Busy day today having started with the walk before breakfast then fun and games at the shops before getting stuck into the garden in the afternoon. Followed this with some work on the bikes to spruce them up a bit before finally getting down to my training for the day.
Just some level 3 work on the schedule today but it felt quite hard having done a couple of high VI rides in the last few days. The other thing that isn't helping me just at the moment is my weight loss programme which almost inevitably leaves me feeling low on gas particularly when I'm training most days now.
Still, never mind, it will I hope all be worth it in the end and I just hope when I get onto some decent roads with some decent weather I'll feel that the months of training has paid off, we shall see. Giving some more detailed thought about pacing for the big ride at the moment, more on that in the next day or so.
Ride Time: 01:10 hh:mm
Ride Distance: 26.05 miles
Cumulative Distance: n/a miles
Elevation Gain: n/a feet
Average Speed: 22.3 mph
Average Heart Rate: 138 bpm
Maximum Power: 273W
Average Power: 215W
Normalised Power: 229W
Intensity Factor: 0.752
Variability Index: 1.07
Training Stress Score: 66
Acute Training Load: 88.1
Chronic Training Load: 79.8
Training Stress Balance: -10.7
To review the session: click here.
Showing posts with label L3 Turbo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label L3 Turbo. Show all posts
Friday, 23 April 2010
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Tuesday Training
Tuesday's training was planned to be a slightly more sedate affair than yesterday's TTT. The weather once again is absolutely dreadful and there is now some local flooding. There is loads of standing water on the roads where drains have been overwhelmed and no chance whatsoever of training outside, another perfect ErgVideo training day.
One of the ErgVideos I took delivery of yesterday was the Tempo Club Ride which I reckoned would be ideal for today's training. I planned the workout using the IntelliCoach.ca Profile Toolbox to deliver the required TSS and away I went.
This was an excellent session and an excellent ErgVideo. I didn't ride the full video as I'd planned the session to be about 70 minutes in length to include the harder section in the middle. This was an extremely realistic session and there was plenty of hard work in it particularly when it got lively at about the hour mark! It was a shame in a way to finish when I did as the ride calmed down somewhat after the part I had already done but I'll save that for another day.
All in all a good session, felt strong throughout and was particularly pleased with how I felt able to deal with the harder surges up in the 350-390W range later in the ride, all felt very promising. It's always quite satisfying I feel when the heart rate data for a session shows a lower exertion pattern than that represented by the power data for the session, as is illustrated below for this session.
To review the data: click here.
ATL: 75.6 CTL: 72.3 TSB: -3.4
One of the ErgVideos I took delivery of yesterday was the Tempo Club Ride which I reckoned would be ideal for today's training. I planned the workout using the IntelliCoach.ca Profile Toolbox to deliver the required TSS and away I went.
This was an excellent session and an excellent ErgVideo. I didn't ride the full video as I'd planned the session to be about 70 minutes in length to include the harder section in the middle. This was an extremely realistic session and there was plenty of hard work in it particularly when it got lively at about the hour mark! It was a shame in a way to finish when I did as the ride calmed down somewhat after the part I had already done but I'll save that for another day.
All in all a good session, felt strong throughout and was particularly pleased with how I felt able to deal with the harder surges up in the 350-390W range later in the ride, all felt very promising. It's always quite satisfying I feel when the heart rate data for a session shows a lower exertion pattern than that represented by the power data for the session, as is illustrated below for this session.
ATL: 75.6 CTL: 72.3 TSB: -3.4
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Thursday Training
Today's training session was made up of another ErgVideo session using the Ride to the Tour video. My current plan, as I've mentioned before, is mainly geared towards steadily raising my CTL before increasing the intensity of my training during the spring.
An "easy" way to do this is just my tracking one's CTL and it is then easy to plan workouts which deliver a steady climb, particularly using the ErgVideo system. To keep the CTL steadily climbing I just check my current CTL and then plan workouts for much of the week which deliver a TSS at or just above my current CTL.
So, with a current CTL of just under 70 today's workout was planned using the IntelliCoach system to deliver a TSS of 75, this ensures that my CTL keeps steadily rising but not rising too fast. Click here to see the pre-planned workout which I then transfer to the VeloTron. The main CTL bump up comes at the weekend now where I'll be trying to do some longer rides to build CTL and endurance.
The session went well with no real difficulties though this ErgVideo does have a couple of challenging climbs early on which provide a nice little period of work just above threshold, not so nice at the time though :-) So, another session done and another day ticked off on the road to Paris, I'll just keep plugging away.
To review this session: click here.
An "easy" way to do this is just my tracking one's CTL and it is then easy to plan workouts which deliver a steady climb, particularly using the ErgVideo system. To keep the CTL steadily climbing I just check my current CTL and then plan workouts for much of the week which deliver a TSS at or just above my current CTL.
So, with a current CTL of just under 70 today's workout was planned using the IntelliCoach system to deliver a TSS of 75, this ensures that my CTL keeps steadily rising but not rising too fast. Click here to see the pre-planned workout which I then transfer to the VeloTron. The main CTL bump up comes at the weekend now where I'll be trying to do some longer rides to build CTL and endurance.
The session went well with no real difficulties though this ErgVideo does have a couple of challenging climbs early on which provide a nice little period of work just above threshold, not so nice at the time though :-) So, another session done and another day ticked off on the road to Paris, I'll just keep plugging away.
To review this session: click here.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Wednesday Training
Wednesday's training session has to be squeezed in before setting off to work so I opted for a straightforward L3 aerobic conditioning session at a wattage varying between 76 and 90% of my FTP. The session went absolutely fine and passed pretty quickly, I did 2x25' efforts.
As I whirr away on the VeloTron my mind returns to the approaching Tour de France ride and as the time gets closer my anxiety levels slowly rise, it's going to be an awful long way on a bike but in spite of this I'm really looking forward to it still.
Tim Moore's book "French Revolutioins" is a hugely enjoyable read and contains some wonderful one liners such as his sad reflection on his final dismount on the Col d'Aubisque 4km from the summit: "But it was no good. I was not a climber. One of the final unexplored avenues for sporting glory was closing before me, and what was now left to a man of 36? Golf, perhaps. Darts. Curling?
Reading this and similar passages in the book I am bound I guess to reflect on Tim's experiences with one particular fact at the forefront of my mind - he was 15 years younger than me. Hmm... I am utterly convinced that the challenge ahead will largely be won or lost in the mind, and I'm not in this to lose that battle. Tourmalet? Pah! I smile in your face and wish you were longer, you are no more than a mere pimple on the route! I wonder if I will regret typing that, maybe just a little, on the second ascent?
To review this session: click here.
As I whirr away on the VeloTron my mind returns to the approaching Tour de France ride and as the time gets closer my anxiety levels slowly rise, it's going to be an awful long way on a bike but in spite of this I'm really looking forward to it still.
Tim Moore's book "French Revolutioins" is a hugely enjoyable read and contains some wonderful one liners such as his sad reflection on his final dismount on the Col d'Aubisque 4km from the summit: "But it was no good. I was not a climber. One of the final unexplored avenues for sporting glory was closing before me, and what was now left to a man of 36? Golf, perhaps. Darts. Curling?
Reading this and similar passages in the book I am bound I guess to reflect on Tim's experiences with one particular fact at the forefront of my mind - he was 15 years younger than me. Hmm... I am utterly convinced that the challenge ahead will largely be won or lost in the mind, and I'm not in this to lose that battle. Tourmalet? Pah! I smile in your face and wish you were longer, you are no more than a mere pimple on the route! I wonder if I will regret typing that, maybe just a little, on the second ascent?
To review this session: click here.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Monday Training
Another return to Mt Ventoux to continue with my tempo training and to prepare me for the long climbs of the Tour de France route. This session delivered the planned TSS of 65 with a normalised power for the session of 246W so not too hard but hard enough to know that at the end of it I had done some useful work. I wasn't starting fresh after yesterday's 2 hours which makes all the difference.
One of the many good things about the ErgVideo system is it's variabilty and in particular the fact that even during a tempo session such as this I rode a useful 10 minutes or so in my threshold training zone which is always desirable.
I have now got the planning of these workouts using the Intellicoach online tool down to just a minute or two which is great, certainly a lot quicker than manually producing a .erg file though now that I have my .erg file libraries available that's not realy an issue.
I often think as I'm working away what the Tour de France ride is going to be like but until I actually start I'm just not going to know. I'm sure there will be highs and lows but I just hope against hope that I can keep going and that I stay well. I'm training as best I can for the event but it would be nice to be 15-20 years younger but in the end there is damned all I can do about that. I'm just going to hope that all the hard work will make me physiologically young enough to make it, and I'll ignore the label that's attached to me, as usual :-)
I'm going have to keep a careful eye on my TSB which is falling steadily and I don't really want it to go too much below -10 at this stage. I have taken it far lower than that in the past but early in the season higher levels of fatigue are best avoided as they can just lead to premature burn-out and a tired and miserable spring, which is the last thing I want. I find that as I get fitter and I build my endurance I can tolerate lower TSB values so caution is the plan just now. As you can see I've kept my TSB deliberately high over the winter, there's just no point in flogging yourself to death at that time of year.
ATL: 74.9 CTL: 63.9 TSB: -11.8
One of the many good things about the ErgVideo system is it's variabilty and in particular the fact that even during a tempo session such as this I rode a useful 10 minutes or so in my threshold training zone which is always desirable.
I have now got the planning of these workouts using the Intellicoach online tool down to just a minute or two which is great, certainly a lot quicker than manually producing a .erg file though now that I have my .erg file libraries available that's not realy an issue.
I often think as I'm working away what the Tour de France ride is going to be like but until I actually start I'm just not going to know. I'm sure there will be highs and lows but I just hope against hope that I can keep going and that I stay well. I'm training as best I can for the event but it would be nice to be 15-20 years younger but in the end there is damned all I can do about that. I'm just going to hope that all the hard work will make me physiologically young enough to make it, and I'll ignore the label that's attached to me, as usual :-)
I'm going have to keep a careful eye on my TSB which is falling steadily and I don't really want it to go too much below -10 at this stage. I have taken it far lower than that in the past but early in the season higher levels of fatigue are best avoided as they can just lead to premature burn-out and a tired and miserable spring, which is the last thing I want. I find that as I get fitter and I build my endurance I can tolerate lower TSB values so caution is the plan just now. As you can see I've kept my TSB deliberately high over the winter, there's just no point in flogging yourself to death at that time of year.
ATL: 74.9 CTL: 63.9 TSB: -11.8
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Sunday Training
Another pretty hard ErgVideo session using the Ride to the Tour DVD. It's a constant source of amazement to me just how many different workouts you can plan from a single DVD, and I find the time passes so much more quickly using this system. I have no doubt though that there is still a very real place for structured .erg file training in my programme.
It is going to be very interesting in about 2 weeks time when I revisit some of my standard .erg file workouts and see what, if any, difference the use of the ErgVideo system has made, until that time I've got no real way of knowing. I'm pretty sure in my own mind that training this way is making me stronger in terms of dealing with sudden pace changes and extended periods of what, for me, is very hard work.
Today's session once again incorporated the sprint sections which, because I was riding the session with FTPReal=FTPSet, were harder than previously. My output was rising to above 660W for the 2 sprints and they were very uncomfortable, particularly towards the end of the second one. It's definitely much "easier" to produce these kinds of wattages out on the road rather than seated on an indoor trainer!
Anyhow, the session delivered the TSS I wanted and had planned and this week has seen the 2+ rise in my CTL that I have been planning on, still without going out on the road, but it's not easy. It will get even more difficult the longer I'm stuck indoors. Never mind, it's March tomorrow and I think things will pick up in the next week or so.
To review the session data: click here.
ATL: 75.5 CTL: 63.7 TSB: -6.7
It is going to be very interesting in about 2 weeks time when I revisit some of my standard .erg file workouts and see what, if any, difference the use of the ErgVideo system has made, until that time I've got no real way of knowing. I'm pretty sure in my own mind that training this way is making me stronger in terms of dealing with sudden pace changes and extended periods of what, for me, is very hard work.
Today's session once again incorporated the sprint sections which, because I was riding the session with FTPReal=FTPSet, were harder than previously. My output was rising to above 660W for the 2 sprints and they were very uncomfortable, particularly towards the end of the second one. It's definitely much "easier" to produce these kinds of wattages out on the road rather than seated on an indoor trainer!
Anyhow, the session delivered the TSS I wanted and had planned and this week has seen the 2+ rise in my CTL that I have been planning on, still without going out on the road, but it's not easy. It will get even more difficult the longer I'm stuck indoors. Never mind, it's March tomorrow and I think things will pick up in the next week or so.
To review the session data: click here.
ATL: 75.5 CTL: 63.7 TSB: -6.7
Friday, 26 February 2010
Friday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Another ErgVideo session today but again a different session planned as mentioned earlier on. The actual ride data, as always, matched the predicted values very closely which was great. Today I rode 2 20 minute repeats of the mid section of the Ride to the Tour video and managed to include the section where the The Tour itself came through so it was nice to see a little glimpse of that from a roadside spectator's point of view, it's certainly quite a spectacle.
This was a good solid tempo session, it's very hard to increase one's CTL when pretty much confined to indoor training. It's amazing how "easy" it is out on the road to elevate your CTL, a couple of hours out on the road at a decent pace and you soon clock up 150+ points which makes a huge difference to your CTL build. Training indoors a 100 TSS session is hard work as many of the sessions are only about an hour so that's the equivalent of an hour spent at threshold in order to gain 100 points, you can't really keep doing that day after day on a turbo!
Anyway, I look to be about on target for my 2 points of CTL elevation this week and it will soon be March, surely the weather will pick up soon?
VeloTron
Another ErgVideo session today but again a different session planned as mentioned earlier on. The actual ride data, as always, matched the predicted values very closely which was great. Today I rode 2 20 minute repeats of the mid section of the Ride to the Tour video and managed to include the section where the The Tour itself came through so it was nice to see a little glimpse of that from a roadside spectator's point of view, it's certainly quite a spectacle.
This was a good solid tempo session, it's very hard to increase one's CTL when pretty much confined to indoor training. It's amazing how "easy" it is out on the road to elevate your CTL, a couple of hours out on the road at a decent pace and you soon clock up 150+ points which makes a huge difference to your CTL build. Training indoors a 100 TSS session is hard work as many of the sessions are only about an hour so that's the equivalent of an hour spent at threshold in order to gain 100 points, you can't really keep doing that day after day on a turbo!
Anyway, I look to be about on target for my 2 points of CTL elevation this week and it will soon be March, surely the weather will pick up soon?
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Wednesday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Continuing with my plan of trying to do a ride each day of an equivalent TSS to my current CTL. The workout I had scheduled for today involved riding 3 repeats of a section of the motorpacing ErgVideo. For some inexplicable reason when I had planned the session yesterday I'd included a section of the ride which incorporated 2 pretty short hard efforts at 500+ Watts and I therefore ended up with a ride which included 6 of these efforts, whoopee!
Anyhow, the ride went well and I managed the more challenging sections without grinding to a halt, they key is to get the cadence high before the effort really bites if at all possible and generate the power through leg speed rather than having to rely on pure force which rapidly leads to high levels of suffering in my experience.
Very little time for recovery in this type of training but the time passed quite quickly as I watched the Canadian countryside go by in the company of my pacing motorcyclist, torturer that he is! The ride delivered the planned TSS and so far this week I am on target with my plans. I think looking back that it's time to take a day off which I think I'll do tomorrow as I have a few things I need to get done so the timing looks good.
So, another day of training done on the road to Paris, it's a lot of work but it will all be worth it I am sure, worthwhile things never come easy and if I don't put in the work the Tour de France ride will be just one huge sufferfest, which it may of course be anyway!
ATL: 71.4 CTL: 62.3 TSB: -9.2
VeloTron
Continuing with my plan of trying to do a ride each day of an equivalent TSS to my current CTL. The workout I had scheduled for today involved riding 3 repeats of a section of the motorpacing ErgVideo. For some inexplicable reason when I had planned the session yesterday I'd included a section of the ride which incorporated 2 pretty short hard efforts at 500+ Watts and I therefore ended up with a ride which included 6 of these efforts, whoopee!
Anyhow, the ride went well and I managed the more challenging sections without grinding to a halt, they key is to get the cadence high before the effort really bites if at all possible and generate the power through leg speed rather than having to rely on pure force which rapidly leads to high levels of suffering in my experience.
Very little time for recovery in this type of training but the time passed quite quickly as I watched the Canadian countryside go by in the company of my pacing motorcyclist, torturer that he is! The ride delivered the planned TSS and so far this week I am on target with my plans. I think looking back that it's time to take a day off which I think I'll do tomorrow as I have a few things I need to get done so the timing looks good.
So, another day of training done on the road to Paris, it's a lot of work but it will all be worth it I am sure, worthwhile things never come easy and if I don't put in the work the Tour de France ride will be just one huge sufferfest, which it may of course be anyway!
ATL: 71.4 CTL: 62.3 TSB: -9.2
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Saturday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Steady session planned for today so again I decided to substitute this to gain some more experience with the ErgVideo system. Decided to drop the % of FTP ridden at below 100% and tailor this to be a L2/L3 workout riding this time the whole of the Mont Ventoux climb.
The session went really well and passed surprisingly quickly, it was great to see from a rider's perspective exactly what the climb is like and I'm looking forward to riding it for real one day, especially coming back down.
My CTL graph is just starting to tilt upwards which is how I've planned things and I have a longer ride scheduled tomorrow, almost certainly indoors, which will give it another little push in the right direction. I realised earlier on today that tomorrow is actually the last day of my scheduled winter plan and I now move into the spring build period.
It's quite amazing really to consider that my Tour de France ride starts in just about 19 weeks and that time will fly by. My current CTL is around 60 so if I can raise my CTL by say 1.5 to 2 points per week that should see me up around 90 by the time the ride starts and I reckon that's high enough to do the job.
If I'm wrong it's going to a nasty shock!
To review this session: click here.
ATL: 61.9 CTL: 59.5 TSB: 1.3
VeloTron
Steady session planned for today so again I decided to substitute this to gain some more experience with the ErgVideo system. Decided to drop the % of FTP ridden at below 100% and tailor this to be a L2/L3 workout riding this time the whole of the Mont Ventoux climb.
The session went really well and passed surprisingly quickly, it was great to see from a rider's perspective exactly what the climb is like and I'm looking forward to riding it for real one day, especially coming back down.
My CTL graph is just starting to tilt upwards which is how I've planned things and I have a longer ride scheduled tomorrow, almost certainly indoors, which will give it another little push in the right direction. I realised earlier on today that tomorrow is actually the last day of my scheduled winter plan and I now move into the spring build period.
It's quite amazing really to consider that my Tour de France ride starts in just about 19 weeks and that time will fly by. My current CTL is around 60 so if I can raise my CTL by say 1.5 to 2 points per week that should see me up around 90 by the time the ride starts and I reckon that's high enough to do the job.
If I'm wrong it's going to a nasty shock!
To review this session: click here.
ATL: 61.9 CTL: 59.5 TSB: 1.3
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Wednesday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Instead of the 76-90% session today I decided to have another session using the ErgVideo system to continue to become more familiar with the ins and outs of the way it works, and how to get the best out of it.
The basic use of the system is extremely simple, the bottom line is you can just fire up ErgVideo which will in turn start the CompuTrainer/VeloTron software and you can then configure the ride as you wish and away you go. Taking it another step ahead you can use the video file with it's "embedded" .erg file to produce workouts of all different types using a single video file.
As an example, today I wanted to do a level 3 ride so I set this up using the web based Profile Toolbox which selects the best parts of the .erg file to meet your training goals for the session and then sets a number of repetitions of those sections of the ride so that the entire ride matches very closely your planned training objectives for the session. The system tells you what the TSS etc. will be for the ride so you can easily plan it to match exactly your requirements or to ensure that you do not increase workload too quickly in too short a time.
The ride I planned for today certainly met my expectations and it is interesting to note that because I did some repetitions to hit my training targets I only actually watched just over 20 minutes of the video and the video contains over 2.5 hours of footage. As you will readily appreciate the flexibility of the system means that a huge number of different workouts can be performed from one ErgVideo only, though of course one would want to have a variety of titles to choose from, mine today was "Ride To The Tour".
As previously the TSS/IF/NP etc. data predicted by the software matched pretty much exactly the final workout figures, this is a really excellent way of managing indoor training load and I'm looking forward to getting more into it and making this a key part of my training and coaching.
Today's one hour session was ridden with a NP of 255W so was pretty brisk, the killer was the climb at the end with a five minute average of around 340W, just what you want at the end of the session!
To review this session: click here.
ATL: 58.9 CTL: 59 TSB: 1.8
VeloTron
Instead of the 76-90% session today I decided to have another session using the ErgVideo system to continue to become more familiar with the ins and outs of the way it works, and how to get the best out of it.
The basic use of the system is extremely simple, the bottom line is you can just fire up ErgVideo which will in turn start the CompuTrainer/VeloTron software and you can then configure the ride as you wish and away you go. Taking it another step ahead you can use the video file with it's "embedded" .erg file to produce workouts of all different types using a single video file.
As an example, today I wanted to do a level 3 ride so I set this up using the web based Profile Toolbox which selects the best parts of the .erg file to meet your training goals for the session and then sets a number of repetitions of those sections of the ride so that the entire ride matches very closely your planned training objectives for the session. The system tells you what the TSS etc. will be for the ride so you can easily plan it to match exactly your requirements or to ensure that you do not increase workload too quickly in too short a time.
The ride I planned for today certainly met my expectations and it is interesting to note that because I did some repetitions to hit my training targets I only actually watched just over 20 minutes of the video and the video contains over 2.5 hours of footage. As you will readily appreciate the flexibility of the system means that a huge number of different workouts can be performed from one ErgVideo only, though of course one would want to have a variety of titles to choose from, mine today was "Ride To The Tour".
As previously the TSS/IF/NP etc. data predicted by the software matched pretty much exactly the final workout figures, this is a really excellent way of managing indoor training load and I'm looking forward to getting more into it and making this a key part of my training and coaching.
Today's one hour session was ridden with a NP of 255W so was pretty brisk, the killer was the climb at the end with a five minute average of around 340W, just what you want at the end of the session!
To review this session: click here.
ATL: 58.9 CTL: 59 TSB: 1.8
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Sunday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Still lots of snow and ice and lots to do on the home front. Opted for a bit of steady L3 work @ 80% of FTP which was pretty uneventful and presented no problems.
I've started the grisly task of transferring all my data onto a different PC which is always a gruesome job. Buying new equipment is great at the time but in my experience the pleasure in it's use comes some way down the line when all the grief is over and done with!
My objective is to get to the point where I can use the ErgVideo system for some of my training but at the moment to achieve this using a 64-bit W7 PC is looking unlikely with the VeloTron. I'll continue to try though, and see where it leads me. Sometimes I wish I could just leave systems alone and not be constantly trying to "improve" things, I really do almost drive myself mad, Lord knows what it does to Lorena.
VeloTron
Still lots of snow and ice and lots to do on the home front. Opted for a bit of steady L3 work @ 80% of FTP which was pretty uneventful and presented no problems.
I've started the grisly task of transferring all my data onto a different PC which is always a gruesome job. Buying new equipment is great at the time but in my experience the pleasure in it's use comes some way down the line when all the grief is over and done with!
My objective is to get to the point where I can use the ErgVideo system for some of my training but at the moment to achieve this using a 64-bit W7 PC is looking unlikely with the VeloTron. I'll continue to try though, and see where it leads me. Sometimes I wish I could just leave systems alone and not be constantly trying to "improve" things, I really do almost drive myself mad, Lord knows what it does to Lorena.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Thursday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Good steady session and I'm feeling fine in spite of the cold. Nothing very much exciting to say about today, just steady as she goes :-)
ATL: 59.1 CTL: 69.8 TSB: 16.2
[Uploaded 21/11/2009 22:22:11]
VeloTron
Good steady session and I'm feeling fine in spite of the cold. Nothing very much exciting to say about today, just steady as she goes :-)
ATL: 59.1 CTL: 69.8 TSB: 16.2
[Uploaded 21/11/2009 22:22:11]
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Sunday Training
VeloTron
No heroics, just plugging away with some more L3 work to try to keep ticking over. Still spending much of my time on the TrainingPeaks project which is certainly going in the right direction.
ATL: 51.6 CTL: 74.4 TSB: 24.8
[Uploaded 15/11/2009 17:24:49]
No heroics, just plugging away with some more L3 work to try to keep ticking over. Still spending much of my time on the TrainingPeaks project which is certainly going in the right direction.
ATL: 51.6 CTL: 74.4 TSB: 24.8
[Uploaded 15/11/2009 17:24:49]
Friday, 6 November 2009
Friday Training
VeloTron
Steady level 3 session which went fine. Slowly but surely detraining at the moment which is sort of hard to take but I'll get back into the swing of things, the time just has to be right.
ATL: 56 CTL: 76.4 TSB: 21.9
[Uploaded 15/11/2009 17:14:22]
Steady level 3 session which went fine. Slowly but surely detraining at the moment which is sort of hard to take but I'll get back into the swing of things, the time just has to be right.
ATL: 56 CTL: 76.4 TSB: 21.9
[Uploaded 15/11/2009 17:14:22]
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Sunday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Well we had a group ride scheduled for today but the severe weather alert that had been issued by MetCheck came true and it was one of the worst day's for weather that I've seen for a long time. Heavy rain and high winds all day and night with local flooding.
No way I was going out in that so settled for some L3 work on the VeloTron which went fine, then spent the rest of the day having a nice time and moving a few little projects along.
ATL: 75.6 CTL: 82.5 TSB: 6.4
[Uploaded 05/11/2009 05:32:41]
VeloTron
Well we had a group ride scheduled for today but the severe weather alert that had been issued by MetCheck came true and it was one of the worst day's for weather that I've seen for a long time. Heavy rain and high winds all day and night with local flooding.
No way I was going out in that so settled for some L3 work on the VeloTron which went fine, then spent the rest of the day having a nice time and moving a few little projects along.
ATL: 75.6 CTL: 82.5 TSB: 6.4
[Uploaded 05/11/2009 05:32:41]
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Thursday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Some steady sweet spot work today just plugging away and maintaining my aerobic fitness I hope. Doing SST work with a load which varies between 88 and 94% is definitely more challenging that isopower training and I am sure more beneficial.
The average wattages for the 2 efforts are exactly the same but the variable nature of them makes them definitely harder. The peak wattage is around 10W higher than during an isopower effort and yet the lower load periods are not low enough to allow significant recovery, interesting.
ATL: 76.3 CTL: 83.7 TSB: +7.6
[Uploaded 22/10/2009 18:43:39]
VeloTron
Some steady sweet spot work today just plugging away and maintaining my aerobic fitness I hope. Doing SST work with a load which varies between 88 and 94% is definitely more challenging that isopower training and I am sure more beneficial.
The average wattages for the 2 efforts are exactly the same but the variable nature of them makes them definitely harder. The peak wattage is around 10W higher than during an isopower effort and yet the lower load periods are not low enough to allow significant recovery, interesting.
ATL: 76.3 CTL: 83.7 TSB: +7.6
[Uploaded 22/10/2009 18:43:39]
Friday, 16 October 2009
Friday Training
Hi
VeloTron
No heroics today, as if there ever are! Had a terrible night's sleep last night so didn't feel very good to start with but I stuck with it (I wanted to pack in) and got through the session. It's surprising but as so often happens I felt better at the 25-30 minute point and things were Ok thereafter. Wish I knew what happens physiologically after this length of time but I don't think anyone really does.
So, the session was just some straightforward L3 work done using an ERG+ generated file with the random load generator. Definitely less tedious than the isopower sessions I was doing and I am sure more beneficial.
Before we went out I spent a bit of time redoing my 2 RAMP test files as .erp files with a built in warmup. I now have both elite and non-elite protocols set up. The elite protocol increases the load by 20W every minute in steps of 5W every 15 seconds. The non elite protocol increases the load by 25W every minute in steps of 5W every 12 seconds. A bit tedious to set up but they are done now and I think much better than setting them up in 25W steps, won't be long before I'm using one of them!
Out on the road tomorrow I hope :-)
ATL: 74.1 CTL: 83.7 TSB: +9
[Uploaded 16/10/2009 19:38:42]
VeloTron
No heroics today, as if there ever are! Had a terrible night's sleep last night so didn't feel very good to start with but I stuck with it (I wanted to pack in) and got through the session. It's surprising but as so often happens I felt better at the 25-30 minute point and things were Ok thereafter. Wish I knew what happens physiologically after this length of time but I don't think anyone really does.
So, the session was just some straightforward L3 work done using an ERG+ generated file with the random load generator. Definitely less tedious than the isopower sessions I was doing and I am sure more beneficial.
Before we went out I spent a bit of time redoing my 2 RAMP test files as .erp files with a built in warmup. I now have both elite and non-elite protocols set up. The elite protocol increases the load by 20W every minute in steps of 5W every 15 seconds. The non elite protocol increases the load by 25W every minute in steps of 5W every 12 seconds. A bit tedious to set up but they are done now and I think much better than setting them up in 25W steps, won't be long before I'm using one of them!
Out on the road tomorrow I hope :-)
ATL: 74.1 CTL: 83.7 TSB: +9
[Uploaded 16/10/2009 19:38:42]
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Sunday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Quite a windy day and pretty chilly so opted to continue with my experimentation with files generated using the ERG+ package. Using the same original data file as I used for yesterday's workout I produced a .erg file which rather than a series of isopower blocks (hats in ERG+ "speak") was made up of a series of varying power lines as shown below.
I found this workout extremely realistic in comparison with the road ride from which the file was generated.
I am more and more convinced that indoor training particularly using these varying power .erg files is going to be hugely beneficial. I'll be doing some formal testing in the next few weeks which will give me a clear idea of where I currently stand and in particular whether my high intensity block at the beginning of the week is bearing any fruit.
So, all on track at present and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go during next weekend's 50 mile chain gang. I'm hoping to be starting to feel the benefit of my work, particularly when those inevitable 400+ watt surges come along.
Speaking of HIT, that's the plan for tomorrow, week 4 of the series. To review this workout click here.
ATL: 84.7 CTL: 86.6 TSB: +5.2
[Uploaded 11/10/2009 18:13:12]
VeloTron
Quite a windy day and pretty chilly so opted to continue with my experimentation with files generated using the ERG+ package. Using the same original data file as I used for yesterday's workout I produced a .erg file which rather than a series of isopower blocks (hats in ERG+ "speak") was made up of a series of varying power lines as shown below.
I found this workout extremely realistic in comparison with the road ride from which the file was generated.
I am more and more convinced that indoor training particularly using these varying power .erg files is going to be hugely beneficial. I'll be doing some formal testing in the next few weeks which will give me a clear idea of where I currently stand and in particular whether my high intensity block at the beginning of the week is bearing any fruit.
So, all on track at present and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go during next weekend's 50 mile chain gang. I'm hoping to be starting to feel the benefit of my work, particularly when those inevitable 400+ watt surges come along.
Speaking of HIT, that's the plan for tomorrow, week 4 of the series. To review this workout click here.
ATL: 84.7 CTL: 86.6 TSB: +5.2
[Uploaded 11/10/2009 18:13:12]
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Saturday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Bit of a new departure for me today. 2 weeks ago I did some road trials on a TT bike I have on loan and collected the power data during the session. Today, using a .erg file generated using the ERG+ package, I rode the session again but on the VeloTron having extracted any coasting or stopped sections and it really did work extremely well. This arrangement has considerable potential to benefit my Winter training greatly.
The TSS for the indoor and outdoor versions were pretty much identical and the IF for the indoor ride was actually slightly higher than the outdoor version and of course there was no coasting time as one gets out on the road.
All in all an excellent session and certainly a training arrangement I will be using frequently. The real beauty is that I can now scale this workout up or down by whatever percentage I wish and also, if my FTP alters, the workout can be automatically recalculated to reflect this to ensure that I continue to make the same effort relative to my FTP.
I believe that I may be onto something here which will see me stronger in the Spring :-) To review the session click here.
ATL: 80.7 CTL: 85.9 TSB: +9
[Uploaded 10/10/2009 15:12:19]
VeloTron
Bit of a new departure for me today. 2 weeks ago I did some road trials on a TT bike I have on loan and collected the power data during the session. Today, using a .erg file generated using the ERG+ package, I rode the session again but on the VeloTron having extracted any coasting or stopped sections and it really did work extremely well. This arrangement has considerable potential to benefit my Winter training greatly.
The TSS for the indoor and outdoor versions were pretty much identical and the IF for the indoor ride was actually slightly higher than the outdoor version and of course there was no coasting time as one gets out on the road.
All in all an excellent session and certainly a training arrangement I will be using frequently. The real beauty is that I can now scale this workout up or down by whatever percentage I wish and also, if my FTP alters, the workout can be automatically recalculated to reflect this to ensure that I continue to make the same effort relative to my FTP.
I believe that I may be onto something here which will see me stronger in the Spring :-) To review the session click here.
ATL: 80.7 CTL: 85.9 TSB: +9
[Uploaded 10/10/2009 15:12:19]
Friday, 9 October 2009
Friday Training
Hi
VeloTron
Prepared an ERG+ file for today's L3 session spanning my entire L3 power range from 76% to 90% and it was definitely less comfortable than my previous isowattage session "somewhere in the middle of the range". My L3 range covers about a 40W range so quite a difference in feel between the lower and upper ends of the scale.
Anyhow, that aside, the session went absolutely fine and it's another useful session in the bank on a very windy and very cold Northumberland day. Much rather be training indoors at this time of year, to be honest I think if I couldn't I probably wouldn't bother!
To review this workout click here.
ATL: 76.1 CTL: 85.1 TSB: +8.3
[Uploaded 09/10/2009 16:09:12]
VeloTron
Prepared an ERG+ file for today's L3 session spanning my entire L3 power range from 76% to 90% and it was definitely less comfortable than my previous isowattage session "somewhere in the middle of the range". My L3 range covers about a 40W range so quite a difference in feel between the lower and upper ends of the scale.
Anyhow, that aside, the session went absolutely fine and it's another useful session in the bank on a very windy and very cold Northumberland day. Much rather be training indoors at this time of year, to be honest I think if I couldn't I probably wouldn't bother!
To review this workout click here.
ATL: 76.1 CTL: 85.1 TSB: +8.3
[Uploaded 09/10/2009 16:09:12]
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