Week 7
Hi Guys, How's everyone doing? I assume most of us are in week 7 now, how's the body holding up? Two days off at the end of the week to prepare us for another FTP ( for those with PM's) and Vdot test. Is everyone getting mentally prepared for the sufferfest, and to see their gains?
I'm still dealing with the longest chest cold of my life. The OS intensity is not the ideal treatment for the body to recover from such illnesses. Standing down for a period of time would be the smart thing to do, but hate to miss the workouts especially when I feel pretty good most of the time. I've dialed down the intensity a little mostly due to leg fatigue. I'm sure running in this consistant sub freezing weather is not helping but I just hate the dreadmill.
I hope you are feeling great and training strong!!!
Comments
Although I have finished each workout, Week 7 has been a little bit of a step down for me. My diet this week has been lacking due to family commitments, and I sure can tell. The direct correlation (diet-to-performance) is really freaky. I had a pretty good bike on Tues, a decent run Wed but a fairly bad ride Thurs morning. I really struggled to get my HR where I needed. I am really looking forward to Friday off and smokin' the workout on Saturday. Testing week next week and I am really looking forward to the change to VDot in week9. Chin up and keep on truckin'.
Jeff, glad to hear you are getting all the workouts in even though your brain is telling you it's had enough. I think building that mental six pack is just as important as building a powerful engine. The power of the mind is an amazing thing, that also needs training.
Chuck, I remember during last years OS when I was training with HR (now with power) that there were days no matter how hard I tried I could not get my HR up to zone. I know the heart was willing, but the legs were just fried and I couldn't turn them over. I just plugged through the workout and hoped they would recover enough to hit it hard the next time. Realize there will be days like that. At the time I thought I was just being a pussy, but it was just my body saying get some xtra sleep, eat better, stretch more do whatever it takes to recover better.
Keep it going !!!
Keep up the hard work everyone!
Ditto. I felt like doo doo Sunday after the run. Then took Monday totally off and sat in the YMCA hot tub for 40 min which felt like it was sucking the life out of me. No core work or anything the rest of the day and tried to put my feet up as much as possible. That seemed help. Tuesday I felt 100%. Then yesterday after the 3 x 1 mi run intervals and todays 3 x 10 bike I feel like I will need to take tomorrow totally off again, maybe the hot tub. Wish I could sleep in but it's my turn to take the kids to school.
Sharing the pain.
Hey folks! Hope everyone is pushing though this winter nonsense - definitely looking forward to getting back outside as the "pain cave" is definitely getting painful.
My weekly workouts have been going well - hitting the targets on the bike and trying to stay consistent with the running but sometimes difficult due to weather. Anyway, I've been substituting my Saturday bike interval session by participating in a weekly indoor computrainer racing series (currently in stage 10 of 23 stages - done on computrainers vs 6 other guys per heat, on varying course profiles and usually take from 45 to 55 minutes at race effort) and the last 5 weeks, my AVG Power for sessions have been dropping like a stone!!
What is most discouraging is, guys that I used to trounce in previous years are now beating me by almost 2 to 3 minutes and their wattages are +20 watts and improving over mine.
I assumed this would be a good benchmark of my progress over the off-season and while they are all doing the traditional zone 1 / base build stuff that I used to do with them, I have been preaching the EN Kool-aid quite heavily. I'm now wondering if that Saturday session is going to prove detrimental to the program and I've dug myself into a hole
I'm getting back in the lab for a blood lactate threshold test next week (could only book for thursday instead of Monday) to find out what the hell is going on. Could it be cumulative fatigue as I haven't been used to training at these intensities before and I still haven't adapted?
I've finally started to pull data into TP WKO+ so I'm hoping I can get an idea of what's happening via the performance management chart. Hoping that one Saturday session is screwing me!
RnP - comments?
Thanks Bob, I am going to kill it on Saturday. I'll update in Week 8 and see how everyone is doing.
Last week was really tough for me - probably due to the Holiday Run Challenge and transition back to a full work week. So I took last Friday, Sunday, and Monday off completely. [BTW... I've been following a great forum thread on 50+ AG'ers and recovery... I highly recommend it. FWIW, I think this is a huge benefit of EN - having not only the motivation of you all to tap into but also the experience and expertise.]
Turns out that those days off really helped: this week's workouts have been right on target! I'm still using HR but the powertap wheel is on the way (WooHoo!). Run pace was good. Bottom line is I think we are working hard enough that getting enough rest is key. Hope you all are getting back to health and energy soon.
Looking forward to testing next week but may hold off until the wheel arrives. I'll have to see what RnP say on that score.
Have a great weekend!
Paul, you are going to absolutely love your power meter. One of the best investments I've ever made. I would definately wait to test again until the power meter is ready to go. Doesn't make much sence to test without it, since the reason for testing is to find out what your new zones will be, and wattage now becomes your new whip.
You thought you pushed yourself hard before? Just wait !!!!!!!
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Thanks
I just completed my Saturday bike workout on the trainer about two hours ago ( 2 X 14 1 X 7 2 X 15) That could have been the hardest trainer session I have ever done. I feel like a train wreck right now. With how I feel and after just reading some more of the over 50 recovery thread, I just decided to take the next 2 days off and and make my 2 testing days Tuesday and Thursday next week.
Hopefully I will recover enough to see a little bump in the FTP on Tuesday.
Remember training does not make you stronger, Recovery does!!! Do not skimp on this vitally important discipline, probably the hardest discipline of all for many of us ( And I really stink at it, hopefully by typing it I will do a better job at heading my own advice).
Enjoy your day off tomorrow.
I did my Saturday workout too and it felt like the hardest one yet. Alas, that's still using HR... I'm sure the PM will plumb even greater depths of pain!
btw.. Rich did suggest that I hold off on the retesting for a week or two. Looking forward to hearing of everyone's progress this week as inspiration.
Here's to Recovery Sunday!
I caught an incredible sinus cold in the middle of week 6 and missed both Sat and Sun WO's. I wasn't sure what to do about it as I knew I had a lot of fatigue built into my legs as well. Rich told me to get back into it as soon as I could so I eased back into week 6 over Tuesday - Thursday and repeated the end of week 6 as listed, yesterday and today. I now feel back in the game but am a week behind you guys as I am going to treat this upcoming week as week 7. I can't decide weather or not this is a good thing or a bad as I get to read all of your reports about week 8 as well as anticipate the pain session for another week. Ultimately, I think it was good to recover properly from the sickness. I feel great now and in the end will have one extra week of work up on all of you guys