Week 20 bike and run!!!!!
Well the end is near!! Got outside for the bike today for the 15x3 and felt GREAT 
1. Power 221, IF 1.078, RPM 91
2. Power 214, IF 1.046, RPM 87
3. Power 219, IF 1.068 RPM 84
Entire workout
Duration: 1:02:50
Work: 749 kJ
TSS: 108.9 (intensity factor 1.028)
Norm Power: 211
VI: 1.06
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 19.942 mi
Elevation Gain: 669 ft
Elevation Loss: 658 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (11 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 454 199 watts
Cadence: 31 218 86 rpm
Speed: 0 34.3 19.0 mph
Pace 1:45 0:00 3:10 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 26 7 lb-in
Altitude: 584 737 688 ft
Crank Torque: 0 622 198 lb-in
Temperature: 46.4 64.4 49.9 Fahrenheit
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Comments
Today's workout was a bit of a slacker for me. Still a little cooked/jelly legged from the weekend. And I'm doing the bike test tomorrow since work is causing me to flip some workouts around. So, I used today to get some lactate out and to loosen up for tomorrow.
Bike:
1x30' z3
5x2' (1') at 100-105% FTP
1x30' z3
then out to run a fartlek style 25' in the neighborhood. Legs felt heavy, hope they'll be ready to go tomorrow.
Good luck to all.
Resting today, testing tomorrow!!
I tried to watch the "Final Testing" video but can't get it to work. Is anyone else having trouble with it?
Is it really Week 20?
I did my 3x15' today - IFs of 1.007, .966, and .992 with cadences of 88, 89, and 85 - as per usual I have been riding outside. Today was a wonderful day for a bike ride in Southern California!
My FTP has only gone up about 6% over the OS but my Vdot has gone up a few points. Overall, I am happy about my weeks of training. I am still nervous about my upcoming double century bike ride on 3/26. My roadie buddies have been doing big big miles while I've been doing my EN training. This past Saturday, they rode 120+ miles while I rode 3 hours at .88 including the 5x2.5' work. The rides I am doing this week (including FTP test on Thursday) are part of my "taper."
On Saturday, my graduation will be a 5K race at the Rose Bowl.
It has been fun being with Team Turkey even though I've been mostly lurking for the past month or so.
Well, today was the first outdoor weekday bike ride since November. Got in 25 miles in 1:10 ride time, .899 IF. The whole group split into A and B groups and I easily hung on with the A folks, except I spun out of gears on the last stretch. I usually can't do that until the END of summer. Yay EN OS!
A few weeks back I was feeling good on 2x20's at 270-275 watts, steady breathing, pretty managable HR. I have not had a good bike going on 2 weeks now. Yesterdays 3x15' I was about 5, then 10, then finally closer to 15 watts under target on each set respectively, and pretty miserable to do so. I honestly don't feel I could hold my current FTP for 1x20', let alone 2x20', let alone expect any gains.
That said, I'm discouraged but not really defeated. I feel like a test on thursday would not reflect my true end of OS FTP, but I'm also not too caught up in the numbers. This is not looking to be a good test week for me, but so it goes. Plenty of time for both training and testing before I hit the start of my race season.
264, 268, 275.
Entire workout (243 watts):
Duration: 1:05:29 (1:07:40)
Work: 953 kJ
TSS: 93.9 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 256
VI: 1.06
Pw:HR: 1.49%
Pa:HR: 11.01%
Distance: 28.134 mi
Elevation Gain: 30 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (31 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 382 243 watts
Heart Rate: 98 176 159 bpm
Cadence: 35 156 87 rpm
Speed: 0 32.7 25.7 mph
Pace 1:50 0:00 2:20 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 17 6 lb-in
Altitude: 961 994 976 ft
Crank Torque: 0 740 236 lb-in
Temperature: 68 75.2 69.2 Fahrenheit
Can't wait to see the final test numbers for each of you!
I tested today on the trainer. And I'm reeling from the last couple of weeks. Here's how fried I feel....I wasn't happy with the test results, and I'M TOO TIRED TO CARE!
Started the OS with FTP of 205
Closed the OS with this FTP of 225. Wanted 230, too tired to care that I didn't. DREADING the run test.
So, that comes out to be about a 10-11% increase in FTP over 20 weeks. That's cool. Hope it pays off on race day.
I read that post by P that shines a little light on the slope of improvement. It's important to remember that I won't be gaining 3-5 Watts improvement every week of my life as long as I'm training hard. Progress is progress. If I creep this number up just a little bit, then I'm probably a little bit faster than I was when I started. thx for putting up with the rambling.
go get 'em.
I feel the same way. Since the last test I have had one week where I felt really strong, and the rest of the time I've been struggling.
My final test is done and is about what I was expecting given the way I've been performing. I didn't feel awful but I wasn't having one of those good days either.
Test 1 289
Test 2 294
Test 3 306
Test 4 308
Good luck tomorrow everybody.
Chris - me too. It's not us.
Met and beat my personal FTP goal now the vDOT goal is not looking like a deadlock but it will be close.
Best of luck to everyone.
Week 17 off skiing, Week 18 sick, but really felt more like exhaustion than a real sickness (One decent run followed by four 30 mintues wkos). Weeks 18-19 have been low motivation and feeling burnt physically, but did have a PB 90 minute run effort in there. I have not been real close to hitting time or intensity targets for a week since week 14.
My 20/20 hindsight conclusions are that either I should have done the beginner plan as this was my first high intensity block ever (last year was my first ironman and was all long and slow training, did so some higher intesity stuff after that, but not a lot) or a 16 week OS would have been a better call... maybe if I hadn't taken the week to go skiing and gotten "sick" or had stepped back two weeks after that it would have been a different story, but not so sure about that. Here are my Bike tests:
Test 1: 227
Test 2: 265
Test 3: 285
Test 4: 284
I did test 4 on Tuesday, mostly becasue I felt the best I had in awhile (which is sort of ok - despite the a week 19 that should have left feeling fresh as a daisy) and I literally can't wait to get to Transition. I would describe my RPE as not "very hard", but "devastating effort". About 2 minutes in the aero bars. In test 3 I was ~30 minutes in the aerobars. I did the full 42 mintues, but here are the 10 min splits:
10 min: 295
10 min: 290
10 min: 290
10 min: 275 (utterly destroyed - I can say with complete confidence that I have never worked this hard in my life)
Maybe I could have held 288 on an erg file throughout the 40... maybe.
I am keeping it all in perspective, I have made huge gains even if I am limping sideways across the finish line. Last run test calls for a 10k TT or half mary. I'm going to do 10k TT, but no way on God's green earth that I improve my week 14 VDot score... which is also just fine, I'm way faster than I was!
In a way, this mini-break came at a good time. I had been hitting things, but was really working up some serious fatigue in weeks 17-19.
Good luck to everyone!
I am not testing now, but ironically enough my workout this morning ended with 2 x 20(2) after other work first. I suffered right along with you guys and did the 2 x 20 100% in the aerobars on the trainer. It was just as painful as any FTT I have ever done. I was only able to hold 271 for the first and 269 for the second.
Didnt have time to put in the logistics yesterday so here we go.
1. 20 minutes, Power-231, IF 1.128, HR 160, RPM 86
2. 20 minutes, Power-227, IF 1.108, HR 163, RPM 82
Test # 4:
Duration: 42:02 (42:26)
Work: 539 kJ
TSS: 84.4 (intensity factor 1.11)
Norm Power: 228
Entire workout (204 watts):
Duration: 50:04
Work: 613 kJ
TSS: 95.2 (intensity factor 1.084)
Norm Power: 222
VI: 1.09
Pw:HR: -0.36%
Pa:HR: -2.19%
Distance: 15.919 mi
Elevation Gain: 570 ft
Elevation Loss: 588 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-18 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 605 204 watts
Heart Rate: 100 169 158 bpm
Cadence: 33 182 83 rpm
Speed: 0 36.9 19.0 mph
Pace 1:38 0:00 3:09 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 26 8 lb-in
Altitude: 938 1132 1049 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1106 211 lb-in
Temperature: 57.2 69.8 59.5 Fahrenheit
It's been so helpful being part of this group and having your support through the past 20 weeks. Good look with your testing and training, and I look forward to continuing with some of you in the Spring HIM Training group and meeting you at Quassy and Timberman!
First let me disclaim that I don't want to diminish in any way the accomplishment of those who were able to test, especially those who were able to pull off a good test. Work works, and I know everyone has been working their asses off. I'm humbled by the dedication and perseverance that everyone has demonstrated over the last 20 weeks.
That said, if thing didn’t quite go your way either, I would not let it discourage you one bit. Honestly I have not tested yet, and while I intend to today after work, I am doing to with the goal of giving my best shot, but knowing if nothing else it’s still a solid workout.
While solid results can serve to quantify the immense amount of hard work that everyone has put in this OS, it certainly doesn’t serve as the only way to measure or quantify your progress. Even if I have a lackluster test today and lose 10 watts over my previous FTP, I will still be equal to my peak outdoor FTP from last season. Indoors. In March. This OS has already taken me to uncharted territory and this only the precursor to the main event, the in-season.
Kevin, much like you, I’ll be transitioning to an HIM plan soon (for KS 70.3). And while I haven’t seen the 2011 HIM plans yet, I do remember quite well what was in the 2010 plans: a lot of hard work followed by test weeks, the first one conveniently located at week 4.
Everything old is new again.
I completed my bike test today (great weather pushed it up 2 weeks) and I was hoping it would be better. I train with HR so the only measurements I have are distance and speed. (Distance increased 8% vs first test and AVG speed up 5%) Same course, similar conditions although I think it was a bit windier today, which totally threw it off. (Using power would have helped with that, I think, but I'm not there yet) I will test again, for fun, once I get into my Oly training in 2 weeks.
Overall, I think I expect better/faster results because my level of fitness/experience (About 1 1/2 years since 1st Sprint tri) is relatively low to the EN group at large. I think some more realistic expectations are probably in order... But, numbers aside, I'm feeling stronger so I'll take that!
Did my bike test today. Mentally very tough, especially since I thought I had a couple more watts in me than it turned out that I did... In-laws at home, blah, blah, blah. But you don't want to hear me complain. :-)
Bottom line: 260 W.
I'll be run testing Monday. Good luck to everyone.
Did 2x15' and 1x10' indoors with the new 225 FTP and it seems to be right on. All 3 sets were tough, something to build on.
first 15' with 221w and IF .98
second 15' with 220w and IF of .98
and the 10' with 217w and IF of .96
As this OS winds down, let me just tell you guys how much fun it's been being able suffer with all of ya.
@Kevin - I had a disapointing Bike test as well. As a HR guy, my HR went from 163 to 159 and my mph went from 20.4 to 20.1. I pretty much maxed out last Saturday at my 40K TT and didn't feel 100% recovered yet on Thursday.
I'm going to go out tomorrow and hit the roads with the bike wko and just take it in stride. It was just a test that I was not 100%.
This NOV OS did get me stronger and I want to thank everyone for your support.
Now to focus on my Sunday run test!
Tested yesterday. Didn't do the usual 2x20' but did a TT course that is local to me and used last year as my final test as well. FTP 285. Started OS around 240. Happy I got it but I paced horribly. Blew up a bit and regrouped but not entirely happy with the performance. Gonna do it again in a few weeks and try to maintain a consistant wattage. Last year on the course I was at 250 so happy about this improvement.
Went well...Around 37 miles in 1:56,,,,,TSS 159 and IF .933....New FTP of 228 is right on.
I want to say thanks to the NOV OS crew for always posted and keeping me pumped. Special thanks to my buddy Gilliatt for always checking in and keeping me from doing all the extra stuff in the gym. Got involved in Yoga and that was a plus. Starting my 12 week intermediate HIM on Monday and waiting to transition till Week three. This is per the coaches. Well I took a sneak peak and HOLY ZOOIEMAMA is there a great difference but looking forward to the challenge and most of all going to have fun with it.
Peace Out all and GOD bless
Nice work everybody. I feel for those who didn't test well. Here's a thought: I moved from Oct to Nov OS after an early January marathon, so I took a few weeks off after the race. I felt pretty good about my bike progress in the last 6 weeks. I wonder if there might be room in the OS plan for a mental reset week after the VO2 phase??....
Anyhow. I am day 11 of an upper respiratory bug, so I did a 20 min bike test today - NP265W x 0.95 = 252W. 3W off Rich's prediction. I know I could have tested better, and certainly know that I am much stronger than I would have been if I trained the old way.
I hope to continue to get some energy and motivation from some of you in the summer HIM and IMOO groups. Good luck to all.
Season Recap:
10/1 – 183w
10/31 – 200w WAG
12/20 – 205w
1/29 – 215w
3/26 – 210w (likely stay with 215 till I retest outside)
Mentally I felt ready and started in looking to hold 215 for the first 20 then see what I could do on the second 20. In a word, I died.
20’ @ 215w; HR 169; Cd 87
20’ @ 210w; HR 174; Cd 86
Overall 42:12 @ 210w; HR 171; Cd 85
But what doesn’t show is the 1:05 at 8 minutes into the second 20 where I just crapped out. I downshifted and went limp temporarily before getting back into the game. Then at the 12 minute mark it happened again – I just died! Took me 1:50 to recover enough to push the peddles hard again. The last 8 minutes were hell, though I did manage to hang on.
Here is the 5 minute breakdown:
5 – 215w, HR 159, Cd 87
10 – 216w, HR 172, Cd 87
15 – 213w, HR 172, Cd 86
20 – 215w, HR 176, Cd 86
2 – 148w
5 – 217w, HR 173, Cd 87
10 – 204w, HR 173, Cd 84 (1:05 failure)
15 – 203w, HR 173, Cd 87 (1:50 failure)
20 – 212w, HR 176, Cd 86
Not real happy with the results but they are what they are. Maybe if I wasn’t running 40 miles a week and completed all my bike wko’s things would be different. The other potential factor is a new bike fit. Todd got my cockpit further forward and another 6 cm in my drop. But since I only had a single trainer ride it before the test, I have no idea if it has any effect.
Moving on now to Boston focus. I will try to keep 2 bike and 2 swims per week as long as fatigue isn’t too bad but run takes precedence for now. After Boston comes transition & recovery then to 12 week IM leading to Lake Placid