Every February Endurance Nation conducts a 3-day bike challenge that encourages athletes to ride as much and as hard as possible to accrue points to compete against your fellow EN teammates. Basically, the harder and longer you ride the more points you accumulate. In addition, bonus points are awarded for riding each of the 3 days.
Since I’m still taking it easy with my entry back to running I decided to continue the bike focus I’ve been doing this OutSeason and participate in the challenge. I had 3 main goals for the challenge:
- To give the bike fitness a little extra “kick” in anticipation of next week’s testing
- To practice some recovery techniques
- To “train” the mind by doing the back-to-back-to-back long rides on the trainer
Day 1 – Saturday 02/13
My plan for the first day was to make it the most challenging. I wanted to put in the highest volume this day so I wouldn’t have an excuse later in the weekend to hold back on a longer ride. So the plan was to do my scheduled Saturday ride from my training plan but with some extra volume thrown in. I ended up riding 2 hours as:
10’ warm up spin
2 x 15’ @ FTP (4’ recovery spin between)
6’ @ 110% of FTP
5’ recovery spin
3 x 15’ @ 85% of FTP (2’ recovery spin between)
10’ cool down spin
PowerTap Data for the Entire workout (205 watts):
Duration: 2:01:43 (2:02:44)
Work: 1497 kJ
TSS: 159.6 (intensity factor 0.887)
Norm Power: 240
VI: 1.17
Pw:HR: 9.2%
Pa:HR: 0.03%
Distance: 37.551 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 395 205 watts
Heart Rate: 62 174 137 bpm
Cadence: 50 182 86 rpm
Speed: 2.2 24.4 18.5 mph
Day 2 – Sunday 02/14
I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to get in as much time on the trainer on Day 2, but I was hoping for at least 1:30. I ended up doing 1:50 of some pretty intense riding with very little “easy spin” time.
10’ warm up spin
2 x 10’ @ FTP (2’ recovery spin between)
2 x 30’ @ 85% of FTP (2’ recovery spin between)
10 x (30” @ 120% of FTP/30” @ 60% of FTP)
8’ cool down spin
PowerTap Data for the Entire workout (218 watts):
Duration: 1:51:21
Work: 1456 kJ
TSS: 144.9 (intensity factor 0.884)
Norm Power: 239
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: 9.8%
Pa:HR: 0.61%
Distance: 35.984 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 431 218 watts
Heart Rate: 73 164 139 bpm
Cadence: 49 170 87 rpm
Speed: 2.2 24.4 19.4 mph
Day 3 – Monday 02/15
My original plan for Day 3 was to do my scheduled Tuesday workout from my training plan which consisted of 2 x 20’ intervals @ FTP and then take Tuesday completely off of training. These 20’ intervals are physically and mentally very challenging to get through when your legs are fresh, let alone after 2 days of thrashing in them. But the way my brain is wired is that if I set a goal to do something I will go through anything to get it done the way I planned. So after waking up Monday morning and the legs feeling pretty decent I knocked out an 1:05 as:
10’ warm up spin
2 x 20’ @ FTP (4’ recovery spin between)
5’ @ 85% of FTP
5’ cool down spin
PowerTap Data for the Entire workout (227 watts):
Duration: 1:05:48
Work: 894 kJ
TSS: 97.4 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 255
VI: 1.13
Pw:HR: 6.29%
Pa:HR: 6.42%
Distance: 21.265 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 361 227 watts
Heart Rate: 66 169 142 bpm
Cadence: 57 212 88 rpm
Speed: 2.8 23.4 19.4 mph
Overall, I was very pleased with my results and effort during this 3-day challenge so early in my training year. I was especially pleased with my recovery techniques. Here’s some of what I did:
- Fluid recovery drink within 30’ post-ride – I had never used Fluid before but the company had sent me some samples of their recovery mix a few weeks back so I decided to put them to the test. Plus, after reading and researching the product I was really impressed by the content of the product (low calories, lactose-free whey protein, 2500mg l-Glutamine, 3.5:1 complex carb-to-protein ratio, no gluten). I’m planning on writing a review of the product in a later post but I will say that I was very pleased with the product and will be using it this year.
- 20’ of focused stretching within 45’ post-ride – This is something I’m making a concerted effort to do this year. I HATE being injured so I have to carve out the time to do this.
- Ice bath for the legs within 60’ post-ride – It hurts so good!
- A quality meal within 90’ post-ride – Consists of a lean protein, fresh and dried fruits, a starchy veggie and some healthy fat
- Compression tights the rest of the day and while sleeping at night – This one is new for me. I had never used compression tights before but I can say now that I’m a firm believer. Andrea got some good laughs! But damn if my legs didn’t feel less sore and less fatigued the next day compared to normal recovery without them.
- 30’ nap in the afternoon – I’ve found that even closing my eyes for 10’ makes a huge difference in how my body feels the rest of the day
- Roll the legs with The Stick and a foam roller for 20’ – Just like stretching, this is something I’m making an effort to do more this year.
- At least 8 hours of sleep at night, preferably 9-10 if it’s a really hard day – Again, you can’t underestimate what some good sleep does to repair the body!
In combination, these recovery techniques kept me feeling pretty fresh for each morning’s workout. I’ll definitely be employing these when the Ironman training volume starts up this summer.
So at the conclusion of the weekend I was very happy that I accomplished my 3 goals: I saw a nice bump in my chronic training load (with some good rest and recovery in the following days this should lead to an increase in bike fitness and hopefully a good FTP test next week); I found some successful recovery techniques that I will be incorporating into future hard days; I pushed my mind through some tough moments at 5:30 in the morning by staying in the “now” which I will reflect on later in the year when training/racing gets tough. Here are some more stats for the 3 days:
Ride Time: 5 hours (all on a trainer)
Miles Ridden: 95
Time Spent at or Above FTP: 1:40
Avg IF for the 3 rides: 0.898 (almost 90% of FTP for 5 hours!)
Total TSS: 402
No comments:
Post a Comment