WEEK 11 BIKE AND BRICK
I'm re-arranging to do all workouts this week a day ahead, so I did the Tuesday brick workout today.
With all the missed bike workouts over the past 3 weeks I can tell I'm behind on the VO2 max intervals...they were just brutal. Today called for 5x z5 intervals, 2:30 each. I got through four and a third of those suckers then cracked. I had to cut the fifth one to 1:30 then added a sixth of 1:00 long to complete the total assigned z5 time. Very tough. Interestingly I then ended up doing the z3 stuff at the end at 91%...strange.
z5 intervals, 120%=270, 65%=146
276/160
275/153
275/155
278/153
274/155 (1:30, I cracked on this one and cut it short)
284/139 (1:00, to make up the lost time from the prior interval)
13:00 of z3 time at the end: 204 watts (0.907)
The brick run was kind of slow, ended up at 7:04 overall for the 25 min run, so squarely in z3/HMP…my hamstring still bugging me a bit and some issue with my ankles aching driven by using different shoes I think.
Cheers
Matt
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This week on the road again, as usual, stationary bike, done by feel, how much power, no clue. I know that every effort was above FTP. By now, I can tell.
60min total, 5x2.5min(2.5min), than 25min run EP on treadmill.
See you girls and guys tomorrow for the run workout.
Matt, nice work. I did search a bit on resistance to find that sweet spot for cadence at high power, real bike cad for me is 103 on these, did some at or above and some with more resistance at 97-99.
No juice today. I think I'm ready to tap out on the trainer. It's been a long 4 months of being a cellar dweller. I took Sun and Mon off and the recovery gods were not good to me.
5x2.5' quickly turned into 3x2.5' then 5x1'
3x2.5' 383, 378, 360
5x1' 373, 376, 364, 376, 377.
The 60-65% rest intervals were epic fails. I tried to do some 85% and thought to myself, 'what the hell are you doing, get off!'
Mental 6 pack is a tub of jelly today.
Dave
Brick done and not 1’ extra, thank.you.very.much! Finally close to hitting the 120%. Should be 236 and I hit 238, 235, 234, 228, 236. I did struggle on the 60% recovery just like Dave (totally feel your pain!) and actually spent much of my energy being irritated at whoever labeled those “recovery”… WTH!?!
Didn't quite have it today despite taking yesterday completely off. I tend to burn the candle at both ends and I think that may be catching up to me in recovery. Need more sleep.
Early morning ride on the rollers:
3 x 2.5/2.5 at 248, 246, 241 (shooting for 252)
1 x 1.5/1.5 at 249
3 x 1 at 251, 252, 252
1 x .5 at 260
Bagged the ABP due to time.
Snuck out at lunch for an easy swim. ~ 1600 LCY of mainly 50 drill/50 swim. Stroke felt okay, not quite like the cat in a washing machine I expected (second swim since Nov) but endurance was definitely not there. I've got some work to do before White Lake 1/2 on May 7!
Nice work all, I'll be skipping Thursday's ride for a long run on HIM plan.
I haven't slept much the last two nights and it definitely showed. I couldn't get up this morning to ride, so, I came home early from the office and rode before dinner. I got through all five 2.5's and nothing extra. Fortunately, I suffered close to the 20% mark. All five intervals ended up around 1.13-1.17. While I couldn't quite hit 1.2, I'm happy with the work.
I'm glad to see that there are some other folks, stronger folks, struggling a little as well; gives me hope knowing I'm not alone.
Good luck on the run tomorrow,
I'll admit to a little residual fatigue buildup. Today I had 3 hours of driving to get to a 4 hour meeting, then a one hour bike fitting session - a few little tweaks, and my pedal stroke feels way smoother!
But, I just did the WU and main set on VO2s today, with no run. Same thing last week, where I did the run the morning after a Monday trainer session. This week, my plan is a Thursday brick instead. It being a 20-25 minute run, I think the major issue was just mental resistence after the all day in the car thing, not tru exhaustion (I can ALWAYS knock out 20 minutes, can't I?). Thursday is a day off, so I can devote more mental space to the workout.
The key thing is something every day. Keep it up, even you road warriors!
Tomorrow I'm getting up early to go swimming for the first time since beginning training. I've been watching all the videos I can find on technique so now it's time to try it out and see how it feels to swim that way.
Today was the identical workout to the early week brick, with 5x 2:30 @ z5. I also turned today into a brick with a 30 min run, since I skipped the long 60 min mid-week run.
Unlike Monday night today went really well. Still very hard, but I was able to complete all 5 z5 intervals without cracking. And again I felt good for the z3 stuff at the end.
z5 intervals, 120%=270, 65%=146
275/159 (cad 97, HR 154)
276/147 (cad 97, HR 162)
279/151 (cad 98, HR 165)
275/153 (cad 98, HR 169)
278/152 (cad 99, HR 173) -- did this the last half of this one sitting up on the base bars, could not maintain power in aero.
13:00 of z3 time at the end: 197 watts (0.874)
The brick run was fast. I ran with a buddy who is fast and well rested compared to us EN outseason types. He pushed me pretty hard which was good motivation. Overall 29:29 at 6:49 pace.
Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73437624
Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73437714
Cheers
Matt
Grrr ... I got my upper body re-hab weight lifting in this morning, butr had no mental juice for the run after work this PM. Since I have the next five days off, I'm going to just try moving it all back a day. Not doing a planned workout always makes me a little depressed, so I must really need the time off to expose myself to that.
It was interesting using their treadmill after being on my personal version in my basement. I realized one really cool feature I really wish I had now. A number pad that I could immediately enter a speed in. I guess the thousands I didn't spend for that convenience makes it okay.
Warmer weather is definitely here now. I've been getting outdoors now for bike rides, but I'm doing my work sets on the trainer because that lets me be very specific for my workouts.
The goods news is I got the work done today and hit all the 2.5's at 1.18 to 1.21...very pleased with the effort. However, when I was done, I didn't have the legs to to do any of the 85% work. My quads felt like they were on fire and were twitching up a storm. Oh well, at lest I got the main set done.
Definitily looking forward to the day off tomorrow.
I'm not yet divorced, but I did declare a formal separation...from my trainer! I got outside yesterday and did hill repeats of a local hill.
Its .4 miles and takes me between 2:15 - 2:25 at VO2.
Since there was no 65% in between (going back down the hill), I went a little harder around 125%. I did 6 ranging from 415-425. The first was at 459 as I was feeling frisky.
I then did 3 at 110%, then the final one at 120%
I finished off with 1hr @ 80%. 2 hours outside! Gotta love it.
Dave
Little late posting here. After a nice day in Raleigh, at the airport, for sure, went for a run to loosen up. gotta tell you guys, I am hurting everywhere after that forced hill repeats session Wednesday. I mean, IT bands are screaming, my rear is screaming, places I did not know I had. That was not easing into hill repeats, I did not want to do them but it is what it is. Came back to West Little Rock, gym ,nasty stationary bike, again.
I just simply cracked as it hurt so much turning pedals, I broke it down into 1min(1min) turned as hard as I could, did about 10 and called it. I am sure they were sub 120%, but it was all I had. Not quite happy with it but I sure hope that all this mad soreness will back down for the weekend.
The day ended with a AM 5mi@EP+ stretch, PM 55min stationary bike with an attempt at 2.5min.
Keep it up. I will have power and pace to report for the weekend, most likely in reverse, Saturday run 12mi, Sunday brick total 3 hrs.
deleting double post
Continuing my "day ahead" plan for the week, I did the bike portion of the Saturday brick tonight. I skipped the brick run because I'm running an 8k race on Sunday and want to rest the running legs. Although after tonight's 105 minutes on the trainer, I'm not sure what my legs will feel like doing in the race!!
The workout, after correcting for RnP's bad math, was 105 mins: W/U 10' easy, 2x20'(4') @ z4, 3x2.5'(2.5') @ z5, 2x15'(2') @ z3. I felt very good and strong tonight. Perhaps watching the movie "Gladiator" helped. The first 20 min z4 interval flew by. The second was harder but I got it done without feeling like I was going to fold. The z5 intervals likewise were okay. The third one was very hard, I needed to get out of aero and to the base bar to get it done. The z3 work was fine, no issue really.
Interval 1 (20' @z4) - NP: 225w (IF 1.001), cadence: 88, HR: 153
Interval 2 (20' @z4) - NP: 229w (IF 1.018), cadence: 89, HR: 167
z5 intervals, 120%=270, 65%=146
281/160, cad 96, HR 176
282/161, cad 96, HR 176
279/156, cad 96, HR 179
Interval 6 (15' @z3) - NP: 200w (IF 0.888), cadence: 93, HR: 167
Interval 7 (15' @z3) - NP: 203w (IF 0.899), cadence: 94, HR: 165
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73739632
Now tomorrow will be a rest day before the 8k race on Sunday. Hopefully my legs will cooperate!!
Cheers,
Matt
I felt I had a pretty good effort on the bike. Aimed for 175W - 180W (.90 - .94 IF). That felt just great at first but of course got progressively harder. Actually the last few miles were pretty tough. I think this will be a good target for the race.
Duration: 1:19:19 (1:20:21)
Work: 816 kJ
TSS: 107.6 (intensity factor 0.905)
Norm Power: 177
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: 6.49%
Pa:HR: 10.1%
Distance: 25.012 mi
Elevation Gain: 607 ft
Elevation Loss: 635 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-25 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 433 172 watts
Heart Rate: 69 164 153 bpm
Cadence: 6 111 87 rpm
Speed: 0 36.4 19.0 mph
Pace 1:39 0:00 3:10 min/mi
Altitude: 505 891 714 ft
Crank Torque: 0 621 173 lb-in
Temperature: 48.2 60.8 53.6 Fahrenheit
Yesterday, I did my first solo outdoor bike ride since my accident, 4th overall, on my tried and true outdoor FTP testing course. A few sprinkles, but mostly bright sun and mid 50s. I made the mistake of reviewing last year's workouts at this time, and discovered that while my tested FTP is the same as last year, in 2010 OS I was doing the wko @ 5-10% higher wattage, with HRs about 5% higher. That depressed me a bit, so my first 20 minute FTP interval was weak, but the second one was in there @ 95%. Overall, I went for 90 minutes @ IF=0.805. And the sun and short run afterwards helped as well. If possible, I've committed to doing one workout a week outside now, switching as needed to get the day off/no rain combo.
Swim this morning continues to increase by 100-150 yds each session (now @ 3/week), and now I'm leaving on Sunday's 75 minute run. I'm thinking the 2 mile intervals will be more @ HMP than TP, though.
Folks, I am ready to admit, I have been over reaching (hopefully only that). I had to invert the weekend due to work, so run Saturday, late yesterday afternoon, than this AM bike ride. It did not go, not just did not go well, did not go. This is the second bike workout this week that I failed. It is couch time, no easy of anything. I am so unhappy. Yesterday's run was digging deep to stay on pace, so, yes, I pulled the plug today after the first 20min and 6min into the second interval. I did hold my FTP but it was mental and everything else, windy, humid, yesterday gusty and rain during the run. I guess my mind and body had enough of enduring. I am shutting it down till Tuesday AM. I lost the rhythm that I had during the first 8 weeks, hitting all workouts on target.
I am hoping that after some couch time, stretching and other accelerated recovery techniques, I will be able to hit Tuesday ride on target. Never before have I struggled to hit VO2max 120% range, but I guess collective fatigue is pretty tough to handle.
Swim and run have been on target.
I will check back in on Tuesday after the brick.
All of you guys are awesome, Matt, nice numbers, your FTP is higher again, Jenn, too hard on the bike, no doubt. Dial it back a little, it will be magic after that.
Al, I hear you, good work, regardless.
@Matt, "enhanced recovery techniques" and "accelerated recovery techniques" in ASCA coaching manuals as well as USA Swimming involve massage, stretch, yoga.......no EPO if that is what you meant. That would be pretty silly. I used the term from their Physiology Manual as I am taking Level 3 Test, actually about to be done with it.
I will take your advice and couch time for maybe two days. I laughed hard when I read your comment. It sure sounded bad the way a wrote it.
Crazy, man.
What I meant was not to push to "accelerate" your recovery. I.e. take an extra day or two, it won't kill you.
You clearly have a lot of coaching knowledge, but your motivation is likewise extreme. So I could easily see you trying to do the Tuesday workout, when it may be right to hit the couch for longer.
cheers
Well, it has been an interesting week to say the least. It started Sunday night with a wicked (and I do mean wicked) case of food poisoning; dropped 2.5lbs in a very short period
. Nothing like pulling an all nighter hurling prior to getting on a plane for a 3 day 4 city business trip! Needless to say this has NOT been a good week in terms of workouts.
With that said, I got back on the horse last night to get back on schedule. Banged out the 5 x 2.5's but not much more. I struggled with maintaining the 120%, but averaged about 112-115% (I still need to download the data). I will be back to full strengh workouts tomorrow.
@Allen - good luck with CDA, you'll love it. That was my first IM (did it last year) and it is a truely amazing experience. Best volunteers I've ever seen. Enjoy it.
Good luck everyone with the weekend workouts.