Home OutSeason January 2011

Week 1 Bike (AND RUN) Thread

Since most of us are done testing . . . . I figured we needed a regular bike thread for our Thursday and Saturday sessions.  I will start.  

Intermediate OS bike today was 2 x 6's and the remainder at 85%.  I had some pent up energy from my poor attitude yesterday so I went out to just drill myself into the ground.  I know, I know, I shouldn't over-reach but what the hell!

Chased Tom Glynn around the local country roads.  It was 33/34 degrees, foggy/sunny and we had head winds at times.  Even with 3 layers on I was frozen when I was done.

Overall, I drilled myself pretty good.  Kinda surprised myself as these numbers are based on my NEW FT.  The last 9+ minutes i just put the hammer down and rolled into my driveway completely spent.  Felt really, really good.

 

Interval 1:

Duration:   6:01

Work:       92 kJ

TSS:       10.9 (intensity factor 1.041) > 104.1%

Norm Power: 255

VI:         1

Interval 2:

Duration: 6:03

Work: 100 kJ

TSS: 13.2 (intensity factor 1.146) > 114.6%

Norm Power: 281

VI: 1.02

Entire workout (200 watts):

Duration:   1:25:21

Work:       1037 kJ

TSS:       115.2 (intensity factor 0.9)

Norm Power: 221

VI:         1.09

Distance:   25.009 mi

 

Last 9:42:

Duration:   9:42

Work:       129 kJ

TSS:       14.9 (intensity factor 0.96)

Norm Power: 235

VI:         1.06

 

 

 

 

 

«13

Comments

  • 2x6' feels like a cake walk compared to the FTP test earlier in the week. I had to hold myself back to keep to the intervals in check. Even the "rest at 85%" had to be watched closely. It's kinda nice to have a workout like this after the FTP to build some confidence, and I'm getting used to being on the trainer again. But man, I'm looking forward to being outside this weekend! It's gonna be cold, but I gotta get outside!
  • Nemo - That was my experience too. Z3 was nice as my legs were soar this morning and the workout helped to loosen them up.
  • Looking forward to today's ride. . .trying to get out of the office (which is what I call the drainer, haha) early today so I can actually ride outside and not in the pain cave. I've got some local hills I am wanting to climb so I will mix in the MS workout during the ride. Just hope to keep the wheels on the ground so I don't end up like Coach R!
  •  I'm with Nemo, I can't wait for tonight's workout of 2X6'.  Since I didn't get any sleep last night, it will be a short one so I can sleep tonight!  Should make the wife happy too!

  • Quick question for you vets...i did my work out this morning on the drainer and i (no PM yet but working on it) found it difficult maintain a steady pace / heart rate...i felt like i was pushing hard and in the right zones, but when i would check the computer i was all over the place. i am not yet used to the trainer as it is new and i have normally ridden outside, but does anyone have a suggestion or do i just need to pay closer attention? thanks, chap.
  • Yea me! Got home early enough to ride outside - good work out, MS w/1000 feet of climbing. Enjoyed what felt like a bit of a rest after the bike test earlier this week.

  •  Chap: I just wrote a whole letter for you and an error occurred and I lost it!  Anyway, check this out in the forums.  The wiki has an ebook here on HR for you.  But what I can offer is if you ever get accurate readings, take note, and create your RPE off that.  HR is variable, so many things can affect the way it reacts during a workout.  Just a sample of things that may affect it are: heat (get as many fans as you can blowing on you), hydration (of course you're hydrated!), nutrition, sleep, sickness, time of day, stress, etc... HR is good if you are a veteran user of it, but it has many limitations.  Being indoors probably doesn't help.  Now you're on a trainer that's new, you're bored, and everything seems harder.  As I said, if you can nail down a good RPE scale for yourself based on some accurate readings from your computer, go with it and use that as much if not more than the HR monitor.  Hope that helps, and get some good vids and fans for your indoor work!  

    Dan

  • Hey JOS team!

    Didn't feel like working out today! Like Nemo and others I am sore. I had to drive to Manhattan last night from South Jersey (2 hours one way) to watch my youngest daughter run in a track meet at the NY Armory. Very cool place BTW! Anyway the alarm went off at 5 AM this AM and I just could not get up to bike! So, I got myself motivated to bike tonight......I had the choice of drinking some really cool beer from Belgium made by the monks or ride.........I rode.........!!! Imagine that!

    Any hoot my workout was 2 x 8' z4; Did the normal wam up 10' easy then 3 x 3' (1'); results were 258 nP and 257 nP respectively.

    Have a great day tomorrow!  

    Greg

  • Nice work, JOS. I too got it done this morning, 2x6 with 15 minutes at 85%. Hit targets right on, which felt great. Looking forward to do it again on Saturday!
  • Got it done today after work. The standard warm up followed by 2x6 then 22min at zone 3 for a total of 60min. I felt like I hit the zones good working off of HR you never know. My legs are pretty sore now looking forward to tomorrow off.

  • Got the workout done tonight after work.  Felt good, like many others, not too hard.  Took a little adjusting to get into zone 3 for the last 20'.  First adjusted the gears, but at 90-92 cadence the watts were too high, went down to about 86-87 to get in the range.  I gues as long as I am above 85 it'l work.

  • ok finally got the bike test done!!! tried to hold 205 the whole time, came out to 200. i wanted to quit so badly at 16 minutes into the 2nd 20 but held on... i think based on the HR i was seeing (174 peak and 159 average for the 42 mins) this was a good test....
    ok, a few days behind, run test coming next!!!
  •  On the road, that means stationary bike, 2x8min(2min)@FTP went by RPE and HR. On target. Felt appropriate for how short it was. Not overly difficult. 

  • My 60 min including 2x8'(2') felt pretty easy like most other folks. In fact, comparing my numbers with Stark's above, perhaps I did not do it correctly. I am new to power so that is quite possible...

    My IF on the two intervals was 0.977 and 0.965 (his were >1)
    And my IF on the last portion (which I assume John the 9:42 was your z3 "remaining time", in my case 17:45) was 0.84 vs. your 0.96

    In particular the last 17:45 was very easy and my HR declined over the course of that time from 152 to 130.

    Am I following the directions correctly? Should my z3 be more intense?

    Cheers, Matt
  • question for the more experienced peeps here, what % increase can one hope to achieve in FTP over the course of a 20 week outseason? time to start writing down goals.
  • @ Matt, It looks like you're right where you want to be. John mentioned that he intentionally overrreached, sort of hammered home. My OS experience says, enjoy the "easy" feeling intervals now and take rest days even if you're feeling groovy. image

    @Scott, I don't think it's unreasonable to look for a 10% roi.
  • question for the more experienced peeps here, what % increase can one hope to achieve in FTP over the course of a 20 week outseason? time to start writing down goals.

    @Scott, the Haus line is that people have an average 15% increase in FTP using the OS plans. Funny thing about averages is you don't know where you'll always fit in that curve. I would say much of that answer depends on where you are starting from. If you're a beginner, out of shape, not much experience, etc., you have the most to gain and could see yourself well above that number. A well conditioned athlete, while doing impressive work, will most likely not see the same % of gain. This is only my 2nd OS. Last year just from FTP test #1 to test #2 I went from 224w to 244w. That was 8 weeks and 9% very quick. The next test was a much smaller gain. When I went in last year I set my goal at 15% and assumed anything beyond that would just be gravy. I pulled out of the OS early and don't have a full 20wk number to share.

    The challenge with being overly aggressive with goals, I'm very guilty of this, is that you can get married to a number and push yourself over a cliff with what you want rather than letting the numbers be what they are. Pushing harder than you're ready for can actually be detrimental to your fitness!

  • Forgot to share my bike workout. First one with new FTP numbers was interesting. It was hard, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be with the new FTP. The biggest problem I had was finding a good cadence/speed combo that I liked. I could easily lock in the power using a cadence around 84 and a higher gear. When I tried to find a lower gear with a higher cadence I couldn't find something in the low 90's that felt comfortable. It shows a little in my intervals. Does anyone have advice on how to deal with these gear/cadence/power mismatches?


    FTP=231
    8' #1:
    Duration: 8:02
    TSS: 12.8 (intensity factor 0.977)
    Norm Power: 226
    VI: 0.99
    Min Max Avg
    Power: 87 261 228 watts
    Heart Rate: 130 173 164 bpm
    Cadence: 68 99 85 rpm
    Speed: 17.8 21.4 20.5 mph

    8' #2:
    Duration: 8:01
    TSS: 13.5 (intensity factor 1.005)
    Norm Power: 232
    VI: 0.99
    Min Max Avg
    Power: 193 276 234 watts
    Cadence: 81 87 84 rpm

  • Matt- you did it exactly right.   John knew he was not following "the rules" and is prepared to deal with the consequences.

    For all you Noobs, I highly recommend you review this Blog Post (which may have come out just before you joined the team). 

    http://www.endurancenation.us/blog/...ling/bike/

    Especially during the OS, it's important to stay within the guidance of the perscribed intervals.

  • I didn't notice this thread yesterday, but I am very pleased with my first ride post crappy-FTP test. I have no doubt that I will get stronger as I move through the January OS. 45min at an IF of .91, banged out the intervals with no problems. The body is slowly making the adjustment from afternoon rider to EARLY morning rider. I have a feeling that I will see a big jump over the first block of FTP work as I adjust to riding in the AM vs PM. For whatever reason, it's a lot harder to push the watts in the early morning.
  •  @Scott: I guess it all depends.  I went from 192 to 254 last season.  I didn't consider myself completely out of shape, but I wasn't in the best shape either... I just trained smarter.  Not that I expect that gain again, but I expect to train even smarter this year, and lose weight which is a key for me, because my power might not get much higher than last year's, but I can control my w/kg which is key.  So hopefully you can reach that goal of 10-15% and if you can (not saying you need to, I don't know your body type) losing weight during the training will automatically make you faster as well and its free speed!  God knows I need to drop another 10 before I run out of excuses!  Good luck buddy.

    dan

  • My Bad

    Sorry if I confused anyone.  I stated in my bike post below yesterday that "I know, I know, I shouldn't over-reach but what the hell!"  I was still a bit pissed off about my 5k TT fail so just wanted to shell myself using the pent up energy.  Easy to do when I am trying to keep up with Tom Glynn.  He was a little amazed at my prowess yesterday.

    Remember that I am going into my 3rd season with EN and I have a good handle on what I am doing.

    I promise to follow the rules in the future {I hope   } so Nemo doesn't come kick me in the nutz.  

     

    Rock on, everyone.

  • Your a big boy John- no worries. I just wanted to be sure we didn't lead the Noobs astray. Besides, we both know I won't have to kick you in the nutz if you do something stoopid- the OS plan will do that for me! image
  • Already great stuff coming from Team Confetti...I love it! Nice work!
  • Scott- I second the "it depends" answer.
    I trained and raced EN style as a HR athlete initially.
    Once I got power- WOW! Now I really understood objective work measurements.
    I started at 131 and ended at 180 (~40%) in a 16 week OS.
    But these days I start OS in the 170-180 region and top out near 190.

    My ride was good. I still haven't downloaded, but I love the weeks of short intervals.
  • @ John S - no worries man, I am just learning and figuring the power stuff all out, so wanted to make sure I understand what is going on with these power numbers
  • Dan - thanks for the advice, I got with C Rich about switching to power and will be doing that soon. Can't wait till today's work out, I'm getting outside, good luck everyone!
  • Ahhhhhhh, outside again! It was 38 degrees, Sunny, with winds at 5-10mph. I bundled up and felt perfectly comfy out there for the bike workout today. Those intervals are sooooo much easier outside! I did the intervals at 5 watts higher than my "indoor" FTP 'cause I know it easily that much of a difference for me between inside and out.

    Enjoy the "easy" ride this weekend folks. It's gonna get tougher fast!
  • Very nice, Nemo! Take a dip after? Snowy up here. 2x8 in the HB then 85% for 15.

    Did some one legged drills to warm up. Once I went back to 2 pedals the watts jumped enough to make me get off and recheck my offset. It was a reminder as to how much good form, the smooth stroke means. In the midst of a tough interval it is a good distractor/mind game to focus on pedal stroke.
Sign In or Register to comment.