TEam, please help me figure something out.
I'll do the best I can to be brief. yesterday, I had interval day on the bike. But I have to go back to my TT on Monday. Stats from that day:
40', 15.25 miles, AHR = 154. I think this is a bit low, but there's no way I could have gone faster, at all. I don't have any 'proof' that my HR was low, it just seems low. I did this test outdoors, NOT on the trainer.
Yesterday, for the intervals (ON THE TRAINER), on the 2x8, I was just barely able to AVERAGE Z4 for those sets, and when I had the final 16' in Z3, I was in one gear lower, and was barely able to maintain Z2. It wasn't for lack of effort. I just am not sure if I am doing something incorrectly.
Below is the chart, red is my HR, blue is my speed. Is this a simple case that I need to gear up one more? Do I want my HR to AVERAGE in Z4, or just finish in mid-Z4 (which it did)? So, let's say I did the 2x8 correctly, and really don't need to make any changes there, how would I make adjustments to the final 16'? I can't gear up...it would be my gearing for the Z4 sets. Can't really increase cadence too much more.
Hope my questions make sense for everyone. Appreciate input. (hope the jpeg is formatted okay. If not, very sorry)
Comments
I think it's important to realize that HR lags behind your effort, so average HR over a time is not what you want to be targeting. I think what's really important is to work steady for the first couple of minutes while your HR catches up to your effort, which for you looks like it can take 2-3 minutes. So if you look at the blue line in your main intervals, you'll see that you were pretty steady on effort, which to me says you were about right on your pacing.
As for the Z3 time, you've pretty much got gear or cadence - pick one. You can follow Lance A's lead and work on crazy high cadences. Were it me, I would go for the next gear up and drop the cadence a few clicks.
But what you're really experiencing, in my opinion, is that if you're nearer to the low end of your Z4 zone, there's just not much difference between it and Z3. So another approach might be to go with the gearing from your main set for your Z3 time, and then look at bumping up a gear for the main set.
At the end of the day, you're getting the work done. Keep tweaking, and the good news is that the OS gives LOTS of opportunities to try different things.
Mike
Thanks, Mike. That's what I figured...just wanted to make sure I was doing it the EN way.
Today's workout was nearly identical in terms of the workout, but my HR numbers were right on target, only added line is cadence. Unsure what I did differently, to be honest, but I was very pleased with the results. The last Z3 effort sucked big time...
Mike,
It's early in the OS, and it MAKES SENSE that the last bits of your workouts will suck. You will get better at pacing, better at nutrition, stronger, and faster. In a couple of weeks you'll look back at this thread and be AMAZED at the progress you've made.
Mike