Saturday Bike is STRESSING me out!
Hi All!!!
Just about done with week 6/20 for IMFL and this Saturday bike is starting to stress me out! Were these workouts designed to be done on a trainer? It's really hard to remember how long/hard for each interval without pulling a cheat sheet out! Not an easy task while riding outside and even harder when riding with a group. I know I haven't been following the instructions for each workout the way they were designed. My plan of late has just been to ride with a 'tougher' crowd and hang on for as long as I can, catch up at a light or turn and start the process over again. Is that a good substitute? I'm spending a lot of time in upper zone 3 lower zone 4....occasional tongue hanging out zone 5. Sunday rides are much easier to follow. I guess my question is this: Should I change what I'm doing? Am I taking the letter of the training plan too far, or is this the only way to get there on only 3 days of riding? What is everyone else doing? This is my first IM and maybe I'm just stressing because I'm tired already! Any words of wisdom out there?
Thanks in advance!
Signed:
Lynda "the rookie!"
Comments
That said, last year I rode many of my Saturday rides just like you and thought I was hitting the neceassry wattage. Then when I decided to drive my own training per the EN workout I realized that I was not getting in the speficied training.
I now print out an abbreviated workout sheet and tape it to my aero bottle and do my very best to hit all the intervals. Granted, there are going to be hills and llights etc that will impact those intervals but I have found that I seem to make better gains by following the plan.
If I am going to ride hard and steady with others I tend to now save that for the Sunday APB efforts.
Hi Lynda!
I'll give you the benefit of my experience, and what decision I eventually came to...
Rich can give you lots of good advice on how to get in great interval workouts with a group. But he is a VERY experienced rider, who can take the lead and make the group bend to his will--i.e. if he wants to do 2x15, the group better hang on. I can't lead a group, and found that I wasn't getting anywhere near the benefit of the EN protocol riding that way and pace lining etc. So I started going solo.
Ironman training is only for a finite period of time. I believed in the EN way--and trust me, it works--so I needed to give that training the cleanest, best effort I could. So for the IM training period, I ride the workouts as indicated. Period. Over time, you learn what they are, and it becomes second nature, and easy to remember. Many a day I plunk an index card in my Bento Box to refer to--or I'd write it on my arm.
The rides are hard. The fatigue will pile up. But you will be very ready when you toe the line if follow the plan as best you can, being careful not to get too overcooked, and to rest up when you need to. Others might be more creative, but not doing the workouts because of the disruption of riding with others who had different agendas stressed me out too. I just went into my IM training box, and have never regretted it.
What I do is add up the total time at Z4-5 and at Z3 in a saturday workout and just make sure I get at least amount in or more and then ride at 80-85% (or the hardest I can) for the rest of the time.
In other words, if Rich wrote something crazy like 5(1"), 6(2'), 7(3'), 8(3'), 9(2'), 10(1') @ z4-5 and then 4 x 15'(5') @ z3 ... I just go out with the goal of doing at least 55' at z4-5 and 60' at z3. I let the terrain and stop lights break the intervals up for me instead of trying remember or force the exact intervals that are written.
At the end of the day you will learn how to feel if you got enough work in or not... basically if I'm not suffering in the last hour I didn't work hard enough or my FTP needs a bump.
BUT.....
If training WITH people motivates you and they are STRONGER then you, you will benefit. For me, there was a time in my training that I had hit a wall, totally not motivated, I could barley get my helmet on. Going for a group ride with people help me get out the door. Sure they beat me up, dropped me, and gave me a hard time, but I got out the door and had fun. Solo rides can melt your brain. Group rides can put the enjoyment back into riding. As long as you find a balance and understand where the better ROI is for you at that time, you'll do fine.
Just my 2 cents
Thanks again for the feedback.
Lynda~
Other that that last 12 weeks before your ironman it is pretty much always better to go ride with the group as you will generally push yourself harder. Doing the intervals first like you did today and then finishing with the group is a great way to get the workout done.
Personally, once I get withing 12 weeks I stay to pay more and more attention to getting the right amount of work in and therefore I tend to ride on my own more, or with just one or two other people who I can "convince" to do my workout.
I do most my rides solo, and that definitely helps. However, I hit a lot of lights where I am. So I tend to just save those intervals for long straight aways where I know I have about 5-10 miles without any interference. I use the laps on my garmin/iBike to measure, and I go hard while keeping on eye on these metrics to make sure I'm in the zones. I don't know what I'd do without the technology there to help me, and it allows me to compete with myself, especially when I try to improve on previous intervals in a set.
I actually take the time to program my garmin... so I don't have to think about it. That said, I'm an HR athlete, so I really, really don't have anything to think about once my program is in - it beeps when a set is done, it beeps if I'm too high or low... it's been a huge help. I suspect that when I get power, I'll still program my garmin for the sets' times... but we'll see if I can remember the actual workouts (when I should be in what zone)... perhaps I'll have to add that in writing a la cue sheet form. I do think it's worthwhile to do the proscribed workouts instead of ABP rides all the time... but I'm a big believer in intervals (even before coming to da haus).
with that in mind, I end up riding/running solo a lot (even in a group ride). When I'm truly out on my own I go to a trail I know is safe, has lots of other riders/runners and it's only a 25mi loop so I'm never too far from my car (it's not very hilly so it will be great when I'm really focusing on FL - have a hilly HIM coming up first so I've been doing my ABP rides on the hills and my interval rides on more flat routes). If I am riding with others I just let them do their thing and I do mine... the BF is starting to get used to it, he doesn't stick with me, but that's fine with me, I let him know what my workout is and he'll either go out ahead of me or draft... yesterday I did intervals and he stuck with me, which was nice!
good luck!
All,
Good discussion. Our general guidance for the weekend rides, is:
Now, you can use the workouts as written as a specific guide or you can do the general plan above.
The problem with riding with 95% of the groups out there, especially triathletes, is that:
Seriously, it drives me nuts if I do a Saturday ride with my club. My "Wasting Time" bug is really loud in my ear and I have to remind myself that I have other objectives for the ride: check in with some friends, maybe do a teaching of group riding skills, drop the hammer on some people that need it, stuff like that.
If you are riding with power, really pay attention to the resultant Pnorm, IF, and TSS for all of your rides. You'll see that the group ride that you thought was a solid effort was really actually kinda cheesy and that you can do better on your own. Or, if you're riding solo, you'll begin to establish benchmarks for all of your regular routes that you hold yourself accountable for. For better or worse, I have little IF, TSS, and time splits attached to all manner of landmarks within a 25 radius of my house: 2:09 to this sign, minimum IF of .9 to the top of this climb, 297w on this hill last week, etc.
My advice would be to try out our way, then ride with a group, look at the numbers and see how they compare. If the difference is very big, then you need to ask yourself if the low mental cost of riding with the group offsets the opportunity cost of what you could have done if you had ridden solo.
My Saturday ride this weekend is a good example. I've been doing a LOT of climbing, very, very long climbs with a small group. We usually get separated which means I spend a lot of time riding tempo, with a skinny guy up ahead and heavier guy behind, motivating myself to push hard for a long time. I'm talking long, like 1.5-2hrs at a time. Then, because I'm going on longer than they are, I end up riding solo on hot ridge in the middle of nowwhere to get home. I'm kinda burnt out by it so on Saturday I met a couple guys and we TT'ed to the top of one of our local climbs. 40', tongue in the spokes, 25" off my lifetime PR. I then dropped down the hill, they peeled off to ride home and I did some admin miles to hook up with a very large, fast roadie ride. Once I got in with them, I just raced. No need to self-motivate, just ride very hard and have fun. I was home by 10:30, 3.5hr ride with ~250 TSS. That same ride, with a ton of solo climbing would have taken me about 3:45-4hrs to rack up that same TSS. I also just had a ton of fun and it was a great confidence boost to be able ride easily with these guys.
After that, your default riding effort is z3/80-85%"
I have printed this out and will memorize it.
I think I got it. If my tongue isn't tangled in the spokes I still have room to push! No problem...I'm on it!
Great! Also, this style of riding with a group starts to break down at about 8 people. I have short list of guys that I'll invite on rides and the rule is very much that if you bring an FNG/un-vetted guy, and he pops, get's lost, flats, dies, that your problem, not ours.
You can set your power by how far to stay off a wheel to stay in your zones. If you need to stay in the back during your intervals and then recover within the pack.