2016 JOS Wk5 Bike Thread - Rule 5 -HTFU
Welcome to week 5 as Rule 5 says "harden the F--- up"
http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/comment-page-8/
things to look forward to this week, the long intervals don't grow, but your focus & intensity should remain where we saw it last week. If you found yourself performing at over FTP on these longer intervals, you might consider giving yourself a few watt bump... Careful though, you will need your energy for the Thursday intervals, we move from 4x4 to 5x4.... This is where we learn the discipline of focus...'
Looking forward to reading tales of monster accomplishments from this awesome JOS crew, enjoy the day off tomorrow!
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Final thoughts, I know Coach Rich says to get out of the weight room, but there are many Triathlon Coaches (Matt Dixon and Joe Friel - Cycling and Trialthin Coach) as well as plenty of cycling coaches, that advocate cycling specific weight training in addition to the kind of VO2 intervals and FTP threshold work we have in our OS WKOs. I would thrown in single leg spinning intervals to the mix as advocated by Joe Friel and others. I've personally experienced bigger FTP gains ??this OS at age 46 using these additinal tools than last OS at age 45 when only following planned EN WKOs. BTW - my weight if anything is sliding up. I expect this to drop when we transition into high volume.
Just my 2 cents
bear with me as my week is going to be a bit creative. Coming off a busy work weekend, managed some short/very hard wko's during. Have to take next weekend off to move in'laws. So, I'm going to have a few key workouts crammed into Mon-Fri. 'Rest' next weekend from tri training and then pick it back up a week from now.
Today was a solid swim, then a very strong 2x 21' (4') @ .97 + some 'get ready for the roadies/paceline' work. Today, that meant a short series of 3'(.8-.85), 2' (1.05-1.1), 3' (.8-.85), 2'(1.05-1.1), 3' (.8-.85), 2' (1.1). 15' total of that crap. Finished with about 10' of .8.
Followed by an ez 2mi brick run.This was made tougher than I had expected and I think it might be b/c of Sunday. Although that was a short bike and run session, the bike was pretty high intensity and I believe it played a role in today's work.
Wed and Fri will be the really hard work days this week and Tues and Thurs will be a bit easier on the legs but I'll ratchet it up a notch in the pool.
Y'all have a GREAT week!
Conversation over last weekend - Me - Do you want to go to a B&B In the Berkshires or Catskills this summer a few times?
her - awwe, that's so sweet of you...
me - great, I'll give you an address for Nav and meet you at noon, I'm leaving on the bike at 6am
today's wko brought to you by pain & suffering with a little dose of self doubt during interval two...
2x15 @ 1.0 & .99 and a nice little 5'@.85
will run this afternoon, have to figure out tomorrow's run since I am travelling and getting picked up by car service at 6 am.. #pre-dawnpatrol
Woke up still a bit under the weather, but hopeful that I could get in a solid 2x15'. That hope, however, faded about 2 minutes into the first one. Watts were dropping, started accumulating lactic acid, stopped at 5' with jello legs and considered bailing. But after some spinning I got in two more 5-minute efforts, called it good. Hopefully I found that balance between no-wko and digging myself into a deeper hole. I always have stretches like this where fatigue and rest take over for a bit, and I always bounce back. Just have to remind myself: (1) the training schedule doesn't respond and adjust to me; the coach (me) has to make those adjustments, and (2) October is a long ways off. That said, the bruised ego already has revenge on its mind, eyes set on Thursday's 5x5's.
@Trent and SD - just getting it done and nailing the 2 X 15s which look so friendly on paper but quickly become real work upon executing!
@MR - props for getting on the horse and squeezing out some work while carrying a family and professional work load simultaneously man. Most of us forget to recognize the huge load being carried into these workouts. I would also comment that when you are carrying a 3.9 w/kg into any FTP session, its going to be a dog fight...........
@Chris - 2 X 21' is really the one that separates the men from the boys.....nuff said!
I had a pretty miserable early morning: https://www.strava.com/activities/484137582/overview
Just extremely not fun and tough..........
Welcome to week 5 all! Keep fighting!
SS
@Scott, sorry about that. I don't counts to good. Thank goodness I'm pretty. But I do have just enough IQ points to know not to follow SS in training. For mere mortals, that road leads right off a cliff.
I'm seriously considering taking a Castanza Nap under my desk right now.
Happy GroundHog Day!
Tues. bike work done. 2 X 12" @ 1.0 & 1.01. We're having a little warm trend here, pain cave (aka garage) about 10 deg. warmer than it has been. Made the workout a sweatfest.
Run done as a brick.
http://tpks.ws/NjlKV
https://www.strava.com/activities/484568611
Not a cardiopulmonary failure mind you, just plain dead legs. Well I guess, I worked them to failure, hopefully plenty of protein and sleep will induce the growth adaptions needed to crush my FTP come test day.
Here is one of today's FTP intervals, done outdoors in 10F weather, after 40" of snowfall the past three days. Down a serious mogul run called "Powderhorn"...I know there are bumps in there somewhere!
It was a hectic day but got it all DONE. Good thing I had done the run early in the morning because I could not have done it tonight
Full day of meetings at work but left at a reasonable time to go get my local Mexican drivers license...after 3 hours of registration for foreigners, visual and computer questions tests and a videogame like car driving simulator I got it ! just in time because my Ohio one was expiring. So...by the time I got home it was already 8 PM....after seeing the kids and gathering energy from reading all the new posts sat in the bike after 9 PM and delivered !
Goal was 2x15 @ 1.0 + 1x5 @ 0.85
Pushed it ! and got 1.04/1.04 and 0.88 ! Great workout !
link---> https://connect.garmin.com/activity/1037547022
Ready to run tomorrow !
@Rob- thanks for the thoughts. Good reminder!
Well- I'm trying not to be discouraged. Today was 2x15'. I did the first 15' on the road bike with no meter on a nice uphill stretch on the way home. Just hammered hard for the time period. Got home. Changed the road skewer onto the tri bike and my trainer problem is solved- yay! Did my next 15' on the trainer trying to hold in that Z4. Ouch ouch ouch! Had to do the self talk and zoning and still ended up with IF 0.84 if based on outdoors test and 0.91 if I subtract 10 from my FTP, as recommended. I like that better. But still not 1.0.
I'll keep practicing. I know I worked hard, though, because I'm resting in front of the tube now and I can feel the fatigue. Long run tomorrow should be interesting.
@Jay, just a note to say be honest with thy self when doing what you're doing. This is nothing but a word of caution for all reading, nothing more.
I'll offer up some advice that 'could' be beneficial down the road. Sounds like you aren't that cool with missing any of the intense workouts. Got it. But, 4 to 5 days of FTP or >FTP workouts, IN A ROW?!?!, will probably have some downstream effects. Yes, you will get it done. Legs will be a bit tired, more or less than you're expecting, for sure. But, the 'wall' might not rear it's ugly head until a few weeks later. It's a risk that you have to decide if it's worth it.
Rich & Patrick advise us to move forward when we miss a wko for any reason. They advise us to just pick up the day's scheduled wko and let the missed wko be water under the bridge. Their point being that they've built gaps in between the intense sessions for a good reason. It's a long year. I, too, have learned this the hard way. I'm guilty of pushing this line b/c of my crazy work/life schedule. That balance of life demands and staying on the stress/recover schedule of this kind of tri training is very delicate.
Just know that if you're planning on a stretch like you're in the middle of, and you need a day to back off, it's OK. As we know, it is, again, a long year.
Disclaimer: Yes, I know I'm hacking my week, too. So, who am I to talk? However, I have some very ez effort days lined up in between the hard days. And, I'm going to still end up missing one of the key workouts in order to be able to put one of the ez days in there. And, I'm taking 2 days completely off this weekend. This isn't to sound like I know better. I just know that my hacks will have enough intensity provided from just a few of the R&P planned days and that I BETTER play it on the safe side by making sure I have some recover periods even if the improv is as short as a week.
To summarize, a hacked week is a necessary evil for most of us in the real world. But, to all, remember to err on the side of long term, sustainability by not overreaching (unless advised by a real coach) in order to PEAK at the right time of the year.
I hope I didn't offend. Just throwing these thoughts out there to everyone. And, sending a good reminder to myself, also.
Yesterday, I had one of the most disrupted WKO's I have had in a very long time. I had planned to go to our local YMCA with my wife in the evening so I rushed home from work to get the Tuesday Bike ride in. I had a lot of anticipation for the WKO. It was going to be 2 X 20' and was looking to ride hard. The WU went well and everything was feeling good for the MS. I got going and was holding power at a good level. At 13:31 of that interval, the resistance on my computrainer dropped to nothing. I thought I had a flat tire. I stopped pedaling and checked the tire. It was not flat. I shifted and tried pedaling but still no resistance. Then I looked at my monitor and it was black. I stopped my garmin and went to the PC. After a couple of attempts, it finally restarted. I re-loaded my racermate program and started the ride again. I finished that interval. My power for that interval was 260 watts. After the short RI, started the second interval. I wasn't 30 seconds into and my brother called. He rarely calls during the week so I stopped again. Once the call was completed, I started another interval. This time I finished at 262 watts. Even though the WKO was not completed smoothly, these were two of my best intervals this OS. No run tonight. Group activity with my wife at the YMCA instead.
https://www.strava.com/activities/484589355
most important thing is that you are honest with yourself. If you need a light day or a rest day to continue a strong build, it's worth it.
and, I can build on something else, too. I take call, also. on a rolling schedule that never seems to mesh with our weekly training schedule. it forces me to juggle workouts all the time. I live on a 'Get What You Can When You Can' juggle. The problem with that is the temptation to go big/go hard EVERY time I have a couple of hours free or a string of back to back days. I've overtrained myself into a hole so many times doing that. We have to remember that the tri stresses are cumulative to our life & work stresses. It's such a tough balance to get what you can at every available window of opportunity, high intensity stuff so often, and get enough rest to reap the rewards of all that work vs overcooking over a stretch and then digging out of a hole for a few weeks, only to repeat the process all over again.
Just keep telling yourself...It's a long year and you want to peak in October!
Keep up the great work!
then, as I'm trying to get ready for those damn roadies, I continued my recent trend of throwing in some paceline work to finish.
that's 3'(>.8)2'(1.05-1.1), repeating 3 cycles of that 5'. The hard part is not dropping down lower than the .8 after the harder pull, especially after the second or third go 'round. I plan on continuing this 2-3x week and see if it has any benefit once our local world championships start back up. Will be building this up from 15' this week to 30' over a few weeks time. That's the plan...but it's written in pencil and with a very large eraser close by.
followed that up with a 2mi brick run.
One a sidenote...I'm always very impressed by everyone's dedication to this level of specific training while doing everything we can to avoid disrupting our families and our work world. Super early workouts...that's crazy high intensity on bodies that are still pretty sleepy. Super late workouts....body is drained from a full day and then coming home to family fires that need putting out. Cramming an hour's worth of TSS into a 30' lunch break that might get a clifbar or a PB&J on the way to the pool. Etc, etc.
I can't imagine that there are too many circles of peeps out there that are as driven as we are. Not to be denied mentality. Every now and then, pause and absorb what you're taking on, day after day, month after month, year after year.
And....we think it's absolutely normal and don't understand why everybody doesn't do it.
Having said all that, with those crazy hours, watch your cumulative (tri + family dedication + work) fatigue and treat accordingly.
you guys & gals rock!