VO2 = 72!

I did another test the day after my previous one. This time my HRV was fine and I ended up going harder but feeling better. Ended up over 300W with a new VO2 best of 72

VO2 = 71??

Well yesterday was interesting for a couple of reasons.

We had a bit of an epic lost keys cheese......

And on the cycling front I had a weird workout. I felt fine but really struggled. I intended to set a baseline "hoods" 20 minutes followed by some over unders.

However I couldn't hold steady power and the result was only 290W. I recovered and tried a few over/unders but my heart was not in it and I quit.

When I saved the session my Garmin told me I had set a new VO2 max of 71. Which would be nice if it were true but I think it reflects more that my HR was low, only averaging 146 for the 20 minutes.

HRV??

I've been an off and on user of HRV for the past couple of years.

It's a bit of a faff to remember to do each morning and I haven't found the results especially helpful in planning my training.

I have an example today. After days and days of 10/10 ratings despite doing well over 100TSS per day yesterday I had a rest day and now I'm 2/10 and being warned to take it easy.

I'll ignore this advice and do my level 3 workout as planned and see what it says tomorrow....

How to lift a bull

There's a greek myth about a strongman who wanted to lift a bull over his shoulders.

He trained for this by finding a newly born bullock. Everyday he lifted it so, slowly but surely, eventually achieved his ambition.

The same thing works for me in training. Just pick a time*power and ride it easy. Then each repeat up it by a couple of watts or seconds. 

I've just started to do this for 20 minute efforts. I'll have 3 different targets reflecting RPE of riding in familiar and less familiar postions: On the hoods, on the drops and full TT.

Mind Breathing

I've decided to experiment with making breathing the focus to build mental toughness. 

Ever since I've been doing endurance sports, right back to school cross country I've had a habit of heavy breathing. It's proved pretty effective and has been a feature of all my rides. Last year on a trip to the Alps I got the nickname of "steam train" as folks could hear me before they could see me.

Still I've always thought that I may be overdoing it and could be wasting energy.

So I'm going to work on a more focused method based on a suggestion from Graham Obree's recent book. 

tbh I'm not convinced by his claims for the approach based on physiology but I think the focus needed will be a useful distraction from the pain of hard efforts. 

Failing to Succeed

I'm making good progress on the strength and nutrition fronts. However I don't really feel I have done anything new regarding mental toughness.

After a chat with a coach I have decided to add something new into my weekly schedule.

She pointed out something I have really always been aware of. Fear of failure means I ride within myself. This occurs in events and also during interval training where worrying about completing a set means I hold off early on, 

One day will be dedicated to efforts where I fail. So no intervals, I will just ride as hard as I can for as long as I can over varying distances until I crack. 

What a difference no carbs make

I'm trying out "periodised eating". This is pretty simple, just eat for the workout ahead.

So if a hard workout is planned lots of carbs, if an easy one little.

Past couple of days I've also tried modifying this with an amended form of intermittent fasting. This is a 3 day block when following a hard morning workout I will aim to get net calories consumed (base metabolism + calories burned during workout - calories eaten) well below 1000.

So far this has worked well. I don't feel especially tired, to the contrary I have been able to complete LSD workout well and feel sharp.

 

Life Changing Bike Moments 1 - It's too big!!!

As a change from looking forwards I thought I'd look back from time to time and recall some of the moments of serendipity that changed my cycling life. (Even if nothing will ever come close to deciding to get out of bed early, fetch the DT and end up in a job for life)

The most significant  moment bike wise came at the beginning. Like many I was fat and in my mid 40s, peaking I think at around 93kg. At this point credit to Phil, who regularly worked out at the gym, on a Concept II.

If it worked for him I guessed it would work for me so I decided to buy one. Our main bedroom has a slightly eccentric feature, a small walk in wardrobe cum room that I thought would be the perfect place to put it.

I went on the Concept site clicked my way through all the options and was just about to click the button to pay when I thought I'd just better check the machine would fit.

I went and measured the room and found it was exactly 6" too small. No way to fit the rower without knocking down a wall...

So I decided to go for a plan B and got myself an exercise bike instead.....

Getting Heavy

Gosh I am enjoying lifting heavy (for me) weights. 

I'm doing bench press, one armed row and deadlifts on a ma x strength routine doing sets at 3-5 reps as heavy as I can handle.

It's rewarding in a number of ways
- Learning new techniques 
- Finding new Youtube stars (Alan Thrall is a hoot)

- Starting over as a novice and setting new PBs
- Feeling so much better.

The last is probably the best. Cycling is great but it is biased in terms of what how it gets you fit. Heavy weights are probably at the opposite extreme and I can feel the results already. Just feel more balanced, especially posterior chain.

 

Humon Hex

I have to be honest, part of the reason I love cycling is that it allows me the chance to pursue my inner geek and play around with new bits of technology.

Ofc the main thing has been power but there is always something new.

Latest is Humon Hex   

If this works it will complement power measure very nicely as it will give a physiological metric that should correlate with my watts.

Time will tell but it will be fun to have a new toy to play with

February target 300W

Target for February is to hold 300W for a full 60 minutes.

Ideally I'd like to do this on one of the new AR routes on Rouvy as chasing another rider, even if it's not real is way more motivating than riding solo.

What a difference a carb makes

Interesting couple of days.  Using Myfitnesspall to track my calories and made conscious effort to up CHO % to above 60.

Friday I did 4.5 hours, yesterday 3.5, both upper end of Z2. 

They went remarkably well. Key thing was RPE, both felt much easier than previous attempts and in both I was able to put in late surges up in SST.