Totalling Z4/Z5 Bike Time
Last year I often grew frustrated with myself for being unable to hit the precise zones as called for in each day's bike training, i.e. 8' (2') @ FTP/z4-5, 12' (3') @ FTP/z4-5, 15' (5') @ FTP/z4-5. The reason for my failings usually was the result of the roads I train on. Stops and starts and downhills and turns result in my rarely ever being able to hit each interval.
This year, especially after reading Rich's ride results, I decided to change my process. Now I total up the amount of Z4/Z5 time and work to hit those zones whenever possible, and as much as possible. Then I open up WKO+ and add the time in those zones or greater and I usualy exceed or just miss the total time required for that day's Z4/Z5 effort.
My question involves how to precisely determine the amount of times in Z4+. Now I look at the bar chart and manually add the times from the bars that meet or exceed my wattage requirements.
Is there an easy way to do this? Also, am I hindering my training effort by riding in this manner?
Thanks.
Comments
As for 'hindering' training, quite the opposite. there's no magic in prescribed intervals. The only hindrance is if the ratio of work to rest starts to get way out of whack. So, typical VO2-style workouts in any discipline are done on roughly equal work/rest durations. Threshold intervals are commonly done on much shorter rest, and sub-threshold intervals are done on very short rest. Otherwise, go out there, ride what you can, and have fun!
This may by answered somewhere already, but is there a minimum Zone 4-5 time interval time to "make it count." For example, should we only count an interval if we went for 5 minutes or longer?