SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 17)

Ouch!  Sorry to hear that Kim, hope you heal up quickly.

A giant stack of pancakes was my solution, very effective!

I had a tough bike session on the trainer this morning and a short easy run afterwards.  Good start to the new year.

This afternoon we got out our new snowshoes and went for a short jaunt with two of the dogs to try them out, FUN!

Ha, that was the post swim food at the club!  But that will only las an hour, maybe two.....

Yuck Kim, happy to hear that from the sounds of it you will recover quickly - at least you got it out of the way early this year and should have smooth sailing from here on out! Check in tomorrow and let us know how you are feeling?

I have been out if pocket a bit with some post-Christmas family travel and am now in Savannah, GA to deliver a keynote lecture. Wish I had time to get out an run today - it I 70 degrees here. Hopefully I might be able to beat the cold and rain in the morning... Happy New Year, everyone!

I am so sorry. Hope you heal up fast.

This morning I went for my annual Polar Bear Plunge for the 4th year.

We usually just jump in and get out ASAP but the water wasn't as cold as years past so I actually swam a bit. Only 300 yards but the temp was 56 or 58 depending on the source and it really boosted my confidence in handling the water temp for IMAZ.  Certainly not ready to swim 2.4 but I was worried about the water temp and think I will be fine.  Also tried my new booties and they were awesome!

Thank you 1462 today.

No real training.  He swims 2x/week with a wonderful program (their elite squad sent 6 or so to the Olympics).  He plays soccer and basketball.  We'll go on short runs here and there.

I'm going to try to target that 100x100 for next year.  I guess that means I've got to start swimming again.

Interesting stuff. I have been doing mine at 117% so I suspect the FTP I am using is a tad low.

Do you just run Sufferfest on it's own or in Golden Cheetah ? Do you have a 'Sufferfest score' to % FTP scheme  or do you just go by interval duration ?

To bulk up strength training is actually kind of hard, especially if you are an endurance athlete.  You have to also eat for growth and odds are your not doing that.  I am not sure using strength training for 1 is your best bet.  Swim and bike more and those will come.  Strength training might help you marginally but honestly that strength you need for those will come from doing those specific events.  I am however a huge fan of strength training for injury prevention.  There is no guarantee that it will prevent injuries of course but many people develop muscle imbalances and strength training will help with that.  Some folks get the same benefits from doing different sports like hockey or basketball but when training for endurance sports odds are those will drain you enough that the sbr suffers.

For injury prevention a little goes a long way actually.  30 mins 2x's a week doing a full body routine is about all you need.  Somewhere in the 12-15 rep range would probably be what I shoot for.  But, another option is using something like the TRX to get your full body workout in.  It might be something you enjoy, you can do it at home, and you'll develop muscle but pretty much not bulk up.  You can get in a workout pretty quickly as well and can really work hand in hand with that core workout you got going

Ouch.  I bet that was an interesting conversation with the family.  I'd have played it up.  I imagine you'll feel a little stiff tomorrow.  Heal up

120%FTP is 5MP for me...so 5x4' @120% would have me in the hurt box.  110% seems like a good, tough target for a workout like that.

It's possible I was overestimating my FTP by a touch as well. I'll use my FTP estimate to help set the target for these intervals, but not the other way around. I like the longer efforts for that, though I might use these shorter ones as more motivation to push harder in the longer ones.

I use Sufferfest on its own. I know of Golden Cheetah and its capabilities, but haven't used it yet. How I match up to Sufferfest depends on what I'm doing. For this one, the intervals are short and so high intensity that I just hammer at them, trying to make/beat the target. I will vary the cadence some, going along with the scheme of the vid at times, but that's more to keep it interesting. And the target is generally 112-113% for this one.

On others I do match up more. For the 2 x 20's, I'd use Hell Hath No Fury and try to make high 90's. I'll put 7.5 as the target wattage and then follow along with any variations they put in at 0.5=5%FTP. On The Hunted's 1 x 20, I'll do my best with 7=FTP and 0.5=5% again. Gesink's break near 11-12 minutes is screaming hard at 8.5.

Those 3 vids were my key workouts that I would repeat on a regular basis and stuck with these guidelines to complete them. Are you familiar with the Flanagan Block from ST? That's what they're from. I just fit those into the Sufferfest vids.

Other rides to the other vids were all over the place depending on what I was doing. Sometimes following closely, sometimes ignoring all the attacks. Sometimes hitting near where they seem to intend us too, others backing it down some. Like when doing several in a row (Angels plus Fight Club is fun), I'd be mid to high 90's and normally don't attack. Maybe just surge a little. Maybe go to recovery levels, maybe just to basic aerobic levels on the rest sections. Anything with sections of 20 min or more was very helpful in doing sweet spot work.

My 5' max power is usually around 121-123% of FTP, so I would agree that 5x4' at 117% would be deadly.

Happy New Year everyone!  Perfect weather here today, but I decided to give myself a little mental test to start off the year.  So I set up the trainer in front of the TV and rode from start to finish of the Rose Bowl.  Relatively easy effort as I just wanted to make sure I got it done.  Mostly in Z2 and short efforts at HIM effort during commercials and timeouts.  Moderate effort during halftime. 

Not planning to do that again anytime soon...LOL.

HAH!!!  You know that's why triathletes pee on their bike right?  One guy had an accident, and everyone else just wanted to make him feel better.

I did 3x5' @ ~118-120% yesterday (and 4x4 last week) - having to do one more would have pushed me over the edge I think.  That said, 110% seems low to me.  How much difference do you guys have between your 5' and 20' power?  Mine is 45w.

That was based on FTP test results from early December, no way I would have been able to go that high right after the tests.  I'm pretty sure my numbers would be higher if I were to retest now.