aaronmcd

Thanks for the tips. Though there is no way I could fit a long ride in during the week. Also, what are openers?

Ygduf

never been to santa barbara then, huh?

furiousferret

Dearest Sir, we formally request that you do not partake in any of our exclusive KOM segments. By the way, would you have any Grey Poupon?

Better?

Ygduf

that's closer, but I still don't get what you're going for.

Harun

super easy 80min z1, partially because I want to recover for a bigger ride tomorrow, but mostly because I wanted to go see The Hobbit.

waterrockets 

After a bit of warm up, you jump at various higher intensities for various durations. For me, I do an opener out of my driveway at 200% FTP for about 45 seconds, then I warm up a bit. Then I jump fairly hard off a light (like 80% max power), and jam over the top of the next hill.

So, just some efforts to loosen you up for intensity, maybe giving you some more comfort regarding where your legs are for upcoming intervals or race.

Wesley36

After a superlative week last week, where I felt significantly stronger every time I got on the bike, this morning I had to pay the piper.

Because yesterday was a rest day, the plan was force reps for today (low cadence- high torque intervals, at CP12). There is a nice long warmup (55 min Z2-3), and while my power and HR were doing what I wanted them to, my PE was sky high and my legs felt really weak. Way too fatigued for force reps this morning, so I ended up spinning at a recovery pace and abandoning partway through my warmup.

Now the question is how to go on from here. The most obvious course of action would be to simply re-schedule the force reps, and bump the endurance ride (2 hours @ Z2) on the schedule for tomorrow. Assuming another day of recovery is all I need, this should do the job.

However, while I think I have a good approximate sense of where my FTP is at right now, given the strength gains that I have made in the last 10 days, I am really guessing. It might be kooky-talk, but part of me is thinking that I might be better off just taking this week as a recovery week, and testing my FTP at the end of the week - basically cutting one week out of this training cycle (2 on - 1 off, rather than 3 on - 1 off).

revchuck 

If it were me, I'd do the endurance ride tomorrow, keeping power at the lower end of the range, basically making it a long recovery ride. This is assuming you're off work like most of us, and the weather's decent. I've got a scheduled two hour endurance pace ride with alternating muscle tension and Z4 intervals for tomorrow, and I'm thinking it may magically stretch to three hours.

Wesley36

lol, the high tomorrow, without including windchill, will be -4 F. -22 F with windchill. But in all truth, I am a lot more motivated to do force reps than Z2... if the fatigue does not shut me down.

Number400

Yesterday was my last heavy workout and (I hope to get a ride in tomorrow too) before going in for foot surgery to do some repairs from my June bicycle accident. Not looking forward to a layoff but have promised to be the best patient I can this time. Should be back up in a few weeks and then my 2014 season can officially begin.

Happy New Year!

hack

~35 mile tempo ride with some SFRs thrown in at the end.

ovoleg

Trying to decide how long I want to make tomorrow's climbing hammerfest, whether or not to start from my house or to start from the official ride start. I'm also probably just gonna try to do a pseudo FTP test instead of just plain hammering behind someone.

Mt. Wilson 1st of the year ride.

thechemist

So my HR strap fell(again) to my stomach but when I got home it was still picking up data for the entire ride…think it is accurate?

thechemist

Good luck! Wishing you the best

ovoleg

lol

thechemist

I guess that's what I get lol

mattm

Good luck.

aaronmcd

In the training bible, he says rest weeks are lower volume and still have some intensity.
This guy I was talking to after my last ride before recovery week said the whole week should be at ~5 TSS per hour, and I should feel crappy for my first ride thereafter.

Which is it, in you guys' opinions? Can I throw in a hard ride mid-week, and then hard but short on the weekend? Or should I ride like a snail until Sunday?

Yesterday: 2 hours, 18.5 TSS
Today: might ride a bit for ~10 TSS

hack

What's this TSS all about? Is it derived from the power meter? Can it be quantified using HR data?

revchuck 

Check it out here.

revchuck 

Well, there goes that idea!

aaronmcd

Ask someone else how it's calculated. I thought it was IF x hours x 100, but its actually closer to (avg power/ftp) x hours x 100. And for the recovery rides it somehow takes into account that I'm not really working even at 30% ftp. Now I'm gonna go look it up again.

hack

Thanks!

Got it. So, hrTSS likely not going to be good for cycling given the variabilty in nature of cycling (unless you're doing some steady state training) and it's still in beta

Looks like a powermeter may be in the future then. Just need to convince myself it'll be a beneficial tool to improve workouts and not just something I'll reference post workout. Once I've done that, I'll need to decide on a crank vs hub based model. But, I suppose that line of thought falls into one of the many other power threads.

revchuck 

It's definitely beneficial. When doing intervals, you do them within a specific percentage range of your functional threshold power (FTP) based on what you're trying to accomplish. It's far more accurate than HR, especially for shorter, harder intervals where HR doesn't have time to react. Also, lots of things can influence your HR that wouldn't influence your power - watts are watts, doesn't matter if you're sick, dehydrated or stressed.

rideaz

One last ride of 2013 today. Rode around in the city before Yoga class:
https://www.strava.com/activities/103061088

Been an awesome year on the bike. I started out this year as a Triathlete but came to my senses in May when I got my first road bike I learned so much this year, made some new friends, done a few races and have a lot of fun on the bike planned for 2014!
Happy new year everyone!