Home General Training Discussions

NOS Bike Thread Week 6

Week Six: New Training Phase


Now that we’ve tested it’s time to roll into a new week with that shiny new FTP. This week is VO2 work to get that max power up for short intervals. Remember you can access The OutSeason® Plan resources on our Plan Descriptions page here. Let’s see those workouts and leave a note here if you have any questions! 

Tuesday : 3,4,or 5 x 2 minute intervals at Zone 5 (120% FTP) with 8 min recovery

Thursday : 30 sec Max intervals followed by 1 min max intervals

Sat: 2.5 hours with surges of 30 sec to 4 min approx 4 times per hour.

Tagged:

Comments

  • Question about executing the max effort intervals -- turn off erg mode?

  • I survived both the bump race (and yes, I bumped) and the Tuesday morning workout.

    Due to work considerations, I'm moving my Thursday ride to Wednesday this week. I do think that I'm going to have to toggle off erg mode for the max efforts. The Kickr Snap is simply not that responsive.

    My current plan is to upgrade my road bike this spring (no sense in doing that now when I am on the trainer anyway) and then upgrade to a direct drive trainer this time next year. In the meantime, the Kickr Snap will get the job done.

  • Been AWOL from these posts for a bit. NOS has progressed nicely, just never got back to these...sorry.

    Good FTP bump last week, so that means today's 5 x 2' were more difficult, but managable. The 40' run after was another story after the 5 x 2'.

  • My solution to ERG mode today was to dial-up A Very Dark Place and complete 3x4’ for a total of 12’ at 120% FTP. There are 2 more intervals on the video... but I had suffered enough. I will travel to Volcano Flats and complete the 30s and 1’ intervals without ERG on Thursday. I’ve ridden 5 of the past 6 days, moderate pace with some variable intervals at FTP, no rides over an hour. I know from experience that the 1’ intervals, while feeling easier, will produce some fatigue for the weekend work. West Coast CnC is starting soon, but I’ll need to “sit in” with some shorter efforts at FTP, as 2 very hard bikes/week is my limit. Run Durability remains my priority.

  • @PatKoss @John Culberson @Janyne Kizer Great Work Everyone!

    I did Tuesday's workout today due to fixing the dishwasher and installing security cameras last night. Overall, it went pretty well.

    As far as Erg mode goes, I have been struggling with how best to handle intervals in Erg mode. I have just realized that my pre-Erg methodology for completing intervals was to get into the correct gear to hit my goal power and, as the interval progressed, I was able to push harder and even stand as needed to complete the interval. Basically, I was fighting a fixed resistance.

    In Erg mode, if I push harder, the resistance decreases and I end up pedaling at a higher cadence and since I am a "Diesel" kind of rider who tends to lower my cadence as resistance increases, this has been harder for me to adjust to.

    I did the first interval above in Erg and then the last 3 in regular old resistance mode. The other benefit of NOT using Erg mode is that I actually tend to produce more power near the end of the intervals and that is difficult to do in Erg mode.

  • edited December 6, 2019 3:40PM

    Weekend riding questions for the peanut gallery:

    • I see that my bike focused plan says to Cruise and Crush on Saturday. What are your thoughts on moving that to Sunday to do with the EN crew? @Coach Patrick? Does it matter if I do my long ride on Saturday or Sunday?
    • If I do the EN Cruise and Crush, is that a weight doping allowed ride? I don't think that's gonna be a Z1/Z2 ride for me? Or is this really telling me to find a Z1/Z2 ride and add the intervals?
    • As an aside, have any of you noticed that very few women participate in the EN Zwift rides? Is EN really 85 or 90% male or is that just the Zwift participation? For the Hang on Ride it's only been two and Cruise and Crush looks like it's also getting two women. FFF has a lot more finishers and seems to get about a half a dozen women (still about 6%). It seems that a Zwift push should include all ENers, that's all. (don't hate me, @Coach Patrick!)
  • @Janyne Kizer I think the answer to your first question is that you certainly may change up your Sat and Sunday routines with minimal repercussions since you have Monday to recover.

    #2 weight doping is certainly allowed on any team EN ride. The only time it becomes an issue for most folks is if you weight dope in a legit race. Feel free to change things up so that you can cruise between the crushes at Z1-2.

    #3 there are women that ride Zwift with the team. They are certainly outnumbered by the males but the ones that do show up kick ass. You might reach out to @Jenn Edwards and get her feedback on that. Certainly, you would be welcome if you choose to weight dope and show up. I just end up off the back. ;)


    As far as that topic goes: this was today

    You can pretty much see where I was going pretty hard to keep up with the pack until I fell off of the back of the pack about 27 min in and then I backed it on down before heading outside to do Zone 5 Christmas decorating.

  • Agree with @Ralph Moore s assessment @Janyne Kizer Also, the best way to increase women’s participation in Zwift is for women to show up. Just my two cents! :-)

  • Improving my group ride skills on Zwift. CnC East went well through the first two “Crushes” this morning. Somehow I must have sprinted into the fence or something, because I was “Zapped.” I’m not sure exactly what that means, however, it implies bad behavior 😂. Couldn’t figure out how to get myself back to the group... found myself on-my-own, so I headed to the Alpe for some “Tron Points.” Overall good ride.

  • Thanks, @Jenn Edwards! I ended up doing a DIRT ride on Sunday since I needed 2.5 hours and they had a group going at my real (non weight doped) watts/kg. With 300 riders I was able to drift back between intervals. I did warn them that I was going very 12-12 minutes which probably made me feel better than helped them (what is that crazy person doing with the surges?!).

    I kinda enjoy the DIRT dad jokes. hahaha!

    I wasn't trying to complain, just trying to address what @Coach Patrick said in the weekly update about Zwift.

    I hope that you can take the time to look into Zwift. December will be a big push to get everyone on Zwift as well as Discord so that you can enjoy our workouts together not only as official events that Endurance Nation has on the Zwift platform but also in meetups which happen on the weekend where teammates ride together and have great conversation adding a social element to our winter training when things get tough.

    As a former (and perhaps future) roadie, I totally get that female participation in group rides is not high.

  • Janyne -

    I have no problem with you moving a long ride to Sunday, although I believe
    there will be a Saturday ride version coming out at some point in time in
    the near future from the team. It just takes a while to organize leads and
    then set a schedule and then actually get Zwift to add it to the mix.

    Weight doping is 100% OK in those rides. It is frowned upon in Racing, but
    in group rides anything that gets you to work harder, into sustain that
    work overtime, is absolutely encouraged.

    It is been my experience that overall female participation in Swift is very
    low. I don’t know if you’re intimating that we are excluding women in the
    push to getting the Team on the Zwift, but I want to assure you that we are
    not. The same awesome people here in the forums and that you meet up with
    on race day are also here on Zwift!

    If you have any specific ideas how we can get our amazing women to
    participate more on Zwift I am all about it.
  • No, I am not implying that women are excluded, just asking if there is a way to be more inclusive. I know that I don't feel excluded as a woman, it's just that female participation is shockingly low. Or maybe it's just that there are fewer A/B women and more D/E ones? In other words, I could be seeing low female participation when it's actually low D rider participation.

    Thanks for clarifying the group ride/weight doping protocols ;-)

    I'll be on EN rides as my schedule allows.

Sign In or Register to comment.