Week of Dec 30 Pre-JOS thread
It's Tuesday, and no one else had done it, so I guess it was my turn to start.
I'm starting my Boston build, so Monday was an easy 9 miles in anticipation of doing a bike test later today. I don't have high expectations for the bike, but I didn't want to completely booger a test by running hard the day before. After a couple warmup miles, I seem to have run around 7:30 for the next four and then around 7:10 for the last three. This was indoors, so it wasn't that hard an effort. I was just going by RPE...not loafing but not a tempo run either. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/422268425
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I've been reminding my body it is time to work with that Holiday Run Challenge. I'm gonna need a break before the 6th. Not sure if I should use tomorrow's 5K time for my test result after 9 straight days of running. Talk about sandbagging the JOS. My PR is 20:39 and I'm hoping I can manage to break 24 - and it's on a flat course. ;-)
The 5 minute part ended up being 277 W AP
The 20 minute part ended up being 250 W exactly. It's good that I was targeting 252, because there wasn't 252 in the tank....
This estimates my FTP to be 237.5.
277/237.3 = 1.17, so not too far off the expectation.
I guess I am pretty satisfied with this. We'll see who it goes for the remainder of my OS.
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/422510012
That's an impressive effort. What's breathing like at 22,000 ft above sea level? When I use a gear that makes me pedal below 80 rpm I don't breathe as easily compared to a higher cadence so I really would have been in trouble with you up at Base Camp IV.
Did three straight days of runs last week while traveling and trying to participate in the Run Challenge. Noted that I am a solid 1:00/mile faster than last year at this same time. Still not "fast" as many of you, but making progress, which is encouraging for a MOP'er like me.
Also finished 4 of 6 swim lessons with coach. Trying to get in 1-2 form practice swims/week and will start adding some yardage here in the next week or two in GF plan. Really hard to try to change stroke at my age, but swim golf scores suggest that I will ultimately be either faster or less fatigued exiting the water once I get these changes ingrained. Definitely feel "smoother".
My third Garmin 910 in less than a year had its barometer implode a few days ago. This is how it fails. I've put another request in with them...hopefully I'll be able to exchange it. AGAIN.
Regarding the cadence...I'm resigned to the fact that my indoor season rolls at a lower cadence (75-85) than my outdoor one (90+) and that my FTP indoors is a bit higher than outdoor. Last year I tried a couple of tricks that minimized the drop, which I hope to duplicate...but within a week or two of riding regularly outside, my cadence will be back up to where it's supposed to be.
Leaving in about an hour for our Annual New Year's Day ride. It will be an easy-shmeasy couple of hours of riding and socializing. Best of all -- it builds the SAU account.
Leave Wednesday for Orlando where I am running the Dopey Challenge and return the 13th.
I will test sometime after and jump in the OS. I haven't been posting in here but I have been hitting the bike and run hard!!!! Hoping to hit FTP of 250+ but if not oh well that is what the OS is for...........
Good luck!
Three things conspired for me to not do my scheduled run on Wed:
So I did the Thursday bike workout on Wed, the day after my test. Not great, but a compromise. I dropped the target to 110-115% because I have to keep the bigger picture in mind and not trash my quads right at the beginning of my build.
I went back to the "official" warmup, which guarantees you get at least some 80-85% stuff in at the beginning. I target 200 W for the 12 minute warmup segment. 6 x 2'(2'): 269 (IF 1.13), 272 (1.15), 276, 274, 277, 280 (IF 1.18). [For the public record, I did get my cadence to about 90 for these intervals!] This felt pretty good after the first couple. I added an enforced-easy run by doing 3 miles on the treadmill after at 8 minute pace. Could have gone faster/farther just fine, but preserving myself for making the important runs later in the week.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/423091761
Ran a 5 mile race on New year's day, it was at what should be my tempo pace, but thanks to some extended laziness in November/Decmber it felt harder than it should.
Also starting the Boston buildup.. Plan to do an easy ride today, six miles tomorrow, 13 on Saturday and then rest day on Sunday before Monday's bike test. I will use the race for my run test.
Had a great recovery ride today. I did Goddard which prompts for several minutes of one legged drills. Can't wait to test and see where my FTP is going to be for starting purposes. Honestly I was suprised how easy this was. Felt like I was riding without a chain. Will ride again tomorrow morning before my 24 hour shift at the FD.
I spent Mon & Tues this week driving 1850 miles in 50 hours to Salt Lake City & back (picking up my car car after it was injured while my son drove it back from Colorado).
Determined not to miss any OS workouts (I'm in week four now), I used M & T as my off days, then yesterday hit the FTP bike intervals, today did the run track intervals (and swam an hour in the AM), tomorrow @ 0600 will do VO2 bike intervals before my 24 hour shift (only 4 more till retirement!), then run and bike again on Sat, swim and run on Sunday. Whew! I look forward to a little "rest" on Monday, which actually means a session at the gym.
I was getting bored with the TP run intervals always being 1 mile long, so I did 1600/1200/800/400/200/100, with recovery intervals = 1' per 400. My paces went like this: 7:08, 6:58, 6:46, 6:26, 5:35, but my HR never went above 151. I wonder what my max HR is now? I'm afraid to find out, I enjoy remaining conscious throughout my workouts.
Anyway, I got in my run today (Thursday) that should have been Wednesday. 10 mi total, with the back half at MP. I was actually very pleased. Felt like a good starting point, not some big stretch. That's a great sign for the weeks to come. Conditions were near zero and windy outside with ice on the ground...i.e., it was an indoor run. First five miles were 8:00 ± 10 sec. Last 5 were 7:04, 7:00, 7:05, 7:00, 6:57.
@Al #2... regarding another thread where each of us said something about turnover. If you take a look at my Garmin trace, you'll see an abrupt change of pace from 8 to 7 minute miles is accompanied by a just-as-abrupt cadence change from 89 (178) to 91 (182) that sits pretty darn solid. I could probably stand to raise it a few ticks. (The first couple minutes are artificially fast cadence due to a joint warmup thing I'm having to live with for the moment.)
And the getting ready for the OS has been fun too. This week I did a local race called the Run Into the New Year 5K on Tuesday morning - race time temp was a brisk 7* ... On Thursday on the bike trainer I did the Sufferfest video workout called Fight Club. Anyone do these? Kind of fun in a hard workout kind of way. This morning I hit the treadmill for one of my favorite "hill" interval wko : 12x30" (30") at 5K pace minus 15" @6% grade. I intend to keep a bit of a Run focus during the OS.
I've run enough marathons for myself to know that I do better with some real distance runs, which is a bit of apostasy here. (I don't feel that way about my triathlon runs...no need to run longer than EN plans for me.) So I'll be doing a mix of long easy runs and medium long runs with McCrann style segments in them.
I am trying to be better about "feeding my workouts" this year...on last weekend's long run, I got dehydrated I think. This time, I made sure to carry my building card to I could quick step into my workplace and use the drinking fountains a couple of times as I ran by. Made a huge difference. Carbs before running, a couple of gels, and real water stops...and I felt great the whole time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/424387442
I have to modify my OS plan ever-so-slightly because I will be chaperoning a 6th Grade Field Trip to Jekyll Island from Monday thru Wednesday. So that means ....drum roll please....
FTP Test TOMORROW!!!
Woo-Hoo!!!
This should be interesting......
60 minutes of pretty easy biking and 30 minutes of easy treadmill running. (I have to update the FTP setting on my Garmin, so the actual IF is even lower than this says.)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/425345371
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/425345371
Broke 40 miles running this week. First time in a month because of the rehab I've been doing. Feels good.
Flying out Wed and can't wait.
Despite a clear day in the lower 40s, I did my Sunday run of 10 miles on the treadmill indoors. My excuse? My Dish receiver went on the fritz yesterday morning in the middle of my bike trainer wko, so I needed an alternative if I was going to watch the 49er/Packers game today (of some interest to us Seahawks fans). Apparently, Fox is the only network which isn't streaming their playoff games live online, so I watched thru the first 3 quarters in a mostly empty gym, fans blasting. To stay alert, I warmed up with 20 minutes, then did a set of 6 x 1 mile (.25 mi) desending from MP thru HMP, TP, down to 10K pace, instead of the usual 3 x 1 mi @ TP.
It probably made no difference, the Panthers will beat whoever won that game (I left at the end of the 3rd q).
I'm really looking forward to my day "off" tomorrow (really, 45 minutes in the weight room, and a 30 min EZ run (I do the Tuesday runs on Mon, the Sat runs sometimes on Friday).
Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/426026405
Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/426023822