Moments in Time

Hi

No training for me again today, much easier to go and visit Mum after work and eat sandwiches and biscuits than do L4 work on the CompuTrainer! More L4 scheduled for tomorrow evening and that's soon enough, hope it will go Ok, I've scheduled 2x15 @ L4 and am hoping that after the decent session yesterday that these might start to feel very slightly more comfortable over the next few weeks.

I think I'll be plugging away at 285W as my L4 work for a week or so and intend to increase it by just 5W as and when either:

Hi

Computrainer
Reintroducing a little threshold (L4) work and it seemed to go Ok. Didn't leap straight back into the 2x20s but have started with 2x15 minute efforts which I did at 280-285W. Felt that I wanted to get at least a small success back on the board with some L4 work and feel I achieved that, these sessions are never comfortable but I managed Ok.

Looking back to earlier in the year I was doing 2x20s @ 280W and starting to do a little work @ 285W so I'll stick at this level for the next couple of these sessions until I'm back doing some 2x20s again. I'll then establish a blood lactate level and make sure that's reasonable at the end of the efforts before moving on, ideally down at 4-5mmol/l. I'll do this just to be sure that I'm doing these sessions at the right intensity.

All in all I'm satisfied with tonight's effort, good to be upping the intensity a bit and a rest day tomorrow, always nice to have that to look forward to!

Hi

Computrainer
Another L4 session done along the same lines as Tuesday, again just rode mainly on feel and had an open mind about the 2nd 20 minutes. Felt Ok at the mid point of the 2nd effort so carried on and ended up doing 2x20 efforts, the first done @ 280W, the second also done mainly @ 280W but knocked it back to 275W (still L4 range) for the last 5 minutes.

Legs felt reasonably comfortable and am planning to stick with this type of regime trying to clock up some time in L4 over the next few months and as I said before, see where it takes me, this is very much an experiment this year. So, not a bad session, objectives achieved and holding the L4 power without too much distress, certainly not tipping my HR over into L5 territory so probably getting things about right. Think what I might do is next time at the end of the 2nd effort I'll take a lactate reading and see where I stand and repeat that when (if) the efforts start to feel a bit more "comfortable" and use that as a guide as to when to increase my L4 power. Gotta be worth a try. Oh yes, I woke up this morning with a sore throat, just typical, been the story of my season so far.

Hi

Computrainer
ERG FILE FOR 2X20 SESSION @ 280W (QFB2X20@280VER01.ERG)
This session was identical to the L4 turbo session I did a week ago today and this was deliberate. In the days prior to this and the workout a week ago I had done a similar volume of work but I changed one thing significantly today, my eating plan prior to tonight's session. The result was that the session felt more comfortable but still far from easy and my HR was generally lower than for the previous session. The most significant difference lay in the blood lactate reading at the end of the second 20 minute effort which was 4.4mmol/l compared to the reading of 7.9mmol/l at the end of last week's session. It's difficult to be absolutely certain but I am 99% sure that this major difference is the result of the altered nutritional arrangements, a pretty amazing difference and a very different feeling to the session. Experimentation will continue!

If you would ike to review the data for this session click here.

[Uploaded 08/05/2008 22:39:13]

Hi

Computrainer
ERG FILE FOR 2X20 SESSION @ 280W
Found this extremely challenging tonight for some reason, I think I must have lost quite a bit of my core aerobic power recently doing high intensity efforts which as far as I can see have delivered nothing really useful. I'm sure I need to work for a long time and consistently on raising my threshold and building my FTP before doing higher intensity stuff, I just don't think I have quite enough under the hood yet to move up a gear and start doing regular VO2 max and above type training. HR for the 2nd effort much higher than a previous one of these on 28.02.2008. Blood lactate reading at the end of the 2nd effort was 7.9mmol/l! Miles too high, not increasing the load for this session at all until this has come well down.

Hi

Decided to go back to my roots and concentrate for a while on L3/SST/L4 work to make sure I maintain and develop my core aerobic fitness. Had a very unpleasant surprise in that I found this really hard work and my HR was far higher than it was a while back for this session, it seems I have paid a high price for the higher intensity training I have been doing, the balanace has not been right. Measured blood lactate at the end of the 60 minute effort, it was 5.3mmol/l, miles too high for L3. Right, that's it, back to the science and the structure, no more HIT for spell until I get the basics back on track, I'm going to concentrate on FTP building.

Hi

Computrainer
ERG FILE FOR 2X20 SESSION @ 280W
Much less comfortable than when I last did this session, could still feel the weekend in my legs. Took lactate reading at end of 2nd effort, it was 5.7mmol/l compared to the last reading taken at the same point which was 4.7mmo/l but still lower than the time before that which was 6+. Interesting that the last L4 efforts were done on a Thursday when I guess I would tend to be more recovered. Still, another one in the bag, roll on The Cheshire Cat! Very good correlation between HR and power graphs, maybe my updated FTP figure is more accurate! HR figures better than last time I did this session so I guess all down to muscular fatigue, who knows!

Hi

Computrainer
ERG FILE FOR 2X20 SESSION @ 280W
Threshold intervals. Did 2x20 minute efforts @ 280W and managed fine, good session, pleased with how I felt. Couple of days rest, good night's sleep. makes all the difference. Also measured blood lactate at the end of the 2nd 20 minutes and was really pleased to see that it was 4.7mmol/l which is a lot lower than the 6.6mmol/l I recorded doing the same session (but @275W) on 10.01.2008. So. who knows what the reasons are but it's movement in the right direction and I'm not going through those peaks and troughs any longer. In summary, this was a hard session but it was not distressing and I can deal with that combination. Interersting comparing the HR distributions of this and the session on 10.01. Today TH 47.2% and TE 35.7%, on 10.01 TH 62% and TE 29.7% and a higher wattage today, no wonder it felt more comfortable :-)

Hi

Computrainer
ERG FILE FOR 2X20 SESSION @ 275W
First "proper" threshold (L4) intervals! My threshold power range is 266-309W so decided to try and log a success here rather than a disaster and wrote a .erg file which set the CumpuTrainer to do the 2 20 minute intervals at a load of 275W. Also set it so that in the 2 minutes before each effort the load rose from 175 to 275 steadily, both 275W intervals were full 20 minute intervals, excluding the 2 minute ramp up in load the recovery period was 8 minutes. This was a jolly hard session but I made it to the end without my HR getting horribly out of control, I took my blood lactate level at the end of the 2nd effort and the reading was 6.6mmol/l which makes it pretty clear that these were indeed threshold(+) intervals. Next time I'm going to record the level at the end of the first interval too to provide a full picture, it may well have been slowly creeping up as it "felt" higher at the end of the 2nd one than the first. I felt that this session will have been beneficial though very taxing, I don't think I could have done this not long ago. Something I did which may have helped and which I shall continue is I boiled up 120g of pasta and took it to work and ate it 3 hours before the session. I've been doing some dietary analaysis and I am sure I don't eat the optimal volumne of CHO before training, not according to "The Oxford Textbook of Sports Medicine" anyway! Interesting also that the "decoupling" figure for both efforts was less than 4%. The midpoint of my threshold range is 287W, I could possibly manage that if well rested, something to work towards, I think today was about as much as I could cope with without resting up a bit beforehand.

Hi

L3 ride felt pretty good tonight, certainly not distressing @ 245W. Average HR virtually identical to the last one of these I did which was on 19.10.2007 so I guess I'm now returning to where I was before my "break" or maybe I've still a bit to come. Certainly felt Ok tonight, measured my blood lactate level at the end of the 60 minutes of L3 and it was 2.6mmol/l which is a lot more sensible. My gut feeling is that when you don't train for a bit one of the first things to "go" or reverse is your lactate buffering capability, I've read that muscle enzyme activity starts to fall off after 24-48 hours!

Data follows:

Interval:
Duration: 1:00:00
Work: 883 kJ
TSS: 70.6 (intensity factor 0.84)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 6.9%
Pa:HR: 6.03%
Distance: 21.7 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 177 314 245 watts
Heart rate: 123 159 149 bpm
Cadence: 63 96 92 rpm
Speed: 17.1 22.6 21.7 mph
Pace 2:39 3:30 2:46 min/mi
Altitude: 0 0 0 ft
Crank Torque: 161 341 226 lb-in