DOS Week 2 - Just Biking Along

Mark Maurer

Hey folks, well the bike test is behind, at least for most of us, and you've gotten a taste of your new numbers and work zones. How do they feel? They should feel pretty hard, especially the last couple of intervals or the last couple of minutes in the longer intervals. By the time you get to the end of the workout your quads should be complaining. Don't worry, in a couple of weeks what seems tough now will feel easier.

This week is just a standard OS week from a bike standpoint. Having said that, on a personal level, this week might be a normal week, an exceptional week, or a down week for you. There's a lot going on this time of year leading up to the holidaze and that adds stress so somedays may be better than others from a workout perspective. Coach Rich's video this week tells you what to do when the day's workout isn't going as planned. Take a look https://s3.amazonaws.com/2017outseasonvideos/OutSeason_Week2_2017.mp4. The short version, in order of preference, is to (1) keep the prescribed intensity and cut the interval length, or (2) lessen the intensity but keep the same length of time. He also discusses the importance of not going out too fast and fading at the end, IOW, don't go from hero to zero. 

One thing that I've seen happen throughout the out seasons is that athletes, me included, go out too hard at the beginning and either get injured or so fatigued that they have to quit the out season or take a chunk of time off to recover. The advice that Coach R gives about going out to hard in the individual intervals is also true on a macro sense for the course of the out season. You can go too hard now and overcook these workouts and pay for it dearly in the later weeks. This is especially true if you're older or if there's a lot of other stress going on in your life. Do the prescribed work and trust the plan and process. It will make you stronger and get you to your goals. 

And now for the song of the week ~ Pump It Up! and get the work done!

And if you're interested, here's the link to my Spotify workout playlist. https://play.spotify.com/user/larchitech/playlist/3mKiaFRcOWrch2xX6tStxY

Scott Giljum

Morning all! I got up early today and got the 3x10 in. My (likely a smidge low) FTP number is 223 and I hit 231,236 and 235. I was certainly feeling it by the last set. I feel ok with a bit of the "overwork" in that very recently that was about what I was doing in 10 minute sets. All in all, a good workout. Now the run later!

Rafe Armstrong

Early morning ride with my usual stair step warmup of about 25 min then 3x10@261,264,263 - went a little high as it was feeling good this morning (FTP258)
Followed up with 4.5 mile steady run

Mark Maurer

I got my bike in after work and the run. Shortened the warm-up because I was already warmed up from riding home from work and a 30 minute run. Did the spin-up and one legged drills and hit the 3X10 intervals. All was going along well until the 3rd interval when Trainer Road froze up on me and wasn't controlling the computrainer anymore so the power was really low. I was able to switch the Computrainer over to manual control and finish the interval but I had to jack up the power for the last 8 minutes to make it to my goal NP for the lap. So for most of that 8 minutes I was 10-20 watts over my FTP. It was kind of exhilarating though to be able to hit those numbers so late in the set. Hopefully it won't hurt my downstream workouts. Final tally for the three intervals was IF of 0.99, 1.01, and 1.01. 

Scott Giljum

Howdy all! I got up this morning before work and got in the 30 second intervals. All of them were well in range and I still am amazed how much easier these sets seem to be than the 10 minute FTP session. I'm not sure why, though some of it certainly is the mental part of the game where hammering for 30 seconds only is a lot easier to swallow than push it hard for an much longer period of time. Hope it is going well for all of you!

Mark Maurer

Got on the bike after work and knocked out the Vo2 intervals. I increased the power over the last 5 above the target and it felt pretty good. These are much more manageable than the longer Vo2 intervals we've done in years past. 

Tommy Bonds

Well what do you do when its 64* with a 15mph South wind and light rain in the middle of Dec and you have a 75' ride scheduled? You get out and head due South and ride your first 9' interval hard into that south wind then hit the hills East and North and finish with what should have been an easy Z3 ride back home up hill into the wind for 25'. Good ride and my legs are trashed so I managed a short 2.25 mi run off the bike and called it a day.

Mark Maurer

I was going to do the Saturday bike today but I am feeling kinda beat up by the work so far in the OS. I took a look at my training log and saw that I haven't taken a full day off in over 2 weeks so I canned the WKO and went shopping, baked cookies and biscoti, and went for a walk in the cemetery. Now we're off to the Christmas Revels. Funny, it doesn't really feel like I took a day off.

Rafe Armstrong

Finished last week off strong with 30/30's at the top of goal on Thursday and hard threshold intervals outside on Saturday.  Changed it up a little due to the area I was riding.  I normally do these inside but was travelling and went outside for this one.  3x15min@251,254,254 on 4min rest and a final 5 minutes @250 to finish it off.  Pretty beat after this one.