Glossary

This is a description of the terms, abbreviations and concepts that I use in the blog. There are better guides on the internet, but this is how I understand them in the context of this blog.

FTP - functional threshold power. This is the maximum power I can output for a 60 minute period. As I have never done a 60 minute test I use a 20 minute maximal test and subtract 5% from the result. For example, I recently completed a 20 minute power test at 322W, so I can calculate an FTP at 322x0.95 = 307W. The highest 60 minute figure I have ever recorded is 291W but I still use the 307W figure for planning workouts.

Bikescore or Training Stress Score (TSS). This is a measurement used to estimate the training stress of a workout. If I did a 1 hour workout at FTP I would record a TSS of 100. 30 mins at FTP is 50, and so on. I don't like this figure very much as I find it very blunt and it hides a multitude of information. For example, a 60 minute FTP ride gets 100. A 3 hour ride at 175W gets 100. The 1 hour ride would kill me and the 3 hour ride would bore me.

Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR). The exercise intensity at which blood lactate starts to accumulate faster than it can be cleared. The highest average HR I have recorded in a race was 174BPM which is taken as my LTHR (based on training industry norms). Since I got a power meter I use HR less but I always have an eye on where my HR is compared to LTHR. In steady state I start to feel uncomfortable at around 162BPM and I'm hating life at 174BPM. My HR on a turbo is different to my HR on the road or racing so there is difficulty using a race LTHR as a real guide on the turbo. Also, as HR varies from day to day, LTHR is really only a guide.

Interval. Basically an interval is a period of exercise where power output is at a certain level. For example, I may do a pair of 20 minute intervals at FTP or 5x5minutes at 120% FTP. The theory is that doing hard work for short periods allows you to stress your body more effectively. I'm lazy and sometimes mix the term Session with Interval when I really mean Interval.

Traditionally these are written as the 'number of intervals' x 'duration of intervals (usually in minutes)', for example 2x20 or 3x15. There is, by definition, a rest interval (RI) between the work intervals but this is not usually stated.

KiloJoules (kJ). A measure of the work done during an interval, session, ride etc. The greater the number the more work has been completed. It is often used as a proxy for calories (kCals) burned during exercise as there is a conversion rate of roughly 1:1 between them.

Powerzones. There are 7 power zones based around a rider's FTP.



Zone 1 - Active Recovery - 0-55% FTP

Zone 2 - Endurance - 55-75% FTP

Zone 3 - Tempo - 75-90% FTP

Zone 4 - Threshold - 90-105% FTP

Zone 5 - VO2 Max - 105-120% FTP

Zone 6 - Anaerobic - 120-150% FTP

Zone 7 - Neuromuscular - 150% FTP+

Sweetspot. To confuse things, the sweetspot is further defined as 88-94% of FTP. This is generally considered to be the most efficient region to train in if you're looking to improve FTP.

 

The Quits. During hard workouts I often get a dose of the quits or the weakness. It's the point where I pathetically want to give up and do something else. Usually accompanied by whimpering.

 

 

The Hell of the North: revisited

I thought I'd revisit my The Hell of the North workout today but with a few minor tweeks to make it a bit more fun. Rather than 3 different intensities I did it with just 2. If Boonen was on screen I went for 307W (100% FTP) and if he wasn't I got a nice rest at 275W (90% FTP). This means there is less gear changing and a higher average power.

After a 10 minute warm-up I got started on the session. The first 30 minutes of the session was quite enjoyable but 30-40 minutes got a bit challenging (you can see the power output start to drop off in the graph above), so I had a 5 minute rest at 50% FTP before a 5 minute interval, then another 5 minute rest at 50% FTP and another 5 interval, then a 2 minute rest, then 2 minutes flat out coinciding with Boonen crossing the line. This was much better than the first attempt at the session and I felt quite happy that I had achieved a good workout at the end of it. Most importantly, there was a large pool of sweat under the bike so I must have been doing something right.

In 75 minutes I used 1140 kCals and achieved a Bikescore (TSS) of 97.

I'm getting lazy

I've had 3 lazy days with absolutely NO exercise due to lots of travelling with work, 12 hour days, long cold nights and a cheap bar. I didn't really want to do anything today but I knew that I should, so I compromised with myself and planned a 2x20mins sweetspot session which then changed into a 1x45 at 93% FTP once I got going.

As workouts go, this was quite easy. I got bored after 35 minutes and started to vary my power output, a bit of out-of-the-saddle to get rid of some 'numbness' and then a final little push at the end. Not sure if the session did any good, but I needed a gentle reintroduction to the turbo before the next 3 days of planned turbo sessions.

Weekly Summary

At the end of the second week I have achieved: 

Rides: 5 - all turbo sessions totalling 5 hrs 50 mins.

Total Bikescore (TSS): 456 (last week 390)

I had planned a TSS of around 430 for the week so I was pleased to exceed this, but I have less and less confidence in TSS as a useful metric. Having reviewed some long road rides I realise that I can regularly achieve a TSS of 300 for an 85 miler and still be able to ride again the next day. This week's TSS 456 was very challenging and regularly left me unable to anything other that just sit on the bike and recover. I need to do some thinking about what TSS is trying to tell me and how I can make it useful.

Total time in Zone 3: 57:10 (last week 0:30:00)
Total time in Zone 4: 2:17:34 (1:54:00)
Total time in Zone 5: 0:38:23 (0:38:01)
Total time in Zone 6: 0:03:37 (0:03:34)
Total time in Zone 7: 8 seconds (12 seconds)

kCals burned (incl warm-ups and cooldowns); 5391 (4430)

So it seems I have done more this week but most of that was in Zones 3 and 4 rather than an even balance across all Zones. In the future I need to do more in Zone 5 and 6 if I am going to improve my 20 minute power.

My weight is down to around 74.8 so there's steady progress in that direction, but still a long way to go to get to the 72kg target.

I will be away from the turbo for the next 3 days so I'll take it as a useful recovery period and look to beast myself again on Thursday and Friday.

Sufferfest: Hell Hath No Fury

I had a recovery day yesterday because I went to bed on 30 Nov with a headache and I woke up yesterday with a bit of a sniffle; nothing too serious but my body wasn't happy. I can't get on the turbo for the next 3 days so I thought I'd beast myself with Sufferfest's Hell Hath No Fury. Looking at the profile on Golden Cheetah I thought it would be a challenge, but an achievable one.

The warm-up went well (small victory) and then the first 20 minute variable intensity interval got going; easy at first then ramping up. I was hanging in until about 13 mins but I was unable to complete the interval as planned so I dropped into 'recovery mode'. Rather than stopping I back off a little and try to let my body recover, slowly picking up power or maintaining power until the end of the interval. I think this is much better than stopping. Below is a plot of the first interval, Red = HR, Black = power and Blue = speed.

After a 5 minute rest I was ready for the second interval, but I'd backed the intensity off to 95% to give me a chance of completing it; or so I thought. Again, about 13 minutes I got a bad dose of 'the weakness' and I had to back off into recovery mode, getting my HR down and then slowly building my power until the end of the session. I was able to finsh with a flourish and beat the final power peak, but it was a hollow victory after all the recovering I'd done prior to it.

I didn't enjoy it and I don't think I'll be doing it again too soon. If I do it again I'll drop the intensity down to make sure I can get to the end. Considering I can achieve 2x20 at 307W, I'm slightly confused why I only achieved 1x299W then 1x290W on the 20 min intervals today. It is probably the peakiness of the intervals demonstrating the effect that variable pacing has on an interval.

2x20 at FTP

With only an hour or so before I had to do some chores I planned to do another 2x20 at FTP. The first session went well with a nice steady power output and a gently rising heart rate and beating the 307W target by 2W. The second session started well but quickly got ugly. After 12 minutes I started to have doubts I would be able to complete it with a highish HR and a lot of sweat dripping off my nose. It was then that the 'bouncing' started; periods of feeling OK interspersed with periods of feeling terrible but never feeling good. I've highlighted the suffering portion in the graph below:

Black = Power. Red = HR.

Normally I'd have stopped at this point, had a shower and put it behind me but I was determined to finish the session on target. With 3 minutes to go I started a hard push which lasted about 30 seconds before I had to back off and then with 2 minutes I started to ramp up to increase my average power from 304W to my target of 307W, rocking from side-to-side. I managed to finish with an average of 306W. So close but not quite there!

After a short recovery I was able to do some messing around to get my total calories up to 1000 and finished with a Bikescore (TSS) of 88.

The Hell of the North - completed

After a day at work looking forward to an hour on the turbo, I snuck off early and got the torture chamber set up and ready for The Hell of the North (set up here). YouTube loaded, Golden Cheetah running, Garmin recording, Go!!!

The first 5 minutes is a fairly relaxed warm-up before the fun starts as Boonen attacks and the intervals start. I won't ruin it for you and let you know what happens, but here's the plot of the first 65 minutes with lots of Zone 4 work mixed with short rest intervals in Zone 2. I liked that you never knew what was coming next or how long the current interval or rest would last; it made it much more interesting and less of a chore than a normal interval session. The film is also really good and helps to take your mind off any pain you're suffering.

The power plot looks like this showing that it's mainly a Zone 4 workout. Black line = power. Red line = HR. Green line = Cadence.

Stats for the hour:

Average power: 272W
xPower: 274W - my FTP is 307 therefore it's roughly 89%
Average HR: 156
Max HR: 169 (my LTHR is 174)
kCals: 970
IF: 0.89
Bikescore (TSS): 79

If you run it with Golden Cheetah (or Trainer Road) and overlay YouTube it looks something like this (the video is actually better but the screenshot makes it look worse that it is):



Next time I'll do a longer warm-up (15 minutes) and then I'll be able to do the whole workout to the end and I'll hold back earlier on. I found I was letting my power creep up above the 307W or 270W targets which may have impacted later on in the workout. Today's hour went very very quickly.