Power Mentor Group with Shane & Marc - Closed. (Page 58)

All great points Jason - and I bolded the one section as it is the truth.  I calibrate my PT before every single ride, but I've certainly found occasions when the numbers seem to go out a bit during long rides, and then come back.  Like you said HR and RPE are very good tools to *validate* the PM.** Validate gets the asterix because we all fall into the trap of thinking something is too easy or too hard, but forget to factor in that our bodies have up and down days, and we need to account for that. 

I totally agree with the peer pressure factor.  There have been many occasions where I probably would have bailed on the workouts if it were not for this group. 

A couple of topics for further discussion if you have time:

• I am getting a better understanding of the PMC chart, but was wondering about planning a proper taper.  What numbers/percentages should we be targeting in the week(s) before a particular 'A' race?  In the past I have reduced intensity and duration in the few days to a week before an important race, but is it necessary to reduce both? 
• For those of us doing shorter distance races this season where you will have multiple races over the summer, any tips on how the bike workouts should be structured once race season begins?  For me, my race plan basically has roughly 2 races each month starting in June until September.  Mostly Sprint distances with an 'A' Olympic race in early June and the other 'A' Olympic race in early August.  How should my PMC chart look for this type of race season?

Scott 

Wk 9 THR 1 complete. I was a little nervous about the longer intervals, esp since I'd done Wk 8 sweetspot yesterday, but felt strong throughout. 

Re HR.... I'm also using VP and won't have power data when riding outside. I've used HR/RPE exclusively in the past until using TR last year. For steady state efforts, HR/RPE correlates quite well to (virtual) power for me on the trainer. I can anticipate "cardiac creep" based on RPE with decent accuracy both riding and running. The challenge is translating this to the variability of riding outside....especially hills. I just started reading Friel's PM Handbook and he's referenced the value of "artist and scientist" approach to training and racing.  Like Reece, I won't have power data once I'm off the trainer, so I'm going to have to figure it out.  Look forward to hearing more from others.

Well the party is over! I did VO2-1 to finish off Week 8 and all I can say is it was brutal. 5 X 4 minutes did not seem bad on paper. But 4 minutes is a really long time on the bike at 105%. I'm so glad that workout is behind me. Ready for Week 9!

Last Tuesday, I attempted Week 8's Threshold 1 ride and my legs were having NONE of it.  I wasn't sure if it was due to the fact that I'd done a long ride Sunday followed by a short run....or if it was because I'd had a deep tissue massage.

Fast forward to this week and Week 8's Threshold 1 ride treated me MUCH better.  On Sunday, I did a long ride (TSS 202) followed by a short run, with no massage after.  Legs were fine today and I actually made all three intervals (though I think my PM was reading a bit high for the first two as HR/RPE felt more like the top of Sweet Spot than Threshold, so I back pedaled to re-zero the PM and the third interval felt more in line with what I expect). 

Longer intervals have always been a weakness of mine, but today I just zoned in and the time clicked by reasonably quickly. 

In 6-8 weeks I'll be asking (so I will ask now) -

"So, now that I have a CP #, what do I do with it?  How do I use that # for my IM?  What % should I plan to ride?  How do hills factor into the equation (because we know I like hills)?

And different topic and one I think was already covered but I can't find the page - How is TSS calculated?  Can it be calculated for runs?  Is a ride always the same TSS score?

TSS is calculated as the square of IF X number of hours X 100

So a 2 hour ride at 80% (NP) would be 0.8 X 0.8 X 2 X 100 = 128 TSS points.

A 2 hour ride at 65% would be .65 X .65 X 2 X 100 = 84.5 TSS points.

So it's interesting to see that to get the same amount of TSS points by riding 65% as compared to 80%, you have to ride 50% more.

Just over three hours (like 3:02 maybe) at ~83%.  It was my long ride last weekend for my SG build -- targeted an aggressive NP (and somewhat high VI) to see how my legs would respond to a short run after.  It wasn't awful, but I think dialing it down a bit would be prudent

Thanks Jason, Ron & Marc for the explanations. Lots of math going on in there! But I think I understand. I need to check out Bestbike split, wonder if they have Boulder....

So despite thinking I rode Tahoe easy, a VI of 1.2 would indicate otherwise. But wouldn't the looooooooooon steep climbs explain the high NP # then? Probably should have had more gearing.

Finished Week 9 Threshhold 1 tonight.

Was a little short of the targets - 92%, 92% and 94%.

Partly because I was easing into my new FTP and partly because I was watching "Gravity" and would occasionally lose focus and my cadence would drop. 

By the way, if you haven't seen "Gravity" yet, its a great movie for the trainer.  Lots of action and only 1.5 hours long.

Marc, I need some really basic computer instructions I think. What application do I need to open/read a tcx file on a mac? I can download my VP/HR files from Trainer Road but can't open/read them. Then how do I import them to Golden Cheetah? Sorry if this was covered already. I can probably do my own mathematical correlation but would rather use GC's.   Thanks.

Ok thanks, I set up GC when we started the group and have a few rides from Dec recorded. I've just been using TR. For some reason I thought I needed another app to import files. Will work on this tonight when I'm home.

eta....huge TX to the guys uploading files to the TR BT team thread! 

The bolded part made me laugh out loud.  In my mind I was "conserving" my legs for the run by coasting down the hills (at top speeds mind you!). But you're absolutely right, the uphills killed me. All I really looked at the next day was my average watts and I was under what I planned on, so I thought SUCCESS! I didn't look at the NP. And what's more interesting to me is that my run in Tahoe was only 2 minutes slower than my best IM run and I felt pretty darn good about it. But perhaps I had a better run in me if I hadn't cooked myself on the bike. I wish I had my PT for Wisconsin & Vineman because again I thought I paced the bike well, but I rode much harder at those two than Tahoe.

Question for you Marc - should I continue to do the VO2 workouts vs. Threshold (since I'm a "sprinter") to get my legs back?  And, should I have not jumped into Week 8 after testing Week 7 since I'm just starting back, or should I have gone back to the earlier workouts. (FWIW - for Week 8 I did Threshold 1 & VO2-2 and felt fine, not easy but I was above my targeted #'s for the intervals even with an inflated CP #. VO2-1 was a bit harder to complete but I still finished above targeted #'s for all intervals.)

Kim - let me know if you need help with GC and a Mac. I think I finally have it down!