief, now I'm free and clear for turkey tomorrow!  Have a great day everyone! 

  • Done with the bike this morning. Definitely getting harder...

    http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/136101

    I added a few over unders during the work sets by trying to lift my cadence a little for 30 seconds. Not too much though, it was already hard at the new FTP. Encouraged that my HR stayed in the threshold range except for a total of 1:16 (but I think that was from noise that always happens in the beginning of a workout and it says my HR is 220 for a while for some reason) of the whole 1:06:00. I'm starting to get a much better sense of when I'm either in the threshold zone or above it based on my RPE and HR even though I can also look at power.
  • Alright, got the bike done, I will say I wasn't looking forward to it, first time adjusting to the new FTP and immediately 2 x 20' seemed like a challenge. First interval was hard, as expected, but finished with IF of 1.00 and a cadence of 98. Somehow the second interval felt easier, not sure why? IF was 0.99 and my HR in the second interval was avg 161 whereas it was only 157 in the first interval. Strange.



    So even though my FTP went up with 28 watts I decided to continue my intervals on the same gear I did previous intervals. My trainer's resistance goes up a lot with only a small increase in speed at this point which makes it a bit more challenging to keep the variability low, but at the same time it allowed me to stay in the same gear and now complete my intervals at a cadence of avg 98 vs 94 before the latest FTP test. 98 for me is a good number, there is a remarkably clear trend between fitness and cadence and for me it is always a good sign when I can ride at 98-105 cadence without this feeling unnatural.

  •  Done! After going ZOOM on the highway back home following the family festivities, I went BOOM on the bike (must have been all the turkey and chocolate....). Am still getting used to the new numbers - not so much physically, but reminding myself that it is now okay to go higher/harder than before.  The head can be funny sometimes.... Did the strides after, now to recover for tomorrow's run...

  • Completed the bike today and hit my numbers. It was a nice break from eating all the food that is bad for me.
  • With the holiday week I did like many... did the Tues wko on Monday.

    3x15 @ 0.997; 0.969; & 0.961

    Total bike 1:06 @ 0.889 (no time for ABP)

    Also, during test week I failed 3 different times because I was chasing percieved big gains. I blew up each time in the FTP section but it was because I shredded my legs on the VO2. So, for now I plan to SWAG 4% on the FTP and VO2. Seemed about right for this past wko, but will pay close attention to up coming workouts. I do plan to retest soon but want to finish up the run challenge first.
  • I'd like to thank the NOS posters for today's workout because there is no way I would have finished this workout if I didn't have to post it. So I dug deep and got it done. 15 minutes of on time on 1:15's. All intervals between 1.2 and 1.24. Slightly overdone, but its complete now. Ready for the day.

    Keep on the gas everyone!
  • Roz, what plan are you doing that has the 1:15's? That must have been tough.
  • @Peter, I'm just adjusting the intervals for the VO2 work. Last year, instead of specific intervals, we just got a total amount of "on" time, meant to be accomplished at a 1:1 ratio (i.e. if you do 1 minute work, you rest for one minute, repeat til you reach the amount of assigned time for 'on'). I don't like anything less than a minute because it takes me almost 30 seconds to spin up and stabilize the watts (or at least for the garmin to show a relatively stable effort). So I started the OS with 1 minute intervals and have recently bumped it to 1:15's. I do the same amount of total work (15 minutes) assigned in the plan, I just go "on/off" without the added rest interval til I reach the total amount of assigned work.

    Note: I do this only for the bike. I stay in line with the run intervals as assigned.
  •  Done, and dare I say: BOOM! I was a bit apprehensive going from 45 secs to 1 min, but it was no problem even with the higher VO2 number, so BOOM it is! Hang in there, everybody, seems like the first few workouts post xmas are a bit tougher than the rest!!

  • As Kate would say: BOOM! Got the MS: 3 x (4 x 1/1) @ Vo2/232/Very Hard done!!! Tough but not impossible and I managed to ride for the full 60min thanks to having the day off from work today. Now it's time for some snowshoeing to enjoy all this fresh snow.
  • I got that sucker done today but it was harder than I thought. I was totally going for it in all sorts of gears and cadences and managed to get all of them but one above my VO2max number. Deciding to continue riding and put in some ABP time took a while but I eventually decided it was worth it. One last hurrah before I give blood and stop setting TR PBs...

    http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/137770
  • Nice job gang! I got mine done too. Was better at the last two sets then the first. For me, it's hard to ramp up and then maintain the number.

  • Keep at it, Ann. If you can see my traces I also still have a problem with a high peak on the left (beginning) side of the interval and then it is a challenge to keep up the cadence until it is over. Do you focus on a number like cadence or power during the efforts? One trick I use is to look at power until it gets to the level I want and then I switch to staring at the cadence number and try to keep it there.
  • 1x1 done! Thank God. That extra 15 seconds at the new zone level was a burner! Whew! Great job everyone!
  • It is amazing what a little (ok, really a few hours more) sleep will do for the effort. I was able to get in the groove fast today and stay there for the entire hour. I did get a bit bored in the last 20 minutes that I did of Z3, but the intervals were good and I felt really good. On to the weekend!
  • have been lax on posting, but not on my wko's. it's been great to read about everyone's work and i'm glad to re-join the NOS party!

    on Tuesday, i had my first "failed" wko of the OS. couldn't hold on to an IF of 0.95 in my 2nd 20' interval. held the first interval at 1.0, so in hindsight, i should have backed off on the first to save some gas for the 2nd. ended up with 2x20' at 1.0 and 0.93. i was proud that i battled to the end, but still stings to miss the bottom end of the range.

    today's vo2's went better. the 1 min sets felt tough, but i got them done. no run on Tuesday, so i went out for a quick 10 min jog after today's set. was also able to calibrate my new garmin foot pod - excellent stocking stuffer!

    with the holidays and time off from work, i've been training in the middle of the day vs. my typical early morning routine. i've also had a full stomach (post-lunch) for these wkos vs. an empty stomach most mornings. had some severe stomach cramps during today's jog, so i'll look to resume the early morning routine going forward. i also clearly have to adjust to the new power numbers
  • Mike, for these longer FTP intervals there are different things you can do on a difficult day. Personally my plan for the 2 x 20's was to make sure i kep my power within the target range and add rest if i needed it. In other words, if after 12 minutes in the second interval i would not be able to maintain power i would rest a few minutes before trying to do the remaining minutes at target power.

  •  Bike vO2 intervals in the books, standard warmp then 3x4x1/1.  Was a bit nervous as this is my first vO2 at the intermediate setting plus FTP is a smidge higher (also I snuck in a 30 minutes swim at lunch shhh!). Went great though, hit 1.0 to 1.01 avg power on each one. did the first set with a cadence of 84-85, next at 89-91, last at 97-98, all in the aero bars.   Does anyone know why trainer road reports NP at less than avg power for intervals?  

  • Like Mike I've been slacking on posting, but not on the workouts. Workout today was 3x5x1/1 - but as I've been doing 1/1 for most of the OS, I just did the same VO2 workout I've been doing which was 4x4x1/1 (mostly because it was alreayd in the TR workout creator). If it's just the total VO2max time that counts, then that should suffice - but if there is a benefit of going with 5 repeats per set vs 4, then perhaps I should adjust future workouts.

    Even though my FTP only went up by a few W, I generally felt pretty comfortable with VO2 being closer to 10W higher than the estimate of 120% FTP. We'll see how it affects things downstream, I guess.
  • Took a page from Roy's wko and did 1:15's, because I too have been doing 60/60's all along. Was time pressed so only got the MS in so I could get a few miles on the deadmill for the run challenge too.

    Got em dun as 3x(4x75/75) for a total of 15' ON time. Total bike @ 45'.
    All in all, felt good to hammer. Only spiked the beginning of 2 intervals and faded at the end of both. All the rest were fairly uniform.

    Bricked 26' for 3 miles. Had to run so I can collect my 5 point bonus at the end of the challenge.
  • No intervals yesterday, just a looooong somewhat steady ride on the trainer. Already looking forward to Saturday's ride though i really wish I could ride outside. But with all the snow we've had, doesn't seem like a smart thing to do if i want to stay upright.
  •  Day 4 of a cold/flu that Santa brought me....looks like this week is going to be a complete bust for me

  • @ Ben -- great suggestion! Will try it out next time I have a rough day
  • Hi all

    Back from some time with family in VT - and back on the bike: 2x20 done:

    http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/139059

    Hacking the weekend a little because I have three days to work with and I can't see taking a day off after three days off.

    I'll be back on the main thread for Tuesday, but I'm thinking I'll do the FTP run on Sat and perhaps the VO2 bike on Sunday - still working out the details...

  • Saturday ride done. 2x15 and 1x5 on 0.97, 0.99, and 0.99. Then a total of 25 minutes on 0.82 broken in to 2x10 and 1x5. A grand total of 1:30 in the saddle. Going to spend most of the day on the road today picking up family members so probably not going to get the run in.

    Keep after it everyone!
  •  BOOM!! Totally nailed today's bike. Probably one of the best rides I've done physically/mentally. Finally getting used to the higher power zones.  felt really good - but despite some chatter about going longer, I was perfectly happy to dismount after 1:32... Did the run right after - faded a bit at the end, the result of overcooking mile 1 and not fueling right. Sigh, live and learn...

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