Second to last VO2 workout of this block this morning.... and I forgot my HRM. So stupid. HR is (in ways) more important than power for these sorts of efforts. But, I made way with what I had and went off power and RPE. Hard start as usual to get the respiration up. I was still breathing hard ~40 seconds after each (5 minute) interval, which is probably a sign that I didn't go too easy. I had a hard time going much above threshold on the last 5' interval, which means I burned through all my AWC. Also probably a good sign.

Ski intervals. At Deer Valley, UT. Monday and Tuesday were solid ski days with excellent snow, sun and temps. I had great legs both days. Today, it is snowing and blizzard like conditions that will end sometime this evening - so no skiing although all lifts and runs are open. I will be at the gym and ride the indoor Stages bike. Tomorrow is forecast for another sunny day and we should have good ski conditions.

My wife commented that I am skiing good enough to be a kiddy ski instructor. Yeah, right, I saw one of the ski instructors jump in the air, do a 180 and land in the front of the line of his kids and then ski backwards down the slope. This is spring break for a lot of kids so we have a lot of them on the slopes but mostly with ski instructors.

Last VO2 max workout done this morning, wooooooo! I might train again mid summer for some late season race goals, but I probably won't be doing any intervals for a couple months or more. Maybe some measured TT bike efforts here and there just to keep that musculature, but outside of that, just racing and hammering for fun at local group rides.

HR wasn't getting up too high today, and not sure why that is. Decent power too. Either I'm too fit and need to aim higher in wattage now, or maybe I had low HRV from lingering fatigue, or the two beers I had last night. Hopefully the former.

Gonna get 7.5 - 8 hours in over the weekend and then rest up next week. Tomorrow, 1 hour on the trainer on the TT bike in the AM (with 1x30' z2/z3) then MTB with a buddy. Solo z2 on Sunday, gonna leave it all out on the road in the second half.

March 12-18 was spotty for training, obligations took precedence and my CTL dropped 4 points. This week is better, plus the weather is changing and finally getting to ride in the real. Looking forward to a GFNY group training ride on Sunday riding 50ish miles on the course.

I've spent the last 2 weeks off the bike thanks to Covid. Planning on starting easing my way back on this weekend with some Z2 if my lungs allow it.

I am again running through back issues. They've becoming increasingly common, and harder to get over. (I am well into masters racing - so, I guess that makes sense.)

I'm really starting to wonder if I'm going to have to give up my racing and training to live a more normal, pain free life.

We live on the side of a mountain so today was sweet spot / threshold climbing. For the locals, we did Nautilas, Mount Soledad, La Jolla Mesa and Cardeno.

Ack. Suckage.

Tried doing a Zwift race this morning. My warmup at ~2 W/kg had my hr at 140-150 and a few easy surges at the start of the race had me peaking in the 180-185 range so I sort of shut it down and looked for some people who would pull me home at an easy pace. Looks like trying to hop back in full on was a pretty bad idea (I kind of knew that going on). Going to have to figure out what Z2 looks like for me at the moment and keep a hard limit there for a bit.

I've wanted a legit top 10 on the Umstead gravel for some time. Not some obscure segment. Gate to gate each way are among the less technical, but the highest frequented. It was windy enough a couple weeks ago that I made a run at the one from the airport side to the Raleigh side. No way without growing two more legs I could take the KOM from Mr. Muttell, but gave it a go. Got a 2nd. I feel I could have made his KOM real nervous but I simply won't kill people by riding the berms on the wrong direction of traffic down corkscrew to save time.

~23mph for a rolling hills gravel segment......when putting out power and not coasting down something steep or around a corner definitely around or over 350. It was an absolute rip.

Next up one day is the less technical Turkey segment, the more uphill leg snapper one. I've never given it a go on fresh legs, always during a long ride when tired. Or when the park is crowded and you can't save momentum in critical spots for other riders/runners.

Last week was solid, 12 hrs in the saddle with good workouts plus volume.

Wet outside in San Diego this morning, so I did some Zwift racing. Tour de Watopia "short stage" on Volcano climb, about 30 min in total. 500 starters, ended up 3rd overall. A group of 50 or so formed and didn't really select over the punchy short climbs on the route, so we went to the volcano climb mostly together. Two riders had been OTF since the Italian Villa area, crazy. Behind them, only 4 of us crested the Volcano climb together. I won the sprint for third once we got back to town.

After that, I went to FF reverse and rode the segment in ~9:30 at 4.5 w/kg with a TT bike, and still got 10th! Some fast times out there today.

Another morning, another Tour de Watopia ride, another 3rd place. "Out and back" route this time, a bit longer (close to an hour). Things got spicy again up the volcano climb and then there was more selection over KOM Reverse. Each time, a small elite group of ~4 including (purportedly) former WT pro Joaquim Rodriquez broke away, but the combined firepower in the chase group means we caught them each time.

I actually thought I was going to win as well since I was in the lead with like 50 m to go, but I got caught and passed by two riders right at the line. Damn!

Last weekend, I was doing one of those in a group with someone who was supposedly Mark Cavendish (had the icon on the rider list indicated pro tour rider and all that). I felt a little less bad when the pack dropped me going up a climb as he was leading. Honestly, I'm kind of glad they did drop me because it was in the plan for it to be a Z2 ride, but something about keeping up with Cavendish (even though it was at most Z2 for him) kept me going well above my planned power. Got dropped and started riding where I was supposed to be.

Ha, I feel ya. I've attempted to drop into a "Tour de X" ride with the intention of staying Z2, with moderate success. You think you can just resign yourself to a slower gruppetto, but there is always that urge to bridge or join a faster group. Also, there will be others in your group who are going at their actual race pace, and might want to push the pace over parts of the course that offer a chance for selection. Certainly not the same as riding with a steady Pace Partner, or advertised group ride that is based on time. If an event has a finish line (distance based), it is always a race on some level.

Planned to workout at San Diego Velodrome Thursday morning. The weather was misty, wet, cold and windy so I converted the track workout to an indoor trainer equivalent. The workout was hard and then I saddled up the road bike and went outside and did some jumps/starts on my road bike.

I do not know how you Zwift guys do it. I am 120 watts differential between my 30 second power indoors versus outdoors and I have checked the Tacx power meter with my TT bike crank power and my Garmin Vector power pedals and the power reads the same on all meters.

I do okay outdoors but inside I would have to ride/race with the F minus group.

Hermes I find that at longer efforts where the contribution is mostly aerobic, there is little to no difference in my indoor/outdoor power. At the short end of the stick, like 30 seconds or less, yeah I make way more power outside. I think most people do. It's in between where it's more of a gray area. My power numbers from 2 - 20 minutes are all better outside, but IDK how much of that is motivation either. Much longer than that, and I'm the same indoors.

My training has been attending weekly track sessions at Velo Sports Center. But yet another Tues/Thurs session this week. Mostly pursuit training focusing on drills to increase power and cadence as well as control lap speed - too complicated to write up.

Via my locate gym membership, I have access to a new gym in OC that has a basketball court. I tried a couple of shots yesterday and it was a horror show. I made a couple of baskets but everything felt wrong. The ball felt light and my distance and direction control looked like I was playing a different game. It has been decades since I shot baskets or dribbled a ball. At least I was able to launch the ball in the general direction of the basket.:D

So do you guys have an SOP for when you "fail" a workout?

I had a 4x8 interval set planned yesterday and 6 minutes into the second interval I looked down and I was doing 212W at 100 RPE, which is some 90 watts off the planned intensity. Thirty seconds later, I bailed on it. For some reason though I decided that I should at least spend an hour on the bike since that's what I had allotted for the workout and even took the gravel road way home, which totally sucked. Its been a while since I've wanted to get off the bike this badly.

In hindsight, a number of factors conspired against me and I should've seen them before I started, but enh. There's always next week.

I complete the workout unless there is an injury. Feeling bad is not a reason to quit and lower power is a meh.

Warning...Anecdote. A junior racer was assigned to the fast group at the track training. He rolls off the track, cooked, red face and etc. He rolls up to the coach and starts to say something and the coach says, "I think you should get back out there." Junior accelerates and turns himself inside out to get back in. I only heard this because I was sitting on the apron waiting for my turn on the track.

Without third party coaching one can decide to do whatever one is able to talk oneself into and justify it. Why not?

Interesting. Maybe I should've just finished it at 100 RPE, power be damned. I do think that half of the point of doing intervals is to get you used to the pain, so I guess even if I'm not improving the area of fitness I'm trying to improve I'm getting the pain acclimatization in.

There is a theory that it is better to do something poorly* than not do it at all. So, if you are not able to complete the full interval, it's better to do as much as you can, and then try the next one than to give up.

I routinely fail to complete my full interval effort, but I still go through the process of trying to complete each one.

*Caveat - in cases where doing something poorly - such as poor form - will lead to injury, it's best not to do it.

I agree with that in theory and in practice (mostly); something is better than nothing. But, I'd like to offer examples some conflicting advice I was offered from my coach recently.

He said that if I was unable to keep my HR and power in zone towards the end of a VO2 max workout, that I should just stop and save it for the next workout. If my effort wasn't truly anaerobic, that I wouldn't be getting the intended adaptations from my training.

I think some added context to the above ethos is warranted. At the time, he wanted me to do a truly polarized block periodization, where I was riding (for a few weeks) at ONLY z2 or z5 intensity in my training. He looked at my power curve and training history and saw VO2 power as something that could use improvement. He said with an athlete at my level and with my experience, if I wanted to move the fitness needle in a meaningful way, that I needed to truly focus on a specific energy system, which he identified as VO2 max.

Historically I had been doing a little bit of everything, as many roadies do, so my instruction was to ride 60+ minutes of VO2 level intervals per week (over three workouts), long endurance solo z2, or easy for warmup/cooldown, and nothing else. Truth be told, I probably ended nearly half of the workouts with 19-19.5 minutes of Z5 (instead of 20), bailing on the last interval, but I told myself that it was in the interest of longevity, and in optimizing my energies towards riding VO2, instead if trudging through the intervals at high z4 and adding fatigue.

I def. had some "all work and no play" vibes towards the end of the block, since I was doing 0 racing and 0 group rides during this time (late Feb to March). No fun in other words. Workouts were somewhat dreadful, but I was motivated to get fit. It certainly did make a meaningful impact in my fitness and my confidence, and I was able to get a win and a third in breakaway situations with high quality elite Master's fields in SoCal when I came out of it, in my A level events.

On that note, I have a "gran fondo" type event in the late season I want to peak for (don't laugh) - Tour of Big Bear, 100 miles at elevation with climbing. In the two months leading up, I will do another base block and VO2 block again. I love MTB'ing up there, staying in rental cabins with friends and family and just being up in the mountain air. And I have never done this event! There are two major climbs in the last 1/3 of the race, so my plan is to be fit enough to stay with the leaders (Phil Gaimon etc) over the flats and minor climbs until then, and then switch my effort internal and ride the best long climbs that I can to a high placing.

Between now and then, it's racing, training and having fun! In ways, almost making a point to not ride too many miles/hours per week so my TSS can come down a bit. Maybe some camping or hiking on weekends between races.

I have my first race in 13+ years this weekend. I'm honestly not ready, but I have to start somewhere and I'm not getting any younger! I did a 20' test last week and managed to hit the 300w I was aiming for, but it still feels pretty weak overall. With 10% more watts and 10% less weight my W/kg might actually be respectable enough to actually race in my actual category!

25 mile group ride last night, and my legs got ripped to shreds. Durability is a major issue. I need some long rides and focused intervals, instead of this 60-90 min zone 2 stuff. It simply doesn’t cut it…

I think the zone 2 thing is out of hand. We are not doing much endurance training and in fact, we are told to specifically limit endurance and focus on power intervals and recovery. Our guys are doing well at mass start races locally and in Europe.

For me, power versus intervals versus longer z2/FTP training seem to float all boats i.e. I get increased endurance and FTP by power intervals. Granted, if the event is beyond my endurance capability (hours of duration), then I am in trouble but if the event is within the limits of what I am interested in then, I am riding really well.

On the flip side, I am taking a short day at work so I can kick off for a 5 hour ride at lunch, and skipping track racing tonight. Granted, I am more road-focused and have been performing well in multi-hour road races, or breakaways that form early in criteriums.

If I was more focused on track or performance in sprints, I would certainly need to change up my training, cause man I just get smoked on the track during sprint laps. Some of these guys just have so much more muscle than my 145 lbs frame. I did well last week by riding about 20 laps of a 48 lap points race off the front with one other rider. We mopped up quite a bit of the points and traded off for 1st and 2nd every other sprint lap during our move.

As I've aged (race age 37), my top-end has certainly suffered, but I don't really train it either, or anything else really under about 3 minutes in duration. Fortunately, my aerobic engine is still very good (just as good?) and I am staying lean and healthy.

Could you give me an example of what you mean by power intervals?

my A race (and only road race for the year) is on May 20, so the work is done, we'll see if the training pays off. I am super fit, the only real issue is the w/kg on the main climb on the 3 laps, last year I lost contact with the front group of 8 on the second lap, so I need to stick around a bit longer.

what's almost a bigger deal is my annual fast solo century attempt, aiming for June 10. The last two years I've done it sub 5hrs, I'm really wanting to get 4:45. According to modeling on mywindsock (which, in my view, is more accurate than bestbikesplits), I'll stand a pretty good chance if I avg 240, for me that's 80% and I've done 78-80% in the past for 5hrs. I've done 3x50 @ 250 over 3.5hrs and that's really doable, but don't want to push my luck and go too hot at 250 and fade big time at the end. next few weeks will involve long steady efforts at my pace to be sure i'm dialed in