After an abbreviated week of training ( missed a day of training due to scheduling conflicts ), I was kinda feeling bummed. It's just one of those things when you expect to have 6 days of training, and only get 5. So while I was entering my stats tonight, I was perusing the differences between last February and this month.
February 2006:
913.19 km
20 rides
- 7 on the rollers
- 3 spin classes
- 10 outside
HR Zone Times (since I don't have power numbers for last year)
Zone 1: 6 hr 47 min
Zone 2: 6 hr 23 min
Zone 3: 9 hr 13 min
Zone 4: 6 hr 23 min
Zone 5: 1 hr 13 min
February 2007 (through the 24th):
1629.7 km
20 rides
- 3 days on trainer
- 17 outside
HR Zone Times (since I don't have power numbers for last year)
Zone 1: 26 hr 37 min
Zone 2: 15 hr 52 min
Zone 3: 4 hr 59 min
Zone 4: 4 hr 24 min
Zone 5: 39 min
With three more workout days left in February I'll have 23 rides and around 1800 km.
All of last season (ending Oct 31st, 2006) I had 2 weeks over 400 km. This week even with missing a day of riding I was at 401km on the bike. All this and I'm still worried about being able to perform at the level necessary to compete against the riders in my area. You can see that there's a significant shift in the way I'm training this year if you compare the HR zones. Of course, a lot of that is simple on the bike endurance mileage.
When I come out of this week, I'll again re-affirm whether or not the training is working. Tuesday is another climb up my favorite Zenitsuboyama TT course. I won't really have tapered for the event like I did the last time, so if my numbers are slightly lower I won't scream and holler. I'll strip the bike down a little this week for the climb. I'd love to get under 28 minutes this time. The more I do the climb the more familiar I am with where I need to be at certain time marks if I expect to get to the top when I want.
More importantly, I can't wait for races to start happening! 22 more days until the Hiroshima race, then there's a race almost every other weekend! Wheeeee!
A little change from last year
February 24, 2007, 10:48 amHiroshima Road Race Course, OYE!
February 23, 2007, 10:38 am
Well, here goes. I'll open the blog entry with a picture of the course profile. Click/Right Click to open it.
Here's the narration, walking through the course.
0-1 km: Straight down hill
1-2 km: Starts with two switch backs of nearly 180 degree turns. These require you to slow down to almost a stop before starting the 10% climb. Not very nice of them. The profile exaggerates the steady climb when it appears to begin levelling off. In reality, that's the flatest part of the course, before it drops at the 2km mark.
2-4 km: Downhill and windy. There are a couple quick ascents that I can take without changing gears but just standing up and pushing through. The first one right at around 2.4 km is the only one that tempts you to change gears but it ends right as you're about ready to. This will be the section there is a pile up if the riders try to get two people wide on the course.
4-5 km: After a couple laps, I was calling this the "bridge to bridge" climb. You go under a bridge and start climbing until you reach the next bridge at 4.8km
5-6 km: This is the VORTAC climb. Once the Hongo VORTAC (air navigational aid, or giant antenna for the layman) comes into view, it's time to climb again. The road dips momentarily and then climbs to finish it off. The descending gets steep from the top here to the 6.2-6.3 km mark.
6-7 km: The course comes up along side the runway, about 50 meters above you. You head under a covered fencing on a gradual 1-2% climb before hitting the big climb of this section. The road really just tips straight up for this climb. It only lasts 45-50 seconds at best, but it's a heck of a climb.
7-8.5 km: This descending is technical and very fast. Speeds pushing 40mph on a very curvy course. But great fun because it's mostly just get in the tuck and hang on.
8.5-10.5 km: Holy climbing batman! The course heads over the main thoroughfare in/out of the airport on a steady 4-5% climb. Once it gets across, you turn right and start climbing. In the course designer's defense, there are a couple breaks in the climb. Running my 12x23 cassette yesterday I was out of my saddle for each of the 10% sections. To keep a decent cadence I was pushing 400-440 watts on the 10% sections, and really pushing it on the last 10% to the peak at 500-550 watts. Treating it like 4 separate climbs helped me pace through them a little, with some breathing time in between the pushing.
10.5-end: Here's where I think I can make my money on the race. Provided I can keep with the pack through the three laps to the base of the final climb, I'll do what I can to hang on to the whoever the lead rider is over the big climb on the third lap. Once at the top it will be off to the races. I'll do what I can to get as tucked as I can and really go for the last 5 minutes/2.5 km to the finish. The trick will be to get the speed initially to get momentum over the little hill early and then really lay into it when it heads back downward.
All this said, my first goal is to stay upright and on the wheels. No crashing. Since this race is still pretty early in the season, I don't necessarily think I'm going to win, but it sure would be nice! It's the lowest of priorities for me so the rest of the week's training may wear me down a little as well. I don't expect to really do much of a taper for the event.
The training I did on the course was fantastic. The hill climb intervals were just super. After a kinda "blech" week of training, it felt good to be on the course in pretty warm weather (high 50's F). The legs felt pretty on the money for most of the day - though by the 9th time I was going up the climb, I was definitely feeling it.
Can't wait to race!
VW
Here's the narration, walking through the course.
0-1 km: Straight down hill
1-2 km: Starts with two switch backs of nearly 180 degree turns. These require you to slow down to almost a stop before starting the 10% climb. Not very nice of them. The profile exaggerates the steady climb when it appears to begin levelling off. In reality, that's the flatest part of the course, before it drops at the 2km mark.
2-4 km: Downhill and windy. There are a couple quick ascents that I can take without changing gears but just standing up and pushing through. The first one right at around 2.4 km is the only one that tempts you to change gears but it ends right as you're about ready to. This will be the section there is a pile up if the riders try to get two people wide on the course.
4-5 km: After a couple laps, I was calling this the "bridge to bridge" climb. You go under a bridge and start climbing until you reach the next bridge at 4.8km
5-6 km: This is the VORTAC climb. Once the Hongo VORTAC (air navigational aid, or giant antenna for the layman) comes into view, it's time to climb again. The road dips momentarily and then climbs to finish it off. The descending gets steep from the top here to the 6.2-6.3 km mark.
6-7 km: The course comes up along side the runway, about 50 meters above you. You head under a covered fencing on a gradual 1-2% climb before hitting the big climb of this section. The road really just tips straight up for this climb. It only lasts 45-50 seconds at best, but it's a heck of a climb.
7-8.5 km: This descending is technical and very fast. Speeds pushing 40mph on a very curvy course. But great fun because it's mostly just get in the tuck and hang on.
8.5-10.5 km: Holy climbing batman! The course heads over the main thoroughfare in/out of the airport on a steady 4-5% climb. Once it gets across, you turn right and start climbing. In the course designer's defense, there are a couple breaks in the climb. Running my 12x23 cassette yesterday I was out of my saddle for each of the 10% sections. To keep a decent cadence I was pushing 400-440 watts on the 10% sections, and really pushing it on the last 10% to the peak at 500-550 watts. Treating it like 4 separate climbs helped me pace through them a little, with some breathing time in between the pushing.
10.5-end: Here's where I think I can make my money on the race. Provided I can keep with the pack through the three laps to the base of the final climb, I'll do what I can to hang on to the whoever the lead rider is over the big climb on the third lap. Once at the top it will be off to the races. I'll do what I can to get as tucked as I can and really go for the last 5 minutes/2.5 km to the finish. The trick will be to get the speed initially to get momentum over the little hill early and then really lay into it when it heads back downward.
All this said, my first goal is to stay upright and on the wheels. No crashing. Since this race is still pretty early in the season, I don't necessarily think I'm going to win, but it sure would be nice! It's the lowest of priorities for me so the rest of the week's training may wear me down a little as well. I don't expect to really do much of a taper for the event.
The training I did on the course was fantastic. The hill climb intervals were just super. After a kinda "blech" week of training, it felt good to be on the course in pretty warm weather (high 50's F). The legs felt pretty on the money for most of the day - though by the 9th time I was going up the climb, I was definitely feeling it.
Can't wait to race!
VW
Week 2 with VO2 intervals, better, and better.
February 18, 2007, 7:46 am
Well, week 2 of higher intensities has come and gone. Much more success this week than last.
The week went something like this:
Tuesday: MIET - medium intensity endurance training. 2 hrs total riding, 1 1/2 hours at 310 watts average. ( this so rocks! )
Wednesday: Long ride day.... raaaaain! I hopped on the trainer for an hour. I switched over from the trainer to the rollers for another hour. By this time it looked like the rain was taking a break so I threw on some warm clothes and took off outside. It took less than half an hour outside for the rain to start dumping down on me again. *mumble*
Thursday: Sprints mixed with zone 1 riding. New personal best on sprints in w/kg. I'm still not in the ball park of my best 5 second from last year in raw wattage, but I'm up about 1 w/kg.
Friday: Recovery spinning. Nothing exciting
Saturday: Here they come. 3 hours of riding mixed with 4 minute power intervals. I got out of the house early to try to beat the rain on my second "long ride" of the week. To no avail... By noon, my morning had looked something like this:
The intervals felt strong. But by the 2 hour mark, it was a driving rain and I had to move into the house on the trainer. So I got three good intervals outside, 385 watts, 388 watts, and 381 watts.
Moving inside changes things a little. Riding the trainer at any zone is not like riding the roads in the same zones (some people may disagree/agree, but I know what my PE tells me). I got through APIs 4 and 5 nicely at 389 watts, and 381 watts. By the time I got around to API 6, I was just plain wore out. My legs never really warmed up coming inside and I bailed out of the sixth API at 1min 27sec at only 367 watts.
This week I'm heading up to Hiroshima's airport course to get some good riding in there. 4 hours on Thursday doing loops of the 13.2 km course and some good hill intervals. There's a 1 km section of 10% climb on that course. I need to be prepared for that come March 18th. Racing is less than a month away!
VW
The week went something like this:
Tuesday: MIET - medium intensity endurance training. 2 hrs total riding, 1 1/2 hours at 310 watts average. ( this so rocks! )
Wednesday: Long ride day.... raaaaain! I hopped on the trainer for an hour. I switched over from the trainer to the rollers for another hour. By this time it looked like the rain was taking a break so I threw on some warm clothes and took off outside. It took less than half an hour outside for the rain to start dumping down on me again. *mumble*
Thursday: Sprints mixed with zone 1 riding. New personal best on sprints in w/kg. I'm still not in the ball park of my best 5 second from last year in raw wattage, but I'm up about 1 w/kg.
Friday: Recovery spinning. Nothing exciting
Saturday: Here they come. 3 hours of riding mixed with 4 minute power intervals. I got out of the house early to try to beat the rain on my second "long ride" of the week. To no avail... By noon, my morning had looked something like this:
The intervals felt strong. But by the 2 hour mark, it was a driving rain and I had to move into the house on the trainer. So I got three good intervals outside, 385 watts, 388 watts, and 381 watts.
Moving inside changes things a little. Riding the trainer at any zone is not like riding the roads in the same zones (some people may disagree/agree, but I know what my PE tells me). I got through APIs 4 and 5 nicely at 389 watts, and 381 watts. By the time I got around to API 6, I was just plain wore out. My legs never really warmed up coming inside and I bailed out of the sixth API at 1min 27sec at only 367 watts.
This week I'm heading up to Hiroshima's airport course to get some good riding in there. 4 hours on Thursday doing loops of the 13.2 km course and some good hill intervals. There's a 1 km section of 10% climb on that course. I need to be prepared for that come March 18th. Racing is less than a month away!
VW
New Week, Try Again
February 11, 2007, 8:21 am
Saturday was my first L5 or VO2max workout of the season, or rather... was supposed to be.
Disappointingly enough, it just didn't happen. The plan was to get on the bike, do 30 minutes of L1 cruising and start doing 5 minute VO2max workouts, separated by 30 minutes of L1 cruising for a total of 3 hours of riding. Intensity, 380-400 watts for 5 minutes.
The challenge? I think too much time on the bike. I got to the first one and was thwarted by a descent on my hill I was using. It was a route I am not used to - mistake number one - so when the road tipped downward it was impossible to keep 380-400 watts on the descent, so when it tipped back up I finished off the interval.
I cruised to the bottom, and pedaled down to the base of a hill I knew I could get a good stretch of time in. 30 minutes went by and off I went. This interval ended at 4 minutes 45 seconds instead of the prescribed 5 minutes. I cruise over the top of the hill and settled into the valley nearby to get ready for interval attempt number 3 of 5.
I only got about 2 minutes of interval number 3 done and I realized it just wasn't happening. FRUSTRATION!
I am pretty sure this is the first workout of the power training change that I haven't been able to complete at the prescribed intensity for the prescribed number of efforts.
I followed the rule of intervals and that's if it doesn't happen, don't wreck yourself. So I dropped out of the mountains to the coast and pedaled my way home for a miserable 117 TSS, 2 hr 45 minute day.
This week's stats:
19.3 hours on the bike
553 km
916.9 TSS
with a mere IF factor for the week of .689.
Since bumping my functional threshold, based on my testing data - my weekly IF has dropped through the floor, so likewise my weekly TSS has dropped. Even though my legs are downright beat up today, my TSS isn't as high as its been on weeks I felt much stronger. I think this points to me underestimating my FTP earlier on giving me a false view of what a given TSS amount should feel like. I really have to "reset" that paradigm on my new training zones. A 5 hour day on the bike in December, normalized power 257, TSS: 332. Today was just shy of 5 hours, normalized power 251, only 224 TSS.
This coming week will be a "lighter" week in the scheme of things. 2 hours less on the bike with a light spinning/recovery day on Friday. That will precede my next attempt at the VO2max work. I'm dying to make those intervals work. I want the time in zone so bad. I know that the next step in training is to start stretching that area of my ability range, and I need to make it work.
This week I'm abandoning my plan to do it on hills though. I have a "rough" 5 minute loop on the base here that is almost completely flat. This week's goal will be to do the 380-400w intervals on that loop. It will give me a better idea for a "finish line" on each lap and will allow me to just sit down and hammer.
The good news is the weather remains completely cooperative for February. This week has one day with forecasted highs under 10 degrees C. And when the week ends we're only 10 days out of March. Short sleeves are on the horizon!
VW
Disappointingly enough, it just didn't happen. The plan was to get on the bike, do 30 minutes of L1 cruising and start doing 5 minute VO2max workouts, separated by 30 minutes of L1 cruising for a total of 3 hours of riding. Intensity, 380-400 watts for 5 minutes.
The challenge? I think too much time on the bike. I got to the first one and was thwarted by a descent on my hill I was using. It was a route I am not used to - mistake number one - so when the road tipped downward it was impossible to keep 380-400 watts on the descent, so when it tipped back up I finished off the interval.
I cruised to the bottom, and pedaled down to the base of a hill I knew I could get a good stretch of time in. 30 minutes went by and off I went. This interval ended at 4 minutes 45 seconds instead of the prescribed 5 minutes. I cruise over the top of the hill and settled into the valley nearby to get ready for interval attempt number 3 of 5.
I only got about 2 minutes of interval number 3 done and I realized it just wasn't happening. FRUSTRATION!
I am pretty sure this is the first workout of the power training change that I haven't been able to complete at the prescribed intensity for the prescribed number of efforts.
I followed the rule of intervals and that's if it doesn't happen, don't wreck yourself. So I dropped out of the mountains to the coast and pedaled my way home for a miserable 117 TSS, 2 hr 45 minute day.
This week's stats:
19.3 hours on the bike
553 km
916.9 TSS
with a mere IF factor for the week of .689.
Since bumping my functional threshold, based on my testing data - my weekly IF has dropped through the floor, so likewise my weekly TSS has dropped. Even though my legs are downright beat up today, my TSS isn't as high as its been on weeks I felt much stronger. I think this points to me underestimating my FTP earlier on giving me a false view of what a given TSS amount should feel like. I really have to "reset" that paradigm on my new training zones. A 5 hour day on the bike in December, normalized power 257, TSS: 332. Today was just shy of 5 hours, normalized power 251, only 224 TSS.
This coming week will be a "lighter" week in the scheme of things. 2 hours less on the bike with a light spinning/recovery day on Friday. That will precede my next attempt at the VO2max work. I'm dying to make those intervals work. I want the time in zone so bad. I know that the next step in training is to start stretching that area of my ability range, and I need to make it work.
This week I'm abandoning my plan to do it on hills though. I have a "rough" 5 minute loop on the base here that is almost completely flat. This week's goal will be to do the 380-400w intervals on that loop. It will give me a better idea for a "finish line" on each lap and will allow me to just sit down and hammer.
The good news is the weather remains completely cooperative for February. This week has one day with forecasted highs under 10 degrees C. And when the week ends we're only 10 days out of March. Short sleeves are on the horizon!
VW
Slight stomach bug, but trianing not deterred!
February 7, 2007, 9:04 amI had a pretty mammoth of a weekend of riding this last weekend. It was all over the country side at every level of pace imaginable.
Saturday's group ride was extremely aggressive. So much so, that I should probably have bailed on it. I knew I had two long days of riding ahead, but I did it anyway. We rode about 90 km as a group up to the Nishiki River/Pure Line stop. The route we took came up to Yasaka on Rte 186, down to Miwa and to Rte 187 via Pref Rte 2. As usually happens, when we got back on the bikes at the 2/187 intersection, it was off to the races. As a group, we were riding right around 40kph pretty much the whole time. As the number 2 guy in the pack at the start, I was doing low level 1 riding. On the front end, I was at/above threshold the whole time. The group ride up to Nishiki whole averaged 250 watts, normalized 289 to include the climbing. The trip home was a comfortable endurance pace, as I lead two newer riders in the area back to the base after peeling off the group a little early.
Sunday's ride wasn't anything particularly eventful. It was simply 3 hrs 50 minutes of upper L1 riding. Some good climbing and I did the reverse of a route I've done a couple times. The climbing going this new way is MUCH steeper so I'll remember to save that for the L2+ days. 109km and some change.
Monday was a 5 hr 15 min day. Super Bowl "Monday" here in Japan means I could ride all day with the kids in school. I had a partner for the day, a triathlete in town with VMAQ-4 out of Cherry Point. I rode a mainly low L1 day around Oshima Island. We had a bit of climbing coming over Oshima when we found out the road was closed down near Katahzoe Beach.
By the time Monday finished off, I'd just completed 3 long days of riding for a total of 361 km and 12 1/2 hours of riding. But, I think I'm paying for it now. I woke up Tuesday morning with some crazy stomach cramps and have been fighting stomach dissatisfaction ever since. Tuesday was an off day, so that was good.
I hopped on the bike today determined to beat the stomach bug. I was a bit nervous about today's workout. Called "MIET" (medium intensity endurance training), it called for an hour and a half at 290-310 watts after warmup. With my new training zones, that puts it right in the middle of zone 3, right?!
Well... here's the catch. Mentally, my mind is still working on two week old training zones. I wouldn't have considered riding an hour and a half at 300 watts two weeks ago. That would have been 93% of my functional threshold! But now that the zones have shifted, it's only 87% That doesn't sound like a lot, but that disparity in intensity would FEEL quite a bit different.
So, I hopped on the bike and got to going. Warmed up and fought the wind. My stomach wasn't very cooperative and (grossly enough) I was having a hard time keeping down the water if I gulped too fast. (not pleasant on a windy day if you aim wrong) An hour into the ride I was beginning to contemplate calling it a day. BUT I PERSEVERED! 30 minutes later I rolled into the main part of the base with an average of 299 watts for the hour and a half, right at the target zone.
I'm pounding liquids to help battle this little cold I'm now fighting, but I have two reasonably easy days of training until I have to do some VO2max work this Saturday. Next week I'll be doing the same MIET workout at the same intensity and now I can safely look forward to it knowing that it's well within the realm of work I can do.
These new training zones are daunting, but my wife has been quick to remind me that they will only serve to make me stronger.
Finally.. this will probably be a "banner week" for me in distance/time on the bike. Based on the work schedule and getting really long rides in on Sunday/Monday, this is probably going to be about 20 hours and 560 km of riding this week. Phew... lots of time on the bike!