SBR Utopia ---- Permanently OPEN!! (Page 14)

There is no doubt some carry over.  I should clarify what I mean by stronger rider as my estimated FTP was only up about 10-15w between the two (according to 5 and 20' tests).  Where I feel much stronger is in my ability to put out sustained power for longer and recover well from it.  If I were to compare rides between the two seasons I would probably see lots of rides of similar length and avg power but the ones in 2013 would have had target intervals that were very race specific.  It made me feel a lot stronger over long periods of time and also gave me a lot of confidence.  

Now you could say that doing that sort of thing just makes sense and I agree....  now.  At the time, I was clueless.  

Fred - not at all seen as attacking.  In fact, it's a great response, as was Arend's.

The BUT was initially more to ask how much of the perceived benefit of a coach is cognitive dissonance.  The "I have a coach and I've improved, so it must be from the coach" effect, especially when someone has been making gains previously.  Arend's response answered that nicely, and in a way I didn't expect (which is always nice!).  I agree that things that make sense in the "retrospectoscope" are often not at all obvious when you're in the moment (I can't tell you how many things I do differently each year that I take for granted but were hard earned when I learned them) and that a coach can accelerated the process (helping you know what you don't know).

Your response is spot on for me.  There is a HUGE part of me that wants to work with a coach.  In every competitive sport I've been in (hockey, rugby and skiing predominantly) I have valued the coaches tremendously, and I insist that my kids (and suggest to my Better Half, as insisting isn't wise) get lessons and coaching for all their endeavors (from sport to music).  

In tri, I feel like I could be considerably more competitive MORE QUICKLY with a coach.  When the race calendar and improvements are measured in seasons, that's a big deal.  The conflict comes both from schedule (I, too, have a sometimes wacky one) and liking the process of learning by hard knocks and effort.

Not efficient, or even effective, sometimes, but fun.

So, you read my post exactly right!  I am conflicted, in a sense, but not because I don't see the value in coaching.  I think this is a very interesting discussion and really appreciate the thought people are putting into evaluating both why they have/haven't gone with a coach and what they've gotten out of it.

If I blow up this season, I'm getting one.  

Thanks.

Matt

Safe travels home!

I got to run in shorts today as the temp was above freezing.  It kind of made me feel like I was in Hawaii.  

Thanks, and yes let it play for a bit over a minute, then started again.  BTW it's how Muse opened their shows last year and was a-ma-zing

On a disappointing front, started walk/running this week, went fine over three runs but yesterday foot started getting sore in the same area as the previous injury  I had been 10 plus days asymptomatic.  Figures, I finally got around to booking NOLA airfare, and now it's potentially at risk.  SO I'll take another two weeks off and go from there I guess.   It is unbelievably frustrating.  My goal is really the middle to end of the season June - September, so I have plenty of time for that, it's just NOLA at risk.  I'll have to decide in two weeks whether to take more time or just start running and deal with it through the season.  After all, I did an IM and a HIM PR and set a HM PR with the issue in 2013....I just wonder how little run training I can have going into NOLA and still be reasonable.

Grrrr.

I was a timing "runner" at my daughter's swim meet last night.  What a great way to pick up on good form!

(and she PR'd both her events - 50 free and back last night - by half a second)  

Guess all those drills work...

Off for a run now, as it's sunny and almost 40!  Wooohooooooooooo!!!!!!

Matt

Chris, really bummed to hear your foot is still giving you trouble.  What are your symptoms?

I've just started having some foot issues as well, so I've had to take a week and a half off of running so far.  Everything was going so well leading up to it.  I'm pretty sure I caused it by running in shoes that weren't a good match for me, on hills (which I never do as I live in an area that's pancake flat, but found myself on them when visiting Socal). 

Here's to hoping we can both get through these dumb foot issues soon!

That's pretty frustrating Chris!  I hope you can figure it out soon.  

On my long run today, I saw a Bald Eagle eating the carcass of a deer that (presumably, and per town hubbub) coyotes killed and dragged out on the Concord River ice (or herded it out there after it was hit by a car and broke a leg and took it down there).  

WTF?!?  I live within a dozen miles of Boston.  The wild is never as far as away as we think… for which I'm glad!

Pretty dang cool.

Matt

10 x 100 IM, right? 

What cadence have people been riding for their 5' and 20' tests?

Matt

Think it would be more helpful to know a larger span than that. I would probably be high 80's to 90 for the 20' and that or a bit higher for the 5'. Something like Revolver (16 x 1' (1')) is more like high 90's to just over 100. More common sub-threshold levels (easy to just into Z4 are likely to be high 80's, but could have a wider range off of that. More likely to go lower than higher though, unless I'm trying to work on something specifically.

99 for 5' and 94 for 20'.  I don't think it's really indicative of anything though, other than that's the gear + rpm combo that produces that power for my trainer.  Both are outside of my typical range which would be high 80s, sometimes into low 90s for interval work.  The exception to that would be short stuff (30" or less) where I will likely be doing higher cadence.

The 99 rpm for the 5' was outside my comfort zone a bit but I didn't want to shift mid test and mess something up.  I knew I would be ok to maintain it (once).  If I was doing a set of intervals I would almost certainly have done the next one at a lower cadence.

Yowsers, that's some miles!  Nice work!

Is that a typical weekend for your training plan?