Oh, how life can get in the way. Monday turned into an off day. Tuesday has become a double every week now. Speed work in the morning and an easy run at the local group run in the evening. A lot safer running slow when it is dark this time of year! Planning looks solid to complete the week without any more interruptions. I have hacked the OS to add in some Hanson's Marathon Plan work for the running days. I'm going to try and BQ this year at the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, OH. With nicer temps in the forecast for the weekend, it looks like it will be fun running coming up!
I am taking a few days off. I have a chest cold and i cannot stop coughing. Thus, i do not think biking or running will help this at all. If it was head cold, i would be game and pushing through. but chest... meh, im not going to force it.
Jonathan if in the chest (below the neck) best just to ride it out, smart move.
Had a great race last night for my FTP work. 40 minutes just above FTP at IF 1.04. Kept waiting to crack on 3rd or 4th lap, but didn't happen. Sprinted to line to boot. Found that if I ignored HR / Power numbers in upper left of screen and just focused on who I was chasing / keeping up with things went better. Sometimes the high numbers can force a mental shutdown.
Will be travelling tomorrow, so swapped today's scheduled run for tomorrow's VO2 bike, which was a tough follow up to yesterday's FTP ride! But managed to eek it out, so I'll take it. Looking forward to the run tomorrow!
Not going to lie, yesterdays bike work was a lot of work. Feeling some fatigue build up from the previous weeks. Going to take it easy on todays run then get after it again on Thursday for another great 30/15 session.
Yep, yesterday's FTP workout was very demanding mentally and physically. I came close to bailing on the last interval but one of the things that kept my head in the game was all the mojo I got from reading other's posts throughout the day about getting through the workout. 3x12' @ 1.0, 1.01, .98. For some reason my average HR was higher. Avg HR, Max HR and avg HR during the rest intervals were all higher than the last two weeks. I'm guessing is was from the muggy weather we had that evening.
FTP wko moved to today and I met my match. Multiple failures on multiple fronts brought the third set to a crashing halt. I also ran out of time on my lunch break.
12'@.85 2x12' @ .99 & .96 4' @ .91
I definitely got some good work in, just not as much as I had planned for.
-I pre-fueled the wko but apparently not enough -Fueled during wko, but was still behind the calorie curve. -The 12'@ .85 in the EN Zwift wko dug me into a small hole before even getting to the FTP work. I'll drop it next week. -Started the first set too hot, 5 watts lower could have made the difference.
2 sets of 14 @ VO2 done. I am certain I'll be looking back on this later in the year acknowledging work works, and each week is getting a little bit easier, but I'm at the point of dreading Thursdays...
Now I need to apologize to the Level1 groups that are using the Zwift workouts. I just caught that the 30/30's for Wk3 (this week of course!!!) has a mistake in it. It was suppose to be 12x30/30 repeated twice.. Well, looks like have the workout written as 12 x 30/30 and then 10 x 30/30. You can thank me later for the break on your bottom!!!
@Coach Patrick - You should be able to just open the .zwo file in notepad and change the second set of 30/30 to be 12 instead of 10.
Holy Cow @Al Truscott I would much rather be pushing that powder than the 30/30 set I did this morning! I finally got some tech on my bike - so chased a mph - and my legs were DUN at the end. Only thing that got me through was tomorrow is Friday! I used to live in Vail. Going to daydream about having dead legs from a day of powder! Enjoy!
OFFDA! 2x14x30/20 DONE and dusted. That was hard but doable. A lot of self talk going on. IF 0.98. I've never pushed power that high before. I hope I have some gas left in the tank for a short run this afternoon. #nolimits.
@Jacklyn Moore I too had a high IF for the ride. It's now 3 hours after and I feel ok so hopefully you get the run in.
2X14X30/20 for me right around IF of 1.26. In the past couple weeks I've been a little more aggressive on the earlier intervals. Today I held back a little and kept them all pretty equal in power and not requiring the extra 10" rest on the last few that I took last week.
Really expected this to hurt, and it did, though not as much as yesterday's FTP intervals. I couldn't get to a 20" rest interval, though the 5" ramp up an down of the trainer probably got me close. HR was up into 170's on 1/3 of the intervals.
The amount of sweat generated during this workout was ridiculous.
Got a chuckle from how @Trish Marshall looks forward to the VO2 work, and in the next post @Scott Renick doesn't
Did the prescribed EN VO2 workout today rather than a Crush set. Did 4 x 8 x 30" with about 20" rest and another 10" ramp-up+ramp-down ... so basically went on each minute for 8 intervals then took a rest. It made for a pretty picture:
Rode the London flat course on Zwift. Much easier to recover on the flats rather than a hilly course
I have seen @Francis Picard doing wko up the radio tower...i assume you can accumulate elevation gain towards TRON bike as opposed to riding flatter course?
Had a grand plan to do a short Zwift race followed by one set of 16 30/30's. Instead, I got a big old calf cramp with a mile to go in the race & almost fell off the trainer trying to get my foot out of the pedal. Finished up with some easy riding with a few short sprints mixed in.
My VO2 workout was Trainer Road's Bird +4 workout: 3 sets of 7x60"(30")@1.30xFTP, 15'@.70. Another challenging workout, .93 IF, 107 TSS. My right calf muscle started to cramp during the third set but I managed to finish strong.
I took a page out of @Al Truscott's book and hit the slopes yesterday to shred some much needed NW pow! Paid for it this morning as I got smoked by the 30/20's. Power was down but I finished...not my best outing but... Note to self...dont do that again! Definitely feeling the week 3 burn.
@Paul Curtin and @Shaughn Simmons I have a question about these VO2 efforts. One relates to the "shape" of the interval itself. Is it important to have say a steady interval at 315W (square top interval), or is it ok to have a spike and fade (pointy interval) of 495 down to 300W. In both, probably doing the same level of "work". Didn't know if this mattered in relation to the energy systems we are trying to train. Second, I see a lot of people putting up IF's in this thread. Is it better to nail the interval IF's (1.25 say) and accept overall lower workout IF (0.85 say). Or is my overall workout IF more important than I think? I see some IF for workouts in the 0.93 range...I guess what I'm saying is my overall IF is lower but interval IF is spot on. That means I need to increase my power in the recovery zones and warmups to get overall IF higher. I built my wko in TP, so can adjust accordingly pretty easy. Maybe these are dumb questions, but I've never done VO2s before.
@Joe Hallatschek thanks for considering me in the same breath as “top endurance athletes” you are my true blue friend for that. Overall, it just means I am back to the short course races where I started. You coming to BRC this year?
@Trish Marshall you can’t fool me, you ain’t afraid of nothin. ‘Specially not some training plan.
Ralph - yes, I am coming to the BRC! I always promise to really study the routes before I get there so I actually know where I'm going. Maybe this year since I live in North Carolina maybe I'll go up early and recon!
1) In a best case scenario I ease into the interval just under goal watts and build up to the target mid way through peaking by the end just over. In reality many times I over shoot, create a small spike in the middle and struggle to hang on by the end. It takes practice. I caution all about overshooting the 1.2. I recommend you extending the interval time if you feel strong. Do 40/20s vs. 30/30s at 1.2 for example or 60/60, etc.
2) Overall IF is a function of total work done. If you complete the V02 section on time and want to do more work, shoot for the Z3 zone. Often times I will do a 10-15 minute Z3 round after the V02 work, my TSS will be higher, my total time will be longer but my IF may fall to .89 or .88 because I just spend 15 minutes at .82-.85 range....overall amount of work or (TSS) is really what matters. Getting in the intensity intervals while not over-delivering provides a BIG return downstream and keeps the OS sustainable.
Comments
BTW Chrissy's first book is great. The second... not so much.
Had a great race last night for my FTP work. 40 minutes just above FTP at IF 1.04. Kept waiting to crack on 3rd or 4th lap, but didn't happen. Sprinted to line to boot. Found that if I ignored HR / Power numbers in upper left of screen and just focused on who I was chasing / keeping up with things went better. Sometimes the high numbers can force a mental shutdown.
Tuesday Zwift race for FTP work: https://www.strava.com/activities/1371624193
This morning V02 interval work: https://www.strava.com/activities/1372862804
Rough early morning but did make it through...barely.
Keep leading all!
SS
https://www.strava.com/activities/1372467731
Thanks for all the Zwift thumbs up, helped me to push through.
Not going to lie, yesterdays bike work was a lot of work. Feeling some fatigue build up from the previous weeks. Going to take it easy on todays run then get after it again on Thursday for another great 30/15 session.
For some reason my average HR was higher. Avg HR, Max HR and avg HR during the rest intervals were all higher than the last two weeks. I'm guessing is was from the muggy weather we had that evening.
Great work everyone!
12'@.85
2x12' @ .99 & .96
4' @ .91
I definitely got some good work in, just not as much as I had planned for.
-I pre-fueled the wko but apparently not enough
-Fueled during wko, but was still behind the calorie curve.
-The 12'@ .85 in the EN Zwift wko dug me into a small hole before even getting to the FTP work. I'll drop it next week.
-Started the first set too hot, 5 watts lower could have made the difference.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1374280981
Now I need to apologize to the Level1 groups that are using the Zwift workouts. I just caught that the 30/30's for Wk3 (this week of course!!!) has a mistake in it. It was suppose to be 12x30/30 repeated twice.. Well, looks like have the workout written as 12 x 30/30 and then 10 x 30/30. You can thank me later for the break on your bottom!!!
@Coach Patrick - You should be able to just open the .zwo file in notepad and change the second set of 30/30 to be 12 instead of 10.
#nolimits.
Get'er done JOS!!!
2X14X30/20 for me right around IF of 1.26. In the past couple weeks I've been a little more aggressive on the earlier intervals. Today I held back a little and kept them all pretty equal in power and not requiring the extra 10" rest on the last few that I took last week.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1375255322
Really expected this to hurt, and it did, though not as much as yesterday's FTP intervals. I couldn't get to a 20" rest interval, though the 5" ramp up an down of the trainer probably got me close. HR was up into 170's on 1/3 of the intervals.
The amount of sweat generated during this workout was ridiculous.
Did the prescribed EN VO2 workout today rather than a Crush set. Did 4 x 8 x 30" with about 20" rest and another 10" ramp-up+ramp-down ... so basically went on each minute for 8 intervals then took a rest. It made for a pretty picture:
Rode the London flat course on Zwift. Much easier to recover on the flats rather than a hilly course
https://www.strava.com/activities/1375514683
Note to self...dont do that again!
Definitely feeling the week 3 burn.
Despite some more tech issues, got it done. Got a little frisky on set #2 but was feeling pretty good. Bricked out a 30min TM after.
Loving the graphs of pain!
SS
Second, I see a lot of people putting up IF's in this thread. Is it better to nail the interval IF's (1.25 say) and accept overall lower workout IF (0.85 say). Or is my overall workout IF more important than I think? I see some IF for workouts in the 0.93 range...I guess what I'm saying is my overall IF is lower but interval IF is spot on. That means I need to increase my power in the recovery zones and warmups to get overall IF higher. I built my wko in TP, so can adjust accordingly pretty easy. Maybe these are dumb questions, but I've never done VO2s before.
Ralph - yes, I am coming to the BRC! I always promise to really study the routes before I get there so I actually know where I'm going. Maybe this year since I live in North Carolina maybe I'll go up early and recon!
Some of my thoughts:
1) In a best case scenario I ease into the interval just under goal watts and build up to the target mid way through peaking by the end just over. In reality many times I over shoot, create a small spike in the middle and struggle to hang on by the end. It takes practice. I caution all about overshooting the 1.2. I recommend you extending the interval time if you feel strong. Do 40/20s vs. 30/30s at 1.2 for example or 60/60, etc.
2) Overall IF is a function of total work done. If you complete the V02 section on time and want to do more work, shoot for the Z3 zone. Often times I will do a 10-15 minute Z3 round after the V02 work, my TSS will be higher, my total time will be longer but my IF may fall to .89 or .88 because I just spend 15 minutes at .82-.85 range....overall amount of work or (TSS) is really what matters. Getting in the intensity intervals while not over-delivering provides a BIG return downstream and keeps the OS sustainable.
SS
Still coming back from my wicked cold. So:
Tuesday - 3 X 12'(3') @ Z4 turned out more like at Z3 with IF running around .80-.85.
Thursday - didn't feel strong enough to knock out the scheduled workout, so instead I did an old VO2 workout from an OS from years past:
3[5X1'(1')+1' ]@Z5 and started at an IF of 1.0 and actually averaged an IF of 1.2 for all 15 intervals.
Looks like I'm pulling out of this nose dive and should be back this weekend!