Beer Drinkers' Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2020 Version - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 32)

That looks awesome! And Happy Birthday!

@Gretchen:  the patio looks fantastic and you definitely deserve some time tilting back a beer on it.  And the race thing sucks and I agree with Nicole I'd rather it be cancelled and not worry about it.  Funny- my bike training was more successful and consistent AFTER my races were cancelled or postponed indefinitely.  Maybe that's a me problem.  LOL

@Nicole:  found some info on the Merritt pools re-opening, maybe as early as tomorrow for the swim team then a drop-in fee for the rest of us (date TBD); I'm assuming this is while they're not charging us our membership fee

@DQ:  nice work on the consistency and stick with that core work and PT!!!  The core work takes time and you have to commit to doing it as much as possible...just add on 10 minutes after every ride as part of your cool down.  As for training plans, for a century you probably need to ride 5 days a week with a build to 200 or so miles a week.  I think Riles mentioned you'll need to do a couple upwards of 80+ miles.  I'd do two harder rides, two easy ones, and one long one a week.  The only way to get better at hills is to go do them and push hard up them, and remember all hills are just hard intervals anyway so any hard intervals will serve that training purpose.  What type of bike are you riding (type, brand, material, tires, etc.)?  You could probably have some long-hanging fruit to make your rig move faster at the same effort.  The weight loss helps, too, especially on hills for us big guys.

I got in 35 miles on Saturday and was just cooked Sunday so took a day off, then hit up Zwift yesterday for 20+ miles then hiked 5 this morning with some weights and core work.  Our max here at the house is a 15 pound dumbbell so I'm not getting much stronger but at least keeping away the old man arms. 

I can't believe I'm saying this:  I REALLY miss swimming.  This is longest I've going in over 10 years, including the time around my back surgery.

Remember that HR is a lagging indicator of effort so sometimes it takes a few minutes to get your HR up for a given effort.  A 3 minute interval starting in Z1 isn't going to get your HR up that high, unless you either go all-out (like to the point of falling over) or do it over and over again with short rests.  Next time, give 3 or 4 x 3' hard with 1' easy a try and see if it gets up.

And congrats on the weight loss!! 

You got it. 

My work calendar was light this morning, so I got in a 90'+ ride outdoors, roughly 25 miles and rode it decently hard.  Really warm and windy out today and the tree/grass pollen was nuts.  Now I'm sitting on a 2-hour process review call about to claw my eyes out.

@DQ:  Tempo is zone 3, which is 70-82ish% of your FTP.  Tempo should feel moderately hard, like you know you can't do it all day but you could conceivably handle it for more than hour.  HIM race-pace is usually zone 3 for really experienced riders.

As for getting HR up, I'm wondering if your HR monitor is off.  Are you breathing hard after a ten minute interval?  If so, then you're probably in zone 4 at least.  If you're not, then you'll need to ride harder and maybe your limiter is leg strength vs. your cardio system, but for most guys (especially us larger ones) that usually isn't an issue.

That Garmin workout a typical zone 3 workout - zone 3 workouts need to be long to have any benefit.  It's asking you to ride at HIM race pace for 10 minutes, then back off for 3 minutes, then repeat two more times, then finish off with aerobic riding at the end.

It takes a long time to get in tune with your HR/power/RPE.  I've ridden like 25,000 miles the past ten years using HR only, then virtual power and HR, then finally a power meter and HR and I can feel the pressure on my legs and how hard I'm breathing and know more or less my power output and HR.

There's also a school of thought that says just throw all your measurement devices on the end table before you go out and ride and just enjoy it.  Workouts don't need to be perfectly planned and executed.  Says the data junkie with ten plus years of data here on BT.