Amulya's Micro Thread Forum
Hi Coach Patrick,
I'm a new member and joined EN on 10/22. I'm currently on the 7day trial and I got my TSR from Coach Rich yesterday. What im struggling with right now is deciding on where to start? The current 7 day trial week plan starts on a Monday and I signed up on Wednesday evening (So Thursday would be my first day although I haven't started the plan yet). Should I start the Monday workout in the trial week plan on the first day of the week I start? My TSR has me load up the Intermediate Out season plan on 10/27, which would mean that I would not have completed my trial week plan. Im not concerned about that free 7 day trial and im committed to moving forward. Will the Intermidiate outseason plan that I load up on 10/27 include workouts in the trial week plan or will i be missing key workouts?
Comments
It was good talking to you this morning. As you know I'm currently in week1 in the Nov OS plan. When the plans calls for two workouts in the same day (Thursday), are these supposed to be brick workouts? or is it that brick workouts are called out as brick?
I'm currently on Week 2 in my Nov OS Intermediate plan. My Achilles was bothering me during the run while doing a brick workout yesterday (nothing too serious). It almost recovered this morning (after icing the Achilles and massaging my calf) but I decided to switch Thursdays Bike workout with Today's Run hoping to give my Achilles a little more rest from running. Any issue with doing that ? I know Wednesday's Run was a high priority workout but did that order matter that much ? Should i have completely skipped Tuesday's run instead since it was a low priority workout? Just trying to understand the thought process so that I know what to switch out next time this happens.
BTW: My Achilles feels way better this evening and is back to normal
The VO2 work is really up to you, 120% is the minimum, if you can hold a higher number we just want to be sure that you can hold it across all of the animals. It's no good if number one was 145% but by the time you get to number eight you're at 103%. Make sense?
My FTP sessions are feeling relatively easy. Considering all my previous FTP tests, my current FTP seems to be at least 15 - 20 watts lower than expected. Also considering the big difference between my FTP(169) and vo2(243) should I consider bumping my FTP by another 10 watts at least or should I wait for the next FTP test in week#8? At this point I'm not sure if my fitness improved in 3 weeks or if I had a bad test in week#1. I'm holding approximately 250 watts in all my vo2 intervals and I feel I'm working there but the FTP intervals feels like a breeze. I don't want to jump the gun and burnout but wanted to check if I should stick to the current FTP number or bump it up by at least 10 watts.
FYI - My Trainer Road Intervals are here
http://www.trainerroad.com/career/amulyap
On another note, I'm back to doing the run (brick) workout on Tuesday's. My legs feel a lot stronger and I'm not dreading any of the run's anymore. I've never run 5 days a week before and I guess it took some time to get used to it.
Thanks again for all the feed back. I'm so happy to see improvements week after week.
Up is UP!!!!
I was able to do my FTP intervals on Saturday @ 192W, 194W and 195W. My FTP sessions for today was 197W and 199W. One thing that I changed from Saturdays workout to today's was that I changed my cadence. For the Saturdays FTP intervals I was holding 92 RPM on all intervals. For today's interval i was holding 80RPM and it actually felt a notch easier. Is there any preference on how i should be holding cadence? With regard to my FTP, between 195 - 200 seems about right. Should I update my profile to 195W so that I have all the other zones setup correctly?
Much of riding indoors is finding the "right" gear...sounds like you are there. I don't suggest going lower than 80 rpms though...and it's worth changing the gears a bit even within intervals to keep it challenging!!!
I'v been under the weather (cold and running nose) since yesterday. I didn't have the strength to complete Saturdays Nov-OS Wk6 workout. I had to stop after the main set on the bike and didn't have the strength to finish the 90 minute full workout. I will also be skipping today's (Sunday) run workout because I still feel weak. I will be traveling tomorrow and returning on Wednesday afternoon due to a last minute work related travel. Initially my thought was to swap Tuesday's and Wednesday's workout with each other since i wont have my bike with me on Tuesday. But now given me falling sick (and may be loss in some fitness), should I be changing anything else ? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Amulya
I also want to add that I will be traveling during Christmas starting on the 24th noon through 30th evening. I will not have access to my bike during this time. Any suggestions on rearranging my workout during the holidays?
I'm having difficulty finishing my bike/brick workout ever since I fell sick with a cold on Saturday. I still have a slight cold and the workout intensity right now feels like as if I can't make it all the way through. I feel like I lost some of the fitness I gained in the past 6weeks during the out season. Any suggestions what I should be doing? Should I go back and repeat week #5 or #6? Or should I wait until I feel 100% recovered? Right now I can make the workout for about 45minutes but I feel like I might pass out after that.
Here is some more info for you in the wiki: http://j.mp/12zCz65
A couple of things. First the good news. I recovered from my cold just in time to do the OS week#8 test. My FTP test yesterday went very well and was very happy with my results. Thank you very much!!!
Week#1 Vo2=243,FTP=169,w/kg=2.39 (156 LBS)
Week#8 Vo2=259,FTP=207,w/kg=3.08 (148 LBS)
Now the not so good news. As I mentioned before, I'm traveling during the Christmas holidays and wont have my bike with me. Below is how I plan to rearrange my workouts. The only workout I will be missing is Saturday's bike workout with how I have it laid out.
12/24 Wednesday - Doing Thursday’s Bike/Brick workout on Wednesday before Travel to Nashville
12/25 Thursday - Doing Wednesday's Run workout on Thursday
12/26 Friday - Rest/ Core and Swim prep workout
12/27 Saturday - Run workout only. Skipping bike workout
12/28 Sunday - Run workout and travel to New Orleans
12/29 Monday - Rest/ Core and Swim prep workout
12/30 Tuesday - Doing Wednesday's Run workout on Tuesday before travel to San Francisco
12/31 Wednesday - Doing Tuesday's Bike/Brick on Wednesday
Any suggestions if i need to rearrange anything? Should I just skip the Saturday's bike workout completely or should I try and make up for it somehow later?
#2 - I think your plan is awesome. My only edit is that you might want to cut back the day after each travel part (unless you are getting great sleep!) as you want to avoid getting sick!
Thank you very much for a fantastic outseason. I have exceeded every goal of where I thought I would like to be at the end of the outseason when I first started this.
Week#1 vDOT:33; Vo2=243w;FTP=169w ; w/kg=2.39 (156 LBS)
Week#8 vDOT:40; Vo2=259w;FTP=207w ; w/kg=3.08 (148 LBS)
Week#14 vDOT:41; vo2=275w;FTP=225w ; w/kg=3.35 (148 lbs)
With that said I have a few questions.
1. I did a first half marathon ever yesterday. My two previous half marathon was a part of a 70.3 race and was 2:20+. My race on Sunday started off well. I was trying to over achieve here and it back fired. The race was going well until mile 9 and I was getting excited about and the new bump in vDOT that i would be achieving. Then at mile 10 my Achilles started to hurt and my Hamstrings started to cramp up. I had to slow down from 7:44 min/mile to almost 9:45 min/mile. ( http://tpks.ws/25DE ). My vDOT will be slightly higher by 1 point if Ii consider a 10k segment or by 2 points of i consider a 15k or 10 mile segment of the same race.
10k vDOT=42
15k vDOT=43
10mile vDOT=43
HM vDOT=41
Any harm in using the higher vDOT as i transition into the swim and short course plan?
2. With regard to the the Short course plan which is coming up in 2 weeks should I transition into the Intermediate plan (I was on the Intermediate plan during the OS) or should I move to the Short course advance plan? I'm not new to short course racing but if the volume ramps up significantly, I may want to stick with Intermediate plan. Just an FYI, I got sick at the end of week#6 possibly may be due to fatigue.
3. I start Short course plan on 2/16 starting with SCweek12 after swim camp. SCweek14 calls for a bike and run test with just 2 weeks of me into the Short course plan. I feel like I just did the bike and run test. Is the test to reassess bike and run fitness lost during the swim camp or can I skip this? I just want to mentally prepare for the next test
So, to get to your questions….
(1) The slightly higher vDOT is okay. As you have just learned, there is an intersection of distance and desired pace where pacing becomes critical.
(2) Let’s keep with the Intermediate Short Course plan…give it 4 weeks…if you are still feeling good and have some bandwidth, then let’s move you up to ADV!
(3) You don’t need to test again..those tests are there as some folks have not recently tested…we have a wiki article on what to do, you can read it here! http://j.mp/1DELCPU
Enjoy swim camp!!
Quick question about power. As we transition from the short indoor trainer rides to much longer outdoor rides on Saturdays in a couple of weeks, should we stick with the same power numbers that we just tested? I typically find that my outdoor power number is about 5-8% more than my indoor number. Should we do any sort of outdoor power test to calibrate?
After coming out a successful OutSeason and recovering very well in swim camp, I have a few questions as I move into the 12 week Short course plan.
1. Can I add in a 1:15 Yoga session into my Short course training plan? I’ve been doing yoga regularly for about 5 years now and it has worked well with my triathlon training in the past. I took a break from Yoga during the OutSeason primarily to make sure that I recover completely and since this was my first OutSeason, I wanted to play it safe. With that said, swimming three times a week is making my shoulders pretty tight after the second swim session on Wednesdays. I did go to a yoga session on Thursday’s during swim camp and I felt rejuvenated. During the Short Course training, can I add in a yoga session on Tuesday’s or Thursday’s? My shoulders seem to recover after a two day break over the weekend but it could use some additions help with one day break in between swim sessions on the week days.
2. Masters swim workout or Lap swimming with EN swim workout? Swimming by my self makes me slack off and I don’t have the same motivation as I swim with masters. When I swim with masters I feel like I push myself a notch and I’m part of a good Masters team where I get instant feedback from the coach on deck with regard to my stroke/technique when necessary. The con side of Masters is that there is one day in a week where they focus mainly in IM swim sets which I don’t care about right now. Any feedback on if I choose to continue to swim with masters?
3. With regard to the Core exercise that we did in the OutSeason, I plan to do just the planks portion ( 4 x 2 mins) portion to maintain core strength. Hope that’s ok?
I saw tremendous improvement during the OutSeason and it was fantastic. I’m looking forward to keeping the same momentum going but at the same time don’t want to overdo anything now and burnout.
Masters is fine. Our concern with masters is that you focus on swimming harder, not smarter. So please choose your lane carefully, depending on the goal for each session.
Continuing core? I am so PROUD! Happy Tri Coach! You'll be totally primed for some great racing.
There's always some friction that happens between plans, but with your behind the wheel, and making good decisions, I think things are going to work in your favor!!!
I attempted to do an outdoor FTP test and it didn't go as planned. First there was some traffic on the course which I didn't expect and the second issue was the loop ( 4.5 miles) that I had chosen had six turns. After attempting the 5 minute Vo2 max, I gave up because I was loosing watts after each turn and was just depressing. I don't think I can find a flat 7 or 8 mile stretch without traffic/Stop signs etc to do an outdoor test unless it's a hill climb. Is it really critical to do an outdoor test or should I just stick with indoor numbers? I watched one of Coach R's webcast where he says an FTP test conducted on a hill climb will usually generate a much higher number than a flat course.
Any input on if a outdoor test is critical? I don't want to over think and spend too much time thinking about this if most people are just sticking with just indoor FTP numbers.