Week 9 Bike and Brick thread - Hello VO2 intervals
This is a first, me starting a weekday workout thread. I always do my workouts after work, but have made a commitment to change that and do them in the am. So far this week, I'm 2 for 2. I hope it continues as I love getting it done and out of the way.
I was nervous to see how I'd respond to the 5:30 workout. 4 x 2.5 on the schedule and it would be a first for me. I've never done that many consecutive 2.5 intervals @ 120% so I had no idea what to expect.
What I got was a good swift kick in the lungs and legs. OUCH! 
120% for me is 384 and I went: 389, 377, 383, 379. They were a beatch. Very tough. Left arm was shaking involuntarily toward the end of the last two. Not to mention how hard it was to hold 60% in between. I think I failed on one of them.
With a 10' wu, 20' of intervals, and 5 minutes of rest, I had 25' to kill at 80-85%. As usual, it was tough to get going, but once I was halfway, my physical and mental strength returned.
My brick was the paper route with my son before school. 
I'm looking forward to hearing other's stories of the first foray into VO2 intervals.
Dave
Comments
Word of warning to the noobs. Follow these intervals to the perscribed level of effort as closely as possible! Do NOT just blow past the 120% to see how high you can get and don't dawdle on the 60% part either. Dave's account above about how hard it is to maintain "just 60%" after nailing these intervals exactly at 120% is dead on. So don't blow the workout by getting too itchy to blow past 120% (it's sooooo easy to get lured into that trick- just don't do it).
Dave - Gold stars to you for tackling the 2.5s!
Long, 20 minutes warm-up for me, at mostly 85%, and then I hacked up this workout a bit and did
3x1 (120%) x1 (60%) minutes (2), with a two minute rest interval in between. And then did a 1:00. 1:20. 1:40 at 120%. This was a challenging, yet sane workout. EP run at lunch.
@Beth - I like the way you broke it down into manageable pieces, very cool.
I took care of business at 5:00AM today and it was a very challenging workout. I warmed up for 5 minutes and then got down to business. For me, the heavy lifting took place just north of 198w. I went 198, 202, 200, and 204. Like Dave said, the 60% between the 120% seemed actually harder than the 120%, by the end of the 4th interval, my quads were shaking. One thing I noticed while doing the "on" work, was that my cadence went up to 92-94 and it felt surprising good. I'm not sure if that means anything, but it was nice to know that I can spin faster without blowing up. As for the balance of the hour, the 85% felt good. It took a good 5 to 7 minutes to find a gear/cadence that kept me at the right pace (I couldn't get out of zone 4 initially), but once I found it, cruise control took over.
Very pleased to have the first VO2 workout done (the run should happen this afternoon).
Nice job on the V02 workouts everyone, I'm not there yet. Got in a 2X10 @.99,1.0 (198 &200 watts); 2x10 @.84
& .86 for a total workout of 56'. No run today.
@Dave nice bike paper route brick workout.
Gordon
366, 371, 368, doink...351
I think I faded cuz I'm STOOOPID and tried to hold 65% of 120% on the down side. Well, it didn't help. Also, my body was like wtf, wtf, wtf, what are you doing?! These are some long ass short intervals.
Finished with 261 for 15'. Overall felt like good work, but didn't execute very well and was not focused and need a better warm up. I have to adjust to the curveball. Will crush it next time.
WU - 10min @ NP-184, IF-.78
#1 NP-337, IF-1.44 - Rest 142w
#2 NP-280, IF-1.20 - Rest 156w
#3 NP-283, IF-1.21 - Rest 153w
#4 NP-289, IF-1.23 - Rest 161w
#5 35min @ NP-201, IF-.86
Strangely, this type of workout did not leave me feeling as tired and beat up as the FTP intervals did. Kool-Aid tastes good today. :-D
Well, following my pattern of starting on the easy side, giving myself "room to grow" over the next 6 weeks, I did my 4 x 2.5 VO2 intervals (pre-programmed for the CompuTrainer) @ an IF of 1.15 (115%), and only had to push myself thru the last minute of the last one. "Push" means I start counting something - like breaths - and just keep going with that process in my head for distraction.
Yeah, I used to like the 30/30s too. I guess you can thank me and the others from last year's power hack for this year's model; the fact that we were able to survive gave hope to the coaches maybe the 2.5 length was doable with better gains. I got curious and looked back at the hack. Towards the end, we were doing things like this:
Tuesday:
Warm up for 15-20' and include 3 x 1' z5 effort with 2' recoveries
6 x 3' (4') @ 120%; 5' z1/easy, 10 x 30/30s as 120% FTP on, 60% FTP off.
5' easy, however you like, then...
Remainder of available time at 80-85%
Thursday
Warm up for 15-20' and include 3 x 1' z5 effort with 2' recoveries
3 x 6' (4') @ 105-110% FTP, recoveries at 60%
2-3' easy, however you like, then...
then < 20' @ 85% FTP
Note Tuesday: 3 x 1' @ 120%, 6 x 3' @ 120%, 10 x 30 s @ 120%. Ugh! I really survived that? 3 x 6' @ 110% was not much better.
So no whining; it could be worse!
And good job to everyone for hitting the ground running. Lets kick some VO2 butt lol
Nice job everyone, you all rock. VO2max is never easy, but for me, like Greg, it hurts a lot while I am doing it, but it never leaves me as tore up as long FTP intervals. My self coached programs in the past included some longer VO2max intervals to the total time of about 15-18min at VO2max. It is also the very first ability that erodes when not trained regularly. It rises rather quickly and plateaus.
I am on the road and had no prior PM work to be able to retain the RPE that correlates to my 332W@120%, so, stationary bike, hot room as usual, all done by feel. It was very hard, just as you describe it. I did fade in the 4th interval as there was nothing to judge the effort. No HR to report as it is useless doing these.
65min, AVG HR for the ride 133, 4x2.5min(2.5min)@120%, 1x15min@perceived 85%. When plugged in Race Day, it yields TSS of 57.00. I know that it will be lower than FTP work, so it maybe close to accurate stress.
AM had a 6mi run @EP.
Looking forward to tomorrow's run. Have fun everybody, the fun has started.
1st Period: 7 x 1.5' @ Z5 (1.5') | 10' rest | 2nd Period: 7 x 1.5' @ Z5 (1.5') | 10' rest | 3rd Period: 7 x 1.5' @ Z5 (1.5') | and then possibly overtime
Add in there the hits and wrestling for the puck in the corners. So our in-season training was basically VO2 intervals for 3 hours in the afternoon and hitting the gym at night 4-5 days per week and game days 2-3 days per week.
Okay, I'm rambling off topic but my point is that VO2 intervals feel more normal to me than the 10-15 minute Z4 intervals so no complaints here.
4x2.5' sounds so ez compared to 2x20 !
I modified down to 5x2', which is considerably harder than the 30/30's from last year...wow.
Anyway, got em all done at 120+%, had to cut overall back to 45' due to work.
Nice work everyone...sure makes that 80-85% stuff feel ez, doesn't it ?
@ ;Virginia: Too funny! I thought the EXACT same thing!!!
@ Allen: Love this! But did you forgot the, um, "recovery" beverage? Maybe you were done playing before you were old enough to play in the beer league?
@Al- Loved your "pushing means counting something" comment. I do the same thing and that's when I know it's dig deep time. I count peddle strokes or breaths or maybe just the stars I'm seeing floating around my head!
@Allen- I also love that hockey comment. Its certainly a different kind of fitness and effort. As I do these, I remind myself that it's this kind of short but hard effort I need to be able to do when I ride with the roadies.
@Virginia, I want you to remember how shocked you were after you calculated that 120% number. Some day soon, that number isn't gonna seem nearly so foreign :-) I also had no trouble maintaining the 60-65% parts (which surprised me), but I think that might be a symptom which shows just how low my roof is.
Did any of you actually run off the bike? I sure didn't!
The 30/30's means 30" work, 30" rest, I'm assuming? -John
Fun time had just reading all the posts. Great work everyone!
My OS now is tweaked and hacked (towards achieving a specific goal) a little here going forward, but is on same similar track as the OS the rest of you folks are doing.
Last night on the trainer watching Biggest Loser and then the Good Wife included:
10 min warm up
5 x 1min (1') at 350w
60min at 235w
Yes.
Dave
Ran at lunch and didn't want to waste getting sweaty for only 20'. Plus, minus the wind it was beautiful day. Jumped off road and ran on some dirt fire roads with about 7-8' of single track work. Knocked out the strides as prescribed. Total of 3.8 miles in 30:14 ~ 7:44 pace. E pace is right around there so pretty much on the money.
Nice work, Logan. I like to break up the final part of the workout, too. Standing, messing around with cadence.
Got mine done and felt stronger than Tues.
4x2.5 @ 390, 392, 396, 394. Then, 22' @ 274.
Good news is I only had the involuntary arm shake once, so I may be adapting.
Rest up for Sat's wko.
Dave
Very nice work, sir. I figgered this block would be right in your engine room. Get that mini stroke looked after.
Old guy did 4x2.5@ 366, 371, 368, 366, then z3,4 for 15. Hour came in at 86%. Looking for the big bump Saturday....or whenever.
Nice work, all!
Nice job Logan, Dave and Chris. Man, those absolute numbers for two of you look like you are both locomotives, just powering through. Way to go. Wondering how fast do you both ride flats, if you have a decent aero position, what kind of speeds do you observe in calm.
My 4x2.5(2.5) is done this morning in St. Pete, spin bike at the gym, absolutely by feel and no numbers to report. Just used RPE and stopwatch. It was hard, but it did not seem as hard as Tuesday, no reference to compare actual watts. Have to wait until the weekend. I may end up running Saturday vs. bike, will see, depending on my work schedule as it is once again travel home day.
Total 60min, no 85% work. Legs resting up, now.
@ Chris - I think it's because I'm getting fatter.
I keep losing and regaining my clydesdale status every couple of days. Tues was the first time I ever did a wko at 5:30am, today it was 8:00am, that may account for it.
@ AT- Last summer, I was able to PR my local 11.4 mile TT with 26.9mph. Course is mostly flat with a few arse kicking rollers. I weighed about 10lbs less than I do now. That was in the midst of IM training. Really looking forward to see what this year brings with none of those silly long runs.
Nice work getting it done as you trot across the U SofA.
Dave
Ha! This makes me laugh. All I have to say about today's workout is: ouch!
I got my bike work done yesterday at a spin class...I went on a just for fun ride on Tuesday with a buddy and so I needed to get my work in and I am having trouble with my trainer...so at lunch I went to the YMCA and showed the interval set to the spin instructor...after a laugh,,,the jokes and the bets were on...I lost the bets and gave them more material for the jokes...I couldn't hold the duration...my RPE and HR were through the roof...so we modified to 1x1 min intervals for a total of 12 min plus 38 min of alternating spint and power efforts that she cooked up...I was dizzy and convulsing and could hardly focus the rest of the day. I will be looking forward to getting better at this type of work, it is brand new to me and I need to figure out my zones and pacing. Love to the NATION! Chap
5x2' @ 364,365,367,375,373. Just a little shaky on last minute of last one.
Total ride was 75' @ 88%. Not looking forward to Sat wko, to be honest.
Missed Tuesday's ride but wailed on today's session. 4x2.5(2.5) @ 249, 252, 254, 267. Went a bit hot on the rest sessions averaged around 75%. Finished up the bike session with 1x30' @ .90 IF. Since I missed the brick on Tuesday as well I jumped on the treadmill and put in 3 miles in just over 20 minutes.
Well, too terribly pleasant by the 3rd set. Oof! There was definitely a space/time warping toward the end as the rest intervals were speeding by faster than the 120% intervals.