I have no idea what I'm du-ing

pointer28

Wednesday 12/1/14

Bike

Trainer Road - Slieve Blooms Clockwise - 135 minutes

With the help of strava, bestbikesplit.com and trainer road I created a race plan for a loop of the Slieve Blooms which I was then able to upload to TR as a virtual loop and did a workout based on this, I added on a few minutes either end as a WU and CD. Obviously it's all theoretical but it's only a bit of fun anyway and who cares once you're working hard. It did feel kind of like the real thing though. I've done the loop many times and there's a long flat section (24 mins @ Endurance) straight into a steady climb (4 mins Tempo, 33 mins Sweet Spot) then a downhill, followed by a horrible 5km climb that you can't get a rhythm on.

I'm not going to list every interval as it was continously changing but there was plenty of work done. As this was to be my longest ever Turbo session and my FTP had a significant rise only yesterday I reduced the IF by 5% just in case I struggled with it. Got it done and the long efforts took real concentration but happy I did it.

Relevant Totals:
40 mins @ Endurance
14 mins @ Tempo
54 mins @ Sweet Spot
7 mins @ Threshold

pointer28

Thursday 13/2/14

Run

23k @ 6:07 min/km AHR 144

I should really have done some sort of speedwork or a tempo run today but my head is fried with work stuff and I just wasn't in the mood to do anything that required any thought or mental effort. Headphones on and out the door just looking at the world going by and keeping my HR well inside my easy zone, still feels painfully slow but hopefully the easy pace will start to pick up if I keep it up.

pointer28

Saturday 15/2/14

Run

7.8km @ 6:19 min/km AHR 144

Early run on a beautiful spring morning. Dry and bright with a slight chill in the air, bit windy but not compared to the last few weeks. I hate these HR capped runs, they just feel so slow and awkward and I'm embarrassed when anyone sees me shuffling along like I forgot my zimmer frame. Plus they're freezing, not enough effort involved to warm me up.

Bike

Trainer Road - 2 x 10 mins @ FTP

This was meant to be 4 x 10 mins at FTP but I was floored after the second one and just wasn't able for any more. I tried to do this session yesterday as well but quit as soon as I started the first interval as I just couldn't hold any power and even the warm up floored me.

I don't mind yesterday's session as I was really stupid with my long run on Wednesday and didn't wear enough layers meaning that I froze myself for 2+ hours and never warmed up for a solid 24 hours afterwards. Even after a hot shower I was still shivering in bed that night and all the next day and never slept a wink. Took me a full day to warm up properly. Stupid, stupid behaviour on my part and could have been really dangerous.

I felt OK for today's session, did an easy run this morning that felt really easy and legs felt OK. TBH I think my new FTP is too high, and the only explanation I can think of is that the resistance was too low for the FTP test on Tuesday thereby giving me skewed figures. I'm surprised as I'm usually really fussy and spend 5 minutes getting it to feel right before I start any session but there you have it. All I know for certain is that there is no way in hell I could hold the new FTP for any length of time, 2 x 20 mins nearly killed me so I adjusted it downwards to half way between the old and new number and will take it from there. I can always re-test in a week or two and a solid session at a lower FTP is always going to be better than quitting a session or none at all. The fact that I'm riding the bike at all puts me way ahead of any other year.

I'm fully aware that TR has its limitations but as long as there are bills to pay I'll just have to make do. Without a doubt I'm fitter and stronger on the bike and the motivation alone to ride the turbo is worth the few quid a month. I would like nothing more that to splash out and buy a real power meter (and a Shiv to put it on) but priorities like food, electricity and mortgages get in the way so it ain't happening any time soon.

With that in mind, I'm off to do the Lotto.

joey100

hey pointer, just looking back on your last week and its been tough. a race last weekend, long tough turbo and a long run during the week. this might have had an impact the turbo session. sometimes can take a day or two to feel the efforts.

when was your last ftp test? did you do an 8 min or 20 min?

joey100

hey pointer, just looking back on your last week and its been tough. a race last weekend, long tough turbo and a long run during the week. this might have had an impact the turbo session. sometimes can take a day or two to feel the efforts.

when was your last ftp test? did you do an 8 min or 20 min?

pointer28

Yeah, tough week alright. That race took more out of me than I thought.

I looked back over the workout last night and while the power zones said 20 minutes at threshold, my HR zones said 20 minutes at Vo2 Max.

I'm taking today off and I'll try again tomorrow and see how I feel.

I did the 8 minute test simply because that's what the plan said, do you think the 20 minute test is better?

Thanks for the advise.

joey100

in my experience the 20 min test has been more
accurate. what was your ftp and what did you average for the 5 min test? I know last year I always had the 20 min test in mind and was more conconcerned about getting a big number here. meant I was too low on 5 mins and too high on 20 min, made the workouts aftrr it very tough and couldn't finish most of them. much better this year though once I figured this out.

I was the same after my first race this season, expected to be able to go straight back into training the next day but took a few easy days before I was back into it properly.

pointer28

@ Joey100

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/733175-8-Minute-Test

My FTP before the test was 162 and the new recommended one was 184. I've downgraded it to 173 for now and will see how it goes from there. If it's too easy I'll presume fatigue was the issue and raise it back up and if it feels right I'll presume the resistance was too easy for the test and leave it be for a while.

joey100

That's a big jump alright. Your probably doing the right thing pulling it back a bit, no point in killing yourself and not being able to finish the sessions.

pointer28

Monday 17/2/14

Run

17.4k with 4,3,2,1 kms @ HM Pace

Warm Up
5 x 20 sec strides, 40 sec recovery
1 min Easy
4 km @ 4:20 min/km AHR 171
4 min Jog Recovery
3 km @ 4:21 min/km AHR 170
3 min Jog Recovery
2 km @ 4:21 min/km AHR 170
2 min Jog Recovery
1 km @ 4:20 min/km AHR 169
1 min Jog Recovery
Cool Down

As much as I may bitch and moan about the stupidly slow long runs and recovery runs, when it comes to a productive session like this, I find that I have far more petrol in the tank and am able to hit the numbers far easier than I was in the past. Previously I was doing my LR and Recovery runs at a higher pace and every time I did a decent session I always felt tired and stale from the start and really had to stretch to hit the paces I wanted.

Once again the HR monitor was acting the bollix for the warm up but once I finished the 5 strides it seemed to settle down and give me very clean data from that point on. I think it must be whatever I'm wearing as I usually go without a top on the turbo and the data is always clean as a whistle. Regardless, the data seems OK for the important part of the session and seems to be hitting the numbers I want to hit. My target HM pace is 4:25 min/km and target HR for that pace is 169 so while the HR was a beat or two higher than prescribed, the pace was also a little faster so hopefully it'll all even out.

Feeling really good after this session and looking forward to getting stuck into some more like it.

pointer28

Tuesday 18/2/14

Bike

85k Easy 26.1 km/h AHR 137

Because my hours are very flexible I usually keep a close eye on the forecast and tend to avoid the worst of the weather and run/bike when it suits me. Unfortunately, this is turning me soft and when you defer a hard session or two because of the weather then you end up with 3/4 hard sessions left to do in 3/4 days before the week ends. This is not a good plan so I'm now forcing myself to do a hard run session on Mondays regardless of weather (within reason), then a long bike midweek and my other hard run session at the weekend, I can then chop and change the easy sessions to fit in the rest of the week.

While the weather wasn't quite as nice as the forecast made me believe for today I just got on with the job in hand and out the door for the first long ride or 2014. Nothing to report for the ride itself just an out and back to Athlone keeping the effort easy.

What I do know for certain now though is this - if I ever have two cents to rub together I'm going to buy the fanciest, warmest, most windproof cycling gloves I can find and I don't give two ****es what they cost. My hands were absolutely freezing and took a good two hours to get the feeling back in them. I honestly thought I had a touch of frostbite, all the colour had left my fingers and I had a tingling / burning sensation in them as well. Not a bit nice.

Moral of the story, while the Aldi cycling gloves might look lovely and cosy, once they get wet they're useless.

Solobally8

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/santini-365-neoprene-winter-heavy-weight-gloves/rp-prod31025

These gloves are excellent, very warm and toasty after about five minutes. They are actually a little too warm for me the last couple days. I have circulation problems but haven't suffered with my hands this winter with these gloves

pointer28

Wednesday 19/2/14

Run

24k @ 5:49 min/km AHR 146

I have been doing these by HR for the last few weeks and it's been killing me. The pace I had to keep just felt really horrible and awkward so I decided to just run by feel today and keep and eye on my watch just keeping it slower than 5:40 min/km pace.

My stupid HR found a new trick to annoy me with today. Usually it works fine for 5 minutes, spikes madly for the next 10 and then settles down. Today, it gave me no readings for the first 10 minutes and then woke up, I think the strap might need tightening. Because I had a HR of zero for the first ten minutes my AHR was artificially low so the 146 above is my guesstimation from looking at the graph for the remainder.

Apart from all that, the run itself went ok, a straight out and back, no hills worth thinking about and very little wind, legs were tired but nothing painful. If anything I find the out and backs a bit boring as you're looking at the same scenery twice but if that's all I have to complain about it can't have been a bad day.

joey100

Going to do the rosslare duathlon on 9th march? See they have changed it to. 3.5km, 20km, 3.5km. I'll be down that part of the country and looking at doing it.

pointer28

I hope so, once work doesn't throw a spanner in the works.

pointer28

Thursday 20/2/14

Run 6k @ 5:43 min/km

The plan today was for an hour turbo / 5k run brick session but everything I own hates me and decided to really try and piss me off as soon as I got on the bike. First of all I couldn't get the resistance right on the turbo, then my gears were skipping and my HR strap wouldn't pick up a signal.

Resisting the urge to fire all three straight through the window I decided to just head out the door and get my run done and try to work out in my head what might be causing these problems. Sweet Jesus, f#cking hailstones and they hurt like hell. They were constant for the first 4k and it was like being stung by bees for 20 minutes. Anyway, the run itself was grand, legs felt good, pace felt easy and it really cleared my head of evil thoughts towards my equipment.

On a more important note was trying to figure out equipment issues that I've been having a lot of lately.

Skipping gears should be easy enough solved and I'll get onto it in the morning, 5 minutes should sort it.

HR strap, I haven't got any proper conductive gel and have been using aloe vera instead which obviously isn't doing the job, 5 minutes on Amazon and I'll have some in the post, job sorted hopefully.

Turbo trainer, this has been getting harder and harder to set up every time I use it lately. I just can't get the resistance right, it's either slipping or too hard, no middle ground. This could be one of two issue:

1. My legs are sore
2. Somethings wrong with the turbo.

Well my legs felt grand on the run and aren't a bit sore so I'm discounting that. However, the flywheel on the turbo is really badly worn in the middle as in an actual groove in the metal where it meets the tyre and I'm thinking this could be the issue. My GF is buying a new one for herself at the weekend and I'll see how that works out. Until then, I'll just try and get a spin outside tomorrow. I don't know how readily available parts are for entry level turbo trainers but I'm guessing it might just be time to buy a new one.

joey100

Tyre Pressure?

pointer28

joey100 wrote: »

Tyre Pressure?

Nope, tyre pressure grand, I always check it and make sure it's the same every time. This problem has been getting gradually worse now for a few weeks so I think the turbo might be fubar'd.

pointer28

Friday 21/2/14

Bike - Trainer Road Mount Leinster - 100 mins

Instead of getting thick and swearing at my equipment which truth be told is my usual modus operandi, I decided that time and patience might be more constructive in actually sorting out my problems.

It turns out that my derailleur hanger was ever so slightly bent (bike fell over last week), so I straightened that quite easily, then tuned up the gears and they're now sweet as a nut.

My turbo also needed looking at, so that's exactly what I did and I found two screws on the back of it that allowed me to shift the roller drive an inch to the left so the wheel is now sitting on a lovely smooth surface and running smoothly. It's only when it's running right that I now realise how bad it actually was for the last few weeks. The best description I can think of is that is was like cycling on a rough gravel surface, now it's smooth tarmac. I don't know the exact cause of this but my best guess is that I was using an old road tyre for a while instead of the turbo tyre I now have. Most probably there were small pieces of grit embedded in the tyre and that's what did the harm. Anyway, job sorted now and cost me a sum total of zero.

Another session created on Bestbikesplit and while I know it's only messing I enjoy them as you're constantly changing gears and cadence like you would on the road, especially for the longer sessions of 90 mins and over. While the repetitive intervals might actually be more beneficial and have a specific target, I'm certainly doing plenty of work on these. I know if I did a 100 minutes outside I certainly wouldn't have worked as hard.

Totals:

Endurance 11 mins
Tempo 12 mins
Sweet Spot 34 mins
Threshold 21 mins

AHR 143

pointer28

Saturday 22/2/14

Griffeen Valley Park Run 20:17

Did this just to see what I could do as I've never actually ran a 5k race before. Secretly hoping for a sub 20 and think it would be very doable on another day. Not to make excuses but tired this morning and a strong headwind at times so hopefully it won't take too long to get there. About another 5k to add on as WU and CD.

pointer28

Monday 24/2/14

Run 20k with 4 x 1.5k and 1 x 4k at HM Pace

I had written a long post about this on Monday but then my computer froze and I lost the whole thing. Couldn't be bothered re-writing it. The shorter intervals were done with 1:30 RBI, then 23 mins easy, then straight into the 4k interval. I like these sessions, I did a lot of them last year and I think they really make you stronger, especially with the longer interval at the end when you're tiring. I spent all day Sunday on my feet at work so wasn't at my freshest for this so was happy to hit all the numbers and the HR stayed in the proper zones while doing so. Job done.

Tuesday 25/2/14

TR - High Hopes 60 mins

6 x 1 min @ 110% FTP, 1 min RBI, 6 x 4 min @ 95% FTP, 2 min RBI

I was busy with other stuff and had almost written the day off for training but I decided at the last minute to just jump on the turbo and rescue something from the day. Nice session, not too taxing but it's like money in the bank, just keep adding a little more as and when you can.

Wednesday 26/2/14

TR - Frewin & Laragh 60 mins

Another bestbikesplit course featuring two horrible little ****s of climbs near home. Stiff session TSS 82 and IF .90

Tempo - 7 mins
Sweet Spot - 22 mins
Threshold - 14 mins
VO2 Max - 5 mins

5.2k Brick Run - 5:38 mins/km AHR 143

I ran this completely by feel keeping it nice and easy throughout, paying no attention to pace or HR. Happy to find that my HR was well inside the zone while the pace was a bit faster than it normally would be.

pointer28

Thursday 27/2/14

Run - 23k @ 5:57 mins/km AHR

Garmin says AHR 208 and calories 900 which is a load of crap, so I adjusted the AHR to what it was for the first 20 minutes when it seemed to work properly.

Ran this by feel again and took about 4 x 20/25 second walk breaks and they seemed to make a difference. I had forgotten about them TBH and only took the first one at 7.5k, then 12.5k, 16.5k and 20.5k. I think I'll use them again but I'll set up a workout on the watch and have more structure to them, Tunney suggested 19.30 run / 30 sec walk so I think I'll go with that. A little shorter than intended, I had planned on doing 24/25k but the weather convinced me otherwise.

Things were going lovely until 19k and then the heavens opened with sleet pelting down and a freezing cold headwind so I suffered like a dog for the last 4k. I quite literally couldn't even get my gloves off when I got home and it took a long, long time to recover and heat up properly afterwards. I have often ran in the rain before but that was the worst I've ever experienced, the combination of the cold, sleet and the wind were just really bad. It's a pity too as this was the first long run in a long time that was actually going well for me and I was happily plodding along at my easy pace and felt like I could have kept going for a long time.

pointer28

Friday 28/2/14

Bike

Trainer Road - Glendine & The Cut 130 mins

TSS 151
IF 0.84

Endurance - 26 mins
Tempo - 21 mins
Sweet Spot - 29 mins
Threshold - 32 mins

This was meant to be a 150 min session, but I had the bestbikesplit course set up at HM pace (.84 intensity) and TBH it just got too much towards the end. In future I'll have to remember to dial it back to about 95% and that should be fine. I could have been stubborn and just grinded away at the gears but I felt the quality was gone at that stage and I wasn't accomplishing anything. It's not a race after all.

Other than that, the legs felt good if a bit tired after the LSR yesterday.

pointer28

Saturday 1/3/14

Run 13.8k with 12 x 90 secs @ 5k pace

Avg for intervals:

3:47 mins/km AHR 163

Haven't done any faster intervals in a while so these hurt a bit, but the times are heading the right direction and I feel great afterwards so all in all a positive session.

After last weeks Parkrun I knew that my endurance was not a problem, but that my legs just weren't used to going that fast for any length of time so I had to get back to doing some faster reps. Glad I did them now, and while they always hurt, I nearly always feel great after doing them.

pointer28

Monday 3/3/14

Run 10.2k @ 5:58 mins/km AHR 140

HR playing up as usual with two large spikes lasting about ten minutes giving me an average of 142. I rounded it down but it could have been even lower. Either way I don't care once it's in or around the 130 - low 140's.

Legs were sore as hell all day yesterday after Saturday's speed session. I have a weird job, I'm pretty flexible all week and can fit work around training and then recover while working at my desk. On Sunday (supposed rest day) I spent 10 hours on my feet on a horrible sand surface which is a killer on the legs, the surface is sore on everyone's legs, not just mine. They were still sore this morning so I decided to wait it out and see would they improve, I gave them a good rolling and they started to loosen up after dinner so I decided to get in an easy run.

While work often suits me training wise it tends to scupper me moreso when I'm trying to recover, not ideal, but you need to earn a crust!

pointer28

Tuesday 4/3/14

Trainer Road - Frewin & Laragh TSS 80 IF 0.90

In a rush and have to get the train to Dublin so no choice but a quick, hard turbo. I felt great this morning so really got stuck into this one and actually enjoyed it. This is the second time I've done this session and I think it's going to be a regular. Tough but doable and leaves me feeling tired but happy with myself.

pointer28

Wednesday 5/3/14

Run 20k with 4 x 1.5k and 1 x 4k at HM Pace

Exactly the same session as last week simply because I couldn't be arsed fiddling with Garmin Connect to create a new workout and also because I really love to hate these sessions and always finish them feeling stronger and that I've really accomplished something.

WU
4 x 1.5k @ 4:16 mins/km AHR 165
23 mins easy
4k @ 4:19 mins/km AHR 166
CD

The good thing about copying sessions is that you can compare them and compared to last week all the intervals came in about 5 seconds per km faster and the AHR was about 3 bpm lower for each interval. I was quite tired last week though and had ran a hard 5k only two days earlier so I won't read too much into it.

pointer28

Thursday 6/3/14

Trainer Road - Glendine & The Cut 75 Minutes

TSS 81 IF 0.81

Endurance - 18 mins
Tempo - 12 mins
Sweet Spot - 32 mins
Threshold - 2 mins

Not enjoying my bike at all the last few weeks. I just got fed up of sitting on the trainer and decided to call it a day as I have a race on Sunday and I might ride the bike for an hour on Saturday as well. As well as that I think I'm doing my long, endurance rides as too high an intensity. The bestbikesplit sessions I'm doing are set at HM race pace which is probably too hard for long slow rides at a guess. I'm going to do some reading this afternoon and see what kind of effort they should actually be at for the future. I'd love to afford a coach.

In future, I'm just going to have to SIU and ride outside once the weather isn't absolutely abysmal. After all, it can rain on race day too.

pointer28

Friday 7/3/14

Run 25k @ 5:59 mins/km AHR 138

While I played with adding a few walk intervals last week I actually set up my watch to do it with some structure this week. Following Tunney's advice on another thread I went for 19:30/0:30 walk/run and it really helped to just break it up into sections and made it seem a lot more manageable.

Tough conditions out there today, very windy and even moreso on the second half and while there are no big hills around the town, there are some long drags on the route.

I paid absolutely zero attention to either pace or HR on this run and did it entirely by feel, if I felt any effort at all in my breathing I dialled it back. My AHR is dropping constantly on these LSR's and with the headwinds today I'm even happier about that, the theory being that my easy pace will start to rise if I do lots of this low HR running.

pointer28

Saturday 8/3/14

Bike - 24k Course Recce

Kept it real easy spinning all the way, nothing to report.


Sunday 9/3/14

Race - Rosslare Duathlon

Run 1 - 3.07 km / 12:14 / 3:59 pace / AHR 177

Ran hard from the start and just tried to hang on, but decided after about a km that I'd better dial it back a bit as there was a 25k bike and another run to do before the day was out.

T1 - 1:37

What a clusterf#ck! My bike was racked in the middle and the weight of all the other bikes made the bar sag so when I tried to take my bike out the handlebars wouldn't fit under the bar. Eventually I managed to get it out but knocked over another bike in the process, finally got that picked up and out the gate onto the run.

Bike - 25.43km / 50:46 / 30.1 kmh / AHR 161

I'm not much of a runner but as far as biking goes I'm more of a runner, if that makes sense. Seriously though, I'm well aware that my bike is a major weakness caused by years of fair weather riding, but in fairness it's less bad than it used to be. Average cadence was 98 which I'm very happy with as my legs were pretty fresh getting off the bike.

T2 - 2:20

I got new elastic laces and threw them in the car before leaving home on Friday. When I went to fit them Saturday evening they were too thick to fit through the narrow eyes on the runners and I didn't fancy trying to botch something so just had to go with normal laces. It was slow going tying my laces but I managed it eventually and headed on to Run 2.

Run 2 - 3.30 km / 13:40 / 4:08 pace / AHR 167

Four guys passed me on the bike, one of these was on a TT bike and was flying along effortlessly so I knew I wouldn't be seeing him again today. 3 others however all looked like normal Joes so I made it my business to hunt them down on the run, and hunt them down I did. I'm really pleased with the fact that I managed to catch and pass all 3 of them and kept running strong until the end. Not as fast as Run 1 but that's to be expected.

Overall I'm really happy with how the race went. I went hard (for me) from the start and kept going hard until the finish. I finished the first race (4 weeks ago) feeling like I could have gone faster but I finished this feeling like I squeezed every last drop of effort out of my body. While the run times won't impress anyone I'm really pleased with them. I only raced my first 5k three weeks and I tend to avoid the speed work and always prefer the longer tempo or LT interval sessions.

After hanging around for ten minutes I finished it off with a short jog back to the parent's house to cool down.


Tuesday 11/3/14

Bike - 40k AHR 91

Went for a spin with herself just to try loosen out the legs.

Thursday 13/3/14

Run - 7.7k @ 5:58 mins/km

I was away driving all day Wednesday and meant to get in a run when I got home. My sinuses were at me all day, my throat was sore and my glutes were killing me so I decided to skip the run and take it easy as it really felt like I was coming down with something.

I still didn't feel great this morning but decided to run anyway as sometimes you feel better once you get 5 minutes down the road. Today I didn't. As painfully slow as it was, it felt really hard, my glutes, groin and quads were all sore and I just felt generally sh1t. Binned this afternoons bike ride and going to work on some foam rolling instead.

This is meant to be a recovery week but I'm taking it a bit too far. All day Monday & Wednesday were spent driving and I honestly think they did more harm than the race on Sunday. Although it's a recovery week I had intended to keep up the frequency and just dial back the intensity and volume to about 60% of normal. If I had managed to get out on Monday for an easy bike ride and some easy running on Tuesday I don't think I'd feel half as bad now.

Life sometimes has other plans though!