Power Mentor Group with Shane & Marc - Closed. (Page 34)

I had mentioned previously that I was going to offer any of the ScotiaMultisport gear to anyone from the group who was interested. I have the updated proofs on my website as well as the prices for the items.

If you are interested, have a look and let me know what you are interested in; I will be placing the order on March 1st and I should have everything ready to send out by the end of April. No payment required up front, just let me know if there is something you would like and I'll add it to the order.

You can see everything here:

http://www.scotiamultisport.com/gear-2014/

Shane

If you guys have a cold or are feeling off, at what point do you shut it down and what point do you keep the pressure on? Is there a percentage?

I've shifted to a plan that has a little higher TSS and volume as I have some bike racing to do in about 6 weeks, which is different than what most of you are focusing on. I'm really not running much and doing a little strength training (which people can argue for days about, but I find it keeps my jump watts high and can hit 1500 or so at random pretty easily now which is important in a bike race).

Anyway, I'm doing the Sufferfest Intermediate Plan with a couple guys I'm racing with. The load on those workouts are high in general.

If I was supposed to be doing 2x20 at 100%, but was more like 95% and 91.5%, it is still good enough to continue fighting onward was my thinking. If I ended up struggling down around 85% I would probably shut it down, but figured I'd throw this out there and it may become something we all run into. It is hard to 'on' to the point where your lighting up every workout (at least for me).

I was just checking out this chart too that was aligning with my thinking: http://www.fascatcoaching.com/sweetspot.html

I think if you always hit all your workout goals 100%, you are probably not setting them high enough.

I will not train if im am genuinely' 'in bed" ill, but i dont get sick very often. That said my run streak is now well over a year, so i dont know what will have to happen to break that .

As I've gotten older (and wiser?) I've begun to listen to my body more. I think a lot of the times colds are a sign of too much stress on my body (work, family and fitness). The only one I can reliably dial back is fitness. So, more often than not when I have a cold I dial it back or stop for a couple days. I've tried powering through them but it only seems to make them worse these days.

Another thing I didn't mention, is that I won't hesitate to move things around, or even miss a non key session if I feel like I won't be able to get it done. But then again, I've went in to many workout sessions feeling pretty lousy, and then killed it.

I'm not really a cyclist though, still just trying to figure it out, so I haven't gotten the whole percentage thing down. But running, I can say I've pulled the plug early if things just aren't working out. I always see one training session as unimportant in the big picture, and sometimes you have to just listen to your body.

I have been MIA all week. Work just got rather crazy and cut into my training time. Today was the first opportunity I had to get on the bike. My youngest was invited to swim at the Y this evening, so I jumped on a spin bike then ran while she was swimming. I haven't done a brick for awhile. Legs felt rather springy and I was running much faster than I anticipated. Then I got a little crazy after the 1st mile and cranked the speed up. There is just something about the power of setting and seeing how fast you can go on a treadmill that causes me to get crazy with the speed. It's like being a kid in the candy store. That didn't sit well with my cardio system. I had to severely notch it down for several minutes and slowly speed back up to my initial cruising pace over the course of mile 2.

I didn't do any specific cycling workout this week. I did manage 2 short pool swims and 1 run in addition to today's bike/run brick. It's nice to get back in the groove of swimming again after my 4 month hiatus. Each swim is better than the previous and I'm seeing more 100's in the 1:40's rather than the 1:50's, all good signs I'm getting my arms back.

Tomorrow I hope to get on the trainer to do at least one of the planned workouts.

I have an orienteering race Sunday afternoon, so there will be my next planned run. Any recommendations on which workout to do tomorrow since I'll only be doing 1 this week?

Thanks in advance,

Edited by crissy_jo 2014-01-25 12:24 AM

Week 3 is done. SWE1 was a little tougher than last weeks, didn't quite have the snap in the legs that I would have liked but it still felt good & I did a 30 minute run afterwards.

TSS for the week:
THR-1: 75 (accidentally rode WK2-THR-1)
VO2-1: 69
SWE-1: 104





Attachments
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cdkayak-WK3-THR-1.csv (151KB - 4 downloads)
cdkayak-WK3-SWE-1.csv (218KB - 3 downloads)
cdkayak-WK3-VO2-1.csv (132KB - 3 downloads)

I did the same workout this morning , Sweet Spot followed by a 30 minute run off the bike.

Had to get off the bike between intervals 2 & 3 to go get the power supply for the laptop before it died.

TSS for SW was 118

Week total is 78 +79 + 118 = 275

- Chris

Edited by croyston 2014-01-25 10:58 PM




Attachments
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croyston-btpower-wk3-ss.FIT (98KB - 3 downloads)

Did Sweet Spot #1 workout this morning for week 3. Got the video functionality working the Cycelops Virtual Training App - suffered watching Nirvana Live at Reading. Great concert. The last 15 minute interval was tough. The last 10 minutes at 95% CP was even more miserable. Felt great about getting it done!

cTSS summary for week:
Threshold #1: 80
Threshold #2: 85
Sweet Spot #1: 116
Total: 281





Attachments
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1-25-14 Ride.png (153KB - 4 downloads)

I would suggest that you do threshold one and, if you have time, tag on some time at the end riding steady at 85-88% of threshold (a high tempo interval) before a cool down. Or, if you don't want to add on an extra 20-30 minutes for tempo, then add 5-10x30s hard 30s easy at the end instead.

Shane

Knocked out the Sweet Spot for week 3 on the trainer. Came out w 112 TSS and hit the suggested intervals. Tough, but honest workout. Pretty much all the intervals my cadence was in the low 80rpm range as well. Not sure if that is the magic number for me or not. All three workouts have been inside this week. Perhaps I will head outdoors next week and give it a whirl.

Tom

I also finished the sweet spot workout today. It went pretty well considering the strength training class I took Thursday night. It's really interval based. This week we did a bunch of squats and lunges. I've been doing this class at the YMCA about once a week for the last couple of months. What do you guys think about continuing a class like this? I'm not doing it to get faster, but at age 44 it feels like it is helping some of my perceived muscle loss.

Oh yeah - my TSS today was 113.


Jim



Attachments
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littlewj-2014-01-25-bt-power-week-3-swe-1-661964.tcx (2686KB - 8 downloads)

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/power-training-levels

Last week we looked at the article above and I referred you to tables 1 and 2 with specific information about training levels. Since our focus is on training level 4, our specific consideration of training levels will begin with a consideration of level 4 and the training adaptations that can be expected by training at this level. The first thing to note is that level 4 is 91-105% of FTP which should correlate to 95-105% of lactate threshold HR (although it notes that HR may not reach these levels until later into the effort). They also provide a note on RPE (on a 10 point scale) of 4-5 which correlates to somewhat strong to strong; I often refer to this as comfortably hard, at least for most of the effort as this is the effort you could sustain for about an hour in race conditions so it shouldn’t be really challenging at the beginning but should become more challenging as the duration increases. Generally training at this level will be broken into intervals with the work intervals being at least twice as long as the recovery intervals.

When it comes to aerobic adaptations, you will see in table 2 that training at this level is very effective in terms of eliciting the desired physiological responses. While it is not the most efficient way to elicit the desired adaptations (you will see there are many boxes with three checks instead of four), it can often be the most effective as you can do a great deal more time in level 4 each week than you can in level 5. Also, if you total the number of checks in each column as a rough way to determine overall effectiveness of training in level 4, you will see that level 4 training edges out level 5 slightly.

For this week we will continue with the same groups from last week and the workout selection will be the same (although the actual workouts will see some variation).

TTers
Workout 1 – VO2max 1
Workout 2 – Threshold 1
Workout 3 – VO2max 2

All Rounders
Workout 1 – Threshold 1
Workout 2 – VO2max 1
Workout 3 – Threshold 2 or Sweet Spot

Sprinters
Workout 1 – Threshold 1
Workout 2 – Threshold 2
Workout 3 – Sweet Spot

VO2max 1 – 1:00:00
10:00 spin build to 65% of FTP
5x10s all out, 50s spin 60% FTP
5:00 spin 60% FTP
20x30s >105% FTP (hard), 30s 60% FTP
5:00 spin 60% FTP
10:00 at 90% FTP
5:00 spin <60% FTP

VO2max 2 –55:00
10:00 spin build to 65% of FTP
5:00 at 98% FTP
5:00 spin 60% FTP
4x3:00 at >105% FTP (hard), 2:00 60% FTP
5:00 spin 60% FTP
5x10s all out, 50s 60% FTP
5:00 at <60% FTP

Threshold 1 – 1:10:00
10:00 spin build to 65% of FTP
5x30s >105% FTP, 30s easy
5:00 spin 60% FTP
5x5:00 at 98% FTP, 2:00 60% FTP
5:00 60% FTP
5:00 93% FTP
5:00 60% FTP

Threshold 2 – 1:05:00
10:00 spin build to 65% of FTP
2x{
1:30 at 95% FTP
1:30 at FTP
2:00 60% FTP}
4x8:00 at 93% FTP, 2:00 60% FTP
5:00 60% FTP

Sweet Spot – 1:35:00
10:00 spin build to 65% of FTP
5x30s >105% FTP, 30s easy
5:00 60% FTP
2x20:00 at 89% FTP, 5:00 at 60% FTP
10:00 at 95% FTP
5:00 <60% FTP
5x30s >105% FTP, 30s easy
5:00 <60% FTP


Edited by gsmacleod 2014-01-25 5:24 PM

Attachments
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BTWK4-VO2-1.mrc (1KB - 21 downloads)
BTWK4-THR-2.mrc (0KB - 19 downloads)
BTWK4-SWE-1.mrc (0KB - 22 downloads)
BTWK4-VO2-2.mrc (0KB - 17 downloads)
BTWK4-THR-1.mrc (0KB - 21 downloads)

TSS for the week

WK4 VO2 1 61
WK4 VO2 2 62
WK4 THR 1 81
WK4 THR 2 77
WK4 SWE 1 107

WK3 VO2 1 63
WK3 VO2 2 52
WK3 THR 1 74
WK3 THR 2 74
WK3 SWE 1 108

WK2 VO2 1 49
WK2 VO2 2 45
WK2 THR 1 69
WK2 THR 2 59
WK2 SWE 1 95

this week we are going to talk Normalized Power and maybe start talking about other of the stats on the workout summary page

Week 3 done.

TSS for the week:

TH1- 89
TH2- 80
SS- 119

Sweetspot workout seemed to go by pretty quick. 3 x 15 min 88 % FTP interval target was 245 watts, got 254, 255, then 256. the 1 x 10 min at 95%target was 266, and got 271. A bit over but not by much. HR was in the 140s mostly, at first RPE seemed higher, and then I settled in.

.tcx file attached.





Attachments
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Sweetspot1wk3.png (78KB - 5 downloads)
activity_435611905.tcx (755KB - 4 downloads)

Thanks Shane. Greatly appreciate the feedback!

Back from my business trip so a lot of catching up to do. I did TH1, TSS of 81 it's good to get back in the saddle.



Attachments
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GC 01252014 TH1.csv (144KB - 3 downloads)

Let’s talk about Normalized Power.
There are two numbers on a workout summary that you should be looking at : Normalized and Average Power.

Average Power is simple, it’s truly the average during the entire duration. If you climb up a hill at 300w for 10min, come down at 0w for 10min, do this over and over, you average power will be 150w.

More realistically you will go up at 300w for 7min, come down a 0w for 3min and get a average of 210w. Do this over and over for 1hour. You will find that this is much more challenging that cycling for 1 hour at 210w.

Here I did it for you :-) This is a ride this summer, up and down a hill that the pro-tour racers do 19x In Montreal . I did it 6x
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/NUNUJUTAHV6I7LRGSOP34RKWX4

My Average power was 202w, just at the beginning of my Z2, a nice aerobic pace. I could hold 202w for many hours.
But by the end of the workout I was gased. Why ?

That’s because average power poorly evaluates the physiological cost of a ride with a lot of variability of intensity. Some very smart people (Skiba, Coggan and others) came up with algorithms to better model this. One is called Normalized Power.

If you look in GC, you will have access to a few versions of such an algorithm. NP was done by Coggan I believe. xPower is similar, slightly different but I believe the algorithm is in the public domain. I have seen yPower as well here on BT. There are a few variations, but the idea is very similar.

Here is some stuff on Skiba’s
http://www.physfarm.com/bikescore.pdf

Here is an important quote from the article explaining NP on TP
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/normalized-power,-intens...

“This algorithm is somewhat complicated, but importantly it incorporates two key pieces of information: 1) the physiological responses to rapid changes in exercise intensity are not instantaneous, but follow a predictable time course, and 2) many critical physiological responses (e.g., glycogen utilization, lactate production, stress hormone levels) are curvilinearly, rather than linearly, related to exercise intensity.”


Coming back to that ride I did this summer. I had a NP of 254w and a AP of 202w. The problem is my speed is probably better reflected in that 202w number. My physiological cost is probably better represented by the 254w number. So hitting a high NP during a race is not necessarily a good thing. It just means a high cost, not necessarily a high speed. We can discuss this more later. Terrain, gearing and other factors play a role here.

To simplify it, I like to think that AP will be what will predict my speed. NP will be the cost of it. So I want to maximize AP and minimize NP. Idealy AP=NP. I am not saying AP will reflect speed perfectly, but it is a better proxy than NP.

There’s a cool metric that comes into play : VI.
Variability index which is nothing more than NP/AP. If the two are equal, VI = 1.0. In my ride this summer VI = 1.26 very bad if I was doing a tri.
While racing, you want your VI as close to 1 as possible.


Here are some rides from the guys at Kona
http://cat6.trainingpeaks.com/races/ironman-world-championship-kona...

Luke McEnzie VI=1.05
Faris VI = 1.04
Linsey Korbin VI = 1.03
Meredith Kessler VI = 1.03

The men are slightly higher because of the race dynamics. They do more surges. But they also probably pay a higher price for it on the run.

NP power is an important concept. We will talk more about it but I just wanted you to be aware of the concepts. You can google and poke around more and of course ask questions.

For training, watch your NP, it is a much better indicator of your training intensity.

Another interesting look at NP is one from an ITU race - this is Matt Chrabot's power data from San Diego in 2012:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Matt_Chrabot_s_power_file_2762.html

Shane

Finished up Week 3 yesterday evening with Sweet Spot and feel like I had a real good workout. Legs were good and fatigued. More good info on AP vs. NP and another piece of the puzzle is in place.

Workout Summary:
Threshold 1: TSS = 79, VI = 1.07
Threshold 2: TSS = 78, VI = 1.06
Sweetspot: TSS = 117, VI = 1.06

Thanks again for all the help and good info. Hard to believe that we're starting Week 4. Another week closer to testing again. UHG!

Ron



Attachments
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Ron-2014-01-25-bt-power-week-3-swe-1-663240.tcx (2694KB - 3 downloads)