@Hayes - Congrats on the WSM acheivement! - I kind of already knew it along.
@ George - I am getting alot of motivation watching you progress and get faster with each week. Keep it up my friend!
@ Kevin and Joe H. - sounds to me like both of you are right on track, feeling the fatigue but getting it done anyway. Nice job fellas!
I am/have been dealing with a sinus bacterial infection, so using more mental mind over matter power right now to slug it out during each session. I am also pushing the watts a bit during the last two sessions as I know we are testing next week. That combination makes for what I call some “dark moments” during the intervals for me right now. I will go to the Dr. on Mon or Tues next week for antibiotics if the situation does not improve. Not a lot of recovery between the run and today’s bike but did put my head down and hammer through the 2X12s this morning:
Well I had to dial it back a little today and ended up doing some soul searching and went to war with the mind. I ended up winning todays battle but feel the Influenza has jumped on board vs sinus infection. Ears hurt, throat hurts, nauseated and some photophobia.....oh well rest and hydration for now.....
10 min WU then 3 x 10 min, then a 12 min cool down.....60 min with a IF of .95
I was up most of the night last night at a another fire last night so I bagged the 2x20. I feel bad about it, but it is likely the right thing to do. I will be in bed early and crush it tomorrow. Quoted by the Greeat Dan Gilliatt
.........I bet station 5 slept all night long....those firefighters are well rested.......if not they slayed the dragon and danced with the devil didn't they....tell us.....
Strayed a bit off the reservation today and jumped the gun on this monday's FTP test. While I am continually trying to stay focused on building a long term repeatable process and therefore not get too excited/bummed about the inevitable good/bad as I go along, it is fun to enjoy the successes along the way. I am happy to report that I have done the work, and son of a gun, the work is working! I am sure RnP don't need another attaboy, but nonetheless, here is one more voice in the chorus of thank yous and a heartfelt kudos on leaning against the conventional wisom to get to what really works... looking forward to the next 13 weeks...heck, lookng forward to the next 52! Love it!
FTP test on 11/01: 227 watts
12/16:
1X20: 262 watts 1X2: 210 watts 1X20: 278 watts
1X42: 269 watts
Part of me wants to re-test on Monday to see if I can bump it up a couple of watts given that I did so much better on the second 20 (the last 1:30 of which was at 310!!)... and 269 puts me at exactly 2.96 watts/KG with 273 being exactly 3.00w/kg, but another part of me says leave it alone... now, I need to use a little of this mo' to work on body comp... I weigh exactly the same today as I did on Day 1 of OS...
Did mine at lunchtime. Had visions of it being "only 12 minutes" in my head and i went back to the "do it really hard" goals Patrick talked about last week. Well, I guess I got what I wanted...it was really hard to do! :-)
Posting within seconds of Rich, and pulling exactly the stunt he describes (overachieving), I believe I will need to change my name officially to Timmy.
Posting within seconds of Rich, and pulling exactly the stunt he describes (overachieving), I believe I will need to change my name officially to Timmy.
Timmy,
If you're going to over reach doing it the day before a rest day isn't the end of the world. Nuking yourself on the Tuesday bike would be a different story and could pretty much ruin half the week.
Sometimes no matter what we're told, we have to learn for ourself. I've popped many times on an interval knowing what I was doing was gonna be dumb...just make sure there is a take away. Case in point a week or so ago I was putting up 275 for awhile knowing I was going to blow but needed that session so I wouldn't try that stunt during a test and have to quit and redo it.
Good luck next week, I think you've got 250 for sure in you!
@group...thanks for the props on the WSM and the high fives on my early test. Next week is gonna be fun watching you guys suffer and put up big new numbers
Well after a brief (2 mile - still under physio orders) run yesterday it was best to the pain cave today. Real life (work!) intervened so had to attack these intervals in the pm. Even less fun than usual! Here are the numbers;
10' @ 172W IF 1.087 10' @ 172W, IF 1.091 10' @ 183W, IF 1.161
Total bike 1:00:35 @ 153W IF 0.969
Not sure where that last interval came from but pleased with the effort
This workout didn't feel very hard, but I definitely had to watch the watts to make sure they didn't drop. I'm a little concerned I'm not working hard enough because the HR is pretty low (threshold HR usually tests at about 158.) Just tested two days ago though, surely I'm not fitter already! Whatever, I won't fret it! But I will test again on Monday...
Let me say I like training with power so much more than HR. With HR I had to do a 15' warmup with some really hard efforts to get the HR up, but with power, it is fairly easy to get watts into the right range. HR is definitely very slow to catch up with actual effort measured in watts. I was working much harder I think as a HR athlete on this plan.
Coach Rich put up a new wiki today on overachieving & following instructions. That, in combination with trying to save up the legs for testing, led to a 1.0 ride tonight. Funny how that feels 'easy' after riding 1.05-1.07. Well, not that easy
Interval 1 > 10m @ 192w (.982)
Interval 2 > 10m @ 188w (.959)
Interval 3 > 15m @ 157w (.803)
Total > 60m @ 165w (.842)
Day off tomorrow kids! Stretching & beers! Have a great weekend all, get ready for testing round 2.
@Art - Work is definitely working for you! Great test!
I have been amazed by some of the workouts being posted and went out today to see if I could push it just a bit. My legs quickly reminded me that I pushed on Tuesday, did my 3x1 running yesterday, and am just getting back to feeling well. So I ended up doing the 3x10' pretty much as the guidance says.
.952 @ 88 rpm
.959 @ 87 rpm
.954 @ 83 rpm
Then I came back and saw Coach R's post on overachieving. LOL, I don't think I could have gone harder if I had wanted too! I hope that resting on Friday and Sunday will let me test next Monday and at least match my earlier test!
Took the new FTP out for a spin today. Got in 45' total, dragging butt today. Just did my normal wu and 1 x 12 @1.01....that was plenty. Looking forward to the day off tomorrow!
got my 3 x 10 done on the trainer today. since workout was 3' short of 1 hour, didn't bother with any 80-85%. legs felt tired, but i think it's more about lack of sleep than muscle fatigue. guess i'll find out saturday.
I read Coach Rich's post after my bike workout today! Ooops. I thought we were being asked to try out our *could* watts in anticipation of the Monday test. I'll take it easy on Saturday and rest up for the test on Monday. I'm new to the power game and suspect that my original test was soft. After eight weeks of power training I'm much more confident about putting up an honest effort and will stick with the plan!
Today's workout felt easy and the intervals kept building thanks to Jack Bauer and the 24 crew on my pain cave monitor.
Did everyone see the Wiki post on UNDERachieving on their FT intervals?? My picture is the first thing you will see.
I have nothing this week. Nadda, no way, no how, no powa!!! It is all good. Legs are toast but I am still enjoying training, Track was a " close enough to Z4 to count" set of 4 x 1 on Tues.
Wednesday was supposed to be 2 x 20( as if...). I rode outdoors with a friend who is training " old school", low HR stuff. So I busted out my intervals on the trainer first. The legs had nuthin so I held on with what I could and was satisfied. Maybe .93ish for 3 x 10. Then a 3 hour ride with my friend at IM pace. That was fun actually to hang with her.
Thursday was my second ride. Had day off and rode 50 miler with Steve and girlfriend Tanya. I settled in around 80-85% and pulled us almost the whole way. Great ride. I had no top end at all. Not gonna happen. But 80% felt easy.
OK, not quite OS stuff. But it was awesome. The weather is beautiful and I am off work. Not gonna slave on trainer only, when friends want to ride!
My body told me to back off the 2 X 12's intensity before Rich's Wiki post did, but very glad to see it in print, which is just another needed slap upside the head. Have definately been cooking myself lately with the bike intervals which has resulted in some poor run intervals.
2 X 12's were 255 and 257.
Very much looking forward to Monday's test. Battery failure on the 1st test prevented an accurate FTP, so in my ultimate wisdom I've been pushing much harder than I should have been creating some chronic sore and tired legs. The leg issues have definately affected my run, but have not prevented me from continuing to ride hard, which is why I just can't seem to recover.
I've put my shovel down and hope to crawl out of this hole very soon. Hoping to celebrate a new and higher FTP and Christmas by taking a few x-tra rest days.
Sub par. Tired? maybe. first 2 sets found too big a gear and was mashing a little too much, found HR numbers hard to hold at bottom of zn 4. third set back the gear down one and found myself sitting right in the middle of zn 4.
2 sets to wake up, for whatever reason.
hope everyone is doing well and getting rready for next week.
Knowing that my FTP is likely very close to accurate as I had a good test and also that it is within a few watts of my highest ever I definitely am in the camp of needing to stick to the zones.
I've been forcing myself to stick to the zones by using ERG files on my CT, but the competitive side of me is ALWAYS very tempted to go harder when seeing the huge numbers everyone is putting up. Instead I turned the week 6 2 x 20 workout into an FTT and proved that I could up my FTP by 10.
Thanks for the reassurance, I'm now good with sticking to the zones for a while longer.
One think I'll add is now that i'm sticking to the workouts 100% and doing zero additional cycling or running, I'm carrying almost no fatigue through the week. Therefore I have hit the zones without issue on every single bike and run workout of the OS so far. In the past Thursday and Sunday used to be really really challenging now they are much more doable week after week.
Timely reminders for all of us heading into the next round of tests. I had to bail on Thursday's bike wko. I got a nasty sinus infection. What makes me mad about the whole thing is I saw it coming. I was defintely pushing things and not taking care of myself. 4 to 6 hours of sleep is not enough with everything we are doing. It has been a good reminder that sleep and nutrition are a just as important as the workout numbers. Hoping to make it back for tomorrow, but I need to get rid of this bug first.
I did Saturday today because of work tomorrow. I don't know whose legs these are but I sure like them! The 2x10, 1x5 @ 1.0 felt more comfortable than it ever has during this OS, and I could have gone higher but didn't. The 2x15 @ .85 felt like cruising (I usually have to struggle to do .8). I sure hope I feel this good Monday for testing.
Switched to the PowerTap after Thursdays uber bike intervals....man am I glad I did. 2 x 14' at 320, 325 then 7' at 320....total of 85 minutes....so pumped for Monday's test. Waaaay better than being on my Ergomo. Now I need to figure out how to set my FTP on the Joule (wtf up with the Power Agent Zones?) and download it!
Comments
@Hayes - Congrats on the WSM acheivement! - I kind of already knew it along.
@ George - I am getting alot of motivation watching you progress and get faster with each week. Keep it up my friend!
@ Kevin and Joe H. - sounds to me like both of you are right on track, feeling the fatigue but getting it done anyway. Nice job fellas!
I am/have been dealing with a sinus bacterial infection, so using more mental mind over matter power right now to slug it out during each session. I am also pushing the watts a bit during the last two sessions as I know we are testing next week. That combination makes for what I call some “dark moments” during the intervals for me right now. I will go to the Dr. on Mon or Tues next week for antibiotics if the situation does not improve. Not a lot of recovery between the run and today’s bike but did put my head down and hammer through the 2X12s this morning:
10 min WU then 3 x 10 min, then a 12 min cool down.....60 min with a IF of .95
Duration: 10:01
Work: 107 kJ
TSS: 18.1 (intensity factor 1.042)
Norm Power: 178
VI: 0.99
Interval 3:
Duration: 10:01
Work: 109 kJ
TSS: 18.6 (intensity factor 1.057)
Norm Power: 181
VI: 0.99
Interval 5:
Duration: 10:01
Work: 111 kJ
TSS: 19.3 (intensity factor 1.076)
Norm Power: 184
VI: 0.99
Entire workout (148 watts):
Duration: 1:00:12 (1:00:13)
Work: 535 kJ
TSS: 89.2 (intensity factor 0.947)
Norm Power: 162
.........I bet station 5 slept all night long....those firefighters are well rested.......if not they slayed the dragon and danced with the devil didn't they....tell us.....
FTP test on 11/01: 227 watts
12/16:
1X20: 262 watts
1X2: 210 watts
1X20: 278 watts
1X42: 269 watts
Part of me wants to re-test on Monday to see if I can bump it up a couple of watts given that I did so much better on the second 20 (the last 1:30 of which was at 310!!)... and 269 puts me at exactly 2.96 watts/KG with 273 being exactly 3.00w/kg, but another part of me says leave it alone... now, I need to use a little of this mo' to work on body comp... I weigh exactly the same today as I did on Day 1 of OS...
All:
Please read this new wiki post on Over Achieving on Cycling Intervals.
Blog post is here if you want to share it with your friends, share it on Facebook, etc.
Did mine at lunchtime. Had visions of it being "only 12 minutes" in my head and i went back to the "do it really hard" goals Patrick talked about last week. Well, I guess I got what I wanted...it was really hard to do! :-)
Beginning to think that, with a little rest between now and Monday, 250 for the full test is possible. Gotta say, though...this is hard work.
I didn't want to hijack this thread with my comments/questions on the subject, but if you care (and you have every reason not to) they are here:
http://members.endurancenation.us/Community/Forums/tabid/101/aff/26/aft/4408/afv/topic/Default.aspx
10' @ 172W IF 1.087
10' @ 172W, IF 1.091
10' @ 183W, IF 1.161
Total bike 1:00:35 @ 153W IF 0.969
Not sure where that last interval came from but pleased with the effort
30:00.990
2x10: 1.044, 1.102 (2' instead of 4')
2x12
270, 270
Entire workout (236 watts):
Duration: 41:48 (42:49)
Work: 591 kJ
TSS: 65.7 (intensity factor 0.977)
Norm Power: 252
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 18.54 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 398 236 watts
Cadence: 30 125 86 rpm
Speed: 0 32.8 26.6 mph
Pace 1:50 0:00 2:15 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 15 6 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 862 232 lb-in
After reading Rich's wiki update, I backed it off to z4, and tried not to push harder than that.
1st 12': NP 171 (IF .987) HR 144
2nd 12' NP 174 (IF 1.005) HR 148
z3: 18' NP 155 (IF 0.895) HR 136
This workout didn't feel very hard, but I definitely had to watch the watts to make sure they didn't drop. I'm a little concerned I'm not working hard enough because the HR is pretty low (threshold HR usually tests at about 158.) Just tested two days ago though, surely I'm not fitter already! Whatever, I won't fret it! But I will test again on Monday...
Let me say I like training with power so much more than HR. With HR I had to do a 15' warmup with some really hard efforts to get the HR up, but with power, it is fairly easy to get watts into the right range. HR is definitely very slow to catch up with actual effort measured in watts. I was working much harder I think as a HR athlete on this plan.
Coach Rich put up a new wiki today on overachieving & following instructions. That, in combination with trying to save up the legs for testing, led to a 1.0 ride tonight. Funny how that feels 'easy' after riding 1.05-1.07. Well, not that easy
Interval 1 > 10m @ 192w (.982)
Interval 2 > 10m @ 188w (.959)
Interval 3 > 15m @ 157w (.803)
Total > 60m @ 165w (.842)
Day off tomorrow kids! Stretching & beers! Have a great weekend all, get ready for testing round 2.
@Art - Work is definitely working for you! Great test!
I have been amazed by some of the workouts being posted and went out today to see if I could push it just a bit. My legs quickly reminded me that I pushed on Tuesday, did my 3x1 running yesterday, and am just getting back to feeling well. So I ended up doing the 3x10' pretty much as the guidance says.
Then I came back and saw Coach R's post on overachieving. LOL, I don't think I could have gone harder if I had wanted too! I hope that resting on Friday and Sunday will let me test next Monday and at least match my earlier test!
Rubin
Took the new FTP out for a spin today. Got in 45' total, dragging butt today. Just did my normal wu and 1 x 12 @1.01....that was plenty. Looking forward to the day off tomorrow!
Entire workout (224 watts):
Duration: 45:15
Work: 616 kJ
TSS: 62.4 (intensity factor 0.91)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.04
Hello all,
I read Coach Rich's post after my bike workout today! Ooops. I thought we were being asked to try out our *could* watts in anticipation of the Monday test. I'll take it easy on Saturday and rest up for the test on Monday. I'm new to the power game and suspect that my original test was soft. After eight weeks of power training I'm much more confident about putting up an honest effort and will stick with the plan!
Today's workout felt easy and the intervals kept building thanks to Jack Bauer and the 24 crew on my pain cave monitor.
10' @ 184W, IF: 1.061
10" @ 186W, IF: 1.074
10' @ 187W, IF: 1.085
Bring on Monday!!!
....after a calm Saturday
Did everyone see the Wiki post on UNDERachieving on their FT intervals?? My picture is the first thing you will see
.
I have nothing this week. Nadda, no way, no how, no powa!!! It is all good. Legs are toast but I am still enjoying training, Track was a " close enough to Z4 to count" set of 4 x 1 on Tues.
Wednesday was supposed to be 2 x 20( as if...). I rode outdoors with a friend who is training " old school", low HR stuff. So I busted out my intervals on the trainer first. The legs had nuthin so I held on with what I could and was satisfied. Maybe .93ish for 3 x 10. Then a 3 hour ride with my friend at IM pace. That was fun actually to hang with her.
Thursday was my second ride. Had day off and rode 50 miler with Steve and girlfriend Tanya. I settled in around 80-85% and pulled us almost the whole way. Great ride. I had no top end at all. Not gonna happen. But 80% felt easy.
OK, not quite OS stuff. But it was awesome. The weather is beautiful and I am off work. Not gonna slave on trainer only, when friends want to ride!
Carrie
My body told me to back off the 2 X 12's intensity before Rich's Wiki post did, but very glad to see it in print, which is just another needed slap upside the head. Have definately been cooking myself lately with the bike intervals which has resulted in some poor run intervals.
2 X 12's were 255 and 257.
Very much looking forward to Monday's test. Battery failure on the 1st test prevented an accurate FTP, so in my ultimate wisdom I've been pushing much harder than I should have been creating some chronic sore and tired legs. The leg issues have definately affected my run, but have not prevented me from continuing to ride hard, which is why I just can't seem to recover.
I've put my shovel down and hope to crawl out of this hole very soon. Hoping to celebrate a new and higher FTP and Christmas by taking a few x-tra rest days.
Thanks Rich for the Wiki post.
Sub par. Tired? maybe. first 2 sets found too big a gear and was mashing a little too much, found HR numbers hard to hold at bottom of zn 4. third set back the gear down one and found myself sitting right in the middle of zn 4.
2 sets to wake up, for whatever reason.
hope everyone is doing well and getting rready for next week.
Thanks for the post Coach Rich!
Knowing that my FTP is likely very close to accurate as I had a good test and also that it is within a few watts of my highest ever I definitely am in the camp of needing to stick to the zones.
I've been forcing myself to stick to the zones by using ERG files on my CT, but the competitive side of me is ALWAYS very tempted to go harder when seeing the huge numbers everyone is putting up. Instead I turned the week 6 2 x 20 workout into an FTT and proved that I could up my FTP by 10.
Thanks for the reassurance, I'm now good with sticking to the zones for a while longer.
One think I'll add is now that i'm sticking to the workouts 100% and doing zero additional cycling or running, I'm carrying almost no fatigue through the week. Therefore I have hit the zones without issue on every single bike and run workout of the OS so far. In the past Thursday and Sunday used to be really really challenging now they are much more doable week after week.
I did Saturday today because of work tomorrow. I don't know whose legs these are but I sure like them! The 2x10, 1x5 @ 1.0 felt more comfortable than it ever has during this OS, and I could have gone higher but didn't. The 2x15 @ .85 felt like cruising (I usually have to struggle to do .8). I sure hope I feel this good Monday for testing.
10' @ 168W, IF: 0.973
10' @ 168W, IF: 0.97
5' @ 165W, IF: 0.951
15' @ 144W, IF: 0.835
15" @ 144W, IF: 0.83
Run 30' @ Z2/Z3