Doing the math on the workout times

afrost

 I am wondering now, after nearly two weeks, if I am reading the workouts correctly.  It suddenly occurred to me this morning on the trainer that the math (at least the way I was doing it) did not add up.   Let me use an example:  60 minute bike this morning was made up of the following - 10 min. easy + 3x3 at 85% with 1 min. rest (12 min.)  + 2x8 with 2 minute rest (20 min.) + 2x15 at 85% with 2 minute rest (32 min.) = 1 hour and 14 minutes.  Do I not count the warm up (22 min.) when I do these bike workouts?  Or is the recommendation that you do 60 minutes for sure and then if you keep going you do another 15 min. at 85%?

 

Thanks for the help with this.

 

---Ann.

mattsull

RnP are mathematically challenged. The workouts don't always add up. The important part is to do the work, especially the 100% work. If I'm time crunched, I'll do a 10 minute warm up and then just the 100% work. I was done in 35 minutes on Thursday and rode for almost 70 minutes today. I won't really ever go over 75 minutes indoors. Usually around an hour.

zildgen

@Ann asked similar of RnP on the micro board regarding counting warm-up. Basically they said what Matt said. Count warm-up and do MS. Then Done. If you want more try to stay in Z3 but don't exceed the recommended time of 60min or what ever to get more volume it is not needed.

afrost

Thanks, guys! Knowing the "mathematically challenged" part is helpful! I am generally time crunched (as I gather most of us are!) so if it says an hour, I've got an hour blocked out. I will do the hard part and then get out.

And I hear ya, Matt. More than 75 minutes on the trainer and you better just shoot me now!

---Ann.

William Jenks

Yeah, another option is to shorten the warmup a bit. That's a 22 minute warmup listed. I tend to try to do it a bit faster than that. Shorten the easy time a bit. I like the 3 interval part, but i tend to make them ~1 minute at FTP instead. Works for me, but YMMV. :-)

afrost

I like the suggestion of doing 3x1 at FTP instead of the 3x3 - that gives a little more at the end to do the 85% stuff. Thanks for that, William!

---Ann.