How hard should the bike workouts be?
....cause I'm in week 5 and felt like puking towards the end of my 2 x 12's today. Is that normal?
Jason
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....cause I'm in week 5 and felt like puking towards the end of my 2 x 12's today. Is that normal?
Jason
Comments
Wait until you get to the VO2 stuff.
yeah that sounds about right
as a side note, take note of the recent wiki post about sticking to the proper intensity and not overshooting the stated goals.
stated otherwise, on those 2 x 12's don't try for 108% of your FTP, stick with the prescribed 95-100% (assuming you are using power).
Hmmmm, I"m not going to jump on the ride-til-you-puke bandwagon. Maybe you're overdoing a little? Are you holding up week in and week out? If you're a power user, are you riding at 100% andway over? Is your running sprightly and fun? Are your run paces improving? Are you able to hit every workout with some vigor, week in and week out? Rich will tell you to pull back from doing something today that will compromise tomorrow, or next week. Consistency is king.
If all systems are go, and you are meeting some good metrics, and are feeling good, then chalk it up to a sensitive tummy.
If you are hammered by it all, and fraying around the edges, take the intensity down a bit. It's a long OS, and an even longer season. My two cents.
FWIW (n=1), I only get nauseous at the end of the FT tests. For a normal 2 x 12--that hasn't happened to me...so far.
I'm pretty sure that's not going to be an issue
I'll try to be a little more "dry" in my experience so far... In all honesty, the number of times that I've ever thought about puking from exertion is pretty small. That said, I have encountered a number of bike workouts throughout the last 9 weeks that I have literally wondered if I could possibly complete in the midst of them. As a rule, I have been able to...I had to do a light modification of a couple of them. Mostly, the limiter seems to be muscular, though I have found myself feeling the need to sit up a bit to get enough air in some of the VO2 stuff. (Who knew 2.5 minutes could be that long!)
In three years of EN OS, I have felt like puking many many times. The majority of these were the first OS. Second OS was significantly less and third OS I have yet to get to this point. Typically it is the tests or the longer VO2 sets that push me to this point, a 2 x 12, 15 or even 18 has never done it to me. I have only actually puked once and as much as I would love to think that I could push myself that hard it was probably just due to the fact that I was sick and still did a workout anyway. I have almost hacked up a lung a few times or literally had to sit on the ground next to the bike after a workout as my legs were shaking to bad to walk.
Thanks for the reply Linda. Regarding your questions, my bike workouts have been difficult for the past week. Last Tuesday was 2x10's and I had scheduled to follow that up with 20 minutes of zone 3 time, which I ended up skipping. I also skipped Thursdays bike workout altogether because I knew my legs felt fatigued. Saturday was 2x10's and again, I had to skip my planned zone 3 work. All of my run workouts went off as scheduled last week though (and my running legs feel great, actually).
Now having said all of that, I'm reasonably certain that my challenges last week were diet related. Too many snacks, sweets, and empty calories. My diet is back on track this week and today's bike workout was the first *full* bike workout that I've completed in over a week (main set plus zone 3 time; I've only missed one main set workout). So I don't necessarily think it's time wave the caution flag, I think that I'm just experiencing HARD bike workouts on a week or so of a less than stellar diet.
Jason
In all seriousness, my experience is almost identical to Matt A's. I did not mean to make light of the original post. I''ve never actually puked but have come close, very close, on tests and on the longer VO2 sets.
I agree with Al's statement about building into the set. I have had a hard time controlling myself when racing but with practing pace and power contol, building my effort during workouts, I think I am getting faster and actually mentally better at racing. I raced a 10 miler a month ago and actually got the before unobtainable negative split.
I've worked myself through the cycle of unfit ---> getting there ----> fit ----> improve so many times I know what to expect when. My notes:
last week i thought the Vo2 was easy...I had a great week.
This week...I feel like I am ready to die. Seriously disheartening. I hit the 2 x 2.5's and #1 and #2 were solid. Hit 120%. #3 really really sucked bad. Lost about 5 watts...which is still not bad. 337w vs 342...who cares. #4 was so bad I couldn't make it. I hit 1:45 and all systems were a no-go.
I didn't believe folks when they said it would hit me. I really had no trouble with the FTP stuff. But the moment I started using my new FTP and did the Vo2 stuff...the pain really started.
I rarely get the puke feeling. Typically a swimming in college thing or a run thing. As my coaches said...if you didn't puke you didn't work hard enough. :-)
I've posted this here before...but its so funny even I'll rewatch it.....this is how to do a puke-set properly. And many of those guys are olympians.
http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234427/106270-5-the-auburn-puke-session
I did not look at or use my PM- not once- from IMWI until 12/30/10. I was riding my road bike without power (horror, blasphemy, I know).
I knew that the test would be hard.
What I did NOT expect was how hard 8' felt for my intervals yesterday. I thought those would be a cake walk as I am accustomed to how hard we work in da haus.
So sometimes, it is the legs, sometimes it's the head. But regardless, there is no easy workout in OS.
But I agree- there is no shame in holding 95% instead of reaching for 105% and wondering why it was so hard.
Jason,
In addition to the diet there are weeks where things are better and worse. I find when I get fatigued looking at my hours of sleep and perhaps adding in an additional 1 hour here or there will help you as well.
Gordon