Slornow and Wannabefaster's mentor group...Closed (Page 3)

Ok, sounds reasonable. I've been riding the trainer regularly but with little interval work. I'm thinking a modest start would be 8x30 at 110 and then see if I can do 1 4' at 110. See what that gives me and work from there. TY.

6' between each. In the past, when I got to 4x8 my FTP had actually gone up so in fact I was doing 4x8@110 of my 'older' FTP.
So for example I will probably test this week. If my FTP went up (hopefully) I am not sure I could hit 4x8 at the new FTP.
I am pretty sure I can do it if I have the right playlist. The 4x6 last week after the 30sec intervals was hard but doable.

We have a big hill in Montreal where they do the pro-tour every year. It's about 7.5min climb and I do them at about 110. On the trainer, I just close my eyes, visualize that and the music is very important. Usually very aggressive music.

 

JasonN-I just started messing with Strava about a month ago and only one ride with my Garmin 520 to know where some of the segments are.  I did one a couple of weeks ago (only about 2 minutes) and joked with a buddy about whether there was a time deduction or addition if you throw up a little at the end. It really hurt. 

Edited by slornow 2016-01-05 12:27 PM

Hi Quincy,

Glad to have some company in the getting back into it boat :-) With regard to the training plan vs. winging it, my approach has always been to read the plans and then kind of personalize them based on conditions, etc. For example, I'll look at the weather to decide what day to ride (and even run sometimes). I'm more likely to focus on the time allotted in a training plan than the actual drills. Probably just my age and outlook, but I'd rather ride outside on the Skyline Drive than on a trainer, even if I would probably be more effective to do the trainer ride. In the winter I tend to do bike classes at the gym led by cyclists and just do whatever they say. I do quite a bit of interval work in swimming, very little in running. That being said, I think the key is to do what works for you - if it is the calendar, go for it! Right now, my goals are modest... basically, just do something (something being a mile swim, or an hour bike class, or a 3-4 mile run) 5-6 days / week. There's a reason I'm middle of the pack :-)

I'd love to do a HM in April as well... not sure I can get there given where I'm starting. Will basically aim my boat in that general direction with the 10 miler in March the first goal post. If I hit that (without a muscle pull, etc.), an HM will be doable.

btw, read about your son being autistic and noted that you're in Albuquerque. We have dear friends who moved out there about 5 years ago and who have an adult autistic son. PM me if you'd like to get in touch with them. I expect they've worked through some of the local resources, etc.

Love the names... we have the Savageman not too far from us. It's all in the marketing!

Cheers,
Stu

I will post more on it, but yes I do use it with a HR strap. I use the 4iiii strap because it also can be used as an Ant+/Bluetooth bridge.

Which HRV tool are you using, we used BioForce last year.

Seems to me the consensus so far with most of the reputable coaches in triathlon with HRV is that no one really knows how to use the data yet. I know it was a big discussion point at the ITU Paris sports conference last year and didn't seem like anyone walked away with much use for it right now.

I think we have all concluded that the accessibility and social media has taken away a lot of the former BT content.

There are IM Facebook pages for all races, and even proposed races now.

Good to link up with you again this winter/spring.

Agreed, It's a great way to introduce a stress without going over, you can add in lots of rest and really build up the intervals. Keeps yourself or the athlete safe from adding too much load too quickly, while allowing the ability to hit the intervals and continue the progression.

Just make it a simple progression. 30", then 1', progress to 2', in no time you are doing 3-5' intervals.

I am also experimenting a bit with a few others doing more block sessions instead of every other day or the such.

For example, instead of doing 4 bikes per week every other day, The way I am approaching with some is 3 days continuous and then a single day in it's own with a 5th as an optional day. Allows to increase the fitness and add in a fair amount of load rather quickly.

Racing NOLA potentially in 2017? I plan to be there this April.

I use iThlete. At one point I questioned some data and verified it with the HRV on the 920xt and it was accurate.
I have 18months of my data, 6 months of another athlete and 3 months of a third. Overlaying HRV, with training metrics with performance metrics you can see the major patterns.
I am not surprised some people have not taken the time to see what they could do with it. I don't think there it's as simple as the little green, amber, red indicator given by ithlete. I would say that one indicator can be very misleading.
I do believe iit provides valuable data to tell when you are getting yourself into trouble, People claim they can tell via other sources which is true but people tend to exagrate this ability. Another data point does provide valuable insight and can be better than trial and error.
There are federations in sports, other than triathlon that use it to monitor the state of their Olympic level athletes.

Wow!

1 X 7 minutes at 110% sounds tough to me.

One of my triathlon downfalls is that I still have trouble really embracing suffering on the bike. I need to get over that.

Just wondering if I made the 1-2 more cut...


If it helps I am a Canadian.


(if so I will Post a bio after)

I assume the % you are talking about is LT? How important do you think it is to test vs using an approx calculator? I have never done it before but also want to improve on my past races.

I think testing is very important.

Getting the test right is very hard. I guess doing it wrong is very hard too.

I dread testing but I think it is good to learn how hard you can push yourself.

Most people improve quite a bit between their first and second/third tests. A lot of this gain is not true fitness improvement but rather figuring out how to do the test well.

I have always done a version of the 5 minute/20 minute test. You multiply your 20 minute power x 0.9 (0.95?) and that gives you your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). You then use that FTP as your base number for training and racing.

The real power experts are welcome to point out all of the areas that I have made mistakes above. My feelings won't be hurt. While I use power to try to optimize my training, I am at heart a technophobe and would like nothing better than to throw away all of my electronic gizmos and just train. Of course it would probably lead to me being a slower triathlete so I avoid doing that.

7 x (4 minutes "best average" on 4 minutes easy tonight).

I am a pansy. My best average is not good. Lots of work needs to be done to get this cycling thing where I need it to be. The bike monsters in this group are just the ticket to inspire me to tackle this beast.....

You are correct Randy. I was part of your group a couple of years ago. Learned a lot from you and Jason. I tend to be more of a lurker on BT but I'm really going to make an effort to contribute more to the discussion.

Personal: My name is Kevin and I'm a 48 year old male from New Hampshire. 2016 will be my 5th year of triathlon. Next week I'll be celebrating my 25th anniversary with my lovely bride. We have two grown children. My son is 24 and my daughter 22. They are both back living at home after college. I miss being an empty nester. Not really. They're both good kids and pretty much lead their own lives. Don't tell the Mrs. but I actually like having them around.

History: I was always more of a team sport guy growing up. Played baseball and football through high school. The only running I did was as conditioning during practice. Work and family took over and in 2008 I found myself with a 20 year 2 pack a day cigarette habit. Finally decided enough was enough; kicked the butts and started exercising again. In the beginning had to do the run/walk thing and my goal was to run a 5k without having to walk. In the years since I've run two marathons, 4 HIM's and a bunch of sprints and oly's. I'm still relatively slow but am getting better each year.

2015: In April I had the opportunity to run the Boston Marathon. I got in on a Charity bib (meaning I didn't have to qualify) and ran a fairly respectable 3:57. Living an hour north of the city it had always been a dream of mine to run Boston one day. I have a bunch of friends who are perennial qualifiers so it was extra special to share the experience with them. It truly is a one of a kind experience and I highly recommend doing it at least once if you are able too. Did a couple of sprints and 2 HIM's. I was a little disappointed that I didn't break 6 hours at the 70.3 distance. my run always seems to let me down.

2016 While I wouldn't have traded my Boston experience for anything I feel it really put me behind the 8 ball as far as tri season was concerned. I found running 6 days week a real grind. I had absolutely no energy to do any swim or bike training during marathon training. So I didn't really start biking or swimming until May which didn't give me enough time to get ready. I was willing to make that sacrifice last year but this year I plan on a much more balanced approach. I recently took the plunge and bought a power meter in hopes to learn how to properly pace the bike so I don't blow up on the run. I also need to get better at swimming as that sets the tone for the entire day. Way too gassed coming out of the water. Sub 6 hour HIM or bust this year!