Tuesday OS Wk 4 workout. First interval was pretty solid. Second interval started out in ERG until my HR started getting a bit high, then switched off ERG and went with the terrain variation and changing gears. Overall a fair ride but that second 15 min though...
So, Week 5 is test week! The weekend was a wash on the bike due to unexpected travel. I was feeling pretty good last PM so I dropped into the Crit City 8 lap race "C" category in hopes of getting a FTP bump. PSA: Crit city racing is a bit surgey (and hilly) for a solid FTP attempt (at least for me) and I may do the Bump Race Sunday just as a another shot at a 4 week bump. Spoiler, no new FTP but I hung with the lead pack for the first 4.5 laps. New all time high average HR in zwift power for the race so that is about as hard as I was able to go.
Golden Cheetah says my 20 min power for that ride was 287 which is above my FTP but not high enough to bump it. I will roll into week 6 of the OS which is my FAVORITE because it starts the 4 week block of shorter, harder intervals. I find that I am much more interested in the short interval workouts rather than the longer intervals of the first 4 weeks even though I know it probably does not help my power as much.
Also I am copying my teammates in my attempt to ride all of the routes in Zwift. I will have some long ones coming up and will put it out on Groupme for Discord support when that happens. Today I will probably not ride since I took my Adamo Saddle off so My wife could try it on her Peloton. I have low enjoyment of an all-standing ride as a general rule.
So, My wife wanted to try a split-nose saddle so I went in Wed and my bike seat was on the Peloton. Not sure she liked it because she gave it back today. Anyways, instead of jumping straight to the short intervals of Week 6, I went back and did Thurs Wk 4 with the 3 x 12 min intervals. Overall, it went rather well. HR not too high, felt solid. Prolly gonna do the prescribed workout for Sat and try the Bump race Sun. If I do a team ride Sat AM or Sun AM, it will wipe me out so I will have to take a pass but I will lurk on Discord and kibitz.
For the last year, I have been biking almost exclusively with Zwift and doing the OS workouts during the week and Riding with the team on the weekends in the Hang on and Cruise and Crush Rides. My training in the past has been almost exclusively riding alone and doing long endurance rides so this has been a big change for me to go from endurance to hard intervals. Even though I am bumping up against 3 w/kg, I usually get dropped about 30-45 min in on either weekend ride and end up finishing behind the main group.
SOOOO... I decided that I need to start doing more of the actual prescribed weekend rides per the OS plan to work on my endurance more. Since I was on call at the hospital, I did the Wk 1 Sat ride a bit late in the day just to get back in the swing of longer rides. Overall, it went pretty well. Steady HR build to a reasonable level.
New all time 70 min power at 239 so that tells you how long it has been since I rode for much over an hour. I had planned to do the Bump race Sunday night but it was not to be. Maybe next week.
This AM, it was Wk6 Tuesday. Back to the short intervals. I find that the shorter, harder intervals are mentally (and possibly physically) less demanding for me. My HR recovered by 3 min into the 8 min recovery so that seems like a good sign.
Part of the reason I like the High intensity intervals may be that I can more easily squeeze my workout in before work rather than waiting until after. On to Thursday wk 6.
Rode up some real hills during the 24.8mi Ironman VR4. Power was very high given my PE. Now the 10K brick run under the west Texas sun was another story!
Last Sat, I was all set up to do the prescribed OS long ride when I logged onto discord to find @Nam Lam and the other crazies doing a 5 hour ride. SO, I succumbed to peer pressure and rode with them for a couple of hours instead. It was great fun in spite of the tech fails that I had at 1:30 in and again another 30 min later. Thank goodness for "ride with" so I could just jump back in.
Yesterday was Week 7 Tuesday intervals. Overall, felt pretty good. I got a little wiggy for the sprint at the end. Good HR recovery by 2 min after a 2 min interval. Just knocking off routes on Zwift. Prolly gonna do some longer 3-4 hour rides on the weekends to get the longer routes checked off but work has actually been busier than I thought lately and life...
Thursday;'s workout got bagged in favor of a Crit City race with teammates. Peer pressure wins out again. I did get an all time 10 min power upgrade to 314 and top 5 20 min power out of it but no FTP bump. HR got a bit high in the middle and I backed off and got dropped by the main group. Finished with my man @Sid Wavrin in the middle of the C pack. solid EN "fun".
So, Sat was the prescribed OS workout (albeit a few weeks behind). It is a mark of how long it has been since I rode long that doing the standard workout gave me a new 90 min PR. (just by a couple of watts but I will take that)
Pretty quick and reproduceable HR recovery after the intervals. Hopefully pulling that anaerobic threshold up!a Next week will tell when FTP test is due.
I have an actual outdoor ride this weekend. 57 miles and 6k feet of gain in the blue ridge mountains. So, I have to actually take my bike off of the trainer and put wheels back on it and it has to shift and all that. That being said, I did the Thursday (actually Tuesday, see above) ride tonight so I can do bike maintainance tomorrow. I actually cut the recovery short for several intervals with no problem.
If you didn't hear the story of my weekend ride on the Groupme, you get the reader's Digest condensed version now. 3 buddies and I headed up towards Asheville to ride the mountains this past weekend. We loaded up at about 7 and headed out for the 2 hour car ride to the starting point. At 9 AM we were getting ready to pull into the start of the ride, when I realized that I left my bike shoes at home. We googled the Bike local shops and found one nearby that opened at 10. The guys were pretty chill and said that we would wait out front until the shop opened at 10. We did the drive by to see where the shop was located and the door was open. We stopped and asked if they sold bike shoes, the guy said that they did not. They used to but had too hard a time keeping all of the sizes. He said that they had a few pairs on clearance. I looked and THEY HAD THE SHIMANO GRAVEL SHOES THAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR IN A SIZE 50 at 40% off!.
So after that, the ride went well.
Last week was Test week. I was going to do the Bump race Sunday night but that didn't happen, then I was going to do the Bump race on MOnday but 8:15 PM. It did not work with dinner and family so I signed up for a time trial tonight in an attempt to pace myself better. It didn't work.
I started out too hot and my HR blew up so I actually had to stop for a minute to get my HR back under control. I didn't get a FTP bump but I still got my second highest lifetime 20 min power in spite of the crappy start. I just need to get my pacing better, the story of my life...
Dang, I have been out of the loop. Lots going on. Sometimes, the only thing keeping me sane is these structured OS workouts. Today was such a day. I accidentally repeated Week 7 and did week 8 last week so this week is week 9 of the March OS.
Those 3 min intervals at 325 watts get a bit harder near the end. I will be out of town this weekend checking on family so it will be a run weekend. Say safe all my EN people! Lots of crazy shit going down.
So, It was a bit off schedule but I was out of town for the weekend and did not ride. I dropped into the Monday Bump race on short notice because I was rested and had not had an FTP bump in a while. I paced it like a real FTP effort instead of a Zwift race so I knew my goal watts and I tried to stay close to those from the beginning with a slow increase as per the Wiki instructions on FTP testing.
Interestingly, I found a group that basically let me pull them for the entire 2o min and then left me after my 2 min max effort interval was done. Anyways, it worked and I got a small bump. Yay, now to do harder zones on my OS workouts. I paced the interval solely based on my HR, going as hard as I could without going into SVT(it is a thing). Note the TSS of 57 in a 33 min ride. I clearly needed a FTP bump because that should not be possible.
As I use Golden Cheetah, I loaded the ride and noticed that the Wbal graph was very interesting so I did a bit of research on that topic. It is essentially the amount of your anaerobic energy reserves expended in a workout. I have not used that for much but in a 20 min all out effort, it is an angled line that goes into the negative as you reach the end of the interval and presumably use up your energy reserves. I am gonna post a thread to get more knowledge from my smarter teammates. Anyways, back to the OS with new power zones.
Dang, it has been 3 weeks since I updated this thread. My Bad! I wasn't just goofing off, I actually went outdoors again.
I have been having a bit of an issue with the weekday workouts since my FTP bump. The next workout after the bump was 2 x 20 min at FTP. That was never going to happen with my old FTP, much less with a new, slightly higher one so I pulled an audible and went back to the VO2 interval workouts for a couple of weeks.
I climbed the Alpe AGAIN Sat and still NO WHEELS! Dang it. Maybe next time.
Comments
Tuesday OS Wk 4 workout. First interval was pretty solid. Second interval started out in ERG until my HR started getting a bit high, then switched off ERG and went with the terrain variation and changing gears. Overall a fair ride but that second 15 min though...
10K run tomorrow
So, Week 5 is test week! The weekend was a wash on the bike due to unexpected travel. I was feeling pretty good last PM so I dropped into the Crit City 8 lap race "C" category in hopes of getting a FTP bump. PSA: Crit city racing is a bit surgey (and hilly) for a solid FTP attempt (at least for me) and I may do the Bump Race Sunday just as a another shot at a 4 week bump. Spoiler, no new FTP but I hung with the lead pack for the first 4.5 laps. New all time high average HR in zwift power for the race so that is about as hard as I was able to go.
Golden Cheetah says my 20 min power for that ride was 287 which is above my FTP but not high enough to bump it. I will roll into week 6 of the OS which is my FAVORITE because it starts the 4 week block of shorter, harder intervals. I find that I am much more interested in the short interval workouts rather than the longer intervals of the first 4 weeks even though I know it probably does not help my power as much.
Also I am copying my teammates in my attempt to ride all of the routes in Zwift. I will have some long ones coming up and will put it out on Groupme for Discord support when that happens. Today I will probably not ride since I took my Adamo Saddle off so My wife could try it on her Peloton. I have low enjoyment of an all-standing ride as a general rule.
So, My wife wanted to try a split-nose saddle so I went in Wed and my bike seat was on the Peloton. Not sure she liked it because she gave it back today. Anyways, instead of jumping straight to the short intervals of Week 6, I went back and did Thurs Wk 4 with the 3 x 12 min intervals. Overall, it went rather well. HR not too high, felt solid. Prolly gonna do the prescribed workout for Sat and try the Bump race Sun. If I do a team ride Sat AM or Sun AM, it will wipe me out so I will have to take a pass but I will lurk on Discord and kibitz.
For the last year, I have been biking almost exclusively with Zwift and doing the OS workouts during the week and Riding with the team on the weekends in the Hang on and Cruise and Crush Rides. My training in the past has been almost exclusively riding alone and doing long endurance rides so this has been a big change for me to go from endurance to hard intervals. Even though I am bumping up against 3 w/kg, I usually get dropped about 30-45 min in on either weekend ride and end up finishing behind the main group.
SOOOO... I decided that I need to start doing more of the actual prescribed weekend rides per the OS plan to work on my endurance more. Since I was on call at the hospital, I did the Wk 1 Sat ride a bit late in the day just to get back in the swing of longer rides. Overall, it went pretty well. Steady HR build to a reasonable level.
New all time 70 min power at 239 so that tells you how long it has been since I rode for much over an hour. I had planned to do the Bump race Sunday night but it was not to be. Maybe next week.
This AM, it was Wk6 Tuesday. Back to the short intervals. I find that the shorter, harder intervals are mentally (and possibly physically) less demanding for me. My HR recovered by 3 min into the 8 min recovery so that seems like a good sign.
Part of the reason I like the High intensity intervals may be that I can more easily squeeze my workout in before work rather than waiting until after. On to Thursday wk 6.
Sent from my iPhone
go @John Culberson !
Last Sat, I was all set up to do the prescribed OS long ride when I logged onto discord to find @Nam Lam and the other crazies doing a 5 hour ride. SO, I succumbed to peer pressure and rode with them for a couple of hours instead. It was great fun in spite of the tech fails that I had at 1:30 in and again another 30 min later. Thank goodness for "ride with" so I could just jump back in.
Yesterday was Week 7 Tuesday intervals. Overall, felt pretty good. I got a little wiggy for the sprint at the end. Good HR recovery by 2 min after a 2 min interval. Just knocking off routes on Zwift. Prolly gonna do some longer 3-4 hour rides on the weekends to get the longer routes checked off but work has actually been busier than I thought lately and life...
Thursday;'s workout got bagged in favor of a Crit City race with teammates. Peer pressure wins out again. I did get an all time 10 min power upgrade to 314 and top 5 20 min power out of it but no FTP bump. HR got a bit high in the middle and I backed off and got dropped by the main group. Finished with my man @Sid Wavrin in the middle of the C pack. solid EN "fun".
So, Sat was the prescribed OS workout (albeit a few weeks behind). It is a mark of how long it has been since I rode long that doing the standard workout gave me a new 90 min PR. (just by a couple of watts but I will take that)
https://us.v-cdn.net/6029573/uploads/400/Screen Shot 2020-05-09 at 8.30.24 AM.pngIt was fun to discord with the guys riding the Alpe for a bit. I am going to have to do that some more soon just to get those darn wheels.
Today I knocked out the Week 7 workout before work but it was not until I got done that I noticed that I did the Thursday Workout. Felt good though.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6029573/uploads/379/Screen Shot 2020-05-12 at 7.41.05 AM.pngPretty quick and reproduceable HR recovery after the intervals. Hopefully pulling that anaerobic threshold up!a Next week will tell when FTP test is due.
I have an actual outdoor ride this weekend. 57 miles and 6k feet of gain in the blue ridge mountains. So, I have to actually take my bike off of the trainer and put wheels back on it and it has to shift and all that. That being said, I did the Thursday (actually Tuesday, see above) ride tonight so I can do bike maintainance tomorrow. I actually cut the recovery short for several intervals with no problem.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6029573/uploads/221/Screen Shot 2020-05-13 at 6.54.24 PM.pngAlso VO2 upgrade to 49 per Garmin actually not sure that is right but whatever. I will take it.
So,
If you didn't hear the story of my weekend ride on the Groupme, you get the reader's Digest condensed version now. 3 buddies and I headed up towards Asheville to ride the mountains this past weekend. We loaded up at about 7 and headed out for the 2 hour car ride to the starting point. At 9 AM we were getting ready to pull into the start of the ride, when I realized that I left my bike shoes at home. We googled the Bike local shops and found one nearby that opened at 10. The guys were pretty chill and said that we would wait out front until the shop opened at 10. We did the drive by to see where the shop was located and the door was open. We stopped and asked if they sold bike shoes, the guy said that they did not. They used to but had too hard a time keeping all of the sizes. He said that they had a few pairs on clearance. I looked and THEY HAD THE SHIMANO GRAVEL SHOES THAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR IN A SIZE 50 at 40% off!.
So after that, the ride went well.
Last week was Test week. I was going to do the Bump race Sunday night but that didn't happen, then I was going to do the Bump race on MOnday but 8:15 PM. It did not work with dinner and family so I signed up for a time trial tonight in an attempt to pace myself better. It didn't work.
I started out too hot and my HR blew up so I actually had to stop for a minute to get my HR back under control. I didn't get a FTP bump but I still got my second highest lifetime 20 min power in spite of the crappy start. I just need to get my pacing better, the story of my life...
Dang, I have been out of the loop. Lots going on. Sometimes, the only thing keeping me sane is these structured OS workouts. Today was such a day. I accidentally repeated Week 7 and did week 8 last week so this week is week 9 of the March OS.
Those 3 min intervals at 325 watts get a bit harder near the end. I will be out of town this weekend checking on family so it will be a run weekend. Say safe all my EN people! Lots of crazy shit going down.
So, It was a bit off schedule but I was out of town for the weekend and did not ride. I dropped into the Monday Bump race on short notice because I was rested and had not had an FTP bump in a while. I paced it like a real FTP effort instead of a Zwift race so I knew my goal watts and I tried to stay close to those from the beginning with a slow increase as per the Wiki instructions on FTP testing.
Interestingly, I found a group that basically let me pull them for the entire 2o min and then left me after my 2 min max effort interval was done. Anyways, it worked and I got a small bump. Yay, now to do harder zones on my OS workouts. I paced the interval solely based on my HR, going as hard as I could without going into SVT(it is a thing). Note the TSS of 57 in a 33 min ride. I clearly needed a FTP bump because that should not be possible.
As I use Golden Cheetah, I loaded the ride and noticed that the Wbal graph was very interesting so I did a bit of research on that topic. It is essentially the amount of your anaerobic energy reserves expended in a workout. I have not used that for much but in a 20 min all out effort, it is an angled line that goes into the negative as you reach the end of the interval and presumably use up your energy reserves. I am gonna post a thread to get more knowledge from my smarter teammates. Anyways, back to the OS with new power zones.
Dang, it has been 3 weeks since I updated this thread. My Bad! I wasn't just goofing off, I actually went outdoors again.
I have been having a bit of an issue with the weekday workouts since my FTP bump. The next workout after the bump was 2 x 20 min at FTP. That was never going to happen with my old FTP, much less with a new, slightly higher one so I pulled an audible and went back to the VO2 interval workouts for a couple of weeks.
I climbed the Alpe AGAIN Sat and still NO WHEELS! Dang it. Maybe next time.
This AM was back to VO2 work.