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
Comments
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!
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
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, 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 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
@Scott, I don't think it's unreasonable to look for a 10% roi.
@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!
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.
@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.
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.
Enjoy the "easy" ride this weekend folks. It's gonna get tougher fast!
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.