I have a question regarding the bike test on the first Monday of the OS plan:
I can do either power or HR test on my indoor trainer (bike on a training wheel), but when riding outdoors I wont have any power meter.
Most of my winter training will be indoors, so I intend to do the power test and use the test results from a previous test outdoors (in summer 2013) as thresholds when riding outside. What do you think about this?
Summary:
Riding indoors with power test thresholds (from October 2013, i.e. next Monday)
Riding outdoors with HR test thresholds (from July 2013)
Another option would be to do both tests, one next Monday and the other one one week later instead of a bike training. Your thoughts?
@Sandro, indoors, always. In fact, given no power outside, I'd probably have you do most of your testing all year indoors just so you can accurately see how the training is / isn't working for you (consistency rules). I might even go so far as to suggest you do the weekday interval ride on your bike to keep that session really accurate. Or at least a few of those a month. Good luck on your test!!
@Sandro, I will check skype when I am home from vacation. Please note, you can also send messages via EN using the Message icon at the top, to the left of your name!
Starting this Friday thru to Wednesday I will be on a business trip. The run training will be no problem (that can be done any time early morning or late night outside), but I am worried about my bike training. All possible fitness centers in the vincitiy of my hotel will be open till 8 pm on Sat/Sun, I will not be able to make it there in time for the Sat bike training. Q: Can I do the bike training on Friday instead (fitness center will be open till 10 pm on friday) or shall I skip it and replace it with a longer jog?
@Sandro, I say you plan on doing the Sat bike on Friday night...then Sat is off, Sunday is sunday run, monday is the Tuesday bike. Tuesday if off. Wednesday is the regular run before you head home. Thursday back on plan. Most important thing to do is keep up your consistent sleep time / wake time and hours of sleep!
@Patrick: Quick question...I have a 10k race on Sunday next week. Shall I alter anything of my Sat training in week 7 or not? (tapering or not?). Thanks, Sandro
@Sandro, that can replace your sunday. Tapering only if performance matters (vs just training stress).
If you don't care, then same Saturday. IF you kinda care, then cut Sat to the Main Set only (so shorter ride) and no run. If you care, then drop Saturday to a steady zone 2 ride for 60 to 75 minutes.
I usually recommend the "kinda care" option.... but you decide and I help you make it work!!!
@Patrick: I just did my 10k race today. Can I take the results of this race as my run test in week 8? I think it makes quite sense to use this race as my new benchmark for further training.
@Sandro, #1 -- nice work! #2 -- yes, of course! So on that week, test week, you can replace that workout with 2 to 3 x 1 mile at your z4 pace with 4' of rest in between!
I cannot hit my new power targets on the bike, shall I redo the test? the test went awesome, but the two workouts of this week (week 9) so far, i could not keep up the numbers. Even though I adusted them downwards already (halfway between the numbers from test in week 1 and week 8). Help?
@Sandro -- well, they technically _are_ your numbers (since you hit them) but it sounds like fatigue is playing a bit of a role..will be curious to hear if Saturday is any better? What was the delta between the two, out of curiosity? I would suggest breaking the interval up -- so let's say it's 2 x 12' -- do 4 x 6' at or close to the new numbers...see if that makes it more doable over the short term...
From a long term perspective I would suggest that you eliminate the extra curricular training or volume that could be adding a bit of excess fatigue here in week 9 -- as in Monday / Friday should really be off, etc....
Thanks. I couldn't do the Sat training due to a cold, felt better on Sunday so I did the Sunday run though I am fine now and did the TUE bike training this morning. I tried to hit 260 Watt per Intervall (as my new Level 4 is : 263-276). I struggeled a bit in Intervall 1, was fine off in Intervall 2 but had a breakdown in Intervall 3:
Here the numbers: Ratio compared to new FTP (276): 0.88 / 0.91 / 0.75 Ratio compared to old FTP (220): 1.10 / 1.14 / 0.94
So I guess my realistic output ( at least this morning is somewhere between the old FTP and the new one). Do you have any further inputs for me?
@Sandro, nice work! I suggest you roll with an FTP of 250 right now as that will have you close to 100% on all three -- and we aim for consistency there. Once you hit that level the next week we shoot for 255, then 260, etc.
Success Favors the Diligent.
Happy New Year to You Too!
ps my favorite New Year was 12/31/1999, I was in The Hague....quite a party...I am much tamer these days....
I did the 110% interval bike workout yesterday and was pretty happy with it. As you told me I set my FTP to 250, which gave me
about 280 for each interval. I hit these numbers although it was tough (but this Vo2max is supposed to be tough, isn?t it? ).
The good thing was, I kept the level to the end of interval 4, so no drop
Now I have another question regarding my workouts (specially the Sunday run):
I will participate in a ski mountaineering race end of April this year. So I thought I will exchange some of the Sunday runs with either uphill runs in the nearby hills or some longer ski climbing trips. Any objections to this from your point of view?
Today's workout was tough...I could not beat the second interval (FTP=250) Results: 1.01 (1. interval) 0.89 (2. interval)
0.66 (last 16 mins)
Shall I stick to my FTP=250 or reduce it further? I usually do well with the short Z5 intervals, but have rather difficulties with the longer Z5 intervals...
On the bike workout, did you take monday fully off? If you did, then yes dial FTP back to 245. If you added extra work on monday / training, then maybe consider eliminating that!
As for your Sundays, that sounds fine. Just take care of yourself afterwards with recovery etc...and you must take pictures of course. Mondays off after these runs will be even more critical!!!
Except from some core strength exercises, I do not do any training on Mondays. Yesterday's training (Tuesday Bike intervals) was tough but went well. I kept my FTP and it was good this way:
I am currently in the Get Faster Training Plan. Which Forum Topic shall I join for a little bit of mojo? The Nov OS Forum was great, but that is over...so where to look next?
I have a bit of a planning problem. I am currently in the IM Training Plan Week 8 (Intermediate).
Next week from Tuesday (May 6) to the following Tuesday (May 13) I will be on holidays in a place where I have no bike. What do you suggest me as "replacement" for the long rides on the weekend and the interval session on Wednesday?
I will do the Big T Day on Sat or Sun this weekend depending on the weather. I could do another long ride session on Monday before leaving, is that wise?
Sandro - I suggest you get the big Baydoun on Saturday, which should give you time to recover on Sunday and then do your bike intervals on Monday. Then really you can pick things up the following week with the bike intervals on the Wednesday. I'm not so worried about you missing that one set of bike workouts.
The general protocol while you're away and unable to bike, is to make sure you get the interval run and long-run done. Any other "extra" time you have while on the road, you can do an easy run between 30 and 45 minutes with some strides.
Thanks for your advices. I will run on that beautiful Greek island
I had to do the Big Day Test on Sunday because of weather conditions on Saturday. It all went fine, but I had some pain in the stomach when I started the run. It faded away after taking a pee 25 mins into the run and came back later (with less intensity than before). Can it be that my water intake is not optimal? I didn't take any salt during the ride (except from what is in the isotonic drink). Shall I try to take a salt pill once an hour on my next rehearsal? What does your experience say?
Sandro - in general we don't recommend drinking water on the bike. It has no calories or sodium, so it's fairly useless on the day other than helping to keep you cool.
Can you please outline what you normally drink and eat on the bike? Thanks.
Thank you for the reply and sorry for my belated reply to it (I was in Greece on holidays...no bike, but could do a lot of swimming and running )
My nutrition on the bike was as following:
0:30 into the bike: energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal), and some drink (mix of isotonic powder and syroup, the drink itself was not isotonic, rather a diluted version of an isotonic drink).
1:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
1:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
2:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
2:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
3:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
3:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
Now regarding the bike zones and tests:
on Wednesday evening I ride inside on my Turbo trainer, for which the evaluated Power Zones are fine.
I do not have Power on my bike (only on the turbo trainer), so I cannot ride outside with the Power Zones.
I ride with HR outside, but I tend to be always over the Zones, I ride in Zone 3 or 4 and it feels fine. So I guess the evaluate HR Zones in the Power test aren't accurate for me. Shall I do the next test (week 12) outdoors with HR only instead of the 20 mins Power Zone test indoors?
Sandro - you definitely want to test with what you'll be racing with, so the heart rate one is perfect. As for the fluids, please tell me you're drinking more than just once every hour? It's hard to tell the bullet points. Usually when people race they are drinking something every five minutes.
Patrick, thanks for the advices. The latest test I did not drink any water, but only isotonic carbo drinks and that more often (I found a new product which seems to fit me well). I will continue with this, as in the second Big Day test I felt much better on the run than in the first one.
Also I will go thru your nutrition advices and do a sweat test. (I could not do the sweat test of week 9, because I was on holiday without bike). Can I do the sweat test instead of a fast pace ride on Wednesday or is it better to do it as part of a long ride on the weekend?
Will be racing a IM 70.3 this Sunday, so my sweat test is scheduled for the weekend after
Regarding the HR test, I wanted to do it yesterday, but had a double punk on the road after 15 mins into the test ride. Fortunately a car passing by picked me up...I will try the test again later on...or are 15 mins enough?
Comments
Hi Patrick
I have a question regarding the bike test on the first Monday of the OS plan:
I can do either power or HR test on my indoor trainer (bike on a training wheel), but when riding outdoors I wont have any power meter.
Most of my winter training will be indoors, so I intend to do the power test and use the test results from a previous test outdoors (in summer 2013) as thresholds when riding outside. What do you think about this?
Summary:
Riding indoors with power test thresholds (from October 2013, i.e. next Monday)
Riding outdoors with HR test thresholds (from July 2013)
Another option would be to do both tests, one next Monday and the other one one week later instead of a bike training. Your thoughts?
Thanks a lot,
Sandro
Hi Patrick
Thanks for the advises. I will do most of the cycling training indoors indeed and power seems to be a very good benchmark value to work with.
By the way, I sent you a message on Skype regarding my EN membership, please check it. Thanks.
Sandro
Starting this Friday thru to Wednesday I will be on a business trip.
The run training will be no problem (that can be done any time early morning or late night outside), but I am worried about my bike training.
All possible fitness centers in the vincitiy of my hotel will be open till 8 pm on Sat/Sun, I will not be able to make it there in time for the Sat bike training.
Q: Can I do the bike training on Friday instead (fitness center will be open till 10 pm on friday) or shall I skip it and replace it with a longer jog?
Best regards,
Sandro
Thanks, Sandro
If you don't care, then same Saturday.
IF you kinda care, then cut Sat to the Main Set only (so shorter ride) and no run.
If you care, then drop Saturday to a steady zone 2 ride for 60 to 75 minutes.
I usually recommend the "kinda care" option....
@Patrick: I just did my 10k race today. Can I take the results of this race as my run test in week 8? I think it makes quite sense to use this race as my new benchmark for further training.
to add: I did 10k in 41:45, and I guess that's pretty much my actual level of performance.
I cannot hit my new power targets on the bike, shall I redo the test? the test went awesome, but the two workouts of this week (week 9) so far, i could not keep up the numbers.
Even though I adusted them downwards already (halfway between the numbers from test in week 1 and week 8).
Help?
From a long term perspective I would suggest that you eliminate the extra curricular training or volume that could be adding a bit of excess fatigue here in week 9 -- as in Monday / Friday should really be off, etc....
Please keep me posted!
Thanks.
I couldn't do the Sat training due to a cold, felt better on Sunday so I did the Sunday run though
I am fine now and did the TUE bike training this morning.
I tried to hit 260 Watt per Intervall (as my new Level 4 is : 263-276).
I struggeled a bit in Intervall 1, was fine off in Intervall 2 but had a breakdown in Intervall 3:
Here the numbers:
Ratio compared to new FTP (276): 0.88 / 0.91 / 0.75
Ratio compared to old FTP (220): 1.10 / 1.14 / 0.94
So I guess my realistic output ( at least this morning is somewhere between the old FTP and the new one).
Do you have any further inputs for me?
Thanks and don't drink too much tonight
Sandro
Success Favors the Diligent.
Happy New Year to You Too!
ps my favorite New Year was 12/31/1999, I was in The Hague....quite a party...I am much tamer these days....
Hi Patrick
I did the 110% interval bike workout yesterday and was pretty happy with it. As you told me I set my FTP to 250, which gave me
).
about 280 for each interval. I hit these numbers although it was tough (but this Vo2max is supposed to be tough, isn?t it?
The good thing was, I kept the level to the end of interval 4, so no drop
Now I have another question regarding my workouts (specially the Sunday run):
I will participate in a ski mountaineering race end of April this year. So I thought I will exchange some of the Sunday runs with either uphill runs in the nearby hills or some longer ski climbing trips. Any objections to this from your point of view?
My 3 highlights for 2014 are:
1. Ski mountaineering race (50km distance, 4000m uphill/downhill) (April 2014)
2. Ironman in Zurich (July 2014)
3. Ironman 70.3 in Taiwan (Nov 2014)
I will look into the race season (macro) planning with Rick.
... my most exciting silvester night was probably in the outbacks downunder (back in 2001).
Anyway, happy new year
Sandro
Today's workout was tough...I could not beat the second interval (FTP=250)
Results:
1.01 (1. interval)
0.89 (2. interval)
0.66 (last 16 mins)
Shall I stick to my FTP=250 or reduce it further?
I usually do well with the short Z5 intervals, but have rather difficulties with the longer Z5 intervals...
On the bike workout, did you take monday fully off? If you did, then yes dial FTP back to 245. If you added extra work on monday / training, then maybe consider eliminating that!
As for your Sundays, that sounds fine. Just take care of yourself afterwards with recovery etc...and you must take pictures of course. Mondays off after these runs will be even more critical!!!
Except from some core strength exercises, I do not do any training on Mondays.
Yesterday's training (Tuesday Bike intervals) was tough but went well. I kept my FTP and it was good this way:
Interval 10': 0.98
Interval 15': 1.00
Interval 10': 0.99
So I think I will keep FTP 250 for this and next week and see where it goes
I am currently in the Get Faster Training Plan. Which Forum Topic shall I join for a little bit of mojo?
The Nov OS Forum was great, but that is over...so where to look next?
thx
Sandro
Hi Patrick
I have a bit of a planning problem. I am currently in the IM Training Plan Week 8 (Intermediate).
Next week from Tuesday (May 6) to the following Tuesday (May 13) I will be on holidays in a place where I have no bike. What do you suggest me as "replacement" for the long rides on the weekend and the interval session on Wednesday?
I will do the Big T Day on Sat or Sun this weekend depending on the weather. I could do another long ride session on Monday before leaving, is that wise?
Thanks for your help
Sandro
The general protocol while you're away and unable to bike, is to make sure you get the interval run and long-run done. Any other "extra" time you have while on the road, you can do an easy run between 30 and 45 minutes with some strides.
Thanks for your advices. I will run on that beautiful Greek island
I had to do the Big Day Test on Sunday because of weather conditions on Saturday.
It all went fine, but I had some pain in the stomach when I started the run. It faded away after taking a pee 25 mins into the run and came back later (with less intensity than before).
Can it be that my water intake is not optimal? I didn't take any salt during the ride (except from what is in the isotonic drink).
Shall I try to take a salt pill once an hour on my next rehearsal?
What does your experience say?
Thanks and have a nice week
Sandro
Can you please outline what you normally drink and eat on the bike? Thanks.
Hi Patrick
Thank you for the reply and sorry for my belated reply to it (I was in Greece on holidays...no bike, but could do a lot of swimming and running
)
My nutrition on the bike was as following:
0:30 into the bike: energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal), and some drink (mix of isotonic powder and syroup, the drink itself was not isotonic, rather a diluted version of an isotonic drink).
1:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
1:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
2:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
2:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
3:00 Dextrose pill and drink (as above)
3:30 energy gel with L-Carnitin (25g = 121 kcal) & drink
Now regarding the bike zones and tests:
on Wednesday evening I ride inside on my Turbo trainer, for which the evaluated Power Zones are fine.
I do not have Power on my bike (only on the turbo trainer), so I cannot ride outside with the Power Zones.
I ride with HR outside, but I tend to be always over the Zones, I ride in Zone 3 or 4 and it feels fine. So I guess the evaluate HR Zones in the Power test aren't accurate for me. Shall I do the next test (week 12) outdoors with HR only instead of the 20 mins Power Zone test indoors?
Thanks again
Sandro
Patrick, thanks for the advices. The latest test I did not drink any water, but only isotonic carbo drinks and that more often (I found a new product which seems to fit me well). I will continue with this, as in the second Big Day test I felt much better on the run than in the first one.
Also I will go thru your nutrition advices and do a sweat test. (I could not do the sweat test of week 9, because I was on holiday without bike). Can I do the sweat test instead of a fast pace ride on Wednesday or is it better to do it as part of a long ride on the weekend?
Will be racing a IM 70.3 this Sunday, so my sweat test is scheduled for the weekend after
Regarding the HR test, I wanted to do it yesterday, but had a double punk on the road after 15 mins into the test ride. Fortunately a car passing by picked me up...I will try the test again later on...or are 15 mins enough?