Year Four

El Director

catweazle wrote: »

Thanks christ you didn't come to that dinner El D, the wife would have been asleep in the soup bowl

You can excuse Fazz a little as he is a financial controller!

Spotted the bike the last day - fantastic, training seems to be going well for you this year!

I hope you declared all that grinds money it must have cost

Grinds?? What you on about?? You crazy CW!

Your wife by the way would have been so stimulated CW that she wouldn't have slept that night

Fazz

El Director wrote: »

What is a typical sTSS for you Fazz? Mine are always 0.8, 0.7 etc... which is way off and I use the 910xt too. The only way I can calculate sTSS accurately (well within the accuracy that the formula allows) is by doing it manually. So for that 0.8 sTSS really is a sTSS of 23.

For TP or your garmin to calculate sTSS it needs an input of your Functional Swim Threshold or CCS, where on TP can this be inputted?

Yeah mine was the same till I actually inputted the Swim threshold times etc.

Go into settings under your name in the top right of TP.
Click the zones tab
Pace/Speed Zones tab
Swim tab
I use the CTS tab per 100m and seems to report TSS alright.

Again, not an exact science but something to track and drive trinewbie, bth and the likes into the world of SLEEP!

Fazz

Wednesday

Easy morning of sleep.

PM - Core - 20 mins core work/lunges, balances, single leg squats.

Turbo - short and sharp one for fun.
WU 10 mins
3 x max efforts R2
into 1 min intervals off 1 min recoveries
1 @ 310w R1
1 @ 345w R1
1 @ 370w R1
1 @ 430w R1
1 @ 305w R1
1 @ 330w R1
1 @ 315w R1
1 @ 315w R1
1 @ 315w R1
1 @ 310w, 1@ 265w, 2 @ 265w, 1 @ 330w straight

Recover.

No science behind numbers, went off feel.
Overall aim was to get time above 300w so when next ftp test the 5min TT doesn't completely kill me.
That's not for another few weeks maybe, but still.

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/VOTZFA5PW6LVDJ6BCM5W4FECLI

mossym

Fazz wrote: »

Again, not an exact science but something to track and drive trinewbie, bth and the likes into the world of SLEEP!

sure if you're not analysing your numbers while you;re not training what on earth are you supposed to do?

El Director

Fazz wrote: »

Yeah mine was the same till I actually inputted the Swim threshold times etc.

Go into settings under your name in the top right of TP.
Click the zones tab
Pace/Speed Zones tab
Swim tab
I use the CTS tab per 100m and seems to report TSS alright.

Again, not an exact science but something to track and drive trinewbie, bth and the likes into the world of SLEEP!

Ahhhh... now I see the error of my ways. I knew it had to be done in that section but there was no "swim" tab. You have to create that yourself first by clicking on "add new zone" - now I am all set for more accurate weekly TSS.

Fazz

Thursday:

Swim - mainly easy, 300, 400, 1,000, easy 200 and easy finish.
More about getting feel back for water and concentrating on form/stroke.
2.55km done - 50mins.

Run - 50mins easy treadmill - 10km

Core - 10 mins core work.

And easy day again.
Plan see's a bit of work tomorrow and Saturday but being flexible with the weather that's promised. Epic Turbo is looking likely at this rate!

Dory Dory

Epic turbo???? :eek::eek::eek:

(what are you doing still awake!!??)

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Fazz wrote: »

What did you get your CTL up to out of curiosity Fran?
Must have been around the 110-120 mark so prior to taper?

Did I read that right in that you did a 1600 TSS week before taper?
That's huge! You must have been in bits after it!

Sorry been busy with work. Highest at 147CTL for Roth (after training week abroad). Taper start just over 110 mark, raced at 96 with a 32+ TSB. Never felt as strong heading into a race and have never been able to replicate it either since.

6 weeks out i had a 1300 TSS week and 10 weeks out was the 1600 week. You should know that the big week was abroad on a training week so i was able to recover properly and had no external focuses or pressures. I would be dead if i tried to replicate a week like that with the kids and work.

Fazz

Dory Dory wrote: »

Epic turbo???? :eek::eek::eek:

(what are you doing still awake!!??)

Sorry DD yes an epic turbo - the weather here is pretty bad at the moment so if I can't catch a break Saturday morning it will be a long ass turbo!
Managed to sneak in a bit today though so not as long needed.

Oh and yep I'd be up late a couple nites a week usually...
I'm a bit of a nite owl, usually up late a couple nites a week and everyone knows you have more fun late at night right... ;):p

Fazz

Alaya Uneven Nag wrote: »

Sorry been busy with work. Highest at 147CTL for Roth (after training week abroad). Taper start just over 110 mark, raced at 96 with a 32+ TSB. Never felt as strong heading into a race and have never been able to replicate it either since.

6 weeks out i had a 1300 TSS week and 10 weeks out was the 1600 week. You should know that the big week was abroad on a training week so i was able to recover properly and had no external focuses or pressures. I would be dead if i tried to replicate a week like that with the kids and work.

Wow. Solid numbers.
Be interesting to compare where my CTL goes over the next few months and down the line pre taper and pre race.
Nice work.

Fazz

Friday

Long easy wet and breezy run.
Wouldn't you know it would start raining just as finished work...
Home, gear on and out the door.

1hr 45 mins easy, just cruising as a decent weekend planned so didn't want to push the calves.
21.4km, avg 4:56/km. Zone 1-2.

Turbo - onto turbo after run for a spin out and easy recovery.
80mins - easy pace leg loosener.


Long bike planned for the am, must check weather forecast but suspect it's gonna be a turbo one.

El Director

Fazz wrote: »

Wow. Solid numbers.
Be interesting to compare where my CTL goes over the next few months and down the line pre taper and pre race.
Nice work.

Me too. For each race I will record CTL, ATL and TSB and when I have a race that I am real happy with then I'll know what numbers produced that performance, as well as weight and BF%.

JB - isn't +32 TSB "very positive" and would it not indicate that you were very/too well rested or de-trained even? I'm sure that wasn't the case in reality and I know this isn't an exact science but afaik it is generally accepted that most athletes perform best with a slightly positive TSB or even slightly negative (-5 < TSB < +5). Maybe it's supposed to be higher for IM, i.e. very well rested.

Fazz

Saturday 8th Feb

Bike - got up accepting the weather was crap and jumped on the turbo for my long easy bike.
Looked out window and it was rainy but some clouds were clearing.
Feck it, I'll continue and did nearly 3.5 hrs on turbo.
Damn weather only improved and looked quite nice out there unfortunately.

Swim - in to pool after foam roller for some repeats followed by drills.
5 x 400 done off 7mins, pleased to come in just under 6:20 for the first 3 before creeping up as lost fitness became apparent!
Drills then of single arm, kick board, scissor kick, wide arm finger trail, straight arm, and fins.
3.25km done in just over an hour.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

El Director wrote: »

JB - isn't +32 TSB "very positive" and would it not indicate that you were very/too well rested or de-trained even? I'm sure that wasn't the case in reality and I know this isn't an exact science but afaik it is generally accepted that most athletes perform best with a slightly positive TSB or even slightly negative (-5 < TSB < +5). Maybe it's supposed to be higher for IM, i.e. very well rested.

32 is on the high side alright but there is no magic number to try and hit. I know the last few weeks were impacted with reduced training as i had that piriformis injury and also the "Roth travel saga" which would have impacted the last 2 days before the race. Still, if i could replicate that feeling/fitness again i would.
You should get to a stage when you know you are in top shape without a CTL or a TSB number to tell you;).

Fazz

Sunday 9th Feb

Awesome sleep and recovery morning.

Bike - 1.5hrs easy z1-2 aerobic

Run - brick run off feel easy, focus on form and efficiency.
Very fresh on this run. Felt I was not bouncing or wasting energy, landing felt good.
10.9km in 50mins, avg 4:34/km.

I did a long run friday night, long bike sat and then the above so wasn't expecting legs to feel as they did.
Possible result of the magic ingredient.... SLEEP?

weekly summary - just over 16hrs, consistent good but mainly easy work.
Feels like fitness is coming around on bike and run.
Happy with satudays swim and back muscles being managed with no discomfort.
Increase in swim vol over next week or two will hopefully not upset it again as its back to normal now.


It feels like FTP test time.
I don't have one planned for this week, and have a club 20km TT next weekend so that could offer some insight.
I may schedule one next week to correlate with the outdoor tt and see how it goes.

Also a club run TT next weekend, unsure of distance yet but prob do it as a tracker and for some fun.

Both be handy hit outs ahead of the first duathlon of the season the week after.

Fazz

Monday 10th - recovery

Swim - easy with a couple fast 100's. 1.8km done, 37mins.

Run - easy treadmill, 45mins, 8.8km

Core - 15mins abs/stretching

Foam Roller - 15 mins back, calves and back some more.

Fazz

Tuesday 11th Feb

Poor sleep, muscles little tight and general feeling of tiredness.

Day changed to another recovery day as a result.

Swim - 1hr easy, fitness returning did a few longer reps of 500 or so and drills.
2k easy.

Core - 15mins

Foam roll - 30 mins, lats mainly. Felt good.

Fazz

Wednesday 12th.

Poor sleep, still down on sleep volume really need to get it together fast.

Bike - 2hrs on the Turbo - 60mins easy, 2 x 20mins @ Sweet spot, cd.

Sweet spot was held comfortably enough. Hopefully a sign of increased numbers = FTP scheduled for next week so will see soon enough.


Thursday 13th.

Poor sleep, again. Go to bed earlier...

Run - Long run, 2hrs, 26km, 4:45/km pace.
Grand run bit of wind bit of incline. Garmin took 1k to find satellites but away we went anyway.
Had company for first 15km of it which is always nice.

As a baseline tracker - I know my aerobic run fitness is quite improved.
In one of my first weeks back in November I did a couple of treadmill runs sticking to 5min/km pace.
This is what I use as my aerobic baseline benchmarker for HR - theory being as I get fitter the HR should decrease when repeating this test.

I've done a couple similar runs on treadmill since and HR has dropped from 128bpm in the early weeks down to sub 120bpm now for same pace.

On tonights long run, this was compounded by avg hr of 124bpm, despite going for over 2hrs and averaging faster pace in windy fluctuating terrains outdoors. Not a benchmarker per say due to the variable conditions but still a positive aerobic sign.

Fazz

Friday 14th

Swim - 6 x 400's off 7mins, some drills at end.
3k done in just under 1hr.

15mins core


Saturday 15th

Swim - 45mins as easy 10 x 100's off 1:45, then easy swimming.
2k done.

Run - 35mins treadmill easy - 7.75km

Bike - 1hr Turbo with 3 x 5min moderate efforts - 1 standing.

Core - 15 mins.



Glad I extended the recovery at start of week as legs feel better - hamstring was unusually tight so foam rolled and deferred run a couple days.
Makes for a more consistent week and feels better now thankfully.

Fazz

Sunday 16th:

Long Easy Bike - 4.5hrs, 112km.
Good to be back outside and barely noticed the shower near end.
Bit icy at start but grand overall.


Monday 17th:

Easy L1 Run - 1hr:10, 14km, easy pace.

Bike - Turbo with some 10 x 20sec intervals off 10 sec rest, followed by a few minor pieces at easy aerobic watts of 150, 165, 200, 225w - only 5mins but just mixing up a short turbo.
1hr done.

Core - 15mins core work.

pgibbo

Hey Fazz. How are you pacing your easy runs - RPE, HR or a mix? Just curious as your hr seems very low on some of them.

Fazz

pgibbo wrote: »

Hey Fazz. How are you pacing your easy runs - RPE, HR or a mix? Just curious as your hr seems very low on some of them.

Primary RPE for winter for me.
Pace and/or HR would be a secondary reference point at the moment.

There are runs where I've planned to go faster but changed due to rpe, and vice versa.

I don't really stick to hr much, prefer RPE and Pace as ultimately in race situ these are used for me anyway.

Regarding the low hr's, I'm still learning what zones work best for me but do find rpe and varying paces help.

Last year, a lot of my running would have been 'easy', and above 5min/km pace.
This year, I initially focused on pace to make myself work a little more and now rpe is in line and my only easy runs above 5min/km would be a recovery L1 run maybe once every 8 or so days.
I felt I wasn't running enough in the l2 or so zones, and as I've spent more time here I've noticed improvements.

For my HR, I'm not a high HR person afaik.
10 mile race would be an average around the 160bpm, or slightly above.
My HIM run would be around 150bpm give or take.

At the mo, im still focused on base and engine.

I use HR info for training and in training races, but don't like wearing the HR strap in races so its RPE and pace in races for me.

Fazz

Tuesday 18th

Bike - 1.5hrs Turbo as easy wu, 4 x seated all out efforts r2,
5mins standing @ 260w
R5
3 x 10mins @ 274w, 250w, 250w, R5 each time
CD


Run - Short Brick Run off bike.
6km, 24mins, Avg 3:59/km pace.

Core/stretching - 15mins.

Fazz

A less than ideal few days...

So after Tuesday's relatively harder efforts, I had a long run planned in for Wednesday. Stupidly so.

Anyway, the last few days...

Wednesday -

planned long run aborted after 30mins.
Started this easy, felt fatigued. Fair enough had slept utter rubbish last few days.
Got worse as the run went on instead of normally feeling better.
Started to feel weak and knew it was abort time.

Run - 30 odd mins done - 6.7km, utter rubbish.

Home to bed, try recover and try load up on vits and food and water.

Thursday

- Not feeling much better. Slight tickle in throat.
Swim - 20 odd mins 1km and got out before I started to feel worse.
More recovery needed.

Friday

- Slight cough developing.

News of the Fingal duathlon deferred helped me to switch up my plans to suit and make this a total recovery week before 3 build weeks ahead.

Core/Conditioning - 30mins nothing too strenuous.

Decided to take total rest day as the Club 20km TT is on Saturday and I wanted to do that and hopefully not be any worse.
TT Bike cleaned and set for the morning.


Saturday -

Woke up, still a little cough but lovely day out and I want to do something.
Out to Blessington for the Pulse Club 20km TT.
I missed all these last year so didn't know the course.
It's a 2 lap affair around the lake and a nice and rolling course.

I did a warm up lap (2 x gloves, 2 x socks, jacket, arm warmers, beanie, and full aero setup :pac::D )
Cold, but a smashing day for it.

Course is lovely, only 1 hard left which banks back on you so if not slow enough you're on the other side of the road. Rest is perfect and also some fast downhills to build some pace too.

Decent line up of 48 other Pulser's and also Gavin from UCD CC who had the best time last year was there so the target was painted on his back!
He wasn't hard to miss in his full UCD suit and I had the luxury of starting 15 seconds behind him so wanted to keep in sights.


Pulse Club 20km TT


I had 275 or so watts in mind for this.
Looking back on this time last year, when I was in better biking shape I did an FTP test on the Tuesday before the Naas duathlon.
that was an indicated 300w ftp, and then on the Sunday I biked the duathlon at AP of 283w and NP of 300w.
That course is a bit more hilly though and I was in better shape.

My last FTP in Nov/Dec was 266w FTP and I think I've gained a bit but not near last year yet.
So I wanted to try hold 275w ish and see where that got me.

Gavin started out hard, was out of sight early and overtaking in no time (we were all off in 15 sec intervals).
I could see him in the distance but wasn't gaining any in the first 5-6km or so.

I kept the power steady glancing occasionally, and was conscious of the 2 laps so to try pace even.
Around the first turn I could see him ahead and had maybe pulled back to the 15 seconds or so.

By the end of lap 1 I was maybe 10 seconds down and closing on him.
I didn't know if anyone ahead was going any faster but figured he would be the best bench mark and I sure couldn't go any faster today.

I passed him on lap 2 and hit a nice speed of 69kmh on the main descent.

He repassed me with 2km to go but I pushed and got the lead again for the last 1.5km and kept power up.

Finished in a fit of coughing but happy with time of 30:07 - garmin has a few extra secs as I didn't stop on time.

19.8km - 30:07, Average Power 278w, Normalised Power 278w, VI 1.00 :eek:;) , Cadence... wait for it... 101rpm... :eek:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/449331456

So 278w, how can I compare that to this time last year?
Average of 283 in naas sprint but that was after a hard 3km run beforehand. and np of 300w which I'm nowhere near.
At a guess, I'd say FTP has moved from 266w to around 276w-280w.

The high cadence is interesting. I remember my 70km TT being a high cadence effort last Jan, and followed with FTP in Feb at a much lower cadence.
I find on rolling courses I naturally increase cadence to keep the power consistent where possible.
That, and a lack of current fitness/strength in comparison.
More big gear strength work planned ahead and also hill reps will kick off soon too so should help.

I do have an FTP test planned for next week but need to get rid of this cough first and make sure I don't delay the recovery process.

So Sunday will likely be lots of recovery and no training.
Back to it Monday assuming cough not any worse.

Luckily this is a recovery week and I know it's better to rest now than delay recovery and try train through it, meaning half arsed training and half arsed recovery.


Note to self. Yep, groundhog day. SLEEP. I will learn.

Fazz

Sunday 23rd Feb - Recovery day

30mins strength/core/conditioning done. Mainly single leg squats, balances on one leg and various core work.

Monday 24th Feb - Cough is chesty and not feeling super.

Much debate with myself but decide to take it easy again and see.
Google search on training with a cough brings up:

"if it's in the head then go ahead....
if it's in the chest then give it a rest..."

Mine is in the chest. Not the worst but not 100%.


So an hour of core/conditioning/stretching/foam rolling done.
So tempted to train...


Tuesday 25th Feb.

Feeling a bit better. But still coughing a bit.
I decide I'll change a turbo session. What kind?
An FTP test. Just thought it would be short and sharp and hopefully be ok...

Turbo - FTP Test - ABORTED.
Warm up goes fine, then I start into the 5 Min TT.
I'm down on watts a bit and into 2 mins I try up the effort, chest says no and I start a fit of coughing and drop off.
Abort.
Easy spinning feeling sorry for myself and lots of expletives... :D;):pac:


Wednesday 26th Feb

Nada, Zero, Zilch.
Ate too much.
On plus side cough feels like it's moving up to throat. Plus side I think...

Now I'm almost finished my bottle of exputex, didn't do a whole lot.
I had a boyne valley manuka honey from start but hadn't helped.
As I'm tidying I find a Blue Tub of the strong manuka honey - 400+ rating.
Yep, the bloody expensive stuff.
The last few years, at any kinda cough I would take a few spoons of the strong manuka honey and be done with it no problem.

So I dose up on the magic strong blue tub and cross my fingers.


Thursday 27th Feb

Not feeling much better in the morning, but in the afternoon I am.

Decide I'll try some easy training keeping HR low.

Run -Easy 1hr 10min - 14km, 5 odd/km pace.
Coughed a little at start but fine thereafter.

Home and jump on turbo as feel fine.

Turbo - 1hr 10min easy zones mainly 150w or so. Again feel fine.

So good signs.


Friday 28th Feb

Feeling better again, taking lots of the strong manuka honey and it's working for me.

Swim - 3.2km - 1hr 10

in for 8 x 400's at miserable slow pace. Over a week since I swam and I was a brick. 400's in 7min or just below. Breathing laboured but I held for the 8 x 400's so not the worst. Didn't want to push too much yet but didn't have any feel for the water either so wouldn't have been much faster.

Turbo - 90mins easy mainly 150-175w just banking base time and keeping body not too stressed.


Saturday 1st March

Feeling better but still coughing a little in the throat.
I've a run as my key session of the day, and a bike also.
Decide to get the run done outside and stay indoors for the bike to minimise time outside in the cool air and possible rain until throat completely cleared.

Run - long hilly run up Ticknock. 19.6km, 1hr 45mins.
Coughing a little at start but fine thereafter bar when hr rose on hilly efforts.


So, I think I've managed to fight off the chesty cough I had and only compromised a few rest days at the start. Hopefully so anyway and keeping my training easy and not out in cold for too long just in case.

Better that than longer. I won't increase the HR efforts until I feel it's all cleared as it seems to exacerbate the coughing.

Manuka Honey, The strong stuff FTW

El Director

+1 on strong Manuka! Well done so far on managing your cold so it has minimum negative impact.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

The manuka honey is good stuff alright.

Fazz

Saturday afternoon

Turbo - 2.5hours easy with a few efforts.
Set up the road bike here for a bit of variety.

Conditioning/core/stretching/foam rolling - 30 mins

Now to finish series 5 of Breaking Bad tonight/tomorrow... 6 episodes to go and it's all going down.

Kurt Godel

Fazz wrote: »

Now to finish series 5 of Breaking Bad tonight/tomorrow... 6 episodes to go and it's all going down.

You're lucky, not having seen these. Brilliant show.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

You're lucky, not having seen these. Brilliant show.

I've never seen a single episode of Breaking Bad. I've sorta got it in the back of my mind to watch the box set on the turbo at some stage.