Well that was unexpected. I’ve made a lot of improvements this year, but usually when I break through last year’s achievements I have a feeling they’re coming. My fitness is already surpassing last year’s peaks according to Training Peaks. My swimming and cycling CTL are now higher than last year, while running is coming very close. But I’m still surprised when the new breakthroughs happen, well, by surprise. Last night I was at the pool. It’s NHL playoffs, and exam…
Weekly Stats: Swim: 6650m, TSS 148.0 Bike: 251 km, TSS 628.2 Run: 43.6 km, TSS 358.2 Total Duration: 15:02 Total TSS: 1134.7 CTL: 110.9 ATL: 157.8 Form: -48.0 This was an interesting week. It had a mix of highs and lows, and at least once in the same day a high and a low. I think the best way to detail that is to go through each workout with a few comments below, like I typically do. In short, it ended…
My Blade Carbon Wheels are arriving next week! Very excited about this one. My Blade Carbon Wheels are going to be here next week, which means I’ll be riding outside again in no time. The weather is starting to be consistently warmer, winds are returning to seasonal, and sun is shining bright. It’s bike riding season! I do a great deal of training with Trainer Road on my turbo trainer. The turbo is great because it requires consistent effort, not…
Yep, Blargh. The long run from yesterday tapped me a bit. Feeling drained today, so much so that I even have my compression socks on. I should have had them on last night post-run but didn’t think about it. Hard recovery. My 5 AM ride today was supposed to be 80 minutes with 4 x 15 at sweet spot intensity (75% to 90% FTP today) – Trainer Road’s Glassy. I managed to get the first two done but after that my…
Base 1 is now officially in the past. Base 2 Week 1 gets underway this week. While not a lot will change, there are a few things that are going to happen differently. I finally have my power meter set up correctly! My Vector 2S is great, and will be (has already been) invaluable this year. I mentioned a few posts back that I had it set up incorrectly though. Long story short, I used the wrong crank length when…
Well, yesterday was the first day of Base 1 Week 4 – aka recovery week. This is my first recovery week of this training block, and it is much needed! I was pushing a heavy form score at the end of last week – a whopping -65.6. With this week’s plans, that will move back to a much more manageable -39.3. Erm.. manageable? hmm.. Joe Friel suggests that good progress is made between -25 and -45. A “higher” negative (e.g….
Weekly Stats: Swim: 11825m, TSS 289.1 Bike: 242 km, TSS 641.4 Run: 40.9 km, TSS 322.8 Total Duration: 16:05 Total TSS: 1253.3 CTL: 98.8 ATL: 174.7 Form: -65.6 Wow. What a week! This was my highest volume week by TSS score ever. But, surprisingly, not by time. The week of August 15 2016 I did 17.5 hrs but 1146.7 TSS. So this week, I managed about 100 TSS points more in about 100 minutes less. That’s pretty solid. Relative to what…
Weekly Stats: Swim: 7000m, TSS 181.7 Bike: 237 km, TSS 625.0 Run: 36.1 km, TSS 282.8 Total Duration: 14:14 Total TSS: 1089.5 CTL: 83.9 ATL: 152.6 Form: -62.4 I am officially carrying a metric butt-ton of fatigue right now. The -62.4 is probably the largest my form score has ever been by a huge margin. I’m one more week away from a recovery week. But I will say, I don’t feel anywhere near -62.4. I feel much closer to -35 or…
Weekly Stats: Swim: 7100m, TSS 167.0 Bike: 223 km, TSS 572.2 Run: 26.56 km, TSS 196.6 Total Duration: 13:14 Total TSS: 935.7 CTL: 70.5 ATL: 131.8 Form: -51.8 Well, Base 1 Week 1 is in the books. With the new cycling plan in full swing, that dominated my TSS this week. Next week my TSS goal increases a bit which should help to balance this out, but really the way this week worked out is just fine. My pool was closed two days this week,…
Damn that was hard. Have I mentioned I hate FTP tests? This morning I was up well before dawn to hop on the bike and crank out my FTP test. After last week’s rather successful morning workout – the first one in ages – I thought I’d start a morning routine. More on that later, but suffice it to say that it began today. Choosing TrainerRoad’s 20 Minute FTP test was the easy part. Doing it is hard. No dogs were…