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General OutSeason starting point question and specific Bike Vo2 workout question

GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
in General Training Discussions

I have my first "A" race on April 1st (Texas 70.3).  I did the Austin 70.3 to close my season a little less than two weeks ago.  I'm taking a 2 week break from doing any exercise in between to give my body a break after a long season.  I'm going to do 12 weeks of the OS and then do 10 weeks of the Advanced HIM plan.  Should I do the first 12 weeks of the OS, the middle 12 weeks, or the last 12 weeks?  I would like to hit all the Vo2 weeks because I found those to be really helpful last year.

That leads to question #2.  The Bike Vo2 workouts contain workouts like MS: 10' of "ON" time. Remainder of available ride time at 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard.  I remember the Vo2 bike workouts last year as doing 2.5' on/2.5' off with the "on" portion at 120%.  So would that 10' be 1) 2.5' on/2.5' off done twice or 2) four times (four "on" sessions for 20' total) or 3) 10' straight at 120% FTP?  I'm leaning towards 1 or 2 since 3 seems really, really hard.

Comments

  • MattAaronsonMattAaronson
    I suspect with so little downtime after your season you'd be good joining the OS plan further in. But more broadly, why 10 weeks of the HIM plan? I remember reading in the wiki last year that RnP sugggested the OS plus some really low number of weeks for the HIM plan was fine. I did the OS plus 8 weeks of the HIM plan as a total novice to the HIM distance and it worked out great for me. What I did was modify the last 3 weeks of the OS to add swimming 2x/wk and turn my Saturday ride into a 3-hour "long ride".
  • Keith WickKeith Wick
    When I read 10' of "on time" that says to me that your doing a total of 10' at 120% of your FTP. So since we do an equal amount rest time, your total on/off time would be 20'. I'd write it 5 x [2.5'/2.5'] @ 120%/60%. You could also do it as 10 x [1'/1'].... or 20 x 30"/30"

    I found the 2.5' or 3' sets the best for me, but I know others were more comfortable with the shorter work intervals.

    As far as which weeks to start with, I think that you should do 2 weeks FTP, 6 weeks of Vo2 max, then 2 weeks FTP. I think this puts you starting at about week 6 of the OS and going through week 18. I also think you could get away with less time on the HIM plan as your really only talking about (1) swimming, (2) adding volume to the one long run, and (3) adding volume to the weekend ride. I don't think it will take you 10 weeks to make that transition.
  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

     What I do in the OS with the VO2 sets is start at about 60-75 seconds on/off, and over the six weeks work my way up to 135-150 secs on/off, adding up to the total work time. Apparently this year's plans are written to allow more latitude in "self-coaching" as to the length of the intervals in these killer workouts.

  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
    I could probably do 8 weeks of the HIM plan and just add a bit of swimming and adding volume to an OS run and bike for a month before. That makes sense.

    I think I agree with Keith in starting the OS with a couple of weeks of FTP work.

    I do like the flexibility with the on/off intervals now. Holding those 2.5's in the beginning was tough.
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