Tag: Bike

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Ironman Lake Placid

More long Intervals

This morning was another good Session 2 workout. My heart rate slowly made it’s way up to just below 160 for the first 20 minute interval and was pretty much at 160 for the entire second interval. My legs felt pretty good this morning starting out. I noticed that if I make an effort to get my cadence up high right away it is easier to maintain rather than starting out at a lower cadence during the warmup and then trying to rasise it. My average cadence for the ride was 92 and that felt comfortable.

 

Week 14 Session 2 Chart

Weight: 166.4

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Ironman Lake Placid

Longer and Longer

The long Sunday ride was three hours and thirty minutes! I fired up the CompuTrainer 3D software and did the Ironman Kona course for this ride. I need a break from the Lake Placid live course, after about 5 weeks of it I need a change. The first half of this ride is pretty much up hill, not very steep but kind of long steps. I did a little over 63 miles during the course of the three and a half hours. My legs felt good for the first 3 hours and I could feel them start to tire toward the end. I think my legs definitely remember the last ride as each ride once I get to the point I was at the week before my legs always start saying hey, time to end the ride!

The snow is pretty much gone, now we just need some global warming and it will be back on the streets. It was tempting with the sun out, but at three and half hours at 32 degrees didn’t sound like much fun.

Weight: 165.6

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

I’m starting to really like long intervals

Thursday morning means either a tempo ride or long intervals depending on what the program calls for. Today it was long intervals. Two 20 minute intervals at 98% of CP30 score. Essentially it is like doing the CP30 test for 20 minutes taking a break for 10 minutes and then continuing on for another 20 min. As you near the end of that second interval I can really feel my legs starting to burn, but I also know that I’m going to be able to finish, I just feel like I have enough. My average heart rate for the ride was 150, but for the intervals it stayed pretty steady between 160-166. Definitely a good solid workout, days like these I feel like I’m making progress toward becoming a faster cyclist. We’ll see!

Week 13 Session 2 Chart

Weight: 165.6

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Ironman Lake Placid

Another tough day on the CompuTrainer

Just like last week, couldn’t make it through all of the intervals. The program called for me to increase the watts to on the intervals, so I did. I managed to get through the first 3, but then had to rest twice in each of the next 3. Looking at the program it says that this first session should be done on 72 hours rest, of course I think this is designed strictly for a cyclist and not a triathlete. I wish I could get an extra day after the long endurance ride but it just doesn’t fit into the schedule that way. Sunday is the long ride and fortunately monday is a swim day so the legs do get a rest as I don’t kick much when I swim, but my legs still were feeling tired from the 3 hour ride and 15 minute run on Sunday. I tried keeping the cadence high but at 272 watts, I could only do that for so long. I’ll just keep working at it and we’ll see when the next CP30 test comes if there has been any imporovement.

Week 13 Session 1

Weight: 165.4

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Ironman Lake Placid

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

Today was the long endurance ride and it seemed to take forever! I realized early on that it wasn’t going to be a good ride, you can just feel it in your legs. I really need to drink more water after yesterdays 10 mile run, it makes a huge difference. Once you get dehydrated it is very difficult to recover, I drank 3 water bottles during the ride but still ended up weighing 4lbs less than yesterday. I’m trying to lose weight, but not all in one day!!!! I’ll be sure to drink more next saturday after my run to be better prepared for the long ride. I was supposed to do 3 hours 15 minutes but ended up just doing 3 hours followed by a 2 mile run. I actually felt ok during the run, even though it was pretty short. 

Weight: 163.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Long Interval Session

This morning I did some long intervals on the CompuTrainer. Well, really just two intervals but they were twenty mintues long and at 90% of my CP30 score. It was definitely a tough workout and you can see from the chart below that my heart rate was really up there for the last half of the second interval. Overall my heart average was 151 but it maxed out at 168.  The last five minutes were just really hard, started playing mind games with the numbers to get through it. Glad it is over, looking forward to the leisurely three hour ride on Sunday.
CompuTrainer Coaching Software
CompuTrainer Results

Weight: 166.6

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Ironman Lake Placid

CompuTrainer Week 11 Session 1

After my recent CP30 testing I figured that the new interval sessions would be great. Everything was calibrated correctly, I should be able to power through these workouts, no more failing in the middle of the tough intervals. Well, good news and bad news. Bad news, I only made it through three of the 6 intervals before my legs just gave out. The good news, I finally figured out what my problem might be! After the workout I was analyzing the data and I happend to notice that it said my weight was 170, close enough right? Well, on the 3D software I have been putting in my weight plus the bike weight which comes in at 200. So I have been doing my interval training with 30 less lbs, which means I had to increase my effort in order to get to the same power numbers.  So to be consist I will change the weight to 200 for thursdays interval session and see how that goes. Hopefully the new RacerOne software will be more clear about rider weight and bike weight.

Weight: 167.6

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Easy CompuTrainer Ride

This morning was another easy CompuTrainer ride. The idea for this week is to make sure that my legs are recovered enough for the Critical Power test coming on saturday. Worked up a little bit of a sweat, but not too much, as my heart rate averaged 129 and maxed out at 139. I kept the cadence right at 90. The one thing I did focus on today was my spinscan numbers. I tried to keep that up in the 70s as much as possible, because most of the time mine is in the low 60s. I average 69 for the ride, a personal best, but I still need lots of work because I have to think about it too much.

Weight: 169

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Looking for warm weather

Spent 2 hours and 45 minutes on the CompuTrainer today. That’s just about 48 miles for me on the Lake Placid RCV. The only nice thing about being inside is being able to fuel easier. I can see I’ll have to get a water bottle holder for behind my seat to refill my main hydration system. That or I will have to get a CamelBak. I only had two water bottles today so I will need to have a 3rd next time to keep the fluids up. Also had a couple of Hammer Gels and will need to start eating more as the time on the Trainer heads up over 3 hours. As much as I want to ride outside I think it is still going to be a while as there is still plenty of ice, snow, salt and sand on the roads.

Weight: 165.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

CompuTrainer Tempo Session

Had another good workout on the CompuTrainer this morning. I was able to hold 227 watts for an hour this morning, about 4 watts more than last thursday and just a little over what the training program called for. I was on the Ironman Kona course in 3D mode on the CompuTrainer, I do the same course each thursday for the tempo ride because it easy to measure improvement that way. Maybe I will choose a different course for the tempo rides over the set of weeks after I take the Critical power test again next thursday.

Weight: 167.6