Help me up off the plateau!

gofasterdad

Saturday October 26
90 mins on the Turbo, finished the 6 week Intermediate Base 1 program and was quite happy with myself for six weeks of solid effort.

I had been considering taking an easy week to fully recover from Base 1 before launching myself into Base 2, and seeing as it was a bank holiday weekend, I decided to do it.

Monday - Bank Holiday Monday, family day
Tuesday - run 8.7kn
Wednesday - Gym
Thursday run 8.7km
Friday - got up to go swimming but got a red flag from the HRV (66), so went back to bed for an extra hour.
Saturday HRV 74
Sunday HRV 75
Monday HRV 76 Masters swim session, mostly technique based.

gofasterdad

Monday Lunchtime
8k easy run

Tuesday Morning - Testing day!
So it finally arrived, the 8 minute test which will form the basis of the next 6 weeks of training.

1 hour on the turbo with 2 x 8 minute efforts at max effort. I expected it to be tough and I was right, the first few minutes seemed to fly, but from 5 mins remaining to the end, time seemed to slow down and my legs just screamed at me to stop the madness.

Previous FTP : 264* (September 2013)
New FTP : 274* (November 2013)

So, I have mixed feelings about the result. I'm slightly dissapointed that I didn't blow the thing off the chart and get a new FTP of 300 or something like that but that's just Walter Mitty stuff.

If I look at it more sensibly, it's a 4% improvement over a six week period, it's not an amazing number, but it's probably repeatable, and repeated 4% improvements over time will eventually add up to a respectable number.

Anyway, I am now starting the intermediate Base 2 six week block, the number of hours is the same as Base 1, but the overall workload is about 13% higher and is now based on the new higher FTP.

* I don't have a powermeter so the FTP scores here are based on Trainerroads virtual power. The numbers are not really comparable to anyone else using a powermeter or even to anyone else using Trainerroad virtual power. However, as I am using the same bike and the same tire pressure and the same turbo trainer, the movement in the number over time is a useful indicator of my own progress. In a certain respect I don't really care how accurate the number is versus a powermeter, all that matters is that the measurement is consistent.

gofasterdad

Wednesday Morning
Gym session in the morning.
I got an orange flag from the HRV this morning, so I did't push too hard in the gym and cancelled the lunchtime run. my little girl has had a bad cold all week and has refused to sleep in her own bed, so a combination of limited sleep and trying to avoid catching her cold, i'm a little tired, work is crazy busy too just to add to the mix.

Thursday Morning:
Red Flag from the HRV... No training.

Friday morning.. on the assumption that I was going to get another red flag, I didn't get up for swimming. when I did get up, i found that my HRV was back up towards normal levels again, so I went for a lunchtime run

Saturday Morning
early morning turbo session: an hour and a half enjoying the unique pain of under-overs. I read an interesting article recently about the art of suffering which was going through my mind during the final 20 mins when the pain and discomfort seemed to dissipate a little even though my output remained the same if not a little higher.

http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/transcendent-pain?page=0,0

Monday Morning
Masters Swim session

gofasterdad

Monday Lunchtime
lunchtime run: 8.7km

Tuesday Morning:
60 mins Turbo session on the bike, todays session was all about climbing, so I raised the front wheel a bit and kept the cadence down around 65 - 70 while keeping the power output at 90- 95% FTP. 4 sets of 2x4min Force Intervals between 90-95%FT



Wednesday Morning
morning weights session

Lunchtime Run 8.7km in the pouring rain - I love running in the rain, the heavier the better.

gofasterdad

Sometimes life gets in the way of your best laid plans

An unexpected sunday morning phone call meant I had to pack my suitcase for a work trip of "indefinite duration" leaving wife and kids to fend for themselves. The days were long and intense (14hrs +, including weekends). Luckily the hotel had a decent enough gym so I got up each day at 6.30 and went to the gym for an hour. Lack of access to food outside of work hours also meant I came home 2kg lighter.

By the time I got home however, I was so completely worn out that I caught a bad cold from my little girl and needed a week off training to recover.

Anyway, things are back to normal now

Monday Morning
Masters Swim session : included a few sprints in this session, did the last sprint with three of us squashed into the lane to replicate race conditions which was good fun.

Monday Lunchtime:
a good news announcement at work meant I had most of a glass of champagne inside me when I headed out the door for my lunchtime run.
first 20 mins: I felt amazing, I should drink champagne before every run!
second 20 mins: ugh, not so good, no more pre-run champagne.

gofasterdad

Tuesday Morning:

60 mins on the Turbo, V02 max session

main set
3 mins @ 110% FTP
3 mins @ 115% FTP
3 mins @ 120% FTP

8 min recovery

3 mins @ 120% FTP
3 mins @ 115% FTP
3 mins @ 110% FTP

all with 3 mins recovery in between.

This was a tough session.

gofasterdad

Wednesday Morning
weights session

Wednesday Lunchtime
11.7k lunchtime run, it was wild and windy out, I love running in those conditions. If I had only waited another hour I could have had torrential rain aswell - next time maybe

gofasterdad

Thursday Morning

60 mins on the Turbo, including 3*12 mins at 95% FTP.

During the final 12 minute slot, I was definitley beginning to accumulate Lactate so maybe the FTP I have on the system is a little high for me, it probably dropped a little when I was away. I pushed on through the discomfort anyway and completed the session.

gofasterdad

Friday Morning
Masters Swim session. A short swim session followed by the annual waterpolo/wrestlemania match.

Fazz

gofasterdad wrote: »

Thursday Morning

60 mins on the Turbo, including 3*12 mins at 95% FTP.

During the final 12 minute slot, I was definitley beginning to accumulate Lactate so maybe the FTP I have on the system is a little high for me, it probably dropped a little when I was away. I pushed on through the discomfort anyway and completed the session.

Tough set well done.

Id say the ftp is prob correct as it should be that hard.

Maybe try switch to a 4 x 10min with 5mins recovery between each to see how that goes.

gofasterdad

Took it relatively easy over the christmas break. It was great to spend some proper time with the family.

Swimming: several trips to the pool over the break, but they all involved armbands and dora the explorer (mermaid version) so no real swimming to speak of.

Run: no running whatsoever

Bike, not bad.. a good few turbo sessions. I also did a local 15k tt and came in 6th at 24:50. I was fairly happy with that, especially considering that i am still riding my original aluminum road bike from when I first started Tri.

I think this year might be the year that I finally invest in a tri-bike. I will have to wait and see how the budget for the house renovation survives until I make any firm decision though, but at this stage I feel I have put in the work to deserve one.

gofasterdad

Thursday Morning

60 mins on the Turbo, including 4 * 10 mins at 95% FTP with 3 mins recovery. I think these types of sessions are very tough mentally, they are physically quite uncomfortable but at no point is the pain so great that you cannot continue. Your body is well capable of continuing, it's just your mind playing games with you. In a race situation, you have that extra stimulus to keep you going, but when you are alone in the garage at 6.30 on a winter morning there is nothing to keep you going except dreams of next years Hell of the West and visions of overtaking competitors on the final climb before the descent into Kilkee. I am beginning to view these training sessions as 50% physical / 50% mental.

gofasterdad

Thursday Lunchtime
8.7k run

Saturday Morning
90 mins on the turbo including 3*20mins @ 90-95% FTP


Monday Morning
Masters Swim session 3,000m including a lot of stroke correction work.

gofasterdad

Monday Lunchtime
Lunchtime Run, 11.7k in 54 mins. I ran the usual route down by the estuary which was nice and windy today.

gofasterdad

Tuesday Morning

60 mins on the Turbo, I got a bit of a shock when I saw the graph for this mornings session (attached). It was painful as expected.

joey100

That Keepers needle? (think thats what it's called), remember doing that one, one of the few that sticks in my head because it was tough, and I was very hungover doing it.

gofasterdad

That's the one joey100, "Keeler Needle" it's called. Looking at the graph, I can see that I just missed the top of the peak on some of the intervals and you can almost feel the relief at the end of each interval as the effort level just plummets. I was pretty happy with this one as a lot of the recent sessions have been about holding power for longer intervals at 90-95% FTP, so it was good to mix it up a bit.

gofasterdad

Wednesday Morning
Weights session

Wednesday Lunchtime
8.7k run in 37.30

I got a garmin footpod for christmas so I have been experimenting with my run cadence. for the first couple of runs I just measured the cadence but just ran as normal and did not look at it during the run. I noticed that my cadence started off at 180 strides per minute but dropped to 160 as I got tired.

for the last couple of runs I have focussed on keeping the cadence up at 180 and today I managed it for the entire 8.7k which I was pleased with. One thing I did notice was that I had a lot more power in the legs when it came to a short sharp hill towards the end of the run than I normally do. perhaps increasing running cadence has a similar effect to increasing cycling cadence?

gofasterdad

Thursday Morning
60 mins on the Turbo including 4 * 9mins at 90-95% FTP.

I really struggled with this one, I hit all the required numbers (with a couple of pauses) but it took one hell of an effort to do it.

The kids were awake a lot during the night, I finally got back to sleep at 5.58 so when the alarm went off at 06.20 I was so tempted to ignore it and stay in bed for an extra hour.

gofasterdad

Friday Morning
Masters swim session.

Including 12 * 100 at max + 5 seconds

My max worked out to be 1:25 so the plan was to come in at 1:30 followed by 30 seconds rest and repeat. This was fine for the first four and then my time drifted out to 1:35 and beyond. I dropped back into second place and hung on to the feet of the guy ahead of me for as long as I could. I can't even blame the kids for this one, they slept great. and I slept for a full 7.5 hours (unbroken) last night for the first time in a long long time

gofasterdad

Saturday Morning

90 mins on the Turbo (cut short by 15 mins due to time pressure & no more power in the legs)

Included

3 * 3mins @ 110% FTP
3 * 3 mins @ 115% FTP
3 * 3 mins @ 120% FTP
3 * 3 mins @ 125% FTP


This one defeated me, I had Jack Reacher on in the background but when the going got tough I didn't even see or hear it. I got through the first 9 efforts by the skin of my teeth, but when I arrived at the first set of 125% FTP my legs were knackered and I could just about hold 110% for 30 seconds before My legs would go no further. I was already running late so I had to leave it there.

Monday Morning
Masters Swim session, mainly technique focussed.

gofasterdad

Monday Lunchtime

11.7k in 49:52 a new PB by a long way . I was pleasantly surprised by this result as I wasn't pushing it too hard but I did feel good. I have been experimenting with run cadence and I seem to have found on that suits me.

gofasterdad

Tuesday

Rest: I finished the intermediate Base II program on trainerroad on Saturday morning. I was undecided whether to move on to Intermediate Build 1 this week or leave it next week and go into it fresh.

As the new program starts with a 8 min FTP test I want to be fresh, so I decided to take a week of trainerroad and start the new program next tuesday. I think I might do some sufferfest on Thursday just for old times sake.

Wednesday Lunchtime Run
11.7k run in 51:15 - not as fast as mondays run but still a respectable time.

gofasterdad

Thursday rest day- I had planned on getting up early to do a sufferfest, but on wednesday night, my wife took one look at me and told me I would be mad to do it. I must have looked very tired as I rarely get this kind of dispensation, mostly I get pushed out of bed and told "go, and don't wake the kids".

Friday Morning
masters swim session, 2,700m
I left my running gear in the house this morning, so no lunchtime run for me.

gofasterdad

Monday Morning
Run (long Loop), When I first started running around five years ago, I started doing this route and it used to take me me around 38-39 mins, after a couple of years I eventually worked this down to 32 mins. I set myself a goal that I would get this below 30 mins, however by the time I moved out of the area, a few years ago, the closest I ever got was 30.25.

Yesterday morning, I ran the same long loop, nothing crazy just tipping away. I didn't even look at the watch or think about my previous times until I stopped the watch at the end and it read 28.25 I was pretty happy with that, mostly because I wasn't even trying to beat my record, it was just an easy run. It's encouraging to see progress.

Tuesday Morning
Another FTP test :eek: As I am starting intermediate Build 1, the first session is an 8 min FTP test (2 * 8 min sessions, taking the average of the two)

September 2013 : 265
November 2013 : 274
January 2014 : Workout did not save correctly, no FTP calculated.

I couldn't believe it, I went through serious pain during both 8 min tests, and only the thought of a decent test result at the end kept me pushing. Once the test ended, the usual box came up but where the numbers should be was just blank, the graph was there but the numbers were missing. Of all the sessions for this to happen. :mad: I was hoping it might be rescued somehow when the workout saved to my profile, but when I checked a while later, there was no record whatsoever of my my effort.

joey100

I've had something similar happen to me on trainer road, session saved properly but did not show up in the history section. Like you it was a hard session, not as hard as an FTP test though. After about 4 days it did show up though so fingers crossed it turns up.

gofasterdad

Wednesday Morning
weights session in the gym

Wednesday Lunchtime
Lunchtime Run : 11.7km in 50:10

I'm going to try keep the long lunchtime run down below 50 mins each time and hopefully I can start to push it down further.

gofasterdad

Thursday Morning

60 mins on the Turbo including 4 * 8 mins @ FTP with 4 mins recovery (trainerroad workout : "Gayley")

gofasterdad

Friday Morning
Masters Swim session including 25 * 50 HAP

Friday Lunchtime
8.7k run in 38.50 wet and wild and very muddy conditions,

gofasterdad

Saturday Morning
90 mins on the Turbo: including 7 intervals @ 100%% FTP, 5 Mins, 6 mins, 7 mins, 8 mins, 8 mins, 7 mins, 6 mins

I found this one tough but manageable, a couple of quick pauses during the last two repeats but otherwise it was ok.


Monday Lunchtime
11.7k run in 52:04 it was seriously wet and wild out today.. it was difficult to keep a decent cadence with such strong winds down by the estuary, I really enjoyed this one but I could have done without the hailstones being driven into my face by gale force winds

In retrospect I should probably have broken out the leggings for this one and at one point I could have done with a snorkel!.