Hermes

Back on Fiesta this AM with my road bike. 90% for two laps with one 3' effort @120% each lap then two laps of tempo.

caloso

2x20's at lunch. Suprise KOM on part of my 5min recovery between intervals: Someone must have created a new segment on the route. Love it.

caloso

Awesome!

Ttoc6

First day of avy course. Learned a bunch of beacon tracking techniques and the bare-bones snow science. @tetonrider would probably have scoffed at the level that we're going to (low) but this is just the beginning. Some super interesting stuff.

Then I got on some skate skis after the class was over, skied on the non-inverted side of the mountains and came home to hit the gym a little bit. Back on the snow tomorrow. This offseason of skiing and lifting is way more fun than pounding 3x20 minute sweet spot.

TheKillerPenguin

There's a time to exertion (TTE) aspect to ftp which is based on your individual best efforts at various times in your power curve along with your stamina rating, where it's like more than 30min and usually but not always less than 60. My TTE was ~33min in October, right now it's ~45min but ftp power is pegged 5-6% lower. The difference is I basically had to take 2 months off, and my last vo2 efforts were like October 2nd. I'm also doing 4 day blocks of FTP work separated by 2-3 days chill to bring TTE and ftp up (both were much lower when I started back up a few weeks ago), which feels about as horrible as you'd expect, but seems to be working.

I'm not 100% sure as to how the various components of ftp are weighted in wko4. I guess that if you have more 5-10min efforts your ftp gets boosted a bit but TTE is decreased? That's above my pay grade, I'm just a monkey with a typewriter.

burnthesheep

furiousferret

110km on Zwift, 2:40. 100k of that was at or over z3. 206 TSS, SB -37. Man that was a hard ride. If I can do that weekly I'll be in a good spot. Definitely a better workout than the local hammerfest (where I'm too slow for the A's cus I can't surge and too fast for the B's).

Everyone started throwing their age around and I (and another guy) got props since we were the only ones over 30 (or 40) in the pack. I don't even think people say 'props' anymore. Gotta appreciate compliments where you can get them!

Oh and I won a Magic Tournament on Friday! It was a pretty good weekend.

Ttoc6

Ooh boy mtg.. I gave that up in high school for a cheaper hobby called cycling. I've actually been meaning to get back out to a fnm and play modern with my old infect deck that I've updated to be legal.(downgraded... RIP ponder and gitaxian probe)

Finished up my avy course with a good ski tour. Who knew walking up hill was so hard?

Hermes

Saturday, 3x10' climbing threshold efforts on Soledad that was supposed to be 4 but I had two flat tires and Sunday was a 1.5 hour endurance ride. The weather was okay but Saturday the roads were wet, hence the flats and Sunday cool. I threw in two gym workouts to boot.

My legs felt pretty good on Sunday even after two back to back days of threshold work.

caloso

furiousferret

I played in the 90's and started up again in November when my Nephew started playing. I'd like to think my skill and intellect won but the best card in MTG is the credit card.

Heathpack 

Friday, I did a 2:30ish 5am coffee ride in the mist with an average temp of 34F. Good lord coffee at the end of that ride was mighty welcome.

Sat and Sun were more dachshund field trials. Hours of standing around and beating the bushes to flush rabbits. My legs were wiped. No cycling. My little dog took 5th in Saturday's trial, which put her on the podium but didn't get her any points towards her FT championship.

Last night I had an upset stomach and this morning I was achy all over. Seriously thought I had the flu, called in sick to work. After awhile, I did a 15 min mediation and felt better. Then 50 min of yoga/stretching and I felt even better. I had a 30 min 100% interval on the TT on the schedule for today. Wasn't sure about that but hopped on the trainer to spin my legs. After a 20 min warm up, I felt pretty ok so I decided to give the threshold interval a whirl.

It was a mental struggle for the first 15 min and then it started to feel pretty doable, so I just did it. My cadence has dropped dismayingly in the past 6 months (mountain biking? position? not sure why). So I did last week's 30 min 100% TT interval with alternating cadence. One song I'd keep if over 95, then next song between 85 and 95. I started out like this today but the low cadence bit actually felt harder, wtf. So I just stuck with the high cadence after that. The final 20 min of my 30 min interval was 101% at a cadence of 98. No idea where that came from. I raced my last TT at a cadence of 85. Very happy with it.

TMonk

Pretty solid weekend on the bike, w 2.5 hr road ride on Sat morning and 1.5 hrs MTB sat PM w a co-worker and important client. Smashed the group ride and just felt great. Team ride yesterday was good for a bit over 3 hrs with a hard ~35' effort up Honey Springs road. Off day today. Was totally cooked last night but feeling recovered and ready for some more training.

T - 2x20's (weather permitting - it's rainy in SD)
W - 3 hr road ride by feel, harder on climbs. Again weather permitting

Th off, then annual training camp in Borrego Springs F/S/Su. Should be good for 11-12 hrs or so. Then next week rest! Then the following few weeks - racing!!!!

TMonk

Stupid rain! Opting out of my interval workout on Fiesta Island and instead am going to do a trainer spin for an hour and then ride straight to work (8 mi). That's OK, was a little short on a sleep and not feeling entirely motivated to hammer this morning. Was still pretty sore last night from the weekend's endeavors.

Hermes

I am on the trainer as well. Planned to do Fiesta accelerations, jumps and etc and 30/30. Thursday is Velo Sports Center so I better get some high end in today or I will stink up the place.

Heathpack 

I had 2 x 10 min at 100% or better, followed by some big gear work. TT bike on the trainer.

Did the first threshold interval at 100%, cadence 99. Second was 103%, cadence 95. Success.

Re-listening to a section of that book, Endure. Its about repeated scientific studies showing a "belief" effect that results in improved performance of 1-3%. All kinds of things that you might believe- product X will give you a performance boost, race prep Y will make you faster, recovery technique Z is the key to successful training. People with a greater number of dopamine receptors show a greater effect of "belief" and in some circumstances this can be blocked with Naloxone. Interesting stuff. If you combine multiple things that all probably show positive belief effect, you still only get 1-3% gains so obviously there is a physiologic limit.

The book made a connection with race styles of Kenyan vs North American runners. Kenyans tend to "go for it" more, sometimes blowing up spectacularly, sometimes having an amazing race. North Americans tend to race their pace, racing more consistently but with fewer races with amazing times. The author's assumption was that this was somewhat financially motivated, it means a lot more to a Kenyan's family for him/her to win a race. But then he went to Kenyan to watch training and Kenyans take this same approach to training. The mediocre runners believe they are Kenyan, and as such born a runner and they believe they can hang with the top runners. So they try- over and over. Some of course never get anywhere. But some discover they are capable of more than they realize.

Interesting implications to thinking about TT races and how to strategize your race.

Speaking of which: 20K TT Sunday at Fiesta Island. @Hermes? @Cleave?

Hermes

FIesta TT on Sunday...not sure. Maybe. Since moving to SoCal, I am going soft. I am more focused on hair, nails and how I look than gettin up at 5:30AM to warm up in the cold and dark for an ITT. It depends on what the queen wants to do.

Cleave

If I'm not getting my dad out of the hospital on Sunday, I'll be doing a crit in Dominguez Hills, CA.

Heathpack 

Yall can go get a couples sports massage after. Entice her with that.

Heathpack 

Stupid crit.

Hermes

@Heathpack The seminole work on self image, human goal seeking and psychology of what humans believe to be true is Psycho-Cybernetics, by Dr. Maltz. Maltz was a plastic surgeon and he found that he could fix peoples facial features and abnormalities but even after successful surgery they still thought they were ugly. So, he expanded his practice to include psychology by taking courses and including psychological assistance to patients as well as surgical. The combination resulted in patients that were happy with their surgical results or did not even require surgery in the first place.

Maltz's premise in the book is that the human central nervous system is unable to differentiate what is real and what is vividly imagined. And the human brain is the ultimate goal seeking machine. Hence the title Psycho-Cybernetics. I read the book on advice from a psychologist in the early 70s as part of job seeking assistance in college. I have re-read it a couple of times over the years. It is a must read for athletes.

I was talking with Jim Manton after my last aero testing session and he said it was interesting that many UCI pro riders, who are great climbers, are unable to time trial. Their CdA and power profile indicates that they are very competitive but unable to visualize themselves as a time trialist. You may or may not know this but Jim is a kick ass cyclist and used to coach with Hunter Allen.

I told him about Psycho-Cybernetics and it may have implication for some of his clients. He was all over it. He said cyclists come to him with all these beliefs and fit issues and he fixes their fits issues and makes them perfect but they are unable to execute - the problem is in their head and they cannot capitalize on the refinements he has made. Their self image and belief structure needs fixing.

Interesting stuff. YMMV

Ttoc6

3x14 of 30/30 at low vo2 max. My trainer wasn't behaving in erg mode so I went to regular resistance. Not hard at all, which is nice since my riding volume is way low recently.

Hermes

I got a clear weather window and did 3x90" ANO2 intervals 15' RBI. I cruised around the top of Soledad Mountain looking for a flattish section of road where I could crank them out. The first on felt like total crap and weak. The 2nd one was better and the final was 160% FTP.

At least I opened up the ANO2 pathways and got my head in the game before going to the track. I did not want my first hard effort in a couple fo months to be there.

I went to the gym and came home and did some piano intervals. My wife wants a concert over the weekend. She is dreaming. I can put both hands together for page one of Satie and my fingers get tired after 4 Hannon drills.

TMonk

Good on ya for the piano drills! I really gotta do those too...

covpride

You all have been killing it out there. I've been getting 2-4 spin classes a week in the evening done. Still on a strength training cycle cause i'm enjoying it. My heavy days over the last 3 weeks have went great. Squats 3 weeks ago, hit 385lbs, 405lbs, and 405lbs for singles, Bench last week went 230lbs, 242lbs, and 242lbs for singles, and deadlifits monday went 405lbs for 3 singles. Have dropped 16lbs of bodyweight over the last year, at 194lbs currently. Getting a body fat test done tomorrow with the goal of sub 20% finally, as when I started testing 5 years ago I was at 35%. Anyway, this thread is definitely helping me figure out how I'll be approaching some of my cycling training as I prepare of Grinduro in Quincy this year.