Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 63)

Sorry for the additional post but one thing to add is both the 5 minute and 20 minute tests are all out efforts. So you go all out for 5 minutes and grab your avg and max power numbers and then you do the same for the 20 minute test.

Here's some before and after pics from the storm.  I'll try to add some to the power discussion later but my life is chaos right now!

(befores.JPG)

(afters.JPG)

Thank you everyone.  I didn't do anything today.  Every time I thought about working out, I was overcome with an intense feeling of fatigue.  It's ok, though.  I had a feeling this would happen today.

Dirk....your daughters calling you daddy is very sweet.  There is an older, very successful local businessman that uses the gym every morning.  Whenever his mom (who is in her 80's) is in the gym doing her little strength routine, he goes over to her and says "hi mommy" and gives her a kiss.  It's adorable and the nicest thing I see on those mornings.

jenbmosley - 2013-02-12 9:04 AM

RunningYogini - 2013-02-12 10:15 AM Five years ago today, my Dad passed away.  Today is going to be rough. 

I am sorry. I hope that you can do something to celebrate his memory and who he was to you. Sending good feelings your way.

My dad just called me and my grandmother passed away in her sleep this morning. She was only 80, had mild dementia and alzheimer's and lost her zest for life about 3 years ago. I am going to miss her terribly. 

Oh Jen.  I'm so sorry. 

jenbmosley - 2013-02-12 12:04 PM

RunningYogini - 2013-02-12 10:15 AM Five years ago today, my Dad passed away.  Today is going to be rough. 

I am sorry. I hope that you can do something to celebrate his memory and who he was to you. Sending good feelings your way.

My dad just called me and my grandmother passed away in her sleep this morning. She was only 80, had mild dementia and alzheimer's and lost her zest for life about 3 years ago. I am going to miss her terribly. 

Jen, I'm so sorry I missed this post while reading yesterday.  I'm sorry for your loss.  My grandmother passed away about 7 years ago now at 72.  It was really hard to see her go and although it's almost impossible to see this, you have to remember she is in a better place now and will continue to influence others as she did you.  I'm sure she was a real sweetheart as most ladies were from her generation.  My wife's Nana also has alzheimer's and mild dementia.  Unfortunately she is in a very similar situation as your grandma.  I'll say a prayer for your grandma and your family.  All the best, Jen.

jgerbodegrant - 2013-02-13 7:07 AM

jenbmosley - 2013-02-12 12:04 PM

RunningYogini - 2013-02-12 10:15 AM Five years ago today, my Dad passed away.  Today is going to be rough. 

I am sorry. I hope that you can do something to celebrate his memory and who he was to you. Sending good feelings your way.

My dad just called me and my grandmother passed away in her sleep this morning. She was only 80, had mild dementia and alzheimer's and lost her zest for life about 3 years ago. I am going to miss her terribly. 

Jen, I'm so sorry I missed this post while reading yesterday.  I'm sorry for your loss.  My grandmother passed away about 7 years ago now at 72.  It was really hard to see her go and although it's almost impossible to see this, you have to remember she is in a better place now and will continue to influence others as she did you.  I'm sure she was a real sweetheart as most ladies were from her generation.  My wife's Nana also has alzheimer's and mild dementia.  Unfortunately she is in a very similar situation as your grandma.  I'll say a prayer for your grandma and your family.  All the best, Jen.

Thank you for your condolences. She was great lady and I am grateful for the relationship I had with her and so very thankful that I was able to visit with her last month. When my grandfather passed last year, we had a feeling she would struggle. I hope to carry on her memory through stories and through the values and lessons I will teach my daughters as they grow up. I will also carry on the traditiona of some of her great recipes!

Thanks for sharing! So beautiful.

This morning I woke up to rain, 70-degree muggy, miserable weather and a tornado watch in effect. Oh the joy, I would rather live in earthquake land.

Those numbers don't mean much to me, but I see consistent improvement!

That's awesome to take the positive out of this.  It's never easy losing the ones we love, but to remember and honor their lives and their contributions to our lives is the best memorial we can give them.  You've got a special heart.

It's an unspoken and oft-ignored of fact of life that we all are mortal, even though with our lifestyle choices we may squeak out a bit more than most.  Hopefully we all use these painful experiences to love those around us more fully and appreciate our blessings every day.

Do they even make correct snowshoes for your weight?

Those numbers don't tell the whole story but they do give me something to speculate on.  Notice that in the 2nd week your max pwr was 375 (and being 90 watts above your average shows poor pacing).

The third test your max is 95 watts over your average at 392.  Looks like your 3rd test may have included even more variation in your wattage which would have brought your average down even a bit more. 

I think in your 1st test you paced best....I'm wondering if you weren't too gung ho in #2 and #3 and as a result went out too hard? ...and even if those peaks were at the end, it then shows you paced poorly the other way by starting too easy.

I don't know when your next test is, but I'd consider CAPPING your power at 300 watts until you are 80% through the effort.  If you can increase then, go for it.

BTW Tony, your numbers are actually very impressive.  That needs to be said.  An FTP around 290 watts is is right up there.

Jen and Tony have hit on two of the common problems with power testing.  First is predicting a number and trying to hold that number, and then having uneven effort.  Another common issue is starting too hard and burning out.  As you do more tests you will figure out how to pace more evenly as long as you are honest with yourself.  For instance, a 20 minute test is pretty long and shouldn't feel ridiculously hard at first. 

Finding a power number and sticking to it, while not ideal for testing, is actually a great way to race, given you know what the number should be.  This ability to maintain even pacing is critical to maximizing bike performance in triathlon racing, particularly as the distances increase.  In fact, a good coach can analyze your power graphs after a 70.3 or 140.6 race and make a pretty good prediction about how your run went based on the bike power charts.  Fluctuations in power almost always portend a tough run in long course.  So learning what your capabilities are and staying close to that in a race is one of the prime uses of a power meter, or learning the same thing by RPE is a critical skill to maximizing your racing.

And Tony - I agree with Jeff, those are some serious wattage numbers.  FTP in the high 200s is quite impressive.

Hey, cool!  Bike racing requires some seriously high peak power numbers.  Get involved in group rides with a club or team and you will learn pack riding techniques and tactics while having short, spirited sprints throughout the rides.

And it wouldn't hurt to do some serious squats and/or leg presses in the gym. 

I've been riding with the local roadies and just joined a team. I can hold 1100 watts for about 10 seconds (165 lbs right now)however I have very quickly learned that that doesn't matter when you can't position yourself so well BEFORE the sprint haha. always learning. does doing squats really improve cycling power though? When I start to lift weights heavy I tend to very quickly pack on muscle, which I am trying to avoid.

Tony, I wouldn't get to frustrated with the numbers.  But there is one thing I'd like to know.  Is there any way you can post a picture of the graph from each of those tests so I can look at your pacing?  Although I haven't done one in a while, I did find that if I just went with a goal a little bit higher than I thought I could do and tried to hold it, I wouldn't spike at all.  For example, week 7 you were able to hold 285, but you could have held 287, so I would have shot for 290 and tried to hold it. 

ETA:  I basically just repeated what Jeff, said...but i still want to see those graphs.  Do you have them on garminconnect or something similar?

That's awesome Dave!  If I were you I would definitely start doing some squats/lunges.  You need to improve your explosive power.  Biking in those groups will make your power go up quick as well.

This is great Dave.  I've debated doing some track racing this year as I just found out there is a velodrome really close to me which has what looks like a great track racing program.  It's just confusing to know whether to pursue something like this given the massive different between that type of racing and triathlons.  Too many candles burning?  I'm still struggling a little to identify myself in terms of what type of endurance athlete am I.

Guys thanks for the feedback on the power data from the 20 minutes tests. I appreciate the kind words and it make me feel like all the hard work is starting to pay off. It also shows that I need to do a better job of pacing myself during the tests.

I do agree with your assessments of the tests. The first test I did I didn't go all out from the start. I sort of eased into it and let it build over the course of the 20 minutes. For the second test I know was sick that week and gave it my best effort but I think I went as hard as could and didn't gradually build in the effort. I did the same thing for the third test. I think I was so intent on trying to beat my second test I threw caution to the wind and just went all out last night. Obviously not a very good approach for the 20 minute test. I will keep this mind for the next 20 minute test and try doing a better job of pacing myself instead of just trying to hammer from the get go.

Jonathan I wish I could provide that data as I think you guys are right and it would probably validate what you guys are thinking unfortunately I can't get the data off the Kurt Kinetic computer. I can double check again but I am pretty sure there is no way to pull that data from the computer. It'd be nice to have the option to do so.

Lots of talk about power yesterday.  That is one thing I know very, very little about and can't contribute anything more than what has already been said.

I can contribute about the testing.  As Warren said, getting an accurate test is extremely difficult, especially the first few times you attempt to get good numbers.  Pacing is a tremendous key to figuring out where to put your efforts at the beginning of a test.  What has seemed to work for me at each test is to be uncomfortable at the front end but knowing the effort seems to level off for a few minutes in the middle (enough that I feel like I could go a little harder) but keeping that effort because the intensity eventually catches up toward the end.

This is kind of a hard thing to grasp because as our bodies begin the high intensity effort of a test were are attempting to pull our HR's up from a lower number and our bodies have to adapt to that surge of effort.  Then as we sit a little in this zone our bodies make the adaption and we begin to feel like this is sustainable and we begin to doubt we are applying ourselves enough, so we go a little harder.  And that is where we get caught and burn out.

I have found the middle of the testing cycle is the place where the most attention can be paid to figuring out what intensity to use.  I allow my self to become "comfortable" after the first 3-5 minutes knowing that the comfort won't last long, maybe another 3-5 minutes or slightly longer, and the I begin to suffer more and more with each passing moment.

One more thing;  Pay very close attention to your cadence and speeds during the testing phases.  Check the past data to see where you have decided to dial up or down rather than allowed an even effort.  Speed and cadence can really help you identify where you need to be.

Yep.  still doing the weigh ins.  I got my weight on Tuesday noght because I can't remember to get it in the mornings.  I am down one more pound to 16 pounds.  6 more pounds to go!  I am targeting my 10 pounds for marathon week so I am not trying to get terribly aggressive with my diet.  I have been doing some intense mileage building without giving up most of my cycling and I don't want to allow a deep calorie deficit to cause any more problems than I already experience.

Jeff, Dirk, Warren, & Tony-

Thanks for the insight and discussion on (cycling) testing, power, cadence, etc. I have learned a lot over this past week. I re-attmepted the 5 minute test last night. I woke up this morning and read the additional posts just before getting on trainer to do the 20 minute session.

During the 5 minute test last night I definitely pushed about as hard as I could for as long as I could. I woke this morning with a sore right butt cheek and a mild ache in right quad -- I know I was stomping down too hard on the downstroke.

I eased into the 20 minute test this morning and rode the second half slightly quicker than the first. I tried to find a middle tempo that I could maintain over the 20 minutes. I actually closed my eyes and concentrated on the full revolutions, cadence, and not stomping so much on the downstroke.

My results were lower than the previous test (I was not completely rested and was too impatient to wait till I am rested).

5 minute test:

• Speed: avg: 16.4 mph, max: 22.6 mph
• Power: avg: 178 watts, max: 314 watts

20 minute test:

• Speed: avg: 14.6 mph, max: 16.8
• Power: avg: 140 watts, max: 180 watts 

Dirk-

Congrats on the weight loss! My weigh-in days are Saturdays. I can usually stay consistent with what I eat on Fridays, so Saturday morning weigh-ins are optimal for me. Maybe not this Saturday as I will be eating Adobo Chicken on Friday to prep for Saturday's HM (hopefully help me retain a little more water by consuming a little extra sodium).

Your statement above resonates strongly with me. My goal is to be 7 pounds lighter (by mid April) than where I started on 1.1.2013. To date, I am down just over 4 pounds, but I am trying to be very careful on how to lose the weight. While many would be excited to lose more than their goal weight, I don't want to compromise strength, speed, or muscle mass....  during this spring training period I am hoping to increase some lean muscle mass as well.

HAPPPY VALENTINE'S DAY JUNKIES?

Any of you cheating today? On your diet that is....

Jen nice job and those are pretty solid numbers. Remember this is your basline from where you are starting from in the program. You will improve upon those numbers as you go along. Also very good point you brought up about trying to spin instead of just mashing the pedals. I know the guys here have said it a million times but a nice smooth higher cadence makes it so much easier on the legs.