lsberrios1 

Hello!

This week my coach has let me go without schedule since I ma leaving for a 2 week vacation on Friday. For the first time in like 8 months I am free to destroy myself or just get fat if I want to. I decided I start playing with Intervals and different cadences to see how I feel. Gathering what I've learnt from my coach I put together a training session on the stationary trainer, that seems to be pretty hardcore.

I am currently training on power. The FTP I am basing everything off of is 260watts. Power zones consist of 7 zones. From recovery z1 to Neuromuscular z7. The main ones Im using are z2 as base, z4 as threshold, z6 as VO2 and z7 as neuro. The interval session consists of the following.

PUMP IT UP!!! Turn on the XBOX and search "motivational cycling videos" on youtube. Make a playlist and push PLAY.

Note: Z2 I do at 95-105 rpm while z4,6 and 7 I do at 75-85rpm.

1) Start spinning at z2 which in my case is 180 watts +/- 10watts.

2) at minute 10 spin up to z4 (250watts +/-) through minute 15

3) Minute 15: 3 minute break at z2 (180)

4) Minute 18: 2 minute interval @ z6 (300-320watts)

5) Minute 20: 2 minute break @ z2

6) Minute 22: 1 minute screamer at 400 Watts + Z7

7) Minute 23: 2 Minute break @ z2

8) Minute 25: 5 minute @ z4

9) Minute 30: 3 minute break at z2

10) Minute 33: 2 minute @ z6

11) Minute 35: 2 minute @ z2

12) Minute 37: 1 minute @ z7

13) Minute 38: 2 minute @ z2

14) Minute 40: 10 minute @ z4

15) Minute 50: 3 minute @ z2

16) Minute 53: 2 minute @ z6

17) Minute 55: 2 minute @ z2

18) Minute 57: 3 minute @ z7

Step 19) Fall of your bike and puke.

I think this work out is fun because it has a lot of ups and down and doesnt get too boring. It also burns cals like crazy!! The results were an average of 233 watts for the entire hour and 935 calories burnt. The weighed average power was 245. Not bad for an indoor session considering my FTP is 260. Average cadence was 90.

Feel free to let me know if this is any good or just plain bogus. I felt like it was a good workout and managed to workout my legs awesomely.

Post your favorite trainer workouts!

canam73

Looks like an inverted version of a basic pyramid session. I question the final "3 minute @ z7". Did you mean 1 minute?

I do standard pyramids on occasion but more often I prefer to target power zones a little more specifically.

But if you are interested, my two favorite high intensity workouts are as follows (and both are adapted from the Coggans book):

"Race Winning Intervals":
Warm Up,
Then 5-6 Intervals of a 30sec jump at Z7 followed by 3min at Z5 with the finish ramping up to Z7 for the final 10 (if you can) with 4-5 minutes easy in between,
Cool down.

"Crit Intervals":
Warm up,
Then 2-3 Intervals of 7 minutes of alternating 15 seconds at Z6/Z2 with 4-5 minutes easy in between
Cool down

lsberrios1 

Wait, I'm not sure I got it 100%.

Race winning: 30 second @z7? what is the resting period? -> 3 min at z5 -> 10 intervals at z7 with 4-5 min easy in between each?

I hope it is not 10 minutes @ z7 because that would be instant suicide!

Yes the 3minute z7 at the end of the work out is simply depleting anything you have left. You can do it incremental too. As in start z2 at minute 57 and then go your way to a steady 400 for the last minute.

canam73

Each interval is 30 seconds at z7 followed immediatly by 3 minutes at z5. As you finish, you should ramp up to Z7 again for the final 10 seconds. So the work period totals 3:30 followed by 4-5 minutes at a rest pace. (Yeah, they suck to do).

What you are supposed to imagine is that with 2 laps to go you jump and break from the pack (30 @ z7), solo for a hard 3 minutes (@ Z5) and then as you approach the line and the pack is closing in, you give it one last 10 second burst (10 @ z7) for the win.

spectastic

I think he means 1 interval = 30" all out, 3' hard riding, 10" all out, 4-5' recovery


oops beat me to it


I think that's a good strategy. for me, the realistic scenario is to catch the final break, stick on his tail, and beat him to the line

canam73

Well, if you want to be clear and concise, yeah.

Note that when done as Hunt/Coggans wrote it, the first 30 seconds is at 300% and the last 10 seconds at >%200. Yeah, that kind of zone 7.

lsberrios1 

I'll give that a try tomorrow. Today is recovery day and in fact I am starting Yoga tonight with a bunch of old ladies . I need to relax and get in touch with my inner Luis.

Wesley36

They hurt so good. My kids keep bringing new sicknesses into the house, the upshot of it is that I have not been able to do hard intervals for 2-3 weeks now. I can't wait to hurt myself by doing these again.

100-110% of FTP does not sound that hard, but after a 30 second sprint that goes deep into Z7, it feels as hard as 5 min @ 120%. I suppose both types of intervals (racing winning intervals and 5x5x5 VO2Max) exhaust your AWC, so they both push you into slow twitch suffering mode above threshold.

lsberrios1 

DUDE! What happened to pikachu! You are dead to me now.... I am yet to follow a break that sticks. I tend to chose the wrong people to do it.... Or maybe I am the wrong people.

canam73

I find the last ten seconds to be the twist. You get used to hanging on to steady power until the end of hard intervals, fighting the inevitable drop so to speak. But summoning the will to lift back up at the finish is a nice mental workout.

lsberrios1 

It seems that my work out is of pretty mild nature then. I really didn't consider it too tough to begin with but SOLID. It will get me stronger. My question is, my FTP was based off a road test of 20 minutes after a 5 minute anaerobic effort. It came out at 262 or something after deducting a certain %. People say that the trainer robs you from power. I did this one hour exercise and did 233 watts sitting down for the entire hour. This could have been considered an FTP test of sorts except I did not use ALL my energy. I paced myself and had some fun.

Now, when you take into consideration that the trainer robs power, the inability to get off the saddle and the length of the ride indoors 233 watts seems like a solid performance for a 260FTP.

Would you think that my FTP has actually gotten higher? In the real world I've already put 262 watts in 59:32. That is 101% my FTP. I had some in reserve and could keep riding without extreme exhaustion. I think I would benefit from pushing the FTP up so I can base my training off of higher intervals.

Opinions?

canam73

If you have put out 262 in an hour than your FTP by definition is no lower than that.

Do you put your data into Golden Cheetah or something? Their power curve has always been fairly accurate for me even when I haven't tested in a while. It will work with whatever max efforts you have, but having a good longer interval at max will obviously increase it's accuracy.

Otherwise, if you have a file from a hard race that was close to an hour your Normalized Power should be a good check of your FTP. Not exact, but a confirmation if they are close.

lsberrios1 

Strava Premium. My current FTP in w/kg = 3.56. Mediocre but not terrible. I think that if I can put 262 watts in an hour proven by a race 2 weeks ago, my FTP is probably a bit higher than that. I think it might have crawled into 270ish... That way I can keep going up and train based on my improved athletics.

lsberrios1 

What do you guys think about these? I did the second one based on your race winning intervals + a combination of what I thought would be fun to do. Today I will be doing the Race Time (TM) interval session.

canam73

On the "Race Time" minutes 53, 54,55 seem to repeat. But if the listing is correct, that will be a 10 minute interval with a AP of 300 watts and an NP that is higher. That will tell you if your FTP is higher than 262.

They both look like difficult workouts, but they can also be of the type that beat you up more than they improve any area, so I wouldn't do them often. I don't know if you venture over to the racer forum often, but you may find this sticky from there interesting as if gives work outs that target specific zones: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ut-recipe-book

lsberrios1 

Sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster! I havent done any intervals north of 300 for more than 5 minutes. Now that I think about is a 10min 300 average interval after 45min of working out sounds brutal. I'll give it a try tonight and come back with resuslts. This could end up being too much for me. Also, if it's not beneficial, no point in doing it.

The idea for race time is the following. Start race with constant pace. Mass breakaway at minute 40. Keep up with it. Pack riding then BOOM! 3 man break, then solo break then sprint!!!.... and the crowd goes wild!!!!

Fixed it. Thanks for pointing it out.

achoo

Hmm, seems to me you might do well to try expanding your ability to spin at higher power levels.

2 x 10 x 5 of 15-second spin ups to 130+ RPM or higher, with 30-second intervals between spin ups

or

3 x 7 x 3 at 105+ RPM

And if you can do more than 2 or 3 of those "race winning intervals" at the prescribed power levels (30 sec @ 300%, 3 min @ 120%, then 10 sec @ 200%) you're a monster.

Oh, another good one:

All anaerobic capacity workout:

3 x 2 x 2 @ > 135%
5 min rest interval
3 x 1 x 2 @ > 150%
5 min rest interval
3 x 30sec x 2 @ > 200%

That's a great trainer workout. If you're crazy you cut the rest interval to 1 minute in each set of three intervals

valygrl

I completely do not understand why, if you have a coach, you are posting proposed workouts on the internet. Call your coach and ask him or her for a workout with a goal in mind.

lsberrios1 

for some reason I am not understanding your "# x # x #" statements. 3 x 2 minute intervals with 2 minutes of rest?... this could be my biggest noob question of all times!

I am just asking around and seeing what everybody thinks. This is my first free week to do whatever I want in over 8 months. Experimenting more than anything else to see how my body reacts to what you are recommending. I can crush my bones riding if I want to.

lsberrios1 

Completely failed today. Tried doing the Race Time interval set with no success. To say the least, got dropped on minute 51 of the race ... I think consecutive high power efforts drained me. That, plus I havent really rested from 2 strong invertal efforts monday and tuesday. I started running this week and yesterday on my recovery day ran 3 miles + an hour of YOGA. I think I am starting to need some real rest, but I've eaten too much lately.

Ended up with 220watts over an hour vs 233 last time and lower N. Power too. I think that 3rd bump, z6-z7-z4 burnt me quick.

achoo

Yep. Exactly.

achoo

No HRM? I know when I get fatigued it shows up in my HR - it's slow to respond and won't get as high as it "should" for a given effort level. When I see that I know it's time to back off a bit.

lsberrios1 

for some reason I am yet to go back to my HRM since my ribcage got so boney it doesn't stay put. It usually doesn't even read... For all I know I may be dead and not know it. I'm going to look for it and see if I can clean it or replace the batt.

But it shows kind of in my last 10 min or so. Trying to keep the wattage up and failing to keep it there. Tried going to very high cadences with no success. Muscles cooked.