JOS Bike Thread Week 8
Vo2 Focus continues as we increase the interval length to 3 min @ FTP + 15% on Tuesday and
a mix of 30 sec and 1 min intervals on Thursday at, you guessed it, My favorite Max Sustainable Effort
There have been lots of posts about changing the bike workouts to Zwift rides or Sufferfest or whatever...
It all works if it motivates you. Do try and keep the basic shape of the workout, ie. Hard Intervals to maintain the focus on VO2 if possible.
Keep up the good work and don't forget to tune in to the EN Groupme channel for general team chatter.
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Tuesday's bike session is in the bag. Five intervals with IF of 1.12. My legs were a little heavy to start but they came around during the warm-up.
I'm finding these two and three minute efforts more tolerable as the OS progresses.
Buay morning so got it in this evening. That is a LONG 3 minutes on the last interval. Just sayin'. More importantly, 502 m closer to my Tron bike.
@Jeff Phillips more tolerable, yes, easier, not even close.
Rested today... because I was tired ;-) TSB will return to appropriate levels tomorrow. Will run tomorrow as scheduled in great weather, and slide Tues work to Thurs. I’m certain that I will spend some time in Zn5 at CnC. Great work @Jeff Phillips and @Ralph Moore
Son of a gun, the 1st, 4th, and 5th intervals did not feel awesome...but complete nevertheless at around 1.21. I forgot how hard these VO2 efforts are; just a different kind of suffering. I kinda like it. Nice work team...I'm feeling faster!
I like most of you felt these, but managed to hang on and knock them out at 1.15 IF. I am feeling stronger, just was very happy to see that blue portal telling me the finish was up ahead to give me the kick to finish strong on the last couple intervals.
Unfortunately I am just over 1/2 way to my Tron bike, so I figure if I can manage to keep with the ~550m gains a workout I only need to ride another 45 times to get it.
@Patrick Hayden I'm working towards my Tron bike as well!! I'm at about 75% right now and have been trying to do about 8-10k ft every week. With about 40k to go, I figure I should get there around the end of March beginning of April. On a positive note, I did hit level 24 yesterday and got the Cervelo S5!
I am at about 62% of the Tron bike. KISS race today. talk about intervals!!!
and I was still way off of the back
Thursday's VO2 ride in the bag, started too early due to a work meeting. My legs felt a little sluggish for the 30 sec efforts, but came back for the seven, 1 min efforts. IFs for 30 sec efforts was ~1.1 and for the 1 min efforts was ~1.3.
Quick 1 mile treadmill brick run right after.
I've gotten back on the saddle this week after three weeks doing FTP intervals on the slopes. Starting Saturday, I've added about 10K/20' to a daily ride, all on Zwift. A couple of races, a couple of group rides, and a couple of workouts. Culminating today in 2 hr 45"/51 miles, with the last 1.5 hours as a ZHR Up n Down race (Rising Empire - I saw a Jeff Phillips among the Bs, getting a silver trophy). 0.8 IF, 180 TSS. Saturday is pencilled in as a 4 hr 30' challenge ride, starting with the EN Cruise n Crush. I'm finding it's pretty "easy" to get my cycling legs back after skiing every day for 3 weeks, as long as I ramped my way into it, starting with 37'/20K the first day. One swim, one weight session, 5 runs so far; next week, I should be back on the planned schedule, 8 weeks to go until my A race.
@Al Truscott I think we need to have an EN PNW Sleeper Cell Dinner:o)...and I need to do all my FTP intervals on the slopes!!
@Ralph Moore that's an impressively low HR for an 107 TSS ride in 63 minutes! My LTHR (run tested) is 164, and hit 189 I think during my last FTP test:o)
Tonight's VO2 intervals sucked a little less than Tuesdays! Legs were still feeling pretty fatigued today, so wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. Tried to avg about 1.57IF for the 30" iterations, and about 1.4IF for the 1' iterations. Haven't tested since the start of the out season, and looking forward to seeing what kind of gains I might have made so far.
On a positive note, today marks 4 months of no smoking...after 29 years of such. The urge arises every now and then, but mostly think it's kicked. ...and after seeing a "bad angle" pic of me finishing a half marathon a month ago, I'm down 7lbs this month...like to get around another 15 or so before the serious racing season begins...I should sign up for something:o)
Thursday's ride is in the bag. Knocked out the 30" intervals, but the 1" ones hurt a bit more. Ended up holding 1.45 for those, but the struggle was real on the last one. It was cold and icy outside, so did a 2.5 mile ZM run after the ride.
Will likely swap weekend ride around, as we are supposed to get hit by a winter storm on Sat night into Sunday, so would prefer to get my long run done outside vs treadmill boredom. So I'll have to play it by ear if I am doing the C&C tomorrow before/after long run.
@Mark Hickman - keep up the awesome work, and definitely look to put something on the calendar even if its just a 1/2 marathon to close out the outseason. Those races are anchors you can you to pull you forward, break up the season, and can help you re-focus your training.
@Mark Hickman CONGRATS! You are my Hero for quitting smoking. Allegedly Keith Richards said that was harder to stop than Coke or Heroin. He would know, I guess. Also, how did you race and smoke? you must have some impressive pulmonary reserve. As for my HR, 165 is the highest I have ever seen it in normal sinus rhythm and I have HR data from 11 years of racing. I am a Diesel, not a hummingbird for sure. The cooper River Bridge Run is only a 10k but it is a fun race. Come on and do it the first weekend of April.
@Al Truscott I wish I was getting my TSS on the slopes, I am spreading 3 truckloads of mulch today. How many TSS in that?
This AM ride was short for me, I drank too much Champagne last night and I have yard duty so the Hang on ride ended when I fell off of the back. THe good news is that I held on for almost 26 min today as compared to 18 last week. Either I am getting better or the course was easier.
Total fail today. Hanging pretty well with the blob in the East Coast Ride for about 24 min and then I am sitting on the side of the road going nowhere and pedaling my little legs off. Restart Zwift, nothing. Power meter battery appears to be dead. I am ging to eat breakfast, Change out all of the batteries, and try again later.
I got yesterdays' 2.5 hr ride done. No real issues, I was able to maintain time in aero for 2+ hours. I did notice how my RPE increases when I'm slogging up a mountain and decreases when I'm flying down (I do TR workouts and have Zwift running too).
I did today's East Coast CnC ride after a 10.5 mile treadmill run. I fueled the run well, but my legs were fatigued when I got on the bike. I was able to hang for most of the first lap and then the system started to shut down :) I found two others to ride with for most of the 2nd lap and maintained 2.0-2.5 w/kg for most of the ride, but I was shelled.
@Ralph Moore about 8.5 min into the ride this morning my avatar just stopped on the side of the road. I had my KICKR connected via ANT+ and it showed connected, but wasn't responding. I had to get out of Zwift get back in quickly to rejoin the group and then I was good. First time that has ever happened to me.
A bad cold and a (surprise) reorganization at work led me to take a mid-OS break. A relatively strong day yesterday (200TSS) was likely too aggressive. The CnC West was an adequate first ride back, 15’ of Zn4 and 20’ of Zn3 with 6’ of Zn5 mixed in. I cut it short at 50’ with a long run planned prior to an arctic blast. I noted that my HR was higher than expected, and attributed it to decongestants :-)
My cold symptoms are pretty much resolved, and I am off all medications, but my HR remained nearly 10bpm high during the Zn3 portion of today’s long ride. I once again pulled the plug early at an hour. Might be dehydration, yesterday’s solid long run, or lingering effects of illness. It may also be that I have really not been focusing on duration during the long ABP rides... its “Fast then Far’” right? My limiter has always been muscular endurance (sustained Zn3). Today’s poor WKO aside, its clear that I need to make significant improvements in my longer bike rides, even if it means dropping my power targets a bit during the OS. Run durability has me cruising my long runs... time to apply (some) of those principles to the bike. With the Tour of Sufferlandria, I’ve done a lot of Vo2 work this JOS, so I’m going back to FTP intervals on Tues and the Sweet Spot Intervals on Thurs... with careful attention the weekend ride duration recommendations. Next weekend, my focus is on an 8mi run race. Luckily, my 70.3 is in late June, so I’ve got plenty of time.
@Jeff Phillips @Ralph Moore Are you on the bike focused or run focused plan? I'm on bike focused plan, so have long rides at Z3 slated for Saturdays, so haven't been able to do the EN rides on the weekend. In Washington state, so not getting up for the 4:50AM start of the EN Cruise and Crush ride. And thanks for the props on smoking Ralph; for me, the biggest thing is to legitimately decide to be a non-smoker..but it's still a bitch.
I ended up trying the Four Horsemen route on Saturday; quit at 3:07 after coming down the Alpe; I think I only did three of the four horsies:o). Will have to save that whole route for another day. Rode about 80 minutes this morning doing my own little personal cruise and crush ~ finally dropped a sub-10 second sprint on the NY Sprint. Then off to get the 10 mile run in, which was fantastic...such an amazingly beautiful running day. Less than 30k to the Tron Bike! Can I do it in two weeks??:o)))
@John Culberson do you use Zwift workouts and trainer ERG mode for the weekend long Z3 efforts. I find when I can just plug in a number and pedal pedal pedal...at any RPM, it is much more manageable. I've been doing 90 minutes of Z3 plus-ish followed by short break and 15-20 minutes of mid Z4 over the last few weeks, and I don't think I could have done the same if I didn't have the trainer zoned in for me. (though, I did do a 55km race one Saturday, which resulted in my all time high 90' minute avg!!)
I didn't test in week 4/5 due to stupidly doing a half Mary I had no business doing..lol..so looking for to testing week after next! I need to tell myself that anyway...
@Mark Hickman : Thanks for the tip... yes, I do. I have a 20 year-old dumb Computrainer, and my power output is very steady. I am a little nervous about getting a smart trainer. Being responsible for my own power output for extended periods might be an essential skill that I have gotten lazy with when training indoors. I think my major problem this weekend was that the hilly long run and CnC on Saturday and this darn cold beat me down. Next weekend, I’m hoping to start with the 90’Zn3/20’Zn4 combination that you have been doing.
Swapped workouts around and did sat on Sunday, and Sunday on Sat. I will say legs were a bit more beat on Sunday's long ride after the long run on Sunday. But knocked out the workout, but was happy to get off the legs later in the day.
@Mark Hickman I'm doing the Bike Focused OS. This is the first time this OS that I was able to join the Sunday (or Saturday) team ride and debated the pros/ cons of doing the run first vs. the ride first (stick with the group if I rode first, get dropped if I rode after run). In the end, I did not want to do a 10-mile brick after the CnC ride and I wanted to make sure I got a good long run in. I started running at 5 am Central, so that I would have enough time to put on biking gear prior to the team ride.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to make the Saturday West Coast CnC ride work with family commitments on the weekend.
@Mark Hickman I'm also doing the BF OS and have swapped back and forth between doing the workout in ERG mode for the z3, etc. work and doing the West Coast C&C ride on Saturdays. I did go back and look at some of my IFs and it looks like the C&C tends to have an overall higher IF for me, but that is for the longer Sat ride which I then tend to add a follow-up ride to close out the 2:30 hours. I then brick off of this a shorter 3-5 mile run to ensure I get my runs in for the week. I've tried running 1st but it impacts the quality of my longer ride.
For the Sunday long run & general C&C ride, I tend to run first then just pick a ride route and do the 30" intervals every 10 minutes, till I hit that 60-90 minute time-frame. My legs definitely notices the pick-ups off of the long run.
@Mark Hickman I am also on the Bike Focused plan but since I am not training for an IM, I just roll with the Team rides because they seem to have me working harder and I have the steady ride skill set down pretty well, I just need to work on more hard intervals.