NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Monday, 11 August 2008

You know your training is going well when...

...you spend longer doing your intervals than you should.

OK, maybe it's because I'm stupid but tonight was supposed to be a 2 x 20 min turbo session at 95% of FTP (290 watts for me) (only 2 x 20 because I have a race this weekend). I duly warmed up, calibrated the turbo and cracked on with the session. 20 minutes later, did 2 minutes recovery, so elapsed time now 22 minutes. Then into the 2nd interval (of 20 minutes remember) and so what time did I stop? 42 minutes? That would be the logical answer but today I went on to 44 minutes. Anyone who has done this session knows it is mentally hard and yet I was quite happy spinning away.

I don't know what I've done recently but my ave HR was again well down for this session. It's supposed to be Level 3 but last week when I did 3 x 20 my ave HR was only 147 and today it was even lower at 143. I thought last week's reading was a fluke but tonight's session suggests its time to re-do the FTP test. Unfortunately its the middle of the race season so that's not going to happen; I might just add 10 watts to the L3 and L4 sessions and see if that hits the predicted HR zones and re-test at the start of the winter training season.

I also went swimming this morning for the first time in 10 days; it was horrible, the water was like treacle and I really didn't enjoy it. So I'm going again tomorrow.

Train smart folks (unlike me at the moment!).
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4 comments:

Sags said...

As someone who does these turbo sessions, I know that a HR of 143 for 290W is impressive! I am around 168! I know that turbo trainers will fluctuate and you cannot compare wattage between different turbo trainers, but the fact that your HR is reducing when producing the same power is a good sign dude! You should come off the bike fresher and put in a storming run!

12 August 2008 at 09:02
Turbo Man said...

Cheer buddy.

I will be able to get a good 2-week block between Aberfeldy and Vitruvian so maybe try out the increased wattage then.

Not sure about "a storming run" though!

12 August 2008 at 09:30
Iron Girl said...

Your bike session scare me!

13 August 2008 at 10:47
Turbo Man said...

Then you know exactly how I feel about your swim sessions!

13 August 2008 at 20:21

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