Just finished my V02 bike. The 30/30's were fine - followed by 2x20@85%. I found this workout a lot easier than the Tuesday bike at FTP. Anyone else have that experience? I wonder why that would be?
Youch. That hurt. It is hard to work out without my friends Mo and Jo. (Chris- I coulda used some of your mojo tonight!) Anyway, got the 3 x 8' bike done @ .974, .963, .943IF. No Z3. Hopped on the 'mill to realize I couldn't run... Did 1/2 mile walk/run and bailed. I suspect it is because I juggled things around this week, and I'm beat from a long day yesterday. Looking forward to rest day and coming back strong on Sat.!
Tonight I was reminded of the reason that I do 'redundant' data collection. I wear my 310 on my wrist as my primary data collector/programmed workout 'machine that goes bing'. I also have my Joule between my aerobars as my primary Power display.
All was going OK until 49:29 into the workout and my 310 just froze up.....cold....lifeless...dead.
My first thought was, "Oh No!! My data is lost!!!" But then I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I could get the Joule data into WKO and have my precious numbers. I don't know how to get it into Garmin Training Center, but I can live with that gap.
Oh yeah...the workout went well. 6 sets of 4x 30/30 seemed somewhat easy. NP for all six was at or just above 1.00. Tried to do a 'Noftsger' and do the last 30sec at an IF of 2.0+. I just about made it -- 1.92 (455W).
Then it was time to get dinner ready before Gen and the girls got home from music lessons.
@Joe - I know how you feel. My laptop burped during a session and messed up the run download from my Garmin. I was beside myself! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH THAT BAD DATA???? MY POOR WKO+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOE IS ME!!!!
I chilled out. But I definitely know how you feel.
It seems the last few posts in this thread are wrestling with age old philosophical question...If I can't upload the workout data into GTC, did the workout really happen?
I managed to get mine onto the screen and pour over it for a bit and I must confess to being a bit pleased with myself (although I thought it should've been worth more than a measly 516 calories!)
I'm one of those people who have a larger than typical gap between where I tested for FTP (222W) and where I tested for VO2 (303W). I think the delta is largely attributable to pretty limited cycling in November and December following IMFL, which caused my FTP fitness to sink but didn't do too much damage to my VO2. As a result, my calculated VO2 (266W) isn't really reflective of what I can do, so I decided to bring the ABP mindset to this morning's workout. I ended up with my lowest 30" interval being 318W and my last set coming in at 371W, 338W, 348W and 357W.
Now a day off to get out the foam roller and get ready for the weekend sessions.
Much to my dismay I did the Vo2 workout today. 6 x (30x30). It was hard for me and I pushed as hard I could. I kind of forgot the 20min in zone 3. I did the intervals on my trainer and dont particularly like "riding" on it!
I keep thinking .... "I wonder if I'll be able to keep this up", and everyday i finish the workout I am content for having one more day under my belt.
Once again modified the 6x[5x30"(30")] to be 3 sets of 1' z5 intervals instead. Compared to the 2/2 and 2.5/2.5 I was doing last year, these intervals really aren't too bad. It is the easiest workout of the week although of course I'm drenched in sweat by the end of it! I imagine I'll be crying uncle once the the plan has us doing 2x(8x1/1) in the not-too-distant future.
In any case it was a good workout tonight, and again I was able to hit the tested 299-watt z5 without any problems and also hit the z1 recoveries. And once again I built my power over the 3 sets and was able to really hit my stride in the final set.
Overall 61' @ 234 watts, IF 0.981. Full warm-up of 10' easy then 3x3'(1') @ z3. Then 15' of z5 time, structured as 3x[5x1'(1')] with 3' between sets:
Target z5 at 299 watts, z1 recoveries at 155-166 watts
After you've been at it for a while, you can try to figure out again what your real "ratio" of VO2 power to FTP power is, e.g., by the 8 week test. If it's more than about 1.3, that's a sure indicator that FTP work is where you should focus. If it's closer to 1.1, then more VO2 is in order. Somewhere around 1.2 is pretty normal.
Got the VO2 workout done. Am getting used to this long warmup. It tends to push the workouts so that there's not extra 85% time a the end, though. (But you're doing it at the beginning.) Warmup HR was 142. Pretty normal.
Did the sets as 3 x (5 1'/1'), with most of them in the ~306 W range.
I think I have one of the champion hard trainers. I gotta hit about 350 W to get to 20 mph!
I remember my first winter of workouts before EN but with some other guys and they were all saying they had "gone" like 20% longer distance than me. Made me sad. :-)
Cristina - I know exactly what you're talking about on those "I'm not quite sure I'm going to make it" moments. Getting through those is really rewarding. I tend to get them in the pool in group workouts or outdoors on FTP intervals...or during tests. :-)
I went off the ranch tonight. I have a computrainer class @ Vision Quest on Thursday nights. Work out was 10' WU with the last 2' @ ftp (265 W for me). Then 3 x 15' @ 80%IF with 5 x 1' pops @ 120%IF (up to 320 W). Got 2' rest @ 80% in between each pop. Then 3' @ 60% IF between each 15' set. The 5' CD @ 80% IF. And we had to do the entire ride at 60 rpms to simulate climbing. A strength building ride. In total I average 236 watts for 75'. Quads feelin trashed, but good practice for the hills at the Triple T.
Another late nite workout for me. The usual long warm-up (ave 25 minutes) - alot of build up to z3 and then hold slightly above z3 w/some short bursts. Try to keep CAD above 90 gets me warmed up quicker I sense. Intervals went smoothly, no real over-reaching and just 7 minutes at end w/some more z3 work. IF for 1hr @ 88.9%. Rocked it old school listening to some Bad Co. (1974).
Matt, I tried that 3 x (5 x 60/60) for the first time and it kicked my butt. I couldn't maintain the OFF wattage...Must be the FTP run last night and run this morning.
@ Carlo, maybe it kicked your ass but looks like you were really consistent with the intervals, plus you managed a few extra watts on #3-4 of the last set. Some strong work!!
For me the key to maintaining z1 on the "off" is making sure not to totally coast for 15 seconds after each "on". If you do that you're hosed because you'd have to keep up z2 or z3 in the remaining time to average z1 for the recovery period. It is tough!!
Good work everybody! Even though I get on the laptop late at night, did the 6x 4 30/30s early this am before work. Last year I was more consistently doing 60/60s but I am liking this wko. I consistently averaged about 5 W above my goal and kept the rest periods at 65% ( I have been a real slacker in the rest periods in the past.). I didn't check VI on the joule but TR was telling me my precision was pretty bad (65-80%) as I would step on the gas hard in the first few seconds of the interval-will have to work on that. Finished with 10 min at 80% before cool down. Hit the pool this evening on the way home from work - not a long session, but lots of drills-technique, technique, technique.
Mr. Jenks and Ms. Chavez are going to be upset with me because I decided to play the role of "dumbass" this morning on the VO2 intervals. When you know what the target wattage is, and you proceed to overdo it by an extra 10% of FTP on average (which is roughly 50% again as much as you were supposed to be doing) while spiking 1/3 of the intervals at an IF of 1.4 or greater, you have raised your hand for the "idiot" squad. Glad we have a day off tomorrow. Perhaps I should move to the 60/60 intervals so that I can't be quite as stupid next week?
@ Michael - last year thats how I knew whether or not to move the 30/30s to 60/60s....if I was consistently holding watts well in excess of my current VO2# then I made the intervals longer. I think I got to 90/90s before it was time to retest and my #s went up anyway.
Matt, thanks for the tip. I noticed that after about 12-20 seconds I'm back at the proper zone. I think it's also got to do when I shift down to the small ring, I just have to keep some pressure on the pedals.
I figure out in the first set what the cadence/ring combo I need is for the hard/easy. When I'm done, say, hard 30, I shift down (in my case 2) and spin 92, which I know is steady-state Z1 for me, then just get those watts to match Z1 by adjusting pedal effort. To go up, I shift up one, get 85 cadence, shift up another, get 85 cadence, and can pretty much nail the Z5 within seconds.
@Dave- Good job getting it done without "Mo and Jo"!
Def. felt better today than Thursday's FTP brick. Rode virtually with the expanding crew from Iowa, Ottawa and other assorted locations. Hit targets but on the lower end. (I always aim for 100% on Z4 and 85% on Z3)
Total ride 20 mi @ .82IF including: 2 x 10' Z4 @ .964 & .973IF 2 x 15' @ .816 & .829IF
Run was 1.85mi in 20 mins. Paces on target.
Now time to chill for a bit then start cleaning and prepping for tonight's "New Years Eve" party which we postponed since wife was sick over the holidays.
Today's brick felt terrific! I feel like, after the down time in November and December, things are starting to click again. Plus, I think that I am finally learning how to properly fuel my workouts. 2x10 and 2x15 on the bike were all done at the top (or just a couple watts above) the Rx'd ranges. Hopped off, made the quick change and headed out for the run. I knew immediately it was going to be good. The winds had died down a bit, it wasn't super bitter cold and I felt ready to go. I ended up going 15" out and 15" back, with each interval slightly faster than Rx'd.
Tough ride this morning. Full disclosure, may have had a couple extra drinks last night that put the hurt on me this morning. Hit the 2x10' @ .98 and .99 The 2x15' we're truly a matter of building my mental toughness, since I REALLY didn't want to finish out the Z3 intervals first 15' we're all over the place, having to continuously convince myself to keep my legs turning. .65 IF for the first, .78IF for the second.
Got the brick run in with my dog, which as usual is 1 mile at ~7:30 and then a mix of speeds ranging from 8:00-11:00/mile.
VO2 workout for me today as I did the Sat workout on Wednesday. That was hard. I had a hard time. Legs feel worked and pushing that hard got my cough really going. Yowza!! Steve did the Saturday set and bricked after. Madison, Rico( our dog) and I walked to Starbucks and he finished his run there. Great family time taking a walk after with our yummy coffee/cocoa drinks. Beautiful sunny day here in Northern California.
Comments
Tonight I was reminded of the reason that I do 'redundant' data collection. I wear my 310 on my wrist as my primary data collector/programmed workout 'machine that goes bing'. I also have my Joule between my aerobars as my primary Power display.
All was going OK until 49:29 into the workout and my 310 just froze up.....cold....lifeless...dead.
My first thought was, "Oh No!! My data is lost!!!" But then I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I could get the Joule data into WKO and have my precious numbers. I don't know how to get it into Garmin Training Center, but I can live with that gap.
Oh yeah...the workout went well. 6 sets of 4x 30/30 seemed somewhat easy. NP for all six was at or just above 1.00. Tried to do a 'Noftsger' and do the last 30sec at an IF of 2.0+. I just about made it -- 1.92 (455W).
Then it was time to get dinner ready before Gen and the girls got home from music lessons.
Looking forward to tomorrow's rest day!!
@Joe - I know how you feel. My laptop burped during a session and messed up the run download from my Garmin. I was beside myself! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH THAT BAD DATA???? MY POOR WKO+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOE IS ME!!!!
I chilled out. But I definitely know how you feel.
I managed to get mine onto the screen and pour over it for a bit and I must confess to being a bit pleased with myself (although I thought it should've been worth more than a measly 516 calories!)
I'm one of those people who have a larger than typical gap between where I tested for FTP (222W) and where I tested for VO2 (303W). I think the delta is largely attributable to pretty limited cycling in November and December following IMFL, which caused my FTP fitness to sink but didn't do too much damage to my VO2. As a result, my calculated VO2 (266W) isn't really reflective of what I can do, so I decided to bring the ABP mindset to this morning's workout. I ended up with my lowest 30" interval being 318W and my last set coming in at 371W, 338W, 348W and 357W.
Now a day off to get out the foam roller and get ready for the weekend sessions.
Nope, it really didn't!!
Much to my dismay I did the Vo2 workout today. 6 x (30x30). It was hard for me and I pushed as hard I could. I kind of forgot the 20min in zone 3. I did the intervals on my trainer and dont particularly like "riding" on it!
I keep thinking .... "I wonder if I'll be able to keep this up", and everyday i finish the workout I am content for having one more day under my belt.
So far so good
In any case it was a good workout tonight, and again I was able to hit the tested 299-watt z5 without any problems and also hit the z1 recoveries. And once again I built my power over the 3 sets and was able to really hit my stride in the final set.
Overall 61' @ 234 watts, IF 0.981. Full warm-up of 10' easy then 3x3'(1') @ z3. Then 15' of z5 time, structured as 3x[5x1'(1')] with 3' between sets:
Target z5 at 299 watts, z1 recoveries at 155-166 watts
AP:
313, 308, 310, 307, 310 (recoveries 167, 169, 167, 168, 162)
316, 313, 309, 312, 310 (recoveries 176, 156, 173, 169, 157)
322, 320, 319, 322, 329 (recoveries 172, 164, 161, 168, 156)
HR avg / HR max:
145/154, 153/159, 154/161, 156/162, 158/165
154/163, 159/166, 158/166, 162/172, 163/171
159/169, 166/172, 167/175, 169/178, 173/182
Cadence was 92-93 for the first 9 intervals, 94 for 10-14 and 95 for #5…used the same gear for all of them.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263194328
@Fred - Yup, that's what I would advise for now.
After you've been at it for a while, you can try to figure out again what your real "ratio" of VO2 power to FTP power is, e.g., by the 8 week test. If it's more than about 1.3, that's a sure indicator that FTP work is where you should focus. If it's closer to 1.1, then more VO2 is in order. Somewhere around 1.2 is pretty normal.
@ Matt, you will notice that I MOSTLY did not bike downhill today. :-) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263200203
Got the VO2 workout done. Am getting used to this long warmup. It tends to push the workouts so that there's not extra 85% time a the end, though. (But you're doing it at the beginning.) Warmup HR was 142. Pretty normal.
Did the sets as 3 x (5 1'/1'), with most of them in the ~306 W range.
I think I have one of the champion hard trainers. I gotta hit about 350 W to get to 20 mph!
I remember my first winter of workouts before EN but with some other guys and they were all saying they had "gone" like 20% longer distance than me. Made me sad. :-)
Cristina - I know exactly what you're talking about on those "I'm not quite sure I'm going to make it" moments. Getting through those is really rewarding. I tend to get them in the pool in group workouts or outdoors on FTP intervals...or during tests. :-)
Good work everyone!!! WTG with the mental effort.
I went off the ranch tonight. I have a computrainer class @ Vision Quest on Thursday nights. Work out was 10' WU with the last 2' @ ftp (265 W for me). Then 3 x 15' @ 80%IF with 5 x 1' pops @ 120%IF (up to 320 W). Got 2' rest @ 80% in between each pop. Then 3' @ 60% IF between each 15' set. The 5' CD @ 80% IF. And we had to do the entire ride at 60 rpms to simulate climbing. A strength building ride. In total I average 236 watts for 75'. Quads feelin trashed, but good practice for the hills at the Triple T.
Matt, I tried that 3 x (5 x 60/60) for the first time and it kicked my butt. I couldn't maintain the OFF wattage...Must be the FTP run last night and run this morning.
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/UNR44MDWER3BBX6D2FYIND2HME
NP 223
IF 0.94 (1.2, 1.0, 1.0)
My PC crashed after the first set. Good thing I always use my Garmin 800 as backup and was able to keep going without any interruption.
@Carl
Is there a way to watch that TR workout without having to sign up there?
For the FTP I would increase it if I were you ... freakin' high IF numbers
For me the key to maintaining z1 on the "off" is making sure not to totally coast for 15 seconds after each "on". If you do that you're hosed because you'd have to keep up z2 or z3 in the remaining time to average z1 for the recovery period. It is tough!!
Even though I get on the laptop late at night, did the 6x 4 30/30s early this am before work. Last year I was more consistently doing 60/60s but I am liking this wko. I consistently averaged about 5 W above my goal and kept the rest periods at 65% ( I have been a real slacker in the rest periods in the past.). I didn't check VI on the joule but TR was telling me my precision was pretty bad (65-80%) as I would step on the gas hard in the first few seconds of the interval-will have to work on that. Finished with 10 min at 80% before cool down. Hit the pool this evening on the way home from work - not a long session, but lots of drills-technique, technique, technique.
Michael Byerts, come to the Principal's Office!
(Just be careful.... and I agree with Pete...maybe go for the longer ones next time.)
I figure out in the first set what the cadence/ring combo I need is for the hard/easy. When I'm done, say, hard 30, I shift down (in my case 2) and spin 92, which I know is steady-state Z1 for me, then just get those watts to match Z1 by adjusting pedal effort. To go up, I shift up one, get 85 cadence, shift up another, get 85 cadence, and can pretty much nail the Z5 within seconds.
Def. felt better today than Thursday's FTP brick. Rode virtually with the expanding crew from Iowa, Ottawa and other assorted locations. Hit targets but on the lower end. (I always aim for 100% on Z4 and 85% on Z3)
Total ride 20 mi @ .82IF including:
2 x 10' Z4 @ .964 & .973IF
2 x 15' @ .816 & .829IF
Run was 1.85mi in 20 mins. Paces on target.
Now time to chill for a bit then start cleaning and prepping for tonight's "New Years Eve" party which we postponed since wife was sick over the holidays.
Hit the 2x10' @ .98 and .99
The 2x15' we're truly a matter of building my mental toughness, since I REALLY didn't want to finish out the Z3 intervals
first 15' we're all over the place, having to continuously convince myself to keep my legs turning. .65 IF for the first, .78IF for the second.
Got the brick run in with my dog, which as usual is 1 mile at ~7:30 and then a mix of speeds ranging from 8:00-11:00/mile.
Now, some serious couch time
Hey man, you got it done. That's the key thing. Good stuff!!!