NOV OS 2015/16 wk 8: Seeing Gains
Week 8 means test week! You've been working hard and deserve to see what your actual gains are. Remember though, it is just a test so if you are extra tired or just have an off day, talk with Coach P about about scheduling a retest. Remember to set yourself up for success:
1) make sure you are properly hydrated.
2) check that you have everything you need to succeed with you...snack, towel, water, the right music...whatever works for you.
Please report back to the group so we can share our experiences.
Good luck!
1) make sure you are properly hydrated.
2) check that you have everything you need to succeed with you...snack, towel, water, the right music...whatever works for you.
Please report back to the group so we can share our experiences.
Good luck!
0
Comments
Due to travel, I had to move up my testing schedule. I have been feeling pretty burnt out due to a combination of work, family, exercise and holiday stress. I took things a little easy and bagged the long run on Sunday to try to freshen up my legs for testing week. Also, instead of doing my bike test at the crack of dawn, I woke up early, had a little to eat, a small shot of caffeine that I never have and helped get the kids off to school. I was hoping that would help in "waking up" my body.
After a prolonged warm up, the First 5 min went off pretty well. I kept the screen on the power meter covered for the first 2 min and went by feel. By the end of 5 minutes, I had an average of 335 and felt that I could have done a little bit more, a very little bit. After a the recovery I went into the 20 min test. BY the 15 minute mark, I thought my legs wouldn't work anymore. Suffered through and ended with an 11 point increase. 290 watts for the 20 min so a new FTP of 276. I felt like it was a solid gain. Run will wait until after work today. Good luck to all tomorrow. I'll post the run test as soon as I get it done.
After a nice 5 min warm up started the Vdot test got it done @232W . The ftp test after the recovery started off with a bang but showed a slow decline after the 12min mark , got it done @182W
So in all FTP bump by 22W , I will take it.
Good luck everyone! Happy testing!
Bill & Atif -- great job on the tests -- nice to see big increases in FTP!
I did the bike test early this morning and am thrilled with the results:
VO2: increase from 277 to 301
FTP: increase from 237 to 255 (all-time high and first time over 250W!)
Weight has come down 4 lbs since the start of the OS which puts me at 3.26 W/kg which is also an all-time high.
I bought a road bike this fall and have been getting in more miles that previous years, so nice to see that's paying off!
Did my bike FTP test last night.
238 -- > 257 !
Im really surprised by the gain made with 3h30/week, its crazy. Work works they say ?
https://www.strava.com/activities/450363071
I didn't feel like I went out too hard but started to fade some in the 4th quarter. I've almost come to the conclusion that I don't seem to test well.
I did the test with Trainer Road and a KICKR. I've attached the workout so if anyone has advice or suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, my LTHR did bump from 164 to 172.
https://www.strava.com/activities/450629976
Interestingly enough....I've done all the work and am wondering about my test itself and have a question for you guys. When using a power trainer in ERG mode do you test in you big chain ring or little? Is this the same ring you do most of your training in? I normally train in the big ring but for whatever reason tested in the small. Would this make a difference?
Thanks for the help/advice!
Todd
I should have specified this when I asked my question about chain rings and testing.
Great to see everyone's hard work and results! I don't know about you but I do get amped up for test week.
I came off a 218 FTP for the first half, which came after a 9 month layoff with very little cycling. Going in I spent a few minutes last night thinking through the target #'s I wanted to hit to reach a decent gain. I thought a target wattage of 243 was right about where I wanted to be as that would yield 232 and just above the coaches prediction in the forums. Plus I didn't want to go out too hard and find that I could not sustain the effort. So I decided to dial back the start of the ride 2% off 243 and increase wattage as I went along.
Mission accomplished. 244 watts for 20 minutes, both average and NP, with a VI of 1.0. Started out a little lower and pushed the realtime watts up over 245-250ish through the second half or so. Not only did I hit my intended target but the execution was right on as well. I could not have been more pleased. Maybe I could have hammered a few more watts but not much more, and not without risk of failure. Given that this is the first bike training after 9 month off for injury, and that IM Chatt is months off, I have time to work on additional incremental gains in a manner that does not jeopardize repeat tendonitis. Here is the graph on TP: FTP Test Dec 15 .
5 runs/week, 3 interval rides on the bike/week, and 2 light weight lifting sessions leave me hungry all the time. I have been eating a lot. Totally failing the body comp part of the outseason. I will try to tighten that up after the first of the year.
Todd, I have a KICKR also and I prefer to test and do all training in the big chain ring. I don't think it matters much and it's probably all in my head, but I prefer the feel of the machine when the flywheel is turning faster. It just seems a tad bit smoother, but if you blindfolded my I probably could not tell you what chain ring I was in.
Nice work everyone! I was not as smart as Pat and went out way too hard. I know I made the mistake of giving myself a huge target and going from hero to zero after 10 minutes. Normalized power for the 5 minute VO2 Max was 317. I cooked myself on that. For the 10 minutes that I lasted for the 20 minute test the normalized power was 290. IF 1.14 of my previous FTP.
I am heading out of town this evening and will give it another crack when I am back this weekend. I have a much better idea of how to do this and am looking forward too it.
Joined the OS programme in week 3 - my FTP was 280, hit 297 today. Doing something right!
8hrs later, my legs are still burning.
Well done everyone - FTP test are miserable!
Great work everybody! Looks like the whole team is posting great week 8 gains. I was expecting a nice solid 15 to 20 watt gain myself. I blew my own mind though. I had a pie-in-the-sky number in my head based on the build I've been doing in my threshold workouts, but had a tough week last week. I tapered and took my recent workouts a lot lighter than prescribed. I ended up with a 33 watt FTP gain after today's test (from 220 to 253). was hanging on for dear life in the last 5 minutes and actually thought I was gonna lose my lunch at one point, but... Boom! There it is! This beat my OS overall goal by 3 watts to boot.
I'm very pleased with the gains also. I probably went out too easy on the 20 minutes, and ended up increasing power by 5-10% for the last 4 minutes.
All I can say is WOW!!!! I am so so impressed by all the awesome tests and great executions! Way to go team! Each post has inspired me.
I will be testing tomorrow. I am trying to prepare myself the best I can. Question for you all- how do you set a "goal or target" for your FTP test? This will be my second test using power. I am not sure what to expect. My FTP Tuesday bike sessions have gone really well and I felt strong last week.
Last test FTP 170 and VO2 205....So my FTP targets for the Tuesday/Thursday wo's were 171 for Thresholds and my VO2 target was 188.
Any advice on what how to gage what to shoot for on my test tomorrow? Just curious as to how all you rockstars did it!! SERIOUSLY AMAZING!!!
FTP at OS start 220, Avg Threshold over last 3 wks 1.1 = 242 NP, Best threshold 1.15 = 253NPIt may not help now but I also begin with the end in mind. I pay close attention to my regular workouts and try to get an idea of how I'm improving as I go along. Then look back at the last several weeks of threshold work. In my case I had been able to average about 1.1 IF on most of my thresholds and on my best one I was in the 1.15 IF range. Thus in my case:
Therefore, goal is to end up with an FTP of at least 242 (20 min test = 255NP) since I know I should be capable of it. Then I add my stretch goal which is to push for an FTP of 253 (20 min test = 267NP.) Which I have been able to sustain on my best day.
In deciding between stretch and base goal I simply decide how I'm feeling going into the test (really psyched, not strong, etc...) and choose my target based on that. Today I was pumped and went for the stretch. Talked to myself a lot in the last 5 minutes (apollo's trainer style) and ended up with a 266NP. I also setup TR so that the plateau on the twenty minutes matches my target (green line in the pic below--by adjusting the workout intensity in bottom left of TR) You can see where I dropped out a couple of times feeling I just couldn't keep going and fairly early too--this is the mental part. Once I have the number in my head and graph on my screen I just try really hard to convince myself that remaining time is worth it. (hoping that is inspiring and not demotivating
) We're pushing a goal after all, not trying to stay the same and since I've pushed these numbers in back to back threshold sessions my body is certainly capable--it's only my mind that will stop me.
I also do these tests later in the day rather than in the morning so I can spend the day picturing in my head how awesome I'm gonna be... I'm just not that awesome in the morning
Great work, all! I had to do some juggling to determine my gains, since I used the power reported by my Kickr for my week 1 numbers, but have been using my Vector numbers for the workouts. So, for today, I used TR to drive the Kickr while tracking the Vector numbers on my Garmin. To wit:
Week 1 Kickr Week 8 Kickr Week 8 Vector
5' VO2 253 266 241
20' raw 216 226 210
20' FTP (95%) 205 215 200
So, an apparent increase of 10 W of FTP comparing apples to apples. Since I'll be using the Vector once I go outside, though, I figure it's better to get accustomed to those numbers. However, I'm happy with where things shook out, given I had 2 weeks of limited bike WKOs due to travel.
Keep it up, all!
I went to the PT yesterday and in addition to planks she introduced me to squats and hamstring strengthening exercises. I ended up doing 5X10 sets of squats and a couple of sets of hamstring pulls (for lack of a better term). My legs and hips were sore when I got done and I was still a little bit sore this morning. My gut was telling me to put off the test until tomorrow but my head said otherwise and it was egged on by the great results I saw most everyone posting today, so I came home from work and got ready to rumble. The warmup felt fine and I started the Vo2 test. I hit my anticipated numbers and while it was hard it didn't feel crushing. However, I could definitely feel yesterday's work in my quads and hips. I probably should have shut it down then, but I was committed and rolled on. I started the FTP test and ramped up during the first 5 minutes according to plan but then about 7 minutes in things started going downhill and by 8.5 minutes I knew it was not going to happen today so I pulled the plug. I'll redo the test later this week or next week.
This was a puke worthy test to go into the history books. I am not sure 6 weeks is going to be enough time to forget about how painfully agonizing this test was. I had nothing left at the end of this one.
Week 1 Week 8
VO2 292 305
FTP 234 261
27 watt (10%) Bump and a 6w increase from last seasons ftp.@ Laura - I use a similar approach that Dave uses. Starting in week 3, I've been bumping my goal for each week's wko's by 5 watts. Last Saturday's I completed 1x15' & 1x20' at 265 watts. This week would have me at 270, so I was confident that I could hold that for 20'. This was my "I know I can hit that" goal. My stretch goal was to add 5 watts and achieve 275 watts. That's the gambling part and I am a conservative gambler. The one thing I underestimated is how much the 5' VO2 set takes out of you.
With my goal in mind, I broke the test in to 5 min increments of 265w - 270w, 275w, 280w+(shoot for the moon). I have a Kickr and used it in erg mode to set the goal watts for each 5' increment
What did I accomplish:
1st 5' -264w
2nd 5' - 270w
3rd 5' - 270w - by the 10' mark I was having difficulty holding it together, so I maintained the resistance level.
4th 5' - 280-300w
The wheels almost came off in the last 2' and I had to adjust the resistance down to the 280's, to just grind it out.