I have no idea what I'm du-ing

pointer28

Sunday 4/1/15

Run - Ferrycarrig 5 mile - 33:26 - 4:09 mins/km AHR 175

The plan was to strictly run this as a tempo run about 4:20 mins/km and straight into a full week with 72k and 3 sessions on the plan. The first km was far too fast then I backed it off for the next few trying to bring the average pace down, then I said, "sure 4:15 kms won't don't me any harm", sensible chimp said "yes they will, slow down", eventually got to about 6.5k saw the finish banner and floored it running the last km in 3:47.

Another 4.5k between WU and CD.

So, neither one thing or another. Too fast for a tempo run but not a full-on race effort either. That in itself doesn't bother me but getting the recovery right does. If it was a full race effort I'd just take 5 easy days and maybe get in the 3rd session at the end of the week. I think what I will do is just skip the V02 Max Intervals this week and get in my M Pace run on Thursday and my Tempo session on Saturday, this is the first M pace session of the plan so I don't want to miss it and I always feel like Tempo sessions leave me feeling strong and super confident afterwards. I have already ran Monday to Wednesday all easy and the legs feel OK. Next week is a recovery week anyway so hopefully won't do any harm.


Monday 5/1/15

Run - 8.2k @ 5:30 mins/km AHR 148

Two laps of the village in the rain and the dark but had to be done. Not too bad once moving and surprisingly warm.


Tuesday 6/1/15

Run - 12.5k @ 5:25 mins/km

Had a job to do in Bagenalstown and a spare hour before dinnertime so a lovely run along the Barrow river in the glorious winter sunshine, so glorious, in fact, that I needed sunglasses as the glare off the river was so intense. I love running in different places and it just makes everything feel easier. Didn't have my HR strap on but don't care as the effort was easy which is more important.


Wednesday 7/1/15

Run - 7.5k @ 5:22 mins/km AHR 152

My usual easy run route around town in the wind and rain, but that's winter for you! Starting to see a gradual improvement in my easy paces lately and effort feels right so signs are good.

While I always run any quality sessions by pace, I never worry about pace for easy/recovery runs and just run them by feel and it seems to work well for me. The only time I'll worry about pace for easy/recovery would be to put an upper limit on it after a hard race, but not usually necessary as I tend to self govern these quite well.


Bike - Trainer Road 79 mins - TSS 82 IF .79

Today I'm starting the 2013 8 Days of California on Trainer Road just to do a solid 8 day block of bike work, get in some time in the saddle while keeping the intensity at 85% of the session so that it doesn't have too much effect on my running. Maybe I'm doing exactly the wrong thing and 3 sessions of Sweet Spot work a week would be much more beneficial but I'm sure my sponsors will love me no matter what I do. ;-)

The simple truth is I just like doing different sets all the time and repetition bores me even if it is the most sensible thing to do. Maybe if I did the full 8 days at 100% intensity it might set me back but I think the 85% should be safe enough. Maybe I'll do the 8 days again in a few weeks or the Tour of Sufferlandria and maybe I'll go 90% for that.

pointer28

Right, so life conspired against me again for the last few weeks, illness, work etc all got in the way and made a balls of getting any decent training done.

I did manage a few runs last week, which included a 16k LSR and a 14k mountain run (glorious, I need more of this) but the bike hasn't been ridden in a fortnight.

However, things seem to be settling down now with both work and health so I started this morning with a brand new plan and some new found but badly needed enthusiasm for the job.

Even though I haven't actually managed to enter a decent long distance Duathlon, I'm going to continue training as if I have, and if I get a chance to enter at shortish notice it won't be such a big deal to get ready.

Monday 26/1/15

Bike - Trainer Road - 8 Minute Test TSS 86 IF .93

God, I hate these tests but I figured if I was starting a new plan I should start off with some new figures to work from. Suprisingly enough, given that I haven't ridden by bike in a fortnight, I managed to increase my virtual FTP by 10 watts from really dreadful to slightly less dreadful. I've done a few of these now and honestly think this was the best effort I've ever made, I really gave my best for both intervals and had very little left in the tank to pick it up for the last 30 seconds as I have done in the past. Felt weak and dizzy at the end, nearly needed a bucket but managed to hold onto my dinner.

On the down side, turbo sessions are getting harder from now on.


Run - 6k + 6 strides

Not a brick session, just an easy 6k trot with some residual fatigue in the legs from the turbo. In future, Friday's will be a proper brick session, Monday's just a double day.

pointer28

Tuesday 27/1/15

Run - 18.2k with 2 x 20 mins @ Threshold Pace

After another early morning and a long days driving with far, far too much strong black coffee, this was nothing short of horrendous. I knew starting off that I wasn't in form for this and didn't feel up to it, by I'm nothing if not stubborn and did it anyway. While it's a great session, 2 x 20 @ Threshold is something that needs to be worked up to and not just thrown in on a whim. Luckily I didn't keel over or injure myself so hopefully all will be good.


Friday 30/1/15

Run - 15k with last 4k @ M Pace

Didn't get the chance to do anything the last few days so was determined to get out this afternoon when I got home. While it looked lovely out, the windchill was bitter. This was meant to be 15k easy but having done nothing the past two days I figured a small bit of steady running wouldn't do any harm, and it helped warm me up.

pointer28

Saturday 31/1/15

Bike - Trainer Road - 90 mins TSS 105 IF .84

Comfortably hard session, lots of intervals, ranging from 5 mins @ 90% to 1 min @ 105%, repeated until the end. None of the intervals terribly hard on their own but just required concentration for the last few with accumulated fatigue.


Sunday 1/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Carson - 60 mins TSS 68 IF .83


6 Sweet Spot intervals (88-94% FTP) ranging from 5-7 minutes in duration with 2 mins RBI.

Primarily, Carson aims to further aerobic efficiency via Sweet Spot efforts by improving glycogen storage capacity, fat utilization, and the capacity for more intense workouts later on while increasing power output at moderate intensities.


Monday 2/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Huffaker - 60 mins TSS 76 IF .87

Really struggled through this one, hit the numbers for the first 3 intervals but couldn't quite hit them for the final three. Regardless I just kept going and did the best I could, was screaming for mercy at the end, a true maximum effort session which is the whole point rather than just looking at the numbers. The fact that I'm using "virtual power" very well means that I might have actually been working much harder than intended all along or the fact that this was the third day in a row on the turbo might have been a factor.

Huffaker is 6x3-minute VO2max intervals done in 2 sets of 3 intervals where intervals quickly ramp up to the highest sustainable yet repeatable intensity you can handle.

Rest between the intervals is 3 minutes and rest between the sets of intervals is 8 minutes.

Huffaker's goals are to increase your power during short, intense efforts & to expand your aerobic capacity, i.e. the ability to utilize more oxygen at maximal oxygen uptake and spares less plentiful sugar stores, in place of or in addition to low-intensity aerobic endurance work.

Run - 6.4k @ 5:28 mins/km

Just an easy trot around the village in the dark, nothing exciting to report. Forgot my HR strap but effort felt easy.


Wednesday 4/2/15

Run - 20k @ 5:37 mins/km AHR 146

This was meant to be done yesterday but spent all day driving again which always leaves me in a bad mood and I never feel like doing anything afterwards, so that's exactly what I did. Will need to do something about this as Tuesdays always involve lots of driving so I'll either need to MTFU or change my plan to something different on a Tuesday.

Did it today instead and felt good, legs a bit tired as I haven't done anything 20 km+ in months but other that that no problems. Glorious day for it, cool but dry and relatively windless.

pointer28

Thursday 5/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Citadel - 60 mins TSS 67 IF .82

3x8-minute intervals in the Threshold power level at 95-99% FTP with 5-minute recoveries between intervals, bookended by stretches of Endurance work that will end up giving you 60 minutes of ride time.

The goal here is quite simply to elevate FTP.

By spending time very close to lactate threshold while remaining just below it, riders can improve their sustainable power & muscle endurance by teaching their muscles to process high levels of lactate & acidic buildup without slowing down.

Additionally, and equally as important, riders learn to tolerate the mental discomfort inherent in maintaining high levels of Functional Threshold Power (FTP).

Now, these I can do! While they may be tough and a sweatfest, I can still dig in and get them done, unlike the V02 Max stuff which really doesn't seem to agree with me, either biking or running. Even with the running, I can do longer LT sessions such as 2 x 20 minutes or 5/6k straight and I'll happily do 16k at Marathon pace, but ask me to do 10 x 45 seconds at V02 Max and it's just pure torture.

Still, maybe that's exactly why I need to keep doing them, so continue I will, for now at least.

joey100

Good to see you back doing some bike stuff pointer, bit too much running focus going on the last while here! Any duathlons planned or races lined up?

pointer28

Nothing major planned to be honest.

Moving house on 1st April so that kind of throws a spanner in the works both from a time and financial standpoint. I might try and do Rosslare on the 29th March just to do something rather than do all this training for nothing. I think there's a standard distance Du in Cavan or Monaghan sometime which I might get along to, seems to be the only one longer than Sprint on the calendar.

Ideally I'd do the Pig Duathlon in Wales in early June but having trouble fitting it in at the moment, time will tell.

If all the stars aligned Zofingen would be and still is the long term goal.

pointer28

Friday 6/2/15

Laps of Ikea with SWMBO and the MIL

Avg Pace: SFA, AHR: 110%, mTSS 10,000

Harder than any mickey mouse Ironman I can tell you!


Saturday 7/2/15

Run - 15.2k with 2 x 3.2k @ T Pace, 2 mins RBI

Avg T Pace: 4:22 mins/km AHR 170

Nearly 4k of a warm up, 4 x 15 secs strides to get the blood flowing and then stuck in to the main set. T intervals felt just right and the pace was also an improvement on last week so have to be happy with that.

pointer28

Sunday 8/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Even Flow - 90 mins TSS 115 IF .88

Intervals decreasing in duration 10,8,6,4,2,1 mins while increasing in intensity 90,95,100,105,110,115% then repeating the 8,6,4,2,1 to make up 90 mins.


Monday 9/2/15

AM Run - 6k + 6 strides

Nice easy trot on the canal, colder out than it looked but the few strides woke me up and got the blood flowing, felt better at the end than at the beginning.


PM Bike - Trainer Road - Mills - 80 mins TSS 76 IF .87

3 sets of 3x2-minute VO2max repeats each starting @ 120% FTP and finishing @ 110% FTP. 3-minute recoveries fall between intervals & 6-minute recoveries fall between sets of repeats.

Horrible feckin' VO2 Max stuff which I don't think I'll ever get the hang of. Struggled to get them done and had to reduce the intensity by 5% for the last 5.

I have a feeling that the resistance may have been too low for my last FTP test giving me an inflated figure and while I can bully my way through threshold and sweet spot stuff, the VO2 Max really seems to find me out. Still, if virtual power is all I have I'll just have to accept the inherent imperfections.

pointer28

Tuesday 10/2/15

Run - 20.3k with 2 x 20 mins @ M Pace

Avg M Pace 4:40 mins/km, no worthwhile HR data yet again


Wednesday 11/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Cedric Wright - 60 mins TSS 69 IF .83

Very similar session to this day last week but with slightly shorter recovery periods and slightly longer tempo "bookends". Felt really good for this one and happy with that. Training as a whole is feeling good at the moment and starting to really enjoy it again.

pointer28

Thursday 12/2/15

Bike - 62.5k

Hummed and hawed over whether to just do a long 2.5 hour turbo or to make the effort to swap the back wheel, look for my overshoes and head out in the fresh air. In the end, the thoughts of two + hours of arse ache won over and I decided to head for the great outdoors and glad I did to. Nothing exciting but nice to be out rather than staring at a monitor. There will be enough bad days when I'm forced to use the turbo so I took the chance to get out when I could. I ate a little bit more than I usually would for such a short spin but managed to maintain an even effort all the way to the end whereas usually I would have always faded from about the halfway point. Hopefully it's as easy when the long spins start getting over the 4 hour mark.


Run - 6.2k + 6 strides

Just a quick one on tired legs with a few strides thrown in.

Another good day banked, no intensity but there doesn't need to be everyday. Another turbo session and a tempo run on Friday and Saturday followed by MTB'ing on Sunday so should be a good week in total.

pointer28

Friday 13/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road - Zeppelin - 90 mins TSS 110 IF .86

20 mins warm up with ramps and a couple of 1 min blow outs, followed by 5 x 6 mins @ 92% (upper sweet spot) interspersed with 4 sessions of 5 min 25 sec billats at 130% / 80%.

Hard work but felt reasonably good, found a pair of bib shorts that I haven't worn in ages and about 10 mins in I remembered why I hadn't worn them in ages, chocolate fireguard, tits on a bull etc.

pointer28

Saturday 14/2/15

Run - 15.5k with 2 x 3.2k @ T Pace

Really happy with this run, fitness coming along just nicely. Pace a little better than last week and HR a little bit lower as well so all good in the hood. The bike / run mix seems to suit me better than just pure running.

Due to missing sessions the last two weeks, this week has been quite a step up in terms of hours trained with another few hours of biking to add tomorrow. So the body is tired, but in a good sleepy kind of tired way rather than sore tired.

Step back week next week, which couldn't have been timed better.

pointer28

Sunday 15/2/15

Bike - A good hard ride with Dory and Oryx - MTB 22.2 kms

As I hit all my training targets for the week, today was on top of that so was a social outing rather than a training effort. Nice to meet new people and put faces to names. While I do love the odd MTB spin I don't think I'd ever race it seriously, the uphills I can manage, just do lots of training, but I just don't think I'm brave enough to really hammer it on the downhills and boardwalk sections. There's no point bursting yourself just to see everyone pass you on the "easy" parts.

A nice day out all the same with some gentle exercise thrown in for good measure. Legs felt great afterwards and all I could think was "I'd love to run those trails", I even had my trail shoes with me but seeing as there was a race on I wouldn't have been too popular running on cycling trails, and likely to get killed in a stampede.


Monday 16/2/15

Run - 14.8k ?? Trail Run @ Carrickbyrne Hill

On the way home from Ballyhoura and with trail running still in the forefront of my mind, I passed a Coillte property which I noted and did some research on when I got to my laptop. As close as it is to my homeplace and the fact that I passed it literally thousands of times on the way to and from school I'd never set foot in the place so decided to give it a shot.

Set off Monday morning with a printed map in my back pocket and did about 3.5 laps with some really tough bits in the middle, seriously steep, deep mud, roots, rocks and lots of sharp pokey things. I find pace to be irrelevant for trail running as there were some sections which were un-runnable and other sections where the GPS signal was very dodgy (tipping along downhill at 8:00 mins/km, give me a break), but it was a good effort and a natural interval/fartlek session working different muscle groups to the norm. Great for the soul too, some fantastic views of the surrounding countryside from the top .


Wednesday 18/2/15

Bike - 52 kms

A nice spin, bit cold starting off and took a long time to warm up but once I got going I really enjoyed it and even put in a good 15/20 minutes of effort at the end just to get the heart ticking over and get used to something other than pottering along like a pensioner all the time on the bike.

Run - 6.1k + 6 strides

My usual short one out the canal with some strides on the way back. The strides are working great and do me the world of good so I'll continue to add them as often as possible, they seem to really loosen out the legs and get the muscles firing, I'm also adding them in before every interval session as a quality warm-up after a couple of kms easy and they make every effort seem easier.

pointer28

Thursday 19/2/15

Tried a turbo session but the body just said "I ain't in the form for this today" and I couldn't warm up and get going at all so binned it altogether as it's a recovery week, any more week I would say HTFU but not when recovery is the priority.


Friday 20/2/15

Bike - 52 kms

Exact same spin as Wednesday only for it was cold and wet and the headwind seemed to follow me the whole way home. Not too bothered, just kept it easy.

pointer28

Monday 23/2/15

Run - 20k with 4,3 kms @ M Pace then 2,1 kms @ HM Pace, 1km Easy between intervals

M Target Pace - 4:40, HM Target Pace - 4:30 mins/km

4k @ 4:37 mins/km AHR 166
3k @ 4:38 mins/km AHR 166
2k @ 4:50 mins/km AHR 165
1k @ 4:48 mins/km AHR 160

Horribly windy and even though the first two longer intervals went OK, I just couldn't for the life of me hold the HM pace for the two shorter intervals, couldn't even hold M pace to be honest so just did it by effort instead. The first two were on lovely sheltered road whereas the next two were on exposed canal paths with a headwind so at least I know what the problem was, I'll have to put more thought into my route in future if I want to make the best of these sessions.

pointer28

Tuesday 24/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road Mills - 60 mins - TSS 82 IF .91

First job first, my turbo roller was badly worn again meaning that I had to tighten it more than normal to stop it slipping otherwise I got what I can only describe as a very stop/start feeling when I rode it. Consequently this skewed my virtual power numbers and I think I was working at a far higher level than the plan intended. Because of this, I just hadn't the power to pull off the V02 Max sessions and even though I managed to gut my way through the threshold and sweet spot sessions the effort was far tougher and left me overly fatigued. The same thing happened last year so it was a case of getting out the tool box and shifting the roller half an inch either direction so that the wheel is now sitting on a lovely even and consistent surface. The difference in amazing, I never realised how bad it had become until I cured the problem.

Anyway, today's session was meant to be a 20 minute test, but seeing as I haven't been training properly because of trainer issues the past few weeks I decided to bin that and re-try the V02 Max session that I failed on this time two weeks ago. It consisted of 3 sets of 3 x 2 mins at V02 Max with 3 mins between intervals, 6 mins between sets. Two weeks ago I had to reduce the second set by 5% and the third set by another 5% just to complete it, not a good day! Today however, I managed to complete all intervals as directed, still a very tough sessions and I even managed to dig a little deeper for the last one and set a new 2 min Max power (barely).

MojoMaker

I know that session and it's a nasty one, you really need to be in top mental form to tackle it nevermind the legs.

What turbo are you on? This roller issue sounds ominous, how long had you been using it before you noticed an issue?

pointer28

It's only a bog standard Minoura B60, so virtual power is always only a rough estimate at best but it's all I have at the moment so I just have to get on with it.

The turbo issue started last year when I was using an old road tyre and I think embedded gravel damaged the roller and started the erosion. It must be something that's expected as it's designed in such a way that it can be moved and even flipped around to allow for this.

Someday I'll get something better but lot's of other bills on the horizon at the moment so it's way down the list of priorities.

pointer28

Wednesday 25/2/15

Run - 15.2k with 5 x 1.6k @ T Pace

Avg T Pace: 4:16 mins/km AHR 165

Monday's M Pace run was bad I think for two reasons. Firstly, the wind was atrocious and secondly I think I overdid the previous week's recovery and started the week feeling flat. Reading Matt Dixon's book and he's of the opinion that the usual 3 week build, 1 week recovery doesn't work as we overdo the build leading to too much fatigue and overdo the recovery meaning the body enters a repair phase and doesn't want to work properly when we start training hard again.

This tempo run averaged 30 secs per km faster than Monday but with the same AHR, so I was going a good bit faster for the same effort, so with that in mind I have rearranged my future training more with the Dixon approach of 2/3 very hard, 1 day recovery for a 2 week period, so more frequent easy days but only one day off a fortnight.


I know I often feel flat after a recovery week rather than recovered, and sometimes an easy run or short bike takes nothing out of me and leaves me feeling refreshed. I suppose if I had a coach that's exactly what they would be advising me on, but I don't so I'll just have to try this for now.

pointer28

Thursday 26/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road Seneca Rocks - 75 mins - TSS 79 IF .80

3x15-minute intervals @ 85% FTP with 5-minute recoveries between intervals.

I'm a one trick pony when it comes to cadence so working on cadence drills throughout. First interval was a little lower cadence than comfortable c.65. Second interval was changing every 1 minute, high/med/low/med/high until the finish and the third interval was 3 min intervals at high/med/low. While the cadence difference wasn't great being in the range of 65/75/85 I didn't want to tax myself too much as there was 45 minutes of work to get through and being honest it was a way to break the monotony as mush as drills. For shorter intervals I'm happy to push the cadence a bit more and go over 100 for shorter intervals.

Quads and calves were a bit tired starting off after yesterday's run but loosened up nicely by the end.

joey100

I've recently started to look at changing my cadence too, started back in October. Would have been spinning probably high 80's, low 90's. Started doing big gear drills and can do them now around low 60's. Take your time with these though, don't want to rush through it. At the start I found it very tough on the legs, could really feel it and felt like I didn't have the same stamina. Stuck with it though and have noticed heart rate coming down for the same power and it's a lot more comfortable now. Long spin at the weekend average cadence was 72. I still have the habit of trying to spin up hills but I'm working on it. I'd definitely recommend giving it a go and seeing how you get on.

pointer28

Hi Joey,

Maybe you've already seen this but if you haven't it's worth a look at.

http://trisutto.com/come-in-spinner-the-bike-cadence-debate/

There's not much scientific thought behind my cadence drills to be perfectly honest apart from trying to break the monotony of longer intervals. I'm aware that my natural cadence always tends to settle around 75 rpm and that feels comfortable to me so I'm not going to force it too much and try and get it to 100 or thereabouts. I just think that it might be a good idea to do a little at both sides of my comfort zone and make me less of a one trick pony.

When I ride outside I don't even display cadence and just do what feels most comfortable.

pointer28

Friday 27/2/15

Run - 6k + 6 strides

Nice, flat one along the canal and back with a few strides in the second half to get the muscles firing and loosesed up a bit. HR didn't work at all so probably needs a new battery, effort felt easy.

Bike - 62.5k

This was meant to be done this morning but there was ice on the car when I got up so decided to leave it until lunchtime in case there were any icy patches on the roads. Wind was an absolute soul destroyer as the first 18k was directly into a headwind on a wide open road with no shelter from the wind and the return leg was on a back road so while I did have a tailwind I didn't get the full benefit due to the hedges etc. If only I'd done the route in reverse.

The bike is feeling good lately though, the 3 turbos a week and building the long rides slowly means that I'm finishing them feeling strong whereas last year I was only doing 2 turbos a week and rushing the progression of the long ride so that I was struggling through them all the time. The plan further along is to add some quality to the long rides, something along the likes of what I do with my Marathon Pace long runs, maybe 4 x 10 mins or 2 x 20 mins at a Sweet Spot type effort. Before I could never do this as I was struggling just to make the distance at an easy effort. When I start this I'll probably make one of the turbo sessions easier to allow for the added intensity.

pointer28

Saturday 28/2/15

Bike - Trainer Road The Bends - TSS 116 IF .88

Lots of work, mostly between Sweet Spot and Threshold with a few 15 second bursts at 150%+ to really screw up the legs. Most of the work was very doable but when you threw in the hard bursts it really took effort to hang on and revert back to Threshold effort and keep going for another 6/7 minutes. Still, that's the whole point of them so just SIU and get on with it.

3 days in a row on the bike and not feeling too bad for it, although in fairness, yesterday was very easy on the legs.

Dory Dory

There's some good quality work going on here! What and when is your next race??

pointer28

Hi Dory,

Nothing concrete planned at the moment, at least not in terms of an A race. Moving house in a few weeks so all time, effort and money is going into planning and paying for that rather than race entries I'm afraid.

It's looking like my A race for the year will be the Killarney Adventure Race in October, not exactly the LD Duathlon I was looking for but a good tough course nonetheless as it's mostly running and biking with a good mountainous run course which I enjoy. I never really had any interest in adventure racing but it's still a good test of endurance and I love an interesting course, flat and fast is boring as hell. My dream races, Powerman Zofingen and The Pig Duathlon are both in the mountains.

I have a few smaller races that I might do in the meantime like the Blackstairs Adventure Race, Mullingar HM and the Rosslare 10k just to keep me motivated and focused but they will all be training races.

http://killarneyadventurerace.com/
http://www.blackstairsadventurerace.com/

mossym

Killarney AR looks like a really nice race. Went to a talk on it last year in AK limerick. Be half tempted to give it a go myself.

pointer28

Yeah, I know a lot don't class them as proper adventure races and they certainly don't compare to The Beast or other multi-day AR's but there's lot of running and some biking so it's a good training day if nothing else and the Kayak can be my active recovery.

pointer28

Sunday 1/3/15


Run - 5.5k Easy

Just an easy trot around town as part of my new training philosophy based on Matt Dixon's advise of less days off but more frequent easy/active recovery days instead.


Monday 2/3/15

Run - 8k + 6 strides

I think my HR monitor is properly knackered this time. I have tried all the tricks, changed the batteries (twice) left the battery out overnight, put a coin in for 2 minutes to reverse poles or something and tried two different straps and still nothing. Something else for the shopping list, although it's that unreliable that I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth replacing. The run itself was lovely, got out between snow showers into the most beautiful bright spring day with the birds singing and life was good.


Bike - Trainer Road Gould - TSS 83 IF .91


Gould is 8 intervals lasting 3-4 minutes each beginning with 1-2 minutes above FTP between 105-125% FTP and concluding with 2-3 minutes closer to FTP between 95-105% FTP.

Recoveries between intervals are 2 minutes each.

By working above FTP and flooding the muscles to varying degrees and then riding off the burn, your body & mind learn to tolerate the excess byproducts & discomfort resulting in improved muscular endurance and increased time to exhaustion.

As much as I hate them and as much as they hurt I can totally see the point of these torture sessions. It's one thing to burst out a 1 or 2 min hard interval and then recover but to keep going at 2 or 3 mins at 95% FTP afterwards and try to recover at the same time is what really hurts.