Cycling program v4.0 2011-2012 (Page 20)

Cool.  Science.  Thanks Jorge!

I just started week seven.  Unlike most people posting here, I don't ride with a power meter.  I've been doing the program with a heart rate monitor.  I tested tonight for 30 minutes (was supposed to do it yesterday, but I ran a race on Saturday so I rested instead.)  My average heart rate during the test tonight was 142.  My average a month and a half ago was 143.

Now for the dumb question: Which direction do I want my heart rate to go?  Did I make ever so slight progress by sweating out gallons of discomfort in my basement or, sadly, do I need to break through the discomfort, embrace full-on pain for a few weeks and watch the average heart rate go up?

Again, my apologies for the boneheadedness of the question.  

Day 29 - MS 4x1'@125%, 1x1'@130%,

It wasn't as bad the first time as I didn't know what to expect. I do this time, which mentally just makes it more challenging. Have mercy!

Starting up this way late this year.  This year I managed to figure out how to get Jorge's workouts into a realtime workout readout with Golden Cheetah.  Below is W1D2 - well half of it since I spent way too much time getting it setup and not enough time left to ride.  I didn't get the power steps quite right in the erg file (now fixed), but in action it works quite well. 

A few more tweaks and this will rule my life over the rest of the winter.

Thanks for the program, Jorge.

I got in my 5min test on Sunday so now I have a CP to work with.

20min Test 1    256w     3.75w/kg

5min Test 1      316w     4.63w/kg

CP = 236w    3.46w/kg

If I understand this correctly, the pretty big difference in my 20min and 5min number really shows off my lack of aerobic conditioning and that I have a bit of a gap to close bewteen my Vo2 and CP. Hey we will look at it as room for improvement.

We have the same 20MP but you have me crushed by 30w in the 5MP!!  I don't think I even hit 316 for the 3 min tests last year.

Man your most recent 20min test was great. Big jump. Pretty impressive that you can hold that high, compared to 5min power, for 20min.

Look forward to seeing your next progression.

Just attempted this on tired legs and a fairly full stomach.  Failure.  Will regroup and try again soon.

Wk4- Day 1  yesterday for me... I think I have improved based on the numbers. I am still new to making sense of them but certainly feel stronger. We'll see what next week brings down the pike for testing.

thomas

LOL!!!!

You guys are a head of me, I just did the 5*4 workout today...the thought of doing one more is not a warm fuzzy feeling.   Cowboy up!

Week 7 tests in the books.

Only been riding twice a week for ~1.5 hours a week.  Performing workout 1 and 3 during a run focus.  Was averaging 38-45 mpw up until the Holiday season.

20 minute power is about 5% less than I tested in August while riding ~4 times a week.

5 minute power is 6.5% higher than I tested in March.  I have been using 3 minute power since then to calculate CP.

I recall last year that my short duration power saw gains for the first phase while 20 minute power stayed relatively the same.  Seems to be the same thing for ME this year.  Very happy with it.  

Very happy with this plan for maintenance.  May even see some gains next time.  However, given that I'm only riding twice a week, I'd be happy to keep things the same.

Thanks.

Just to give you something to think about

Not only do you add an interval, you cut your recovery a little as well, If I am not mistaken.

and if your CP increases as a result of the tests, your targets increase as well. 

You may vomit.

Vomit is for the weak.....death is a much better/easier option!!