BT Winter Cycling Program Challenge 2015 - 2016 (Page 12)

Yeah, 45-60 deg makes my ears hurt!  been here since 99, grew up north of Syracuse NY in the snowbelt.  I'll take heat and humidity any day!

Ouch! This one hurt, calf's started twitching and borderline spasm after the 3rd interval, hit me suddenly and had to take an extra min+ during the remaining RI's to stretch them out. During the cooldown almost lost the left calf. Weird only happened when I unloaded them. Time to see my PT friend. Anyway these 6x4' wo's suck!

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Nice work, Don!

I guess I got a pay back this morning for making a dig on your temps in FL. With the wind, cold & ice I wimped out on an outside run this morning & was stuck on the treadmill. So in the end I guess you get the last laugh. Good work on the 6x4'. Hope the calf thing gets worked out.

I'm pretty sure I worked too hard on my tests for week 5. Ha! I cannot seem to beat these 6x4min workouts. I had to drop the level to 90% by the end of this one yesterday. Sad Panda. I just couldn't keep pedaling!

The way these threshold workouts are implemented in this program is something I don't agree with, basically no build up to the stress of them and very short RI.  Like I stated before these are basically doing the last 20' power test and breaking it up with 1' breaks, ACK.  Last year I did Marc & Shane's power mentor group and these workouts were presented in a nice progression with something like shorter main set 3' durations and a bit longer rest intervals of 2' up to 5' intervals with 3:30 rest intervals.  This allows one to recover and tackle the next main set interval in earnest.  That is why I don't mind pausing the WO in the RI and extending the RI to 2-3', it definitely makes a big difference.

I knew the last one at +3-5w was going to be a b!tch so I found a tune to play (KoRn Word up!) and cranked it up so I couldn't hear myself in agony!

Hmmm. The trainer road workouts only have 45 seconds of rest between the 4 minute intervals. Maybe a glitch. It's pretty sad that one of the things that stood out the most from that post was that I'm missing out on 15 seconds of rest! lol.

The last 6x4 interval workout I got through by watching Kill Bill Volume 2. It just so happened to be at the part where she is learning from that Chinese master and suffering like hell. That helped. The last power test we did I was listening to Rage Against the Machine. That's angry enough music to get me pushing hard. I was listening to a podcast yesterday. Probably should prepare a playlist for next week!

Good god you're right, the BT plan has it at 45s and I made those files for Tom to upload, never dawned on me at the time, NFW!  I hereby declare a 2-3' rest interval for the 6x4' workout!

OK Everyone.  I raised a question about the 6x4' workouts on the main forum.  It may appear that the initial 105% I used is not a good value for everyone since I looked at my history and it showed that my 20' test value is usually +/- 105% of my CP value.  Others may be 102% or higher like 108%.  2-3% of CP is pretty significant for these workouts.  So we can back off on the target % value a couple of watts or if you want just do the workout as specified day 51 at the your 20' test value for the 1st 5 intervals and add 3 watts to the last one.  For the next 6x4' workout I'm going to back off targets to what I did on the initial workout and see if I can pull it all together without extending the rest intervals.  Still going to be one hard workout!

A workout like this without a concrete target % value makes it hard to write for any of the trainer software programs.

It was 58 degrees and sunny here yesterday! I skipped workout two in favor of a tempo ride on one of my usual 20 mile routes. I felt good. Definitely felt better than the last time I did that route. Even with sore legs I could tell I'm getting stronger on the bike. That ride added a little more motivation to suffering through this challenge!

Way too cold in the Am this week to get in some rides, so I came home for a late lunch and hopped on the trainer to get back on the saddle. Did Wk7wo3 Sweetspot workout, legs felt good except still feeling my left calf.

Let me hear what you guys are doing this week...

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Haven't done any trainer rides this week yet.

The ground was good and frozen so I hit the mountain bike trail yesterday. That was refreshing.

My goal is to get week 8 in on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

Taking 4 weeks off not recommended at all. I don't have any excuses... at least none good enough, but I did get a decent half marathon in last weekend. Getting back into it today. My performance was expectedly poor, but I'm glad I got started again. debated picking up where I left off, or jumping in on week 8 workouts. Decided on the later, not sure if that was good idea or not, but I'm determined to get my legs back.....





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WK10WO1: Cad Avg-87, Max-130; Pwr Avg-208, Max-284. Got back into some more serious training today. Due to some unexpected life events my training has been off for the last couple of days but was able to get back to serious training today. On the plus side the extra rest was evident during the session this week. Best 6x4 session to date.

I think the rest aspect is killing me. It seems like my ability to hold those power levels just keeps dropping. I suspect my CP will go down for the next test week. I think if I were to only do this challenge with the rest days in between, I could meet the targets, but with mountain biking and running on the days I don't do these workouts, I think my legs are just too shot.

The solution seems simple, don't do all that other stuff, but I am hell-bent on losing weight, and I'm not gonna do it by taking 3 or four days a week off of exercise. I'll continue with the lower power levels. If I'm sore, I've gotta be getting stronger!

I guess this is the snow to make up for all those above avg temp days we experience earlier this winter. I spent far more time shoveling today than training, that is for sure. I don't mind 2 a days for training but 2 a days for shoveling is not good. Not sure if I going back out tonight or waiting until tomorrow for the next round. In the meantime I was able to sneak in a short 45' trainer session today. Hope everyone in the snow zone is making out ok.

Opps, I did the wrong workout this morning. Got up to do the workout & never checked the plan to check out what workouts are on tap for this week. I just went ahead & did the 6x4' session since it was the start of the new week. Now I just looked at the plan & it looks like we are in the testing week. Too late now, guess I will try the test sessions later this week. Targeted 260W for the 6x4' today & felt pretty good until the last one. First minute was ok but the last three were definitely tough. Nonetheless, feel like I am making good progress with the program.

I think I'm getting my legs back now.... This one wasn't as daunting as last Wednesday's ride. (I did get my ride in yesterday, but my power meter wasn't syncing up with GC for some reason, so I just used my garmin and tried the best I could to emulate what the workout was supposed to be.)

Looks like I wasn't the only one to have setbacks in the last couple weeks. Hope all of you are getting on the mend and able to find your way back into logging some hours. I got my 5' test in last round, but didn't manage to get my 20' test in... so I'm looking forward to the next set and hopefully am at least where I baselined when we started this challenge!





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Completed 6x4' session today. Targeted 262W for the work time. Good hard session. Beginning to feel some improvement from the WCP. Picking up on the swim workouts as well. Starting to feel like tri training again.

Back in the saddle again after a 2 week layoff! Lowered the CP 6W or about half of the gains made on the last test round. Started back at wk6 with the easier wo3 to get the legs spinning again. Everything felt good.

A-race is in 16 weeks so its time I layout the Tri training this week, I have to get into the pool.  A couple of years ago I printed out the training calendar, hung it right next to my desk so I had to see it every time I went to the desk.  Marked each workout off and was really motivating to see, going to need to do that again...

 

 

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Anybody out there? It's gotten awfully quiet.... I've been out with a lower back injury (just re-agrivated some ruptured discs I've had for a while), so I've been down completely. No swimming, running, or cycling. Got in the pool Tuesday for about 15 minutes and it wasn't too bad. Doing a 10k this weekend with my wife (more of a family event than a race), so I'll be fine at her pace.

Hope everyone's doing good. I couldn't stick with this like I wanted, but I'm sure glad I joined. It kept me motivated through the winter.

On a good note, while hunting season did make training tough, my 7 year old got his first deer. I'm a very proud dad. Whike I'm motivated through my own fitness goals, I'm through the roof when my kiddos achieve theirs!

Sorry to hear about your injury.

On the positive side, that is awesome for your son. Great to hear that he got his first deer. Enjoy the time with your kids. Coaching my son's wrestling team & watching those kids improve & meet their goals is such a fun time.

Okay so I've been lurking your thread a bit, as I started the JorgeM plan about 4 weeks or so after you guys and didn't want to crash your party However, I do have a couple questions I was hoping you could answer or comment on.

My setup: I'm using MaximumTrainer with my bottom-end Blackburn Mag Trainer on setting 2 (of 3). I've got a mark on the resistance knob so that I know I am putting it in the same place each time, and I check my tire pressure before each session (without any resistance applied, of course). I do not have a fan, as my stepson destroyed the old one and apparently in Missouri all local outlets stop selling larger fans in the wintertime. It's warming up, so I'm hoping they will soon get some inventory, but for now I just have to suffer as I'm not paying shipping on a large item that I know I can get a mile from my house...eventually.

This is my first year doing this plan using virtual power feedback - it's been a great help in focusing my efforts during workouts! It's also been an buzz kill of sorts...my reported power numbers are really low. After doing the winter program last year (using HR - much less helpful for a newbie) I ended up taking most of the year off of training due to family medical issues, so there is that. When I say really low, I mean my first test week came it at like 125W, and while the second showed improvement it was still only 141W. I am in Week 8 (per MT) of the plan, so test week again next week. It could be the lack of fan, or it could be just having the resistance knob tightened way too far I guess. I also realize that in the end the absolute number isn't really that important - the improvement on the number is really what I'm going for, especially since my race pacing will be on HR and RPE and not based on an unmeasurable (for my setup) power output.

Second, given my wife's travel requirements with work, I'm guessing that I will have to continue my in-season training largely on the trainer as well. It's just way too difficult to carve out even an hour of outside riding time and managing the kiddos at the same time. So, what recommendations would you guys have for a training plan AFTER Jorge is done punishing me? I suppose I could download some Sufferfest or something, but part of what I think has been successful so far has been having the week-to-week workouts planned out for me and then being able to adjust that a bit to suit both my time schedule and my race schedule. Has anyone tried or had luck with repeating some of the sections of Jorge's plan? Since I plan to race mostly sprints and the occassional Oly in the near future, maybe I could just focus on increasing my top-end power for now and go with the slow burn side of the curve in the fall.

Any thoughts or anecdotes would be appreciated! Keep pedaling!