Have Lost the Umph, temporarily.

morpheus

I'm not overly concerned, but hit me with your thoughts on this....

I've butchered this Jan OS.  Have been doing some extra biking since my running volume/intensity was low due to injury.  Using Frequency>Duration>Intensity, I've been able to up my running over the last 3 weeks.  Biking was coming along very strong, steady improvements since December.  Consistent 5%ish gains on each test.  

But, in the last 2 weeks, especially since Monday's bike test, I gotz NO 95%efforts in me.  Zippo.  Nada.  I've tried triaging....instead of 2x20 (4) go with 4x10(1) or 8x 5'(1') and couldn't even do that.  

Ironically, I do NOT feel tired when I keep the intensity down around 75-85%.  I can go all day, feels very z2, as long as I'm drinking up.  So, my triaged workout today fell back to doing intervals of z2-3, broken up by 5' standing sets just to work different muscles and stretch my back.  

It was like two different athletes,both physically and mentally.  2 athletes living in different worlds, separated by 30 watts on a screen but may as well have been hundreds of miles apart.

Running is finally starting to feel much better, maybe the stale bike is the cost.

Another possible factor is this flu in my house.  I don't feel 'sick', just a little tired.  So, I'm not interested in 'busting' thru this FTP wall if all my energy is tapped out at z2-3.

So...

Am I doing myself a disservice by doing the bike workouts conservatively, coming up well short on the prescribed intensities?  

I have a feeling that I'll know when the umph is back.

tim cronk

Chris if you butchered your OS and are not able to hit .95 even on shorter intervals , I would suggest two things... first rest, recover, from fatigue, second reconsider your FTP. An FTP test is really only your FTP on that day , at that time. If you cannot repeat it , then it probably isnt accurate.

I dont believe your doing yourself a disservice by doing conservative bike workouts, but the more you skip the hard ones , the easier it becomes to skip the hard ones. I try to only allow myself conservative or lower zones in my workouts if I need some added recovery, or a little taper for a B/C event.

Carrie Chavez

Hi Chris,

My first thoughts are that you are making a good decision by not forcing the FTP intervals. You know how to work them and you know when it does not feel right. So good job on recognizing that. If Z2-3 pace feels better then great BUT if it is not allowing you to move past this lack of umph then you might need even less intensity for a few days. Let your legs spin out and get into a good recovered state so you can hit the FTP intervals more accurately. As Tim also mentioned your FTP might not be accurate? Not sure how to address that. Maybe bump it down a hair and try those paces?

Adding running back is neuromuscularly exhausting. The Flu at home is likely an added whammo.

I hope you have more go go juice soon.

morpheus

pretty sure that FTP number is right. 4 tests since December, no 'guesstimates' or 'couldawouldas', All numbers made sense...first one was slightly down from FTP at Nov IMFL, and each test had small bumps ups, each bump only about 5%. Based on the present number, my indoor tri position FTP is a little lower than the FTP that I used at the end of last year for my outside tri position numbers. That seems to be realistic gains. I haven't posted anything but very ordinary/me numbers, not posting any big numbers to compete with others, or any other kind of ego mistake that is common (to me!).

Joe Matchette

@Chris - it could be a lot of things, but I am putting my money on the Flu. If it is bouncing around your house, then that will be a huge stressor on you.

And, since you asked: I think that no workout at all is better than a half-assed workout because "you feel you should do something." Two reasons -- (1) x2 on what Tim said. (2) Your body is telling you something. It is time for you to LISTEN!. Stand down, my friend. Go do something fun with the family. Get out of the house. Go to the Silver Comet trail and people watch. Go to Stone Mountain. Go to that German restaurant up by Dahlonega and have some bratwurst (can't remember the name of the town....) Just do something totally not tri related.

morpheus

Considering that the blah has lasted about 10 days now, I'm wondering if I did have something else going on. Maybe that's the difference in getting the flu shot. While Sheri and Ansley get knocked on their ass, I just got worn down (?).

Anyhow, had a good bike today.
I had the same concern that Tim mentioned...the fear of getting used to taking the ez way out and avoiding the difficulty of pushing hard.
Went into it angry, knowing I could blow up.
I ended up winning.
2x15'(4') at .96 and .97
1x 7' at .98
1x 10' at .85

I feel better going into this week's scheduled workouts.

I'll update once or twice more if things continue to move in the right direction, and I'll def post if I go in the hole again.

Thanks all for the feedback.

tim cronk

@Chris Glad your sounding better already. As soon as you know you are 100% physically , re-establish those levels quick. Then its just a mind over matter game we play , like how can I give up on this 2x20 at 100% , I did it last week , I can do it again!

Just gotta make sure we dont back off or quit because it can become a habit that just gets easier! It aint suppose to be easy!

Welcome back and I like the angry part!

Coach Patrick

Great advice here; and I concur...plenty of time left this year to get your FTP to where you want it to be...only need to hit your head against the wall so many times before you realize that the wall isn't going to move... Just keep an eye on that fatigue!!

morpheus

that 10 day to 2 week stretch of mysterious sub optimal work now has a name, Flu.

on my 3rd day of 100-101 deg fever accompanied with the textbook symptoms.

makes sense now.

I will wait about 2 weeks before I try to 'work' any in anything that looks like a 'work'out.

and, yes, like today, if I catch a window where the symptoms allow, when I'm jacked up on Ibuprofen, I WILL spin ez or go for a short ez (focus on cadence, 15-20') run. I'm not taking 2 weeks totally off...voluntarily.