Moments in Time

Hi

Back into the 2x20s tonight and tried to do the session using a .erg file but I made an error when I edited the .erg file and ended up doing the first 20mins @ 270W and the second 20 mins @ 265W, I forgot to edit the second one from my last session but in the end I'm glad it worked out this way.

In a nutshell I found tonight's session a lot harder than I think I should find a SST session according to the descriptions, my HR and blood lactate data (taken at the end of the 2nd effort) seem to support how I felt! I think I have undergone some detraining and I feel that 270W for SST at the present time is too high.

At the 2nd effort my HR was 175BPM and my blood lactate level was 5.2mmol/l, this has to indicate that by then I was working above my threshold. My gut feeling is that in my current state of (de)training I should probably be doing SST in the lower part of the range (257W-274W) rather than the upper part of the range, probably at about 260W if I am to be working at a level that is regularly repeatable.

All good training though!

Effort data follows:

Effort 1:
Duration: 19:59
Work: 322 kJ
TSS: 28.3 (intensity factor 0.921)
Norm Power: 269
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 4.56%
Pa:HR: 3.81%
Distance: 7.35 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 177 283 269 watts
Heart rate: 132 168 158 bpm
Cadence: 91 96 93 rpm
Speed: 21.6 22.8 22.1 mph
Pace 2:38 2:47 2:43 min/mi
Altitude: 0 0 0 ft
Crank Torque: 161 254 243 lb-in

Effort 2:
Duration: 19:59
Work: 317 kJ
TSS: 27.4 (intensity factor 0.907)
Norm Power: 265
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 5.18%
Pa:HR: 4.83%
Distance: 7.351 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 185 317 265 watts
Heart rate: 143 175 166 bpm
Cadence: 81 97 93 rpm
Speed: 19.1 22.9 22.1 mph
Pace 2:37 3:09 2:43 min/mi
Altitude: 0 0 0 ft
Crank Torque: 165 294 239 lb-in

Hi

Bit more intensity tonight but not a particularly tiring session on the turbo doing 2x5 minutes @ 300W, 300W felt "Ok" tonight, not as hard as it has felt, more manageable. Took the opportunity to do a blood lactate test at the end of the 2nd 300W effort and the reading was 3.7mmol/l.

This seems to suggest that things are heading the way I want them to, I've looked back at some previous blood lactate measurements done during various sessions and this is the lowest blood level measured at 300W so far, previous data follows:

25.10.2007 3.7mmol/l @ 300W *
06.08.2007 4.4mmol/l @ 260W
26.06.2007 3.6mmol/l @ 235W
07.06.2007 5.1mmol/l @ 300W
01.06.2007 4.2mmol/l @ 300W

The above information was collected in slightly differing conditions, inevitably, but the results are quite encouraging and are heading in the right direction, seems like a good explanation for why my legs don't seem to be suffering so much! If, as is suggested by a number of people, the "lactate threshold" lies at or about 4mmol/l this suggests that my threshold power is starting to approach 300W. I want to do a FTP test soon (essentially a 20 minute TT on the turbo) to see what my FTP is and I can use this to guide my power training levels as time goes on.

Hi

Tonight is the night to try the new 4x5 session which is 4 very hard (maximal?) efforts to try to raise my VO2 max. I wasn't sure how this would go and in the event it went really badly. My motivation is falling off at the moment anyway and this evening's session has done nothing to improve it, pretty dispiriting but I suppose it was my first go.

I actually only managed 2 efforts and on the third my legs had just "gone" with no strength in them at all. After some steady pedalling I tried to do another effort later in the session with the same result so called it a day, thoroughly dispirited, I thought I could do now this.

Seems to me like the same old story, as soon as I try to do intense efforts I just cave in, not from lack of trying, just that my legs won't do it. I seem to be fine on the turbo or road churning out a decent power output for hour after hour but it seems to be a real problem when it's a sudden very hard effort that I have not been able to build into, my legs just don't seem to want to work like that and there is no way back once they have "gone".

I am sure this related to blood lactate levels suddenly being shoved through the roof and I just don't recover from it, I know from my reading, must dig out the reference, that it takes 10-15 minutes for the level to drop from a single short supramaximal test. A 5 minute recovery means that I'll be starting the 2nd effort with a blood lactate I would guess of 7+ mmol/l!

Can't help but think that I'd be better building up to this with either less efforts or build it up slowly using power measurements to allow my body to adapt as I feel it's just being asked to do something which from past experience it can't do. Need to think about this, my HR seems to respond quite slowly so I'll never get anywhere near my maximum HR for a 5 minute effort unless at the start of the effort it was already very high but it drops very quickly following an effort. I'm always therefore working hard during the effort with a lowish HR which is never sustainable, not by me anyway!

Anyway, some data from the first 2 efforts follows:

Effort 1

Average power output: 336W
Average HR: 161BPM
Average cadence: 96RPM

Effort 2

Average power output: 322W
Average HR: 164BPM
Average cadence: 94RPM

Hi

2x20 scheduled for today and wasn't sure how it would go after yesterday's exertions but I felt pretty good. Ran my .ERG file again so the session was identical to yesterdays ride and it went well, I managed to complete both efforts at the same power (load) levels as yesterday. My HR was a bit higher as would be expected but it was still manageable.

I seem to be recovering well from my training now, better than previously, which is good and I am hoping that I will slowly be able to build on this and start to increase the loads in these sessions over the forthcoming months. Looking around it is this type of session which people like Joe Friel and the people at TrainingPeaks use to run their programmes so I'm happy using this type of pre-planned session from here on, at least I know where I stand!

I did do a small test during tonight's session and found that even if you want to when you have started one of these sessions you cannot adjust the load so once it's started you are fully committed, you can either finish the session or you can't, the option to make it a bit easier does not exist, you can either turn the pedals against the infernally constant load or not, it's got to be good training!

There is no doubt that turbo training is a more efficient method of doing this sort of training than road riding, looking at my CyclingPeaks WKO+ analysed rides, on my Sunday ride I was not pedaling for 20% of the time! Even on the recent L2 ride I was not pedaling for 10% of the time which surprised me. Also this doesn't show (not using a PowerTap) when I am turning the pedals but not really applying much pressure, this is just when the pedals are not turning at all!

Measured lactate levels half way through first effort and the reading was 2.9mmol/l. This is lower than yesterday but the reading was taken in the middle of the effort rather than at the end so I need to standardise this, probably on the end point. The 2 readings suggests that during the effort the lactate level is building rather than remaining reasonably constant, this in turn suggests that I am working at or about my lactate threshold.

Quite satisfactory really, finally feel as if I can now "do" all the sessions and I'm hoping that this methodology will see steady progress being made, at least in 3/6 months time I can come back and redo one of these workouts and see, without doubt, if improvements have been made.

I still don't really understand why my output is still so much lower than is was back in June, I'll have to ponder that one.

Hi

Not quite sure what happened to me today but for some reason decided to go off the rails and not rest, not do a recovery spin, but do an extra 2x20 session! The real reasons for doing this were because I wanted to see how my new plan with the CompuTrainer would work and I wanted to do a blood lactate measurement at a higher level of effort and see what level I am working at when riding on the CompuTrainer at 2x20 intensity. I knew the lactate measurement would be a bit skewed having been riding all weekend but this is all useful background data to me as I try to understand what is going on "behind the scenes".

So off I went. Anyhow it went well, for the first time I felt properly in control of this session, I rode the whole of the first effort at 260W and the whole of the 2nd effort at 250W and my average HRs for the efforts were about 157. My blood lactate at the end of effort 1 was 4.4mmol/l which is high and will be bang in the middle of my lactate threshold at the current time, I suspect if rested this would be lower and I will test this at the next suitable point in my training.

The powers were low I guess BUT I maintained them and I can now stick with this method and as time goes by and I get (hopefully) stronger and my HR comes down I will alter the control file to raise the loads for the 2 efforts, probably by about 5W at a time, perhaps each month.

That's the plan, I'm repeating this session tonight, it could be gruesome but at least I did it and if tonight goes less well I'll have a good reason for it. I do feel as if I am recovering better from these sessions at the moment, hence my willingness to try what I did tonight.

Hi

Effort length - 1:00:00
Average effort HR - 149BPM
Average effort power - 235W
Average effort cadence - 90RPM
Average effort speed - 24.6mph

Blood lactate reading @ 150BPM 3.6mmol/l!

More discussion on this very interesting reading later, this I am sure is the explanation.

Hi

High resistance session tonight. Went Ok, managed to squeeze out a bit more power at the end but the result of this was a bit more of a fall off at the end, never mind. The most important thing is that I am now happy dealing with this session and I managed tonight to add another small piece to the lactate jigsaw, quite an important one I feel. Slowly adding to my knowledge of myself and my understanding of what is really happening as I toil away! The outputs of tonight's session are shown below:

1. 90 RPM 320W
2. 90 RPM 320W
3. 85 RPM 300W
4. 85 RPM 300W
5. 80 RPM 290W
6. 80 RPM 290W
7. 75 RPM 290W

I took a blood lactate measurement tonight at the end of one of my HR efforts when I had been riding at 300W for 3 minutes having increased the wattage from the effort start for 2 minutes, I had in effect done a 5 minute effort. The results of the 300W snapshot are shown below:

Power output: 300W
Heart rate: 165BPM
Blood Lactate: 5.1 mmol/l

This is interesting, I think it tells me 2 things. It confirms that at HRs in the 165 range are well above LT and it also confirms and supports the previous 300W reading I took which gave me a blood lactate reading of 4.2mmol/l. The higher reading tonight is almost certainly the result of having just done 2 efforts at a higher power output, 320W, which will have resulted in the higher reading. I think it *suggests* that it might take longer for blood lactate to fall after overcooking it say on a long climb than I suspected.

So, I reckon that the long 150BPM (probably up to 155 but full test will confirm) sessions and some sessions with shorter periods at about 160-165 will deliver results and this seems to fit well with the current HR and L2 arrangements. I'm glad I have backed off from the long sessions at 170BPM I was trying to do. My blood level must have been up in the 6+ area, no wonder it hurt trying to do long intervals at that! Working at that level was almost certainly the reason for the higher levels of fatigue I was experiencing, I certainly feel more ready to train now rather than miserable and demotivated.

At some point I am going to test my blood lactate at a cadence of 90 producing say 275W and compare it to my blood lactate at a cadence of 75 producing the same wattage, I think the results will be lower at the higher cadence. I'll do this when I have a better collection of preliminary data and a clearer understanding of the whole picture.

Hi

Pleased with how tonight's L2 session went. target was to ride at an average HR of 150BPM which I managed. The good thing about tonight's session was that I felt that at the end of it I was really quite comfortable, not finding it easy but comfortable, I could definitely have continued for quite a while longer if I'd needed to.

Started with a HR in the mid 140s and allowed it to drift up through the range ending about in the mid 150s, may average power output for the hour (including starting from a standing start) was 239W and my average HR 149, average cadence was 90RPM. Output no better, which is fine, but it *felt* better.

I'm continuing to collect blood lactate data to establish some sort of comparison data as time goes on and to validate the testing procedure. I took a single blood sample tonight at the 35 minute period which is loads of time for things to stabilise. The sample was taken at 35 minutes, the power at that time was 240W and my HR 151. The measured blood lactate level was 1.6mmol/l which correlates very well with the previous measurements taken at this workload and HR, very encouraging. This figure, and the time it was taken into the exercise, suggests that at this intensity I am successfully buffering the lactic acid produced and clearing the lactate adequately to prevent a slow circulation build up, this makes this level of riding sustainable. That's what I think anyway!

Clearly at the present time this level of workload, which is now sustainable for an hour, is below my lactate threshold though the full test is to come. I think this is very useful data and the thing to do is probably to increase the average HR for these L2 sessions by about 2-5BPM and take further steady state readings to see at what level true lactate threshold training is taking place. I think this may be what I need to do to optimise my training, probably after a few more successful L2 rides at this intensity collecting further date to ensure that the readings I am getting are truly consistent

We shall see, but I'm encouraged.

Hi

The good news today is that I am not at work and it's a lovely day, the not quite so good news is that I have to go to the wedding of a friend of Lorenas but still, never mind, it will be nice for the two of us to have a day out with a bit of a nosh thrown in!

The other good news is that today I will finally receive the lactate meter I ordered from the States. I have to go and collect it from the parcel force depot in Gateshead which is on the way down the A1 which is good, saves a special trip. the bad news is that HM Customs and Revenue have decided to slap me with a bill for £46 VAT which I'm not best pleased about, just my luck. I guess I have still saved £40 by buying it this way rather than from the UK but it's not quite the outcome I had hoped for, not worth sweating over, what's done is done.

No training planned for today but having had yesterday off which was lovely I'm going to do a one hour recovery ride on the turbo and I have a plan for this. I'm going to ride my 20 mile course on the CompuTrainer 3D and ride it at as steady a pace as I can trying to keep an average of 20mph which I know is pretty stress free on the turbo. I will then save this file and can ride against this performance with a "virtual me" as the pacer when I come to do another one hour recovery session in the future and I can compare the 2 performances. In theory, over time, my average HR for the course (same speed and distance, no wind or hills etc.) *should* improve. Makes it more interesting anyway!

On we go...