Baowolf's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 13)

Originally posted by Baowolf

I had to share this from fisherman76 on gaining bike speed on a different thread. It is in the context of improving bike speed and it taking intensity and frequency for someone who wants to improve on a 21+ mph IM bike speed (I wish I had that speed to need to improve on). The OP was biking hard, but for only 40 min to 1 hour 3x per week 1 workout at an easy pace.

There is a LOT of information in this quote if you ask me (and you didn't, but being a forum, you get free advice like this!). I didn't see *how* you are measuring your efforts, other than by saying "hard" and "easy", but let's use RPE (relative perceived effort) as a scale for starters. 1 is 'asleep' and 10 is 'my eyeball just fell out', and there's an ocean in between. 9 is a sprint, 8 is a VERY strong effort, and 7 is race pace. To equate this to power, you'd map 7 to your FTP, which is commonly measured as your maximum sustainable 20 minute effort.
Here's a translation of RPE to FTP
3 50%
4 63%
5 76%
6 89%
7 100%
8 114%
9 127%
10 140%
Obviously having a power meter helps tremendously, not just for providing a numeric metric to work with, but also to determine day over day effort (your RPE=7 might not be as strong on Monday as it is on Wednesday!). Working backwards with your information, you're obviously not at RPE=10 for 5 minutes, and it's likely not at 9 either. 9 and 10 are flat out, and you can NOT hold those speeds for 5 minutes. Judging by your race results, that 5 minutes is probably your FTP level, or RPE=7. I can tell you if you're only doing 4 sets of 5 minute intervals at 100% FTP with 2 minutes in between, you will *not* make any progress. So at least the results make sense.

The good news is there is lots of progress available to you if you train differently, and smarter. If at ALL possible, set yourself up with TrainerRoad, that makes things a LOT easier to figure out, simply because it takes RPE out and replaces it with real numbers and lots of professionally structured workouts that are designed to specifically improve your cycling ability and power. I say ability and power, because they are two facets that don't develop in lockstep - a tremendously strong set of legs might be able to generate a huge amount of power by mashing the biggest gear, but can't sustain it very long. Over time you'll develop as a spinner as well as in strength, and find power comes differently from each. My body works much differently climbing a steep grade out of the saddle than it does in aero cruising on a flat. I'm hesitant to suggest any specific workouts, because there are many different types that address different things (FTP, cadence, climbing, power, endurance, etc), but at least for starters I can say if you want to raise your power, you'll need to push OVER that marker a lot more often. Instead of what you're doing now, maybe try some more intense sets, like :40 at RPE=9 (minimum cadence 95! nothing lower!!),:20 at RPE3 (rest), and do 8 of those. Then rest 2:00 of light spinning. Repeat 5 times with 5 minutes warm up and cool down for a solid hour of suffering. You need to redefine suffering -when you're done with that workout, you shouldn't have the energy to shake your fists at the gods and ask why they created you, you should be TOAST.

By the way, I don't know where your races are geographically, but where I live in the rolling hills of CT, 23 mph average is pretty beastly, and the difference between riding 22 and 23 mph is no chump change. Getting there takes SUFFERING, and lots of it. You keep pushing that threshold of pain higher and higher, as you get stronger and more efficient. You also won't really measure by mph, you'll measure by power output.

Originally posted by squirt

Joe, congrats on your YTD totals! Exceeding last yrs bike mileage, while also upping the run....very nice!

Pam, I'll concede the win to Steve since your question was on the average miles .

Samantha, hope you are recovering from the weekend. Will you be able to get in some OWS in the next couple weeks?

New sign went up on the park path today...."Caution: Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit this area". Considering I almost ran over a snake a few weeks ago, and ran within a foot of another one last week that was coiled up and looked ready to strike, I would say that is true! Unrelated, but I have decided to take it down to a walk for a couple weeks and see if my glute will settle down without outside intervention. Might be able to more proactively address it via the chiropractor, but each visit takes me at least a couple hours and a co-pay, and the timing on that is just not great right now. Between my FIL and me, already have 4 doc appts this week and 3 next week.

Originally posted by squirt

Samantha, so sorry your ride was disappointing. But it IS taper time, so I'm thinking your body is right where it should be...unable to do more. There would be something wrong with you if you were NOT sore and exhausted. No training plan or workout goal can account for all that is going on in your body on a given day. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Now the trick is to get your mind where it should be. My suggestion: go run your monthly training graph since the beginning of last year. If you didn't know that was YOUR graph, what would you say about that person? I just did that, and what I see is a picture of someone who has put in an incredible amount of hard work and is determined to be in Ironman!

Ken, glad you came out the other side of the swim to bike and run your way to a nice race!

Pam, I'll see Steve's 80, and raise to 100 miles per week for the olympic miler.

Originally posted by Baowolf

Ken, I won't pull any punches, you have a tough road to be in shape for your IM in 2 months with a 1-2 week recovery and a 3 week taper. That is like 2 build cycles to go up 50 miles on your bike 13 miles on your run and 2000 yards on your swim. Fortunately your run is your strongest and the slowest to build. It will be really important to just ignore intensity, get in what you can while monitoring your health and see where it takes you. I would say build your run 1.5 miles per week on your longs, 10 miles per week on the bike for your longs and up to 500 yards per week on your swim. Anything faster would just be inviting injury.