2016 Nov OS bike wk 11: Put the pedal to the metal!
HAPPY NEW YEAR NOV OS!
I can't believe it is week 11 already. Time has flown by! I hope you all survived the holidays in good shape. No time to stop now, we've got 4 more weeks to go. Let's stay steady and strong. If you need to, this Tueday's bike workout is a low priority so give your legs some rest if they need it. You'll be all the stronger for your Wednesday run and Thursday bike. Let us know how you're doing.
Cheers and have a great week!
I can't believe it is week 11 already. Time has flown by! I hope you all survived the holidays in good shape. No time to stop now, we've got 4 more weeks to go. Let's stay steady and strong. If you need to, this Tueday's bike workout is a low priority so give your legs some rest if they need it. You'll be all the stronger for your Wednesday run and Thursday bike. Let us know how you're doing.
Cheers and have a great week!
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Got is done early this am so I can meet with friends later today. First true weekday brick of the OS. Due to time I have been splitting the bike and run am and pm during the week and the weekends are a bit more relaxed. This was truly off the bike and onto the TM to make it work for today...time to brick more! Didn't take long to remember what I was missing!
To work around my business trip this week, I did the Tuesday workouts on Monday. Missing the day off before the Tuesday bike seemed to make a huge difference. The first 10-min threshold interval went OK, the second 15-min interval went well, but I fell apart on the third 10-min interval. About a minute in I started to have massive cramping in my calf and hamstring. I stretched for a few minutes and was able to finish the interval at a reduced power (95% FTP). Other than walking around airports, my legs have the day off. They really need it!
I'm in San Diego this week and had hoped to do some running in the sun and warmth. Unfortunately, El Nino had other plans. It's been raining hard today, and the deluge is expected to continue through the end of my trip. At least the rain is a bit warmer than at home!
Lots in play for the Tuesday intervals. I did not do well last Tuesday so needed to have a good one today. Second, I usually train outdoors on the porch but the temp was 25-28 and that's just too cold for me to be sweaty on the trainer. Third, I just picked up a new Kickr Snap and this was my first ride on it.
So with the cold I set up for a 4:30 am ride in my office across from my Mac. Don't really have a pain cave...usually I just set up on the back porch and that works for me down to around 35 degrees or so. I had done a few test rides on the Kickr already so I knew the basic setup. I set up with Trainer Road to run in ERG mode, which if you don't have one or have never heard about it basically allows you to never need to switch gears to change cadence, but rather the trainer and the electronics vary the load to keep your watts constant. Pretty nice really once you get used to it. I had a hole in my gearing that was driving me nuts, but that was totally not an issue today and I could vary my cadence nicely.
So given the problems with last week's Tuesday intervals and the new setup, I set TrainerRoad at 95% of FTP to keep me in a safe margin. The Garmin 510 came in at 97% on all 3 intervals (10', 15', 10'), and 87% on the 4th interval to fill out the 80 minutes. I could vary my cadence and TrainerRoad would use my Quarq watts to vary the load on the Kickr (again thats using the Kickr ERG mode). Overall I'm very pleased given all the changes. I had a few learning experiences along the way with varying gearing to extremes while riding and letting TrainerRoad vary the Kickr load to compensate, but those were with extremes that I deliberately tried. Overall a solid workout.
@Todd, I think he just copied the pre-test wkos.I noticed the same last week. Just think of the 5th as a bonus.....! I have really been struggling to hold my intervals since we retested, but its getting better. Yesterday I did the 10,15,10,15 and was able to hold on for most of the first 3. I gave everything I had for the fourth, but it turned out to be a low Z3 high Z2 result (although my HR was in Z4). I managed to get 100%,99%,94%,79% based off of power.
I am looking forward to a nice run around the lake in the dark tonight!
I see what you see on the week 11 Thursday workout in TR. Personally I default to having the plan override TR. If I felt real spunky I could do the 5th.
Not sure if they monitor here but @Rich or @Patrick chime in to clarify?
This week has been tough..cold coming on and I'm trying to keep it away by taking in lots of fluids and C, yummy mandarins and zinc. Seems to be helping a wee bit. With the rain and wind this week, I've headed over to spin class the last two days and worked my tail off, then hit the TM for my run. With a little let up in the weather went walking with the dog and hubby and the dog took off after a coyote!! He actually came face to face with it. The coyote would arch his back and then turn and start to walk away..of course Crunchy would head out after him...her?? I chased his butt all over and then finally sat down and told him he was a jerk and he came over to me and we headed home. Darn dog!! I feel like I got in some more miles as a result! At least I got some biking in before heading to Boston for a wedding tomorrow. I'm gonna freeze!!
I figured I'd be able to get some good running in on the TM in the hotel gym. Better than nothing.
I got both of my bikes done this week. Skied on Wednesday and will ski again tomorrow through Sunday. Felt really tired on Tuesday after a lot of skiing over Holiday week, but got the 2 x 10' and 1 x 15' done right at 100%. Today it was 4 x 4' @ 228 (112%), so pretty good. Felt tired again, but it is to be expected at this point I guess. I just looked at the file and although I was completely identical power on all 4 intervals, I somehow must have done the third one in one lower cog because my cadence was 2.5 beats lower...funny.
Good job everyone...keep up the good work!
I completed all four intervals at 1.11 but the first couple really sucked! I had to grind through them but started to feel a little better as time passed.
I'm feeling pretty fatigued at the moment and will do a short easy run this evening on the treadmill and am then really looking forward to a day off tomorrow. I'm going to skip the swim and just do the core/strength work as I hear my body calling for some rest!
Good luck on the VO2 work and now I think we can start to see light at the end of the tunnel!! Great job everyone!
Todd and rest of the group, sorry I wasn't able to get back to you sooner about the confusion regarding Tuesday WKO. I haven't been using TR so did not see the discrepancy. My default is to go with the plan on the EN site. But as someone said, if you do the extra set, consider it a bonus!
I do hear a lot of you speaking about exhausting and cumulative fatigue. Remember the body needs rest to integrate the hard work. Going a little lighter one week is often a good thing. You come back the next week stronger. Listen to your body, its pretty smart! KEEP UP THE RIGHT LEVEL OF WORK FOR YOU!!
60' total
10' & 5' @ .99
In weeks 4-8, I was sustaining higher wattage numbers than I tested at. Now I am not even finishing wko's. Increased run volume and intensity may be the culprit. Lack of ab work isn't helping me either. Anyone else have suggestions?
Ab work today and a rest day tomorrow to get ready for Saturday's wko.
I must say that I'm impressed by all the hard work going in with the this team.
I am happy that I read this tread just now. I have been struggling with fatigue the last week or two and although i was sure it was due ALL to the holidays,etc and being off schedule a bit. So reading these made me feel a whole lot better... as I felt like I was going backwards in fitness. Ok fatigue due to training is one thing and I can handle that but I wasn't even thinking along those lines! Ok... back to feeling motivated now.
My tues bike was short and I threw the towel in almost right away... i just did not have it in me. I cannot save my bike workout to night time.. i need to do early. i would love to get all done in the am!! (i am on the trainer almost every ride except the occasional sat when the weather is warm enough. Todays went much better. got the main set in over my lunch hour but wish I would of done the additional time but I was just happy I got it in during that time.
Now off to my treadmill run!!
Yesterday was mom day, oncologist, hospice social worker, giving her a massage, etc. So I switched Thursday's workouts to today. This was my first real bike ride of the new year and it was a 4X4' Vo2 workout. I got a message early in the ride that the battery in my power meter was low but I kept riding. Sure enough at the start of the 3rd interval the power field on the Garmin went blank. Luckily I had programmed the ride in the ERG mode of the CompuTrainer so I was able to ride on and still capture the metrics. I did a 1.11, 1.13, 1.15, and 1.15. I had programmed in a progression and hit them all. It was really good to do that and feel good while doing it.
After the bike I went out and did the run as a brick.
@Mark, nice VO2's. I'm sure it felt especially nice. My heart goes out to you. All our parents are gone. Definitely a tough time.
A year ago this week Virginia's mom passed @ 95 going through a similar progression as yours. In the days that followed we remembered her depression era ethic and Virg remembered a story of once when Marguerite was at our house making spaghetti. Marg lived in Michigan by herself but in her last years would spend a couple of months with us in Arkansas to avoid winter. The memory was when she was around 90 and feeble then but always got around. Virginia remembers her mom browning the meat and draining the fat, then dumping in the jar of sauce. Then Virginia knew exactly what would happen next. Marguerite pulled a spatula out of the drawer and went in that jar making sure she got every drop out and into the pan. Then Marg licked the spatula when she was done.
With tears Virginia thought, that was the story of her life to 95 ... she got every drop out of life and in the end licked the spoon.
My prayers are with you Mark. I know you can find similar joys
Late night movie watching with the Wifey pushed back an early am wko. After a full family day, I managed to start my wko at 9:20ish. With the extra rest, my legs showed up to work.
92 min
2x20'@ 1.00 & 1.00, 15'@ .86
WOW! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING WORK MY FRIENDS!! Keeping strong and working hard- you are all incredibly inspiring.
@ Mark- I am so so sorry to hear about your mother. As soon as I saw your post about it- I started sending good thoughts and prayers her way. I will continue to do so- and let us know if you need anything at all!
Update on me: I hadn't posted over the holidays- running around crazy! But the New Year started with a little bump.
January 1, 2016- I was out my 90 min ride and my rear derailleur completely snapped off. I was riding easy- in middle gear of my rear cassette. I was switching to the big ring in the front when CRUNCH, CLUNK, CLINK, - at first I thought it was a dropped chain- I put on the breaks and instantly realized that it was much, much more- the chain was off and twisted the derailleur was in between the spokes- it is an AWFUL sight. The rear derailleur broke but it also tore two screws out and cracked the frame. THANKFULLY TREK will warranty the frame!! So cost will be minimal! Apparently there was a known problem of there been a "weak spot" in the metal back there. There were also a few spokes damaged in my wheel (which is has my PM hub) but those are being repaired as well. SO POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE- I did not crash, my frame is going to be warrantied and I am getting 2016 version of my bike! AND my bike shop did a lot of leg work and got the bike in yesterday SO I only had to modify my OS bike workouts this week with a borrowed bike for Tuesday ride and spin class on Thursday.
Rode my bike for 90' minutes yesterday after picking it up and LOVED IT! I did 20' FTP, 12' FTP then the Z3 work- and since my testing didnt go well I used your advice and bumped up my watts- my target based on my Nov FTP was 170- my target yesterday I made 175 and ended doing 180 for each! WOOHOO! Must be the new black bike