Looking back this has been the most turbo time I have ever done in a week and I've tried to specifically target Zone 4 (276-322W) and Zone 5 (322-378W). I'm going to have a day off tomorrow so that I can do a harder session on Monday.
Saturday 24 November 2012
2x20 at FTP
I didn't do my planned Chain Gang ride due to heavy Yorkshire fog so I did a 2x20 at FTP (306W) turbo session instead. I didn't know how I'd feel after yesterday's session so I was pleased when the first session went well and I achieved 307W. The second session started off OK but I had a bit of a wobble at 16 mins and my power dropped off and I started to have those thoughts about a hot shower and a nice cup of coffee. I was determined to complete the session as planned following my mid-week display of humiliating weakness and a short while later I found the reserves needed to complete the session on target, albeit with burning thighs and quite a lot of whimpering. Black line = power. Red line = HR.
Looking back this has been the most turbo time I have ever done in a week and I've tried to specifically target Zone 4 (276-322W) and Zone 5 (322-378W). I'm going to have a day off tomorrow so that I can do a harder session on Monday.
Looking back this has been the most turbo time I have ever done in a week and I've tried to specifically target Zone 4 (276-322W) and Zone 5 (322-378W). I'm going to have a day off tomorrow so that I can do a harder session on Monday.
Friday 23 November 2012
Turbo Session
Today was a Real Rides Race Day workout on the turbo. Info here, nothing to do with me!
The workout is taken from an actual race and on-screen instructions let you know how hard you should be working on a scale of 1 to 10. I currently do it with 10 being 360W and subtracting 30W for each step down. It's quite engaging and tries to recreate the surges and recoveries you get in a criterium-type race and it's nice to see the HR trace gently increase over the whole workout. Its a shame it's a bit short at just under 39 mins, another 10 mins would be good. For the 38:36 workout I averaged 296W (298W xPower, 685kJ) of which 14 mins is in Zone 5 (VO2 Max), 9 mins in Z4 and 9 mins in Z3.
Today's trace looks like this (Black line = power. Red line = HR):
Next time I think I'll add 10W to each of these levels.
The workout is taken from an actual race and on-screen instructions let you know how hard you should be working on a scale of 1 to 10. I currently do it with 10 being 360W and subtracting 30W for each step down. It's quite engaging and tries to recreate the surges and recoveries you get in a criterium-type race and it's nice to see the HR trace gently increase over the whole workout. Its a shame it's a bit short at just under 39 mins, another 10 mins would be good. For the 38:36 workout I averaged 296W (298W xPower, 685kJ) of which 14 mins is in Zone 5 (VO2 Max), 9 mins in Z4 and 9 mins in Z3.
Today's trace looks like this (Black line = power. Red line = HR):
Next time I think I'll add 10W to each of these levels.
Weigh-in
For the last 3 days my weight averaged 75kgs. Using the same power recorded at the last 20 min power test, this predicts a 60 min PWR of 4.09, up from 4.03 at the weekend (obviously all due to the reduction in recorded weight!) which is a 1.5% improvement*.
*The reality is more likely to be that my recorded weight last weekend was too high as my activity and diet is unlikely to have resulted in a 0.9kg weight loss. Using the 3500kCals per lb guestimate of weight reduction, I'd have had to have used an additional 6900kCals to drop the weight, which I haven't, so such small changes are likely to be 'noise' and may have been caused by having a fuller stomach, being better hydrated or having a fuller bladder rather than any real weight loss. This is why I'm taking a longer-term view of the power and weight in my target.
*The reality is more likely to be that my recorded weight last weekend was too high as my activity and diet is unlikely to have resulted in a 0.9kg weight loss. Using the 3500kCals per lb guestimate of weight reduction, I'd have had to have used an additional 6900kCals to drop the weight, which I haven't, so such small changes are likely to be 'noise' and may have been caused by having a fuller stomach, being better hydrated or having a fuller bladder rather than any real weight loss. This is why I'm taking a longer-term view of the power and weight in my target.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Set-up
Mid-session data view.
I use Golden Cheetah v3 when I'm doing my workouts giving a live readout of key parameters. It's completely customisable and is great for post-session analysis too. Here's a screenprint taken at the end of today's session, showing the HR, power, cadence and speed traces in the main graph, short-term power and HR in the smaller graph, as well as target power, instantaneous power, cadence, HR and elapsed time in the smaller windows. The data is gathered from a Garmin HR strap (£32) and a Powertap G2 Pro+ hub (£loads). This data is recorded on the Garmin 800 (£250 ish) as well as straight onto my laptop via a Garmin ANT+ dongle (£25).
I use Golden Cheetah v3 when I'm doing my workouts giving a live readout of key parameters. It's completely customisable and is great for post-session analysis too. Here's a screenprint taken at the end of today's session, showing the HR, power, cadence and speed traces in the main graph, short-term power and HR in the smaller graph, as well as target power, instantaneous power, cadence, HR and elapsed time in the smaller windows. The data is gathered from a Garmin HR strap (£32) and a Powertap G2 Pro+ hub (£loads). This data is recorded on the Garmin 800 (£250 ish) as well as straight onto my laptop via a Garmin ANT+ dongle (£25).
Success!
After a disappointing session yesterday I thought I'd repeat it with exactly the same set up.
Black line = power. Red line = HR.
Black line = power. Red line = HR.
As you can see, I managed to compete it and quite easily too. My heart rate was significantly lower than yesterday, with a peak HR of 167 compared to 175 which I think has something to do with my lower cadence (around 14 rpm lower than yesterday). I even managed a 480W blast at the end, just for fun.
So what have I learned? From day to day my performance varies a lot for no apparent reason. I just wish I knew why.
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Disappointing!
After 2 days off I was looking forward to one of my home-brew turbo sessions called Shorter Harder.
Overview (based on a FTP of 306W)
Warm-up: 5 mins at 200W
8 mins at 270W
7 at 280W
6 at 290W then 3 mins rest interval (RI)
5 at 300W then 2.5 min RI
4 at 310W then 2 min RI
3 at 320W then 1.5 min RI
2 at 330W then 1 min RI
1 at 340W then cool-down
All was well until the 3 mins at 320W when I no longer wanted to continue. At the time, with sweat dripping off my nose and a lovely dinner waiting to be cooked, it seemed natural to stop there and then. However, afterwards I realised that I should have carried on no matter how uncomfortable it was; at 300-340W I wasn't going to hurt myself and I'm not going to get stronger quitting. So that's it, NO MORE QUITTING!
I last completed this session on 23 Oct to exactly the same power and felt quite good afterwards (according to the notes I took at the time) so I have no idea why tonight was so different. Here's the plot. I was going to have a pic of a pansy after my weak performance, but the plot is probably more useful. Black line = power. Red line = HR.
Overview (based on a FTP of 306W)
Warm-up: 5 mins at 200W
8 mins at 270W
7 at 280W
6 at 290W then 3 mins rest interval (RI)
5 at 300W then 2.5 min RI
4 at 310W then 2 min RI
3 at 320W then 1.5 min RI
2 at 330W then 1 min RI
1 at 340W then cool-down
All was well until the 3 mins at 320W when I no longer wanted to continue. At the time, with sweat dripping off my nose and a lovely dinner waiting to be cooked, it seemed natural to stop there and then. However, afterwards I realised that I should have carried on no matter how uncomfortable it was; at 300-340W I wasn't going to hurt myself and I'm not going to get stronger quitting. So that's it, NO MORE QUITTING!
I last completed this session on 23 Oct to exactly the same power and felt quite good afterwards (according to the notes I took at the time) so I have no idea why tonight was so different. Here's the plot. I was going to have a pic of a pansy after my weak performance, but the plot is probably more useful. Black line = power. Red line = HR.
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