Power Mentor Group with Shane & Marc - Closed. (Page 49)

As a wise man said to me before...

I've certainly been in the fail category more times than I would like to admit.  I overcame my last VO2 fail, but have another aggressive one tomorrow morning.  IF of 91....I may not sleep well. 

I did VO2 - 1 this morning and thought it was tough.  Really glad I didn't decide to do VO2 - 2 -- pretty sure those 5' intervals wouldn't have treated me well.  I was able to hold the power targets and build throughout (target 205 -- actual 206 / 207 / 210 / 212 / 218).  

After taking four weeks off running (and four weeks off the glute / quad / hamstring bodyweight strength work that I do so I can keep running, I'm really feeling it now that I'm getting back to it.  Definitely noticing it for rides like this one!

I hope so!  After how hard this week's rides have been for me (and seeing other people throwing down the same rides at 10+ TSS more than me), I'm starting to get worried that my progress is not so much in the forward direction.  Hopefully it's just that my CP was fairly accurate and some others' were slightly under estimated....though, in all honesty, I do understand that huge gains are unlikely since I'm not brand new to this.

I read that ST link and article on W' that you had provided a couple weeks ago and I can't remember if this was ever addressed or not....but say you deplete your W' fully -- what does that mean for sub-threshold work?  Does it mean that you can't exceed your CP, but would still be fine for more threshold work?  I threw in a 5' @ 95% interval after the VO2 intervals and felt pretty okay.

Can you run your W' down doing threshold work only?  I imagine it's a slower depletion, but I suspect you must run out of W' (or something?) as you'll eventually fail if you go long enough. 

Finally done with week 4.  Did SS last night and had a great ride, TSS 116, IF 0.854.  Something to be said about eating well beforehand!  Pushed the final 30" intervals to get a feel for the next 5' test.  Think there will be some decent gains on the next round but not looking forward to doing the testing.

For those using Garmin GSC10 spd/cad sensor, do you see issues with cadence pickup when the battery is getting weak?  I'm starting to seeing random dropouts especially if I go below 75 like at the start of the 2nd 20' interval.  The sensor alignment looked OK.

I wish GC had an audible warning feature when you went drop below the target.  Sometimes I'll find myself off in dreamland and look up seeing I'm below target or missed the start of an interval like I did on the 1st warm-up 30".

I think it's possible for optimal cadences to change at different power levels but I wouldn't worry about it too much.  I don't even pay attention to cadence.  I just monitor power and shift accordingly to maximize that power at the lowest RPE or HR.

Just for kicks though, I looked back at some of my files on Strava and picked out my best 40k, HIM, and VO2 max efforts on my tri bike.  They were all in the 88-89 rpm range.  I had no idea.

I think a better test for you would be to just ride at maximal effort for different durations.  Shift however you want and when you are done with all the tests, then compare the cadences.  Don't let the knowledge of the cadence skew your results subconsciously.  The only thing that should be impacting your decisions during the test you monitoring your power, RPE, and HR.

Marc - a bit of a sidetrack, but just curious what your pace was for the 14 km run.  The reason I ask is that a few months ago I was discussing training with a physiotherapist who is a runner and he said, for your long easy runs, he could point to several studies that show there is no real benefit to running faster than about 5:20 min/km pace.

I think you and I have comparable open HM times, and the current plan I am on has my long easy pace at quite a bit faster than 5:20 min/km.

McMillan predicts a 1:25 HM for me, but I really don't think I'd be able to pull that off.  I'm training for a HM in early March and, subject to race conditions (particularly snow/ice), I'm targeting 1:27.  My run volume will peak at about 45 kms, and so that target may be a bit aggressive.

I used the Runners World online "Smartcoach" plan creator which has a long easy run pace of between 4:45 and 4:50 and I'm usually within that range. 

Over the last year or so I've been focusing on getting my run cadence above 90 and so 5:20 would really feel like shuffling.  I also don't think my HR would get out of zone 1 at that pace.

Its been a challenge juggling these workouts, as the legs can be pretty stiff after the VO2 rides!  Doing VO2-2 tonight and then a day of rest Saturday before 18 kms on Sunday