Week of 8/15
Howzit going?
Monday:
- Run: 7.5 miles with 2 x 1mi @ T-pace. Didn't feel great, carrying a lot of fatigue
- Bike: waiting much too long (not very motivated) to get my ride in. ~39 miles as 18-19 from my house up a canyon and back down. Very solid 25' push at ~92%. Wicked hot though.
Tues:
- Run: 9.5 mile very hilly run with a middle ~2 miles at Tempo/HMP effort. Total run was ~3 minutes faster than the same run last week, mostly because I was more focused before/after the formal interval.
- Swim: 3.5km with an MS of 15 x 150m, as 100 hard, 50 easy, all pull. I'm all pull all the time these days, legs are too worked and I start to get cramps midway through the workout. Held 1:20-21/100m on the hard 100's, then drafted behind Barry Plaga for the last 4 to get 1:18-19.
Wed:
- OTD for my hill repeat ride, solo today = the late start (7:30 vs the usual 6:30). Got about 6gals of coffee in me and a new playlist on the iPod. Gotta make this one count
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I plan to do the tests and RR next week, doing a 2wk taper vs 3, though next week I begin to rest a bit to set me up for at least a good FTP test and get a bit of a head start on recovering for the race. This weekend I'm doing an organized 125mi ride as my last long, very hard training ride. Plan to push myself crazy hard the whole way...my last big push. My long run this week I plan to do the scheduled EN workout without the 20" walking breaks every mile. Will be 18 miles but probably 10-15"/mile faster than my last two runs, which have been 100% RR runs.
Looking forward to the taper, for the rest and beginning to feel fresh, but not looking forward to the head games that come with it -- constantly thinking about the race, etc.
Comments
I'm really looking forward to the RR this weekend, back on the IMWI course, as an opportunity to really work on getting my VI down. Do you think I should target .7 of my new FTP for the RR, or just keep it the same as my previous power target from RR1, which I know I can run off of?
I'm looking forward to the taper as well, I'm starting to feel some of those nagging little things in my run, time to back down a bit I think...
But, you know what...the timer started, and I was feeling conservative starting out right at my current working FTP (230 W). It was hard and got harder, but not crazy hard...and I just worked up the data and it came out to ...what do you know... 230 W.
I am really pumped that I've held up the FTP despite the IM buildup. In fact, I hadn't actually tested outside as high as this this season (though I had good reason to think that was about the right number at least when rested).
I think that if I WERE rested and I really did it at gun-to-the-head intensity , there would be another 5-10 W there. I am so impressed with these plans that we can keep this up while also piling on the volume (at least to a degree).
For the race, I'm pretty sure the wise plan is to stick with the 230 number as the "should" FTP, even if there is a "could" FTP that's a bit higher. If I'm feeling very strong, maybe I can do a little extra in the last hour, but I need to "make my money" by riding the course really efficiently (e.g., not coasting much) and not getting caught in slow-down traps.... and then see how well I can do on the run. Would be curious to see what y'all think about that.
I took Monday off b/c I was just so trashed after last week. I'm not sure what the deal was, but my legs were just gone. It was painful walking up the stairs.
Tuesday: 80m bike; avg 150 watts; 3100 vertical ft of climbing. I didn't plan on riding that distance; my training partner and I were planning on 65 but took some wrong turns out in the country; found our way home w/ some nicely added hills & distance. Added 1 mile run off as I was late for work.
Wednesday: RR swim. Felt fine w/ the distance and pace in the pool.
Lotsa good work this week.
m - Finally hit 'old' 6:30 threshold paces on run. felt like it was going to be a shuffle after a tough weekend, but pleasantly surprised to have a little pop in my legs. followed with 'speed' swim.
t - day off work, so 1h morning run, 5h "EN Classic' bike. Still haven't been able to master the 'quality run first / ride later' pattern, and quality of FT sets in bike were impaired by the morning session. On the brighter side, sat in slightly more aggressive aero position quite comfortably all day, and any nagging doubts, uncertainties, or curiousities about where my bars should be were eliminated (I've had to go through 5 different bar / stem combos over the last 8 weeks due to equipment malfunctions, so this was way overdue).
w - 90 minute massage. Should have been light flushing, but RMT was really tearing down adhesions. AMAZED at the things she was able to work out, and I'll be curious if there is any range-of-motion gain achieved by the session. Should have been doing this much more often.
t / f / s / s: Longer run tonight w about 60'HMP, open water swim and run what the legs gots tomorrow, weekend = 2 x long rides and 2 x race pace runs, probably as bricks. Very surprised that i'm not more fatigued than I actually am, but I'm looking forward to this last block in my volume experiment to be over, if only so I can reclaim my position on the sofa.
Week should total out around 25.5, and then it's a big downshift on Monday with a week of testing (not banking on anything accurate, so these might just turn into work sessions) and final RR Saturday.
FTP Bump/Could/Should
The Coach Answer is that you should NOT estimate what a bump would be and race with what you've tested at. Then if you have in fact gained watts, you're not using them on the bike instead using them on the run.
The Racer Answer is that depending on your experience and your goals for the race you could SWAG the bump and take it/use it. Me, for example:
So next week I'm going to rest up a bit and test. I'm expecting to see 300-305w, maybe even as high as 310w. We'll see. I probably won't call my FTP higher than 310w, no matter what the test says.
Finally, recall that in '04 I raced with a VI of 1.08, as 225w Pnorm and 208w Pavg. I rode the course during the camp at 1.04. So, basically, in '04 I threw away .04 Pnorm watts just from riding not very smart. Our mission has been to help you NOT make those same mistakes, ride with a low VI = increasing your average watts (move you around the course faster) while saving you Pnorm watts.
Make sense?
So, in effect, riding very smart with a very low VI is actually a sortaway of bumping your FTP = you're getting more average watts from your normalized watts, at the same FTP. So when I look at my numbers this year, it looks like I'll target the same or slightly higher Pnorm than '04 (~225-226w vs 225w) but will yield 9w more Pavg watts. That's huge.
Yes, Rich, this is what I had been thinking, i.e., keeping the slightly lower power up as consistently as possible and resting less while going downhill.
The one factor that also comes into play here with someone of my ability (or W/kg, really) as opposed to yours is that I probably have to get to 200 W (i.e., above gear 4) going up some of those hills just to get up them, and that's over target watts no matter what. For you (knowing your size and bike), that same 200-210 W you'd need is at or below your target anyway. You would be CHOOSING to spend more watts than that to go up the hill faster.
So you have a built in potential to go lower IF than does a cyclist of lesser ability (like me). That makes any FTP bump for me more dangerous than it would be for you. Hence my conclusion that I should probably just call it a super-solid 230 and let it go from there....even if I'm pretty sure a rested test would come out better.
Wm
TSS 73.6, VI 1.02, cad 82 (lower than I'd like), speed 19.6
my 5' splits: 181/189/191/195; 179/188/191/201 (I really pushed it the last 5' knowing that was it... )
Did the speedwork swim today instead of run (didn't swim Ts bc I was a bit mopey about my foot). I'll do the RR bike on Sat with my new numbers and if my foot is okay, will walk 30 (absolutley no running for me). I'll do the RR swim on Sun in a 50m pool in DC.
Like William, I'm going to treat the FTP bump as headroom to ride the course really well at my previous, RR1 tested target, which makes my target .68 instead of .7, which will just make the run that much more survivable.
I'm sure this won't be my last IM, plenty of time to learn to race the distance.
Long run today, decided to do 15 miles, 2hrs vs the scheduled 2:30. Want to run about 7 tomorrow (would be zero if I did the 18) and another 7 on Sunday, pushing me over about 45-47 miles for the week.
My last two long runs I've done the 20" walking every mile thing. Today I just turned left out of the driveway and settled into a comfortable pace, about 7:45-50, which is just a bit faster (~7:55) then the pace I run between the walking breaks when I'm doing my IM pace stuff after mile 6. Felt easy, comfortable, etc. But as the run wore on, the mental thing took it's toll and I struggled at the end. So while my per mile pace for this run was about 15-17" faster per mile than my last two, IM-rehearsal-flavor runs, the trend was definitely downward at the end.
The run drove home a couple lessons for me:
Anyway, physically I wasn't much worse off than on my previous 18 mile runs. But mentally...was not jiggy. That said, I picked a car about a block from my house as my "IM Run Shitty Training Finish Line" and was VERY happy when I got to that car
. Next week running 2 x 9 mile hilly tempo runs vs one long run.
3200 swim-didn't get to finish swim b/c asked to lv pool due aqua aerobic class-I was in lane 4; 2 lanes totally open and unused but they still asked me to leave. New policy; no lap swimming while aqua aerobics class is in session. Bummer.
@ Rich. Thank you for the clarification of the FTP testing of "could" "should" FTP on bike. That makes sense. I've been working hard on the bike w/ FTP; pushes; etc. RR on Friday for bike. Hopefully it will go well! Thanks!
gear 1=121; gear 2/goal watts = 128; gear 3 =134. Based on past rides/experience, I was hoping to be somewhere between gears 2 and 3... Usually during a normal interval ride on hillss I can't get my interval PN high enough and for my big days/race rehearsals, I can't keep them low enough...
I went to River Rd (roling hills). I stopped only to go to the bathroom and refuel in between loops (first loop 60mi, second 50). Nutrtion was 2 concentrated 3 hour bottles of Infinit (dont remember all the calories, etc offhand, but I know it's within the EN range) and 1 S!Cap per hour. I started the infinit an hour in. I rode with my 40oz speedfill filled with water.
total mileage 110.5
total time 7:19
PN 127
TSS 310.3
VI 1.09
avg speed 16.4
cadence avg 76
that includes the hour warm up. the stats not including the warm up:
PN 128
TSS 273.4
VI 1.08
avg speed 16.6
avg cadence 77
My cadence was unusually low - not sure why but I noticed throughout the ride.
As far as fit goes, was getting stiff between the shoulders/neck, but I think that's just a product of being aero. My low back felt good. I did notice some fatigue in my upper calves, sort of near the outside of each knee - this was in both legs. I didn't run off the bike bc of the PF, but I will say that getting off the bike my L foot was hurting and I limped around the parking lot to put my stuff away and stretch. After stretching it was a bit better - so my calves are definitely not quite right. I was not limping out of bed this morning, so I do attribute it to my calf fatigue - welcome your thoughts on that. My foot was taped (by the ART/Graston doc yesterday) and I had yellow superfeet inserts in my shoes.
so, all in all, I think the day was a success. I hit the numbers better than I expected and my VI was in acceptable range for a hilly course. Because I ride for so long, I know my TSS will be higher than the chart provides and that's just how it's gonna be. I think I can expect similar on race day. Oh, I might add that it got warm/humid as the day progressed and I definitely noticed a slow down in my second 50... and actually drank 2x as much water on that loop as the first 60 (actually ran out with 5 miles to go). So, with cooler temps I might fare slightly better - but WI is a tougher course than what I rode today...
super glad that Suzanne Kinsky met me out (she got a later start, can't blame her for not wanting to start at 6:30) and met me at mile 40 and rode the next 30 with me... definitely helpful to have some company.
Hope everyone else had a successful RR!