Showing posts with label shorter harder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shorter harder. Show all posts

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Shorter Harder

Friday's fun knocked me out on Saturday so I didn't fancy turboing. Sunday was 'family day' and then yesterday turned into 'get-up-far-too-early-and-spend-the-whole-day-on-the-back-foot' Monday. By the time I got home I felt the need to lie down and then I woke up an hour later so I decided to bin the planned turbo session.

So, today I had to do something so I did Shorter Harder (long version). Things started off well, I had Ministry of Sound blasting out and some video of this year's skiing holiday running on the laptop and then I got skyped. I tried to carry on the session but it just got a bit weird with me shouting at the screen and looking all red and sweaty so I decided to have an early rest. I then combined the next 2 intervals to make up for it and get back on the original timeline.

On the last interval before the mid-way break I really pushed it and went longer and harder than was required because I felt quite good, and then the first 2 intervals after the break were harder and longer again. Then I started to suffer a bit and regretted showing off but I just had to dig in and keep on going to the end, sweating in the dark. Once the last interval was over I gave myself a short recovery before going all-out for 30 seconds, averaging 493W and peaking at 660W.

Overall it was a good workout and I'm looking forward to another tomorrow and the day after to make up for my weekend of laziness. After the ride I had a very dull pasta and tuna dinner and then sorted the gears out on the turbo bike because they were getting a bit lazy and didn't always change when I wanted them to.

Thursday 27 December 2012

Post Christmas Intervals

After 5 very enjoyable days of eating and drinking I needed to get back on the turbo today to start a prolonged period of training. I'm aiming for 3 weeks of 3 days on then a day off for recovery but still keeping at the same power zone 4-5 intervals I've been doing up to now. The last 2-3 weeks have been very disrupted by the usual effects of Christmas; lots of driving, beer and chocolate and too little turbo time.

Today was a repeat of the Shorter Harder intervals I last did on 19 December. Although I felt a bit weak on a couple of the 3-4 minute ones I never really felt like I wouldn't be able to complete the whole set so I need to bump up the intensity if I'm going to continue to get as much training benefit from it as I have been; I like to feel that I have only just been able to complete a workout.

Today's trace is very similar to the last time but with a little lower intensity on intervals 18 and 19 (HR = red and power = black):


Wednesday 19 December 2012

Back in the game!

I've been under the weather for the last 2 days, generally feeling listless but not actually ill, no cold-like symptoms despite being close to people with colds. I haven't had a proper cold for 2 years and I seem to get run down rather than properly ill. After my average performance 2 days ago and a night on the sofa yesterday I wasn't expecting much from tonight's turbo session. I planned a longer version of Shorter Harder where I add repeat intervals (in reverse) at the end of the main set. This would allow me to stop if I needed to. But, I didn't need to......


Heart rate (red) was under control throughout, power (black) was always what I needed to do or more and I got to the end of the 90 minute session feeling quite good. Stats: 90 mins (32 in Zone 4) and approx 1250 kCals.

So again I am a little confused how my performance seems to vary so much from day-to-day, but it probably helps to explain why my race results can also be very variable. It's only when you see variable performance in a controlled environment that you can start to work out just how much performance varies.