shovelhd

Sarah, I had a workout like that a couple of weeks ago. I usually work out at the end of the day, before dinner. This one was as soon as I woke up. Hmmmmm.

revchuck 

AJ - Having grown up in NY and on the east face of the Alleghenies, I understand where you're coming from. I've just lost the habit of dealing with the cold in the 22 years I've been in Louisiana. FWIW, even with the <30 degree wind chill, I broke a sweat going into the wind. Not much of one, mind you, but my chest did get damp.

Esteban58

Overcast, high 60's... 2 sets of 4 x 2 min PIs - first time a workout on the road felt right. This after February was kind of
a washout - lots of days missed being sick or being on deadline at the office. Nice to start of March on the right foot.

Cleave

Hi sarals, you probably hit on the major source of your training morass. However, also remember that even though you have a great training schedule, your body may not want to follow it. I've had more than my fair share of bad training and race days when I thought I should be riding better. It's just part of how your body responds to training and racing.

Also, as I'm sure your coach will tell you, when you hit a peak this year, it won't last forever. In fact it will probably only last a couple of weeks. The point is that training is a continuous set of micro and macro cycles of intensity and performance -- ups and downs that are normal and required if you want to keep moving your performance up or maintain your best performances, year-to-year.

nacler22

Did a team/club ride today that's open to all comers. Don't do this ride often, and didn't expect to see two guys with rainbow stripes on their sleeves. The nasty bits in the middle of the ride got interesting.

Fun day on the road bike.

Esteban58

Here's an idea. When you know that you're getting up at oh-dark-thirty, make a small snack the night before and toss it in the fridge, then, when you get up, zap it and eat it first thing before you start getting ready to work out - I'm assuming you don't roll out of bed and get on the bike in 2 minutes or something...
As usual, feel free to ignore this completely if it makes no sense to you.

Hermes

2:40 endurance ride. It was a nice day in Portola Valley with some hazy sunshine and very little wind. Temps were in the low 70s and all I wore was a jersey and shorts. I even picked up a little sun on my legs and arms.

At the start of the ride, my wife gave me an unsolicited "you look great" comment. One always wonders how she thought I looked last week. Later in the ride, she told me that riding behind me was like riding behind Dmytri's van. I think she was flirting with drafting. I said I will have to work on giving poorer draft.

sarals 

I think we're on to something.

Oh, Cleave, I hope I haven't peaked! I know there's more, I just need to get there. My power numbers are still pretty low compared to most others, and I am sure I can improve them. However, a stumble like today - well, really, it's a stumble. Not a trend - I hope.

sarals 

No, no Chuck, the idea has merit. I usually allow about 15 minutes from getting up to getting on the bike (god forbid anyone sees what I look like then...). I'm going to shift my routine to AFTER work, and we'll see how that goes.

ericm979

Don't worry about one bad training day. it happens. Sometimes right before you break through to another level.

You should look at the Performance Manager in Golden Cheetah or WKO and see if you're tired. Sometimes I need charts to tell me.

revchuck 

Sara - Doing your workout after work when you're on days sounds like a better idea, since you'll have your glycogen stores at a normal level. It also opens up the possibility that you'll be able to ride outside as the days get longer rather than on the trainer.

Re: breakfast before the workout, is the reason you don't eat due to not liking to eat first thing, or time? If the latter, a possibility is slamming a gel followed by some water, and/or using sports drink while on the bike. That might get enough sugar into your system to power you through the workout.

shovelhd

That's exactly what I did. Didn't work.

Racer Ex 

Sent you a PM.

In most cases my advice for folks is to shut it down and go to something easier if you start having multiple failures on a given day. Bad days happen and the PM chart doesn't always show what else is going on in your life that might impact your brain or body.

Racer Ex 

She's not on a "conventional" periodized plan but rather what I call a "stacking" program where there isn't a "peak". There are some similarities but the goal is much more an overall improvement with a smaller amount of overload and without successive cycles.

I think that for a newer rider who hasn't pushed at the genetic capability wall this yields better results faster, and makes the mental portion easier.

AzTallRider

I perform better in early morning workouts, and in morning races as well. Part of it is that I'm accustomed to that timing, and my routines are built around it. Part of it is that I prefer training without eating first, and I can only do that in the morning. In the afternoon, I'm going have food somewhere in my digestive track, and that can create issues for me.

I'm a proponent of eating differently for adaptation than for performance; a topic that has been hotly debated in the 33. I think the phrase "bonk training" is misleading, but there is value in doing workouts, particularly base, in a glycogen depleted state. Based on what I've read, and been told by our team's exercise physiologist (Ben Stone), it forces you to burn fat, builds up your ability to burn fat, and pushes your metabolic equivalency point up the effort scale, enabling you to utilize more fat and less glycogen during a race. Glycogen is limited; fat is essentially inexhaustible.

These sorts of rides work much better in the morning. I have a morning routine, and I need a full hour before I'm ready to ride. I have coffee, walk the dog, use the bathroom, and am ready to roll. I don't eat before a morning training ride, even if it's late morning. If the ride is high intensity, like a team ride, then I start drinking diluted honey as soon as my HR is up a bit on the ride. I don't want to start too soon and cause an insulin reaction - I want to be working before the honey hits. I keep drinking that solution throughout the ride/race. I will have "carbo-loaded" the night before, but not the day of.

This approach minimizes any digestive action going on while racing (honey is easily digested), reduces the chances of getting a "side-stitch" (something I've been prone to get my whole life), and replenishes glycogen as it is being used. It also minimizes the consumption of carbs that might just be converted to fat rather than consumed on the ride, enabling me to more readily maintain my target weight.

revchuck 

Ugh. I had no explanation for my blowout, either.

sarals 

Good stuff!

Chuck, don't eat before those early workouts because I don't have time. That's the only reason. Food in my system doesn't bother me at all. I really have been unable to tell that it helps, either.

AzT, I would prefer to be awake and alert and have all the systems at 100% before I do the workouts. On the days that I'm not having to face leaving the house at 0700 for work that is exactly what I do. I'm a "mid morning" person. As I used to tell people, I hit my peak around 1000 and then rapidly decline after that. That's really not that much of a fable!

I really NEED to get my body back to burning fat. It's not doing that right now, it's storing it. I can see it, umm, in places where I'd rather not. The scale is one of those places.

Ex, I answered your email - thank you!!!

AzTallRider

I haven't focused on it this season, because it runs counter to the need to build strength in the durations that matter in a race. But the way to do it is with lots of long z2 rides fueled by fatty protein and no carbs. I used to just bring peanut butter, but evolved to doing 5 hour z2 on nothing but fat stores. But I've grown to discount the value of becoming a "fat burning machine", at least for the type of racing I do. What Ben Stone and his other coaches do is to put people on the described routine until he likes their metabolic equivalency point, and then they add structure. Seems to work especially well for TT efforts. But for me, if I spend a lot of weeks without any intensity, I lose too much. No doubt it has to do with age.

Anyway, now I just do what Ex says. :-) My FTP may not be much higher than when I was taking the fat burning approach, if it is at all (certainly isn't right now!) , but I'm mush faster around a course and when it counts. I must say, though, that doing it for a few months is what got me to my current weight. After you do the fat burning routine for awhile, it puts your body in a mode where the fat/weight just vanishes. Not unlike what happens when you strictly adhere to an Atkins diet.

sarals 

Got it - I think! Like you, I am JUST doing what EX tells me to do. I'm proof enough to myself that what he has laid out for me works. I b***h about my weight because I can, but I'm pretty sure it will take of itself. I can certainly do things on the bike I couldn't do just a few months ago - as you said "much faster around the course when it counts". Yes, that.

revchuck 

Training for Iditarod, eh?

1:30 at recovery pace this morning. I set a PR of sorts - average HR = 90 bpm, average power = 94 watts. I've never ridden that far at that low of an output. Gorgeous day, though a bit cool.

I emailed my coach and asked her what she thought about my doing a field test this week (taper week for my A race). I'll probably hear from her tomorrow.

Getting psyched for Rouge-Roubaix!

sarals 

I can't tell!!

Hermes

2:36 endurance ride with some 3 minute simulated pursuit efforts. It was another nice day that started off overcast and as the day wore on became sunny but windy. it was a wind vest day with arm warmers.

My next race is March 17th LAVRA TTs. It seemed like a good idea to put in some intensity at the duration of the race events. My average power for the intervals was Anaerobic Threshold z6 and I was happy. I was able to drill it at the end and my arms were going numb. That is the feeling that all the blood leaves the arms. I did these on my road bike which is not ideal but I kept a low position on the bike.

One other aspect of this year over previous years is that I felt good between efforts and felt great after the intervals were over and did another 1:5 hours of endurance.

Allegheny Jet

Yucky day here in NE Ohio. Snow flurries and a high of 25 made riding a challenge. Rode a rolling 2.75 hr ride on the cross bike on salty/wet roads today. Intervals tomorrow

sarals 

So, I did high intensity intervals on the trainer last night. Two sets, one with five one minute efforts, the next with three five minute efforts. I felt fine in the one minute sets, felt good when I started the five minute sets, but ran into trouble again on the second effort. I discussed it with Ex, and I came to find out that the display on my LYC was showing a lower power output than I was actually delivering. By 10 watts or so. That's a lot! As Ex told me "never discount PE when it doesn't jive with the readout". I called Saris this morning and they had me reset the LYC. That should solve that issue.

I was really PO-ed after the session last night and was talking rudely to myself in the shower, even considered quitting this bike race stuff (because I had had two bad workouts in a row). Ex calmed me down, told me "you're a bike racer - welcome".

I guess I'm stronger than I thought!

chasm54

You're the only racer I know who showers with her coach, Sara. Must save a lot of time.