JOS 2020 Bike Week 7 - no fancy title
I'm away doing downhill intervals, again.. Utah this time. But enough of me, the VO2 intervals are going to come on harder this week with the # of intervals per set increasing. Focus on each interval as if it's your last and make it count!
I did bring bike shoes & PT pedals with me to Utah, but the hotel has one recumbant bike, not really conducive to riding. I will trust in Al Truscott's view of hard skiing as a substitute.
Tagged:
0
Comments
Hurt locker this morning:
6 times @ 330w this morning, was easier than last Tuesday. I find the Thursday workout much harder (and i saw that the next Thursday wko has one additional interval for the 30 seconds and one minute intervals vs. last week to make it real fun :-)
I got today's session done a little later this morning. I'm dealing with a little bit of a stomach bug, but no fever, so worked from home. I figured I'd start the workout and play it by ear and if I wasn't feeling it, I'd bail. Got six intervals done at 1.15 IF for each, 0.79 IF for the workout. I didn't have the mental strength for a Zwift race and I wanted to compare to what I did last week to try to inform the remaining 5 weeks.
I'm leaning towards keeping Tuesday workouts as written and jump into a Zwift race for Thursday's workouts.
Pressing forward with the Tour of Sufferlandria. I’m working it around my schedule, dropping the IF on some stages, and extending it to two weeks so that I can get continue to build my swim and run. The mission was 10x2’ at over/under FTP at cadence of 50. The scenery from Switzerland help me to handle the torque of those big gear efforts. Hard workout. Swam and ran 1K/1.5mi in the am, which I’ll bump to 1.5K/3mi tomorrow before Stage 4, an evening Team Time Trial of over/under at IF 1.0 FTP lasting an hour. Don’t worry, there are lot of Vo2 intervals coming Thursday. Off my bike this weekend :-(
Got in the Tuesday VO2 session today. 6 x 2' @ 1.25 IF. Shortened the rest interval to 4', 4', 5', 6', 6', 3'. I knew from last week that I recovered pretty quickly at first and needed just a little more with each interval. HR settled in plenty of time with those rest intervals for me. Rode a little extra after the intervals as my weekend may be a little tight for time.
After being sick all weekend, and doing absolutely nothing, did the 5X2's yesterday for an ok workout.
Intervals at 1.19, 1.20, 1.22, 1.20, 1.22 with rest intervals between 3'-7'
6x30s / 6x1min at best effort this morning. Hurt. But felt a bit less hard than last Thursday. Maybe JOS is starting to pay off...
Great job @Vincent Sivirine !
Rather than the scripted workout I did the 3R Classique Flat Race, 4-laps in London. 42 min race, IF of 0.93, and 61 TSS. Very hard effort, with 3.1 watt/kg for the entire race.
Last Thursday's scheduled workout for me was 73 TSS at an IF of 0.84.
I'm still trying to figure out if I should switch the Tues or Thurs workout for these Zwift races.
That looked pretty tough @Jeff Phillips . My workout this morning was 0.93 and 105 TSS. Coach P had told me that it was fine to switch to a Tuesday or Thursday race instead of workout by week 6; i'm sticking to the wkos for now because i think races (which I love by the way) are more like a strong FTP ride with constant high wattage vs. a VO2 max wko where this morning i was pushing 1.7 IF for the 6x30" and then 1.6 IF for the 6x1'. So two different types of wkos. Maybe i'm also very "academic", i try to follow the plan to the letter if not i feel guilty that i won't realize all the benefits from the plan.
I'm with you @Vincent Sivirine
I too like to the follow the plan as written and question if I'm getting the proper stimulus if not.
@Mark Lane - welcome back and nice work digging in.
@John Culberson - smart suffering plan!
@Vincent Sivirine, @Bill Eckert , @Jeff Phillips - settling in with new FTPs and consistently hitting the mark, carrying the load and getting it done! Following the plan is a good choice, so many things in these seasoned plans already figured out for you after years of trial and error across hundreds of athletes in terms of what works!
6x30s / 7x1min for this morning. OMG, not fun:
Been away on work travel Got in 6X2' 1.16- 1.25 from memory on Tuesday, just a little harder than last week. I was trying for 320 NP on the last one channeling my best @Shaughn Simmons and made 319. Kudos to you form bumping you FTP up last test, the air is getting thin up there for me. Even though I knew it I realized just how much work I still need to put in to break that 300 watt barrier let along hitting my goals.
Took this morning off as I got in very late. Hitting the 2nd vo2 session tomorrow.
@Mark Lane @John Culberson @Vincent Sivirine @Jeff Phillips @Shaughn Simmons
Awesome work getting it done. So motivational to see what everyone is doing.
Got in the Thursday VO2 workout today. Had to do Tuesday and Thursday back to back days last week and this week. Looks like I will be doing all bike workouts this week on consecutive days like last week. Thankfully I have everything shifted around next week so that I can do the workouts as planned but shifted by one day.
I modified my intensity today a little from the workout as it was written for Zwift. Did do a little more than last week though. I have noticed that it takes about 5 to 7 seconds for the trainer to get to the power for the interval. So I stayed in ERG mode but added 7 seconds to each interval and took 7 seconds off of the rest interval. Seemed to work really good. It doesn't seem like much and it really isn't but it does make a little bit of difference. Shortened my rest intervals to 3 - 3:30 for the 1' intervals. HR recovered just fine in the shortened time.
6 x 30"(2') @ 350W (IF = 1.46), 6 x 1' (3'-4') @ 325W (IF = 1.35); It was 340 and 320 last week. I am with you @Shaughn Simmons, not fun.
Did this morning's VO2 workout. 4X30" 401-439w avg, 5X1' 332-334w avg. Feeling it.
Sufferfest Stage 5: Violator. 64 x 5-15s Max effort intervals as. 3 sets of 25, 25, and 14. Yes... that’s sixty-four! While a new 5s Power number and nearly all efforts near 500w sounds impressive, that’s the last time I pretend to be a Crit racer. I’m more proud that I maintained my swim and run frequency this week and of my plan to take today off and finish the last 4 stages over the next week. Today, I learned that my top end needs work, but will stick to the general EN plan following “The Tour.”
@Shaughn Simmons Thanks bud... really looking forward to following the action at St George.
@Bill Eckert You’re right, this is a strong JOS group... everybody hurts!
@Vincent Sivirine @Jeff Phillips Being academic about a training plan is the most effective method. Once I get race specific, I get pretty academic. This Sufferfest stuff is a bit of a distraction, but in a bike camp kinda way.
@Gordon Cherwoniak Fitting the work around travel and keeping your eye on the goal is one reason you are a WSM.
6X30" 1.4-1.43 and 6X1' 1.4-1.56 for me today, pushing high vo2 watts hurts. Legs were sluggish today but I got in the work and could still push the last one. I told my self at the start only 9' of work so no excuses to not get it done. I was not buying that line on the file 2X1' but it helped for the first 7'.
Did Friday Freight Train this morning. Did some weight doping but not as much as last time. Then did a Crit City Race this afternoon. No weight doping. Not my first race but it was my first Crit City race. Look at what happened!
@Bill Eckert well done this Friday!
@Gordon Cherwoniak 9' of solid work! 10' next week!
@Mark Lane strong 5X1s....pain city!
Morning EN HangOn ride earned me a new 60' power.....
@John Culberson 500 watt I was hurting pushing just over 400 that's crazy. Having said that I find on the very short 30" intervals I don't get enough work in so going harder does help. Now 1' and 2' intervals the power drops off as it should but I would like to produce more power.
@Shaughn Simmons A new 60' power number you are just crushing it this OS.
2 hours 23' today up 17' from last week with a 163 TSS, also up slightly over last week. I did a little less higher end Vo2 this week with 6X2'@ 1.1 to 1.15 IF then finished with 4' just above FTP @1.04IF.
Musings of the day. The Vo2 efforts are working and I've been doing a lunch high IF than in pervious OS's. While we still have a couple weeks of work I was already thinking about the next bike test. With no longer FTP intervals I want to dial in the first 5-10' to ensure I don't crack but also don't leave too much on the table, thus the 4' at FTP+ at just over the 2 hour mark of the ride to see how it felt.
Anyway we are a long way from that and I've got to put in a bunch more work but 260 did not feel like a stretch at this point, but OS fatigue is building.
@Gordon Cherwoniak The 500w intervals were 5-10s. I was just completing a stage in the Tour of Suf. personally, I like 1-2min intervals that are near 400w... at least initially!
Did Alpe Du Zwift today. I have wanted to do it but at the same time not wanted to because of how slow I knew I would be. Took 1 hour and 43 minutes. Now I have a base line that I can compare to as bike fitness and body composition improve.
Okay, so pics of pain cave. I work from home and my office doubles as my pain cave. I flip the bike up when not training to have room to work.
Wow - you all have done some great work this week! I feel like I missed out. @Bill Eckert I love the pain cave setup!
This past week has been crazy busy, and between training, work pressures, and life (nothing major: just had to deal with a battery warning light on my car...but it did steal time away I would have otherwise used to train), some things had to give. I hate missing a workout, especially when I am otherwise healthy, and this week I had to miss two. I normally strength train twice a week (followed by a run), and Tuesday, I dropped that session. The hope was that I could catch up at work and complete both strength/run and the bike VO2 session on Thursday. But that didn't pan out...had to skip Thursday's bike since I was unwilling to cancel both strength sessions this week.
For the midweek bikes, I only got in the Tuesday VO2max intervals (at 1.20 1.20, 1.25, and 1.29). For as much as I dread the VO2max intervals, I've found I'm not nearly as drained at the end of those sessions as I am from our prior block with all the FTP work.
I did a Saturday 2.5 zwift ride, incorporating a ladies race, and managed to eek out a new 60 minute power record. This morning, I rode easy for 90 minutes, then ran for 1:10 (a little lighter than our plan called for, but I'm doing a half marathon next Sunday and I decided to back off a tad in preparation for that ).
Here's hoping I can get back to my preferred schedule...although next week will be a bit off, as well, due to the half marathon.
Here's my weekly check-in.
Monday Susan and I went for a 2+ hour gravel ride to test out the new bike fit. It felt great. I was able to put down a lot of power in slippery sections and the rear wheel stayed glued to the ground. Last time I tried to do that on soft wet soil the rear end was squirming around like crazy. I thought something was wrong with the wheel and stopped several times to check it. I also noticed that the new fit engaged my backside chain more. And I felt it on Tuesday. My glutes were sore for the first time in a long time, not bad, just a good workout sore.
I rode to work on Thursday and it was a sunny day here so I incorporated the intervals in the ride home. The 4X30 went something like this, sprint to make the light, sprint across the narrow bridge, hammer it up the hill, finally a flat spot to just hammer it. By then I was on a stretch of road that is wide with a nice bike lane so I did a 1 minute interval, did a u-turn and rode back to the start for the recovery and did it again 5 times. I don't have a power meter on my bike but my heart rate was similar to the intervals last week on the trainer and I felt like I was going to die the last 30 seconds of #4 and 5.
I put off the Saturday bike until today because a looming storm which hit last night. (Power went out at 0530 but came back on at 0730.) I did an hour at Z1-2 and then did the Bump Sprint Race. Got a yearly 20 minute high power medal and unlocked the EN jersey! The ride didn't add up to the TSS I got last Saturday in a 2 hour ride, but it was fun. I'm also beginning to ride to work more now so my weekly mileage is about to start going up.
I bailed completely on Sunday. I had rising fatigue levels last week and RPE was higher than normal for the bikes and runs, etc. I slept 9-hours Friday, 12-hours Saturday night, and 9-hours last night.
I'm going to do a 60-min pilates session tonight and get back to bike and run starting tomorrow.
@Wendy Kelly Way to hang in there and get done with what you could. Nothing like a little "life" to make us adjust things.
@Mark Maurer Sounds like some good work and nothing wrong with having a little fun. I have discovered that I like the Friday Freight Train (weight doping to keep up) and doing some racing. Adds a little flavor and keeps me interested.
@Jeff Phillips Looks like you needed some well deserved rest. Watching you I know you will be back at it strong this week.