1st Test--How'd it Go
1st test is in the books. When I did this test in Dec. to see if I needed the clinic I was toast and felt like never before for the rest of the week. This test felt much the same other than the fact I think I paced the 5' part better, not going out at 400 watts for the first minute then slowly dieing the rest of the way. I went out at goal of 320 held there good until the 3 minute mark then had a rough spot till 4minute mark then pulled through pretty strong at the end for a 318 on the 5' power. Where I did screw up is thinking i could somehow hold 275 on the 20' part. (last test went like 255 or 257 I think) I held on till the 8' mark then iit was a true suffer fest to just hold the numbers in the 260's. Finished up at 264 on the 20' part. Both up good from Dec test and a starting point.
Ready to get this party started
Comments
Nice work Trent!
Very slight drop in the numbers for me since December pre-clinic test but I felt it was much more honest consistent pacing this time (I threw in a massive surge at the end of each test last time that bumped the numbers up but it felt like cheating for some reason!!).
This morning as is usual for me after a day off I felt a bit “dull” as if I had DOMS (ie feel worse 48hrs after an activity like weights than 24hrs after if you know what I mean?). I know that I am not at my “most powerful” at 5am in the morning but for consistency I will test and train at this time throughout the clinic. Anyway, I had got everything ready last night so no excuses, drink of very strong coffee then on to the bike! The 5 minute test was tough like last time but I only reached 274W (280W in December) but I felt that it was a much more consistent effort as last time I blew myself apart in the last 60 secs which wrecked me! The 20 minute test was good too – I was maybe too conservative to begin with as the average was 219 after 4 minutes but I sufferred to get that up to 240W by the end (it ticked over from 239 to 240 with 3 or 4 secs to go!). If this was a true 0.95xFTP then it should have been nearer 255W – I think that this 20’ test is nearer 1.0xFTP but am interested to see how others did compared to their current FTP.
Anyway, very happy to have got the test in the bag and excited to have started the clinic. Best of luck to everyone who still has to do theirs today – be strong and have no fear!
Chris
Felt like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar
Man: "What the hell are you doing?"
Fletcher: "I'm kickin' my ass! Do you mind?!?"
Seriously, felt OK this morning, but had a hard time getting going. First interval was pretty good, started a bit hot, settled in, and landed at 305, up from 301 the first PC test. Gave it my all, and took a few minutes of barely pedalling to feel ready to do the "easy spin" part of the recovery. 2 quick spinups to FTP, felt good, and went for the 20'. That's where it went south on me. First 5' were pretty good, middle 10' were pure agony, watts dropping, actually needed to soft spin for 10 pedal strokes twice just to put my head back on my shoulders. Last five minutes I picked it up, but was holding back from
, and nearly fell off the trainer as I hit the interval for 20'. Watts were248, down from 256 on the first PC test. 95% = 236, whereas 2 x 20' (2) during week 8 was at 242. I'm figuring that I ought to keep the 242 for future FTP workouts...
Mike
Vince
Did my test yesterday morning - the 5' felt strong and tried to increase the watts each minute til I hit the breaking point. The 20' was a suffering event. The 5' was up slightly from the december test.
I did notice that .95X the 20' test is below my 20/2/20' FTP test by about 7 watts (225 vs 232 watts). I think I will be sticking with the 2X20 (232) value for my FTP for the thursday ride.
I also don't feel fantastic at 6 am but that's the best time to be sure I get the workouts in my day.
I was glad to hold the 318 watts for the 5' with my cadence falling.. falling.. in the last minute and expected a little drop in the 20' compared to 12/16 due to my slightly crazy 8 day run challenge causing a less effective bike focus.
The 20' test was hard, no nausea, but the last 3 minutes seemed like 10......
Great to get started on my round 2 of the power hack.
It looks like I'm the only one crazy enough to show up twice(hope I didn't miss someone.)
John
I was sure Trent would crush it this morning so the whole time I was just trying to keep up.
Even if I was a good writter words could not describe how tough these tests are. That said mine went pretty well and numbers are up a little since the pre-clinic test.
5min (319 watts):
Duration: 5:01
Work: 95 kJ
TSS: 11.8 (intensity factor 1.188)
Norm Power: 315
VI: 0.99
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 2.069 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 288 356 319 watts
Speed: 22.6 25.3 24.8 mph
Pace 2:22 2:40 2:25 min/mi
20min (278 watts):
Duration: 20:01
Work: 333 kJ
TSS: 36.8 (intensity factor 1.05)
Norm Power: 278
VI: 1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 7.876 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 98 373 278 watts
Speed: 21.1 25.4 23.6 mph
Pace 2:22 2:50 2:32 min/mi
Nice work all!
Wasn't sure how this one would go compared to the December test considering the weekend, but it's in the books. I flip flopped basically. 5' power up + 20' power down.
5' @ 237 watts
Blew up on the 20' and fade fade faaaaaded to 197 for the 20' segment though. About 10 watts south of my FTP and the 2x20 from this past Saturday ride.
This test kicks my butt!! will take the 2x20 anyday but love the new challenge!!
Boy that sucks!!
Did OK....absolutely flogged myself on the 5' 296w IF 1.15
and this led to a 20' that "felt" alittle low on the wattage.....256w (best test in Nov was 248w) so probably slightly low....i dunno!
Great Job so far everybody.
@Michael G. I too had the
nassua feelings today in the 20' part. ( I think my watts dropped by 10 during the feeling)
@Matt...Freaking awesome job to hold 278 after the 5' effort.(It kills me) I see you are losing a little weight.
Everyone yet to go KILL IT!!
I was in a rush to post earlier, but now I looked at the data a little more.
My 20' was 278 * .95 = 264.1 and my last FTT test was 265 ... looks like I will be keeing 265 as my FTP for now and I will try the Thursday workout on with and ERG file and based on 265.
Hard test but I felt like a paced 5' better this time. In December test I tried to hold 250 watts
, slowly fading to 230. So I thought I would be smart and aim for 230, trying to go higher. Funny, I went lower to 226. But I had been doing 30/30's before the original test and stopped so as not to screw up Power Clinic. So my roof came down a bit.
My ceiling is exactly the same at 187 ( with .95 being just 2 watts lower than my measured FTP of 180 last week).
Glad I didn't have to BRick, but it was "warm" this AM at 23 degrees!
5":
Duration: 5:09
Work: 60 kJ
TSS: 8 (intensity factor 0.965)
Norm Power: 193
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 6.79%
Pa:HR: 10.02%
Distance: 1.353 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 154 208 193 watts
Heart Rate: 119 155 144 bpm
Speed: 15.2 16.3 15.7 mph
Pace 3:41 3:57 3:49 min/mi
Hub Torque: 62 87 81 lb-in
20":
Duration: 20:16
Work: 213 kJ
TSS: 26 (intensity factor 0.878)
Norm Power: 176
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 7.02%
Pa:HR: 5.86%
Distance: 5.391 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 161 202 175 watts
Heart Rate: 124 163 154 bpm
Speed: 14.3 17.1 15.9 mph
Pace 3:31 4:12 3:46 min/mi
Hub Torque: 66 79 73 lb-in
Ouch+
I had a pretty good test this am. 12/17/09 my numbers were 327/283 this morning I did 342/302. I have been kind of doing the power hack since early Dec. I just did not know it until I saw some of the workouts we do now. I have not been doing any 30/30's last year I felt I really declined significantly after my month of 30/30's so after spending some time looking at other bike workouts I had modified my schedule this out season to keep the ftp work on the weekend and tues and thurs to do 3-5min intervals at v02 which looks like what we are doing here. It also seems to have helped me make a pretty good jump in the last few weeks hope it keeps up here in the power clnic.
You guys probably already talked about this but for purposes of the power clinic is our ftp .95 of the 20min segment from today or is it our last 2*20ftp test. My last ftp test was 12/20/09 and is significantly lower then .95 of todays value.
Work: 104 kJ
TSS: 11.8 (intensity factor 1.189)
Norm Power: 345
VI: 0.99
Pw:HR: 6.61%
Pa:HR: -62.87%
Distance: 267 ft
Elevation Gain: 55 ft
Elevation Loss: 52 ft
Grade: 1.4 % (4 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 306 422 347 watts
Heart Rate: 124 169 160 bpm
Cadence: 70 85 79 rpm
Speed: 0 4.2 0.6 mph
Pace 14:12 0:00 98:46 min/mi
Altitude: 133 138 135 ft
Crank Torque: 335 509 371 lb-in
Duration: 20:00
Work: 343 kJ
TSS: 32.5 (intensity factor 0.988)
Norm Power: 286
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 3.46%
Pa:HR: -141.46%
Distance: 149 ft
Elevation Gain: 246 ft
Elevation Loss: 249 ft
Grade: -1.5 % (-2 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 80 385 286 watts
Heart Rate: 127 169 162 bpm
Cadence: 65 95 83 rpm
Speed: 0 1.2 0.1 mph
Pace 48:17 0:00 706:58 min/mi
Altitude: 126 142 132 ft
Crank Torque: 89 458 295 lb-in
I smashed my VO2max compared to the 327 watts in Dec but my 20' was down compared to my last FTP of 290 watts for the 2x20'. This was a tough mother!!!!
Doing the math I'm 272 watts @ FTP, which puts me at 1.27 (345/272=1.268). I guess I do not currently qualify according to the math but I'm game.
Nice work everyone. Very inspiring reading your posts earlier at work today. It helped me keep the mental 6pak when I almost quit at 11 mins of the FTP and when power dropped to 260's for awhile. Again, tough mother of a test.
Vince
BTW: How can I drop 30-40 lbs and get to most of your weights without losing my power? Ideas? :-).
Vince
Only exception is if your .95 of the 20' is WAAAY off from your FTP, by like 20+ Watts..
P
Feeling a bit lewft out here, as I will not be doing first test until 1-18, when I return home from current ski trip. We'll see what all that thigh busting on the slopes will do to my already measly FTP.
For the rest of the PC team: Good on ya!
Also, for thursday's bike, the workout is 3X4' @ 105%. That would put it at easier then the normal 3X4' @z5 on saturdays bike. In my case, the thursday bike would be at 240w and the saturday 3X4 at 255w.
Bob - a couple of people mentioned that the Thu bike doesn't look right but Rich said go with it and report back. If we say it is too easy I guess he will adapt next Thursday for us!
For Sat the answer was we would see how we feel and decide. I think I will get the main stuff done (ie do the 30/30s and FTP intervals) and then do the z5 work and if I survive will hang on for some 85%. To be honest with the Thu bike looking easier than normal and a rest day Friday I think we should be in good shape to suffer on Saturday
(I regret saying that already 
).
Chris
Could we get a clarification on the Thursday bike recoveries. The Sunday email said:
WU: 20' including 3 x (1' z5+ 2' recovery at 60% FTP)
MS: 3 x 4' @105% FTP- recovery at 60% FTP- no duration
then <15' @85% FTP</p>
Cooldown: 10'
What is the duration for the 105% FTP recoveries? 2' also? That would make the workout about 63'
John
John - I may be wrong but during last night's call I wrote down that Rich said take 3' to 4' rest.
Others will jump in if I got that wrong.
Chris
Great job to all!
John and Chris, I also wrote down 4' rest .
Matt
Patrick,
I was 290 FTP in Dec and @ 0.95 of today's 20' I'm 272 FTP. Not 20+ but darn close. Saturday I rode on the road and held 297 FTP avg for the 20'x2 with 4' rest period. What to do for Thurs?
Also, is the entire Thursday wo 3x4' @ 105% FTP plus the 15 mins of 85%? Rest intervals between 4' intervals are 60% FTP for how long again? I see reference to a 3' interval but I read them as 3 reps of 4' intervals.
Vince
Owwwww and Wow!!
All I have to say is "yea baby"! Hurts so good, but being in SoCal meant I was OUTSIDE on the trainer. Just have to get stuff together and change out rear tire so I can actually ride on the road this Saturday!! In-laws dogs were looking at me this morning like I was crazy!
5' at 284 and 20'at 234. Current FTP is 229.
Looking forward to 6 week test and seeing the results!!!
Coaches -
I've started the plan a week behind, due to vacation. I have entered new numbers from my first official test, 5% higher than the numbers I originally entered (which were from the entry test, mid-Dec). Don't know if you want to go into spreadsheet and alter the "cut & paste" calcs on my line.
My roof rose 2% over my ceiling after a week of bump skiing which is more like VO2 max work than FTP work on my legs. Maybe this should be a part of the protocol?