Last Weeks Workouts and My First Outdoor Bike of the Season

This was my second week of training with power and that thing is unforgiving!  Great workouts and all very tough.  The big news is that this last Saturday I got to ride outside for the first time.  It was really something to see how the watts translated to speed and real world road conditions.  There were a couple things that really struck me.  First, how many watts you spend accelerating up to speed and up hills.  Second, how much easier it is to sit at higher wattage outdoors than in.

It was a lot of fun watching the power meter fluctuate and checking the reading on the tiny Chicago hills on the lakefront bike path.  We rode on the South side of the city where there is generally less traffic on the path and it's easier to maintain a steady pace.  The ride was a beginner bike session that I was helping lead with the Element Triathlon Club.  Our pace was an easy 13 - 14 MPH that allowed us to help coach and teach the hand signals and other nuances of riding in a group.  It amazed me to see how many watts were spent keeping that pace while climbing up these really small hills.  Without effort or knowing, I would spike up to 450 - 500 watts on these small climbs and started to make an effort to keep the watts down.  These aren't big hills and if Chicago wasn't so flat there would be no point in mentioning them other than the surprising amount of wattage it took to get over them.  This is good to know now.  The more wattage it takes to get over a hill, the more work that has to be done, the less energy that is available for the run later.  I'll have to watch how I power up hill and try to become more effective in my shifting and attacking hills.

After the beginner ride, I took about 20 - 25 minutes and just played around on the path to see what riding at FTP feels like and what riding at my previous pace registered on the power meter.  Interestingly enough, FTP felt like cake!  It was so easy!!  Riding at threshold was a nice 21 - 22 MPH pace and one that I could have kept up for a long time.  The pace gearing that I rode at last year put me at about 23 - 24 MPH and 10 - 15 watts higher than threshold.  This was an effort that I could hold through an Olympic distance race or most of a Half Ironman.  The interesting part was how hard I have to work to get over threshold when I ride in-doors on my bike trainer.  After consulting with my new team, Endurance Nation, the answer became apparent.  There is no momentum, inertia, or coasting on the bike trainer!  The wheel either turns from pedaling or it stops.  I guess this compliments the no BS attitude of the power meter and Endurance Nation workouts.

For those who aren't familiar with reading workout plans, the zones I'm supposed to work at are listed on the right hand side of the blog.  The 2 x 15min designation means that I'm supposed to do 2 intervals 15 minutes long at a certain intensity.  There is usually a 3 - 5 minute recovery between intervals.

Date	Sport		Training Plan	Actual
3/16	Swim	Warm UP		100yards 3 x 8 drills
		Main Set		4 x 100 Z1 + 100 Z4
		Warm Down		100yards
3/17	Bike	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ less than 151W
		Main Set	2 x 15min @ Z4 - Z5 4min recover between sets	2 x 15min @ 220 - 242W 4min recover between sets
		Warm Down	10min @ Z1	10min @ less than 151W
3/18	Run	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ Z1
		Main Set	4 x 1 mile @ Z4 4min recover @ Z1	3 x 1 mile @ 8:22 4min recover @ 10:22
		Warm Down	5min @ Z1	5min @ 10:22
	Swim	Warm Up	8 laps of drills.  Drill 25 yards and swim back 25 yards	8 laps of drills.  Drill 25 yards and swim back 25 yards
		Main Set	3 x 200 2 x 300 2 x 400	3 x 200 2 x 300 2 x 400
3/19	Bike	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ less than 151W
		Main Set	2 x 10min @ Z4 - Z5 4min recovery	2 x 15min @ 220 - 242W 4min recover between sets
		Warm Down	10min @ Z1	10 min @ less than 151W
3/20	brick	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ less than 151W
	Bike	Main Set	1 x 10min @ Z4 - Z5 5min @ Z1 2 x 12min @ Z3 3min recovery	1 x 10min @ 220 - 242W 5min @ less than 151W 2 x 12min @ 176 - 187W 3min recover between sets
		Warm Down	5min @ Z1	5min @ less than 151W
	Run	Main Set	15min @ Z2 15min @ Z3	15min @ about 8:45 15min @ about 8:30
		Warm Down	5min @ z1	5min walking
3/21	Run	Warm Up	15min @ Z1
		Main Set	3 x 200 @ z5 3 x 400 @ z5 3 x 200 @ z5 full recoveries between	Missed this workout
		Warm Down	5min @ z1

Last Weeks Workouts - Now With POWER!

As a birthday gift to myself I purchased a Power Tap power meter.  These devices have been around for a while and can really transform the way workouts are structured and their effectiveness.  Heart rate training is pretty subjective and is easily influenced by outside factors such as stress, caffeine, rest, or alcohol.  Power meters measure the wattage you generate while pedaling and a watt is a watt no matter what.  The power meter doesn't care if you had a double espresso or if you got a full nights sleep.  It only cares how hard you are working during your intervals.

For those who aren't familiar with reading workout plans, the zones I'm supposed to work at are listed on the right hand side of the blog.  The 2 x 15min designation means that I'm supposed to do 2 intervals 15 minutes long at a certain intensity.  There is usually a 3 - 5 minute recovery between intervals.

Date	Sport	Training Plan		Actual
3/10	Bike	Warm UP	15min @ Z1	15min @ less that 151W
		Main Set	2 x 15min @ Z4 - Z5 4min recover between sets	2 x 15min @ 220 - 242W 4min recover between sets
		Warm Down	10min @ Z1	10 min @ less that 151W
	Run	Main Set	40min @ Z1	Missed the workout
3/11	Run	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ Z1
		Main Set	4 x 1 mile @ Z4 4min recover @ Z1	3 x 1 mile @ 8:22 4min recover @ 10:22
		Warm Down	5min @ Z1	5min @ 10:22
	Swim	Warm Up	8 laps of drills.  Drill 25 yards and swim back 25 yards	8 laps of drills.  Drill 25 yards and swim back 25 yards
		Main Set	Don't remember	Don't remember
3/12	Bike	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ less than 151W
		Main Set	2 x 10min @ Z4 - Z5 4min recovery	2 x 15min @ 220 - 242W 4min recover between sets
		Warm Down	10min @ Z1	10 min @ less than 151W
3/14	brick	Warm Up	15min @ Z1	15min @ less than 151W
	Bike	Main Set	1 x 10min @ Z4 - Z5 5min @ Z1 2 x 12min @ Z3 3min recovery	1 x 10min @ 220 - 242W 5min @ less than 151W 2 x 12min @ 176 - 187W 3min recover between sets
		Warm Down	5min @ Z1	5min @ less than 151W
	Run	Main Set	15min @ Z2 15min @ Z3	15min @ about 8:45 15min @ about 8:30
		Warm Down	5min @ z1	5min walking
3/15	Run	Warm Up	15min @ Z1
		Main Set	3 x 200 @ z5 3 x 400 @ z5 3 x 200 @ z5 full recoveries between	3 x 1.5 mile @ 8:22 4min recover @ 10:22
		Warm Down	5min @ z1	5min walking

Wednesday Night Swim

I'm still looking for a good workout tracking utility and haven't had much success to I'm just going to post the workouts and how they went.  Last night, Wednesday 2/25, I swam with TNT and was pretty beat from a rough couple days at work.  All I ate before swimming was a granola bar which is a lot less than normal.  Here is the workout:

Warm Up	8 x 50 Drills
Work Set	8 x 100 (50 @ Z4 / 50 @ Z2
	1 x 400 (300 @ Z2 / 100 @ Z3)
Cool Down	200

I was noticeably slower than the previous week but also haven't swam since last Wednesday.  Maybe there's something to that whole frequency thing.

How Far I've Come

Last night I met up with a friend, JD, for a swim workout. We only swam 1,050 yards, or just over a half mile, but the workout was focused on drills and not speed or endurance. At this point in the season I’m trying to get rid of the bad technique and form that I’ve developed. As we’re getting out of the pool someone stops us and starts asking us how to swim. No kidding!

For those who don’t know JD, we both started doing triathlons 3 years ago with Team In Training, but he had no experience in the water. At that time he was a little intimidated by swimming in a pool, let alone open water. Doing so for a mile? Forget it! However, he signed up and worked at. JD worked with the TNT coaches on getting comfortable in the water and went on to do a couple Olympic distance races as well as several Sprints. That off season he worked and worked on his swimming and not only became confident in the water but can consistently finish the .9 mile swim of an Olympic distance triathlon in under 30 minutes. For some perspective on that, I’m usually just over 30 and people who swam in high school or college finish it in the low 20’s.

Of course we helped him with what we know and advice him to seek professional help, for both the swimming and asking us.