ridethecliche

Here's the deal. If you have a question, ask your coach. He'll explain it to you.

As far as why you're doing this? My best guess is that he wants you to be able to carry a pretty high training volume. There's a huge difference between doing threshold work and doing LSD in terms of adaptations.

I'm not sure how long you've been racing for, but it takes years for your body to adapt (at the cellular level) to endurance sports. You're basically building the base of the pyramid right now. As your base gets bigger and stronger, you'll start adding more bricks on top.

If you want to, search for some of Zecanon's posts on his training. He's one of the more accomplished racers on the forum and he coached some of the kids on his collegiate team as well. I recall that he used to do a lot of long rides at ~tempo.

If you get used to riding lots of z1/z2, your body can recover at this exertion. As your zones rise up and you train a little harder, the power you can recover at rises. So you can be in the draft at a certain wattage and energetically it's no different from you sitting with your ass on the couch.

If you have questions about your training. Ask your coach as I'm sure he would love to see you interested in why you're doing what you're doing.

Apus^2

Garrr...I'm riding again. I've gotten the support again and I've been riding consistently since mid may after taking a seven month break (between not having time/energy to ride after work and getting sick from my son bringing home germs from day care, I took a sabbatical). Well, jumped up to 205 lbs, about ready to have to buy new pants when my wife started pushing me to get back on the bike. Her suggestion was to ride before work. I decided I'd try it and I'm back to 190lbs (still have 10 more to go). So now I'm getting up everyday at 5:40 to put in an hour ride. I'm about to move that to 5:20 so I can get a bit more in. And I told her I may race next year...and she grumbled ok. Between my four weekday rides and and my 2-3 hour weekend ride, I get almost as many hours in as I had before my knee shredding accident. So, if I can get my weekday morning rides to be 1.5-2 hours a pop, I'll have even more time in the saddle, without sacrificing family/work time. I credit my wife's great idea to getting me to ride again.

So, this morning, I decided to throw on my heart rate monitor for good measure. I thought I had hit a pretty good milestone last week on my 2x20s, so I was relatively pleased. Well, my hr told me something else this morning. It told me to HTFU. I thought I was going well, but my hr was sub 160. After pushing it up to the high 160s/low 170s (well below my lthr of ~185), I tacked on an extra 15 watts on my first 20' and 20 watts on my second. I can start back with my pacing intervals again.

I'm debating whether or not to stay with my team next year. I've done absolutely zilch with them this year, so I feel I've lost any connection with them. Also, the majority of the guys that I raced with are either not riding any more or in a similar boat to me (trying to figure out how to balance daddy life and cycling). I figure it could be fun just to be solo for a bit.

kensuf

2nd to the last big gear workout. This one really sucked, I'm going to blame it on the humidity. I sweat so much that my fingers were pruned up by the end of the session.

bostongarden

I just did one of these the other day (locked into the 53-12) for 30 minutes; it really helps the technique when on the climbs -- gets you to pull up really well.

Oh, I've been riding. Had super fun on Saturday with someone who had a Garmin. One of my wife's friends invited some folks to her beach house, which was a bit over 50 miles away. Another dad -- with a Garmin -- and I rode down. I loved the adventure and discovery aspect; so cool to find your way through towns where you have no clue where you are. We talked about doing a "drop us off somewhere in New Hampshire and we'll find our way back to Boston" ride during the Fall (e.g., White Mountains, Lake Winnipesaukee).

TMonk

Great to hear. Keep at it.

hammy56

after yesterdays weekly hammer-fred, which is only 38 mi, and 130tss I was absolutely smoked for the rest of the day. So. farkin. hot.

jwible

90 minutes at 149 watts. 68 TSS. Relaxing.

waterrockets 

Did some sprints at lunch to keep the body temp reasonable (much cooler than longer intervals). I really have lost some strength since a couple years ago. Peak was low 1600s. I haven't downloaded data, but I'm guessing 5" will be down in the 1450-1500W range. I guess I haven't been training sprint much, but it's down a solid 100W these days.

<grumble>

mattm

25 slooooow miles yesterday, legs were feeling the long weekend.

I even let a hairy-legged-shoulder-bag-wearing guy drop me, that was tough!! Head said chase, legs said "not so fast.."

jsutkeepspining

hour recovery today on the cx bike. 40 tss.

Smallguy

I'm back to riding/training regularly... broke my collar bone and rode a few items a week(gained some weight too) but after getting my butt handed to me Saturday but guys I used to put the hurt on I'm back at it

rode 60km today of flat to rolling terrain.

tomorrow I'll do a more hilly ride but my focus is going to be working my way back up to 130km+ Sunday rides and getting a stronger base before pushing hard again

waterrockets 

Well, that turned out better than I thought. 5" power ended up at 1552W. The best I've tested was 1649W in 2008. Still a ~100W drop, but I was doing a lot more sprints back then.

Overall encouraging. I am starting to get some focus back on 5" and 1' efforts because it's too hot to train threshold.

bostongarden

Is Pcad affecting you?

Fat Boy

I took yesterday off, so even though I was a little short on time I rode hard today. I did 5-3x3's to pull the ftp and work the VO2m a little. I forgot what kind of %ftp to do a 3 minute work time on, so I had to jazz it a little. They looked like this:

1 - 128%
2 - 123%
3 - 122%
4 - 117%
5 - 118%

After finishing the first one, I knew it was too hard. I pulled it back about 10-15W, but I was hurting pretty good on the last two. I got home and looked at the book. It seems the %ftp number for a 3 minute interval is about 117%-120%. Funny how those things kind of sort themselves out.

JohnKScott

Sunday - 80 miles 4:49:47 - TSS 216. That's a lot for me considering a big week for me would be 500 TSS
Monday - rest
Today - Endurance for just under an hour w 4x90sec taper repeats @ CP12-CP6. My legs were complaining a bit about this ride but felt better toward the end.

miwoodar

My initial impression about my wreck on Sunday: That was stupid, good thing the damage to bike/body was cosmetic.

My current impression about my wreck on Sunday: That was stupid, WTF is going on inside my shoulder?

Training goal today: FTP Festival. Hopefully the shoulder agrees.

miwoodar

Those are awesome numbers regardless. Can you tell us if your sprint changes much at elevation?

mollusk

My training status is "poor". I have been overwhelmed with $h!t to do for the last week and today was the first time since last Wednesday that I could get out for a ride.

NWS said that the wind today would be out of the west so I took off toward the east wanting to do some hard tempo with the wind at my back. I'm dying only riding 21 mph. I want to throw my bike in the wood chipper. I suffer through 15 miles of this going out. Damn it hurt. I suck hard.

I ride back home by a route very protected from the winds (a rail trail through the woods) mentally beating myself up the whole way home.

Looking at the NWS site afterwards said winds out of the E and NE during my ride.

Frak.

hammy56

put my diaper on and got the bike ready, opened the garage door to see pouring rain. Rest day...another one.

caloso

31 miles, z1/z2, 65 tss. Not quite a recovery ride, not quite a tempo ride, just stretching my legs to hit it hard on Wednesday and Thursday.

jsutkeepspining

5x1 minutes all out intervals up hill + 1 time up the hill at vo2 max. OUCH!!!!!!! 95 tss in a little under 2 hours with if of .68

the worst part about this ride is the 45 ride home, cuz i live far away from the hill

Creatre

Practice crit today. After taking June off and base since, it hurt bad! I got dropped after about 20 mins, and grabbed back on for the last 20 mins or so after a 10 min spin. The power was there, but the recovery after efforts was not. IF of .998 for the first 20 mins, so looks like FTP is about the same, even though I haven't done a test recently. Just moved, and will try a test next week.

Apus^2

I'm not to the point yet where I can do back-to-back ftp workouts yet. That won't be for another couple months. Strong workout Monday, tried pacing intervals yesterday and threw the towel in halfway through the first 10 minutes, did the same workout today and missed only one 8 minute interval (couldn't quite get the power up for it). Power is good, but I don't have the base to do multiple workouts. Tomorrow should be an easy morning.

jsutkeepspining

Just a little under 3 hours of z1/z2 with a little bit of z3 thrown in. if.68 and tss of 150. I was flying during this ride

time in each zone:
z1: 1:14:04
z2:1:19:03
z3:15:21

graphs

I was thinking of resuming weight training now that the racing season is over. Is there any reason why I should wait until base period in the late fall to start this up again? I will still be doing probably 8-10 hours a week on the bike.

Though I never really considered it a limiter before, I think muscular force is something I need to work on.