Time Crunched help again!

I made notes then lent my book out, now I don’t understand something.

Over/unders. I’ve written 3 x 10 minutes o/u (3U 1O) 6 minutes rest between sessions.
I can’t work that out? 10 minutes of 3U and 1O doesn’t equate.

Later I have 3 x 12 Minutes o/u (3U 2O)…?

My first OUs were three sets of 9 mins (2U 1O), 6 mins rest – so:

2U1O 2U1O 2U1O 6 rest x3

I think you might have your 10 minutes and 12 minutes the wrong way round. With 3U 1O you could do three reps to give 12 mins, and with 3U 2O two reps would give 10 mins.

Ta. Looked at all the other sessions and they all add up.

How are you finding it ? I’ve had the book since it was first published but have yet to finish a whole programme,find them a bit boring tbh….

Loving it, but I really want to improve on my cross races this year so I’ve got a good incentive.
I also love that feeling where you have to shut your eyes and press on through the tiredness, the whole thing buckets of sweat, dribble and swearing.

Though no matter how hard I try I can’t match my road heart rates on the turbos, I suppose that’s where a Powertap would come in.

But I’m oldish and not getting any quicker, so hoping this will help. I said before I’m trying to find 10 seconds out of every ten minutes for this season.

You’ll always end with an Over so if its 10mins then it’ll be 3U2O. Which plan and what week are you on and I’ll have a look at my book.

Second week now. O/U start next week. I’m on the new competitor, but only because my races are short, even the LVRC road races aren’t that long.
I was wondering about slipping in a midweek club 10, but I don’t want to upset the plan.

Week 3

Thurs 75-90min. EM with 3x9min OU (2under, 1over) (6min RBI)
Sat 90-120min. EM with 3x9min OU (2U, 1O) (5min RBI)

I find writing out the session on a post stick note works well for me for example Thurs

10Min Warm up

30 Min EM

2U
1O
2U
1O
2U
1O

6 Min EM

etc..

Got that, I really am pants. It’s weeks 5 and 6 I got the times wrong. I wrote them out onto A4 sheets to keep in the garage.
Anyway I’ve double checked everything and I’m okay now.

What type of turbo are you using air, mag or fluid? I’m using a fluid so its easy to change up/down the gears to increase/decrease the load and then use my cadence to fine tune it so I can keep in the HR zone. Guess it could be a bit of a challenge on a mag if it hasnt got much adjustment on it.

Fluid as well. Keeping cadence and heart rate balanced means my HR stays in the lower levels. Changing gear and resistance to get the HR up put my cadence right out.
That said I think I can feel an improvement on the road already.

I had to do something like this decades ago as I’d get dropped during races because I couldn’t bridge the gaps, and I mean two metres that sort of distance. That snap of speed has always been lacking.

After a few of the sessions you will get a feel for the gear ratios that work best for the various intervals, last time I did it I noticed an improvement by the end of week 3. Overall its helped me be more of a spinner than a masher.

I thought that might be the case, even the second and third intervals are easier to maintain at higher levels than the first.

Wait till the SEPI and PFPI intervals, the SEPI are seriously tough going.

1st SEPI next Tuesday.

Same here first toughie 60-90 EM with 2x[3×3 SEPI(3 RBI)] (8 RBS)

@oldgit how did your first SEPI go?

Hard.
Though strangley each interval became easier?
The 45 seconds build up helps, and I managed phasing into peak bang on time.

Lots of dribble, lots of swearing and at one point I gasped out for air (what a pansy)

It’s deffo already having a good effect, I feel stronger, HR is down and I’m not using such a wide range of gears on the climbs

How I do on round 1 of the cross will tell.

It’s kinda pointing out that it’s our mind thats the limiting factor not our bodies, but PFPI’s are still to come. I managed a max of 191bpm on mine tonight, really gave it some beans on the first set so I really suffered on the second set.

191! how old are you if you don’t mind me asking.

45, my max starting to feel like I’m gonna puke is 199 and based on my test that makes it 182-199 for the SEPI and PFPI

Russell
I’m managing to up my rates quite easily, today I was doing O/U and had to ease off to stay in the fields.
What do you reckon to just upping the figures, or should I re test mid programe.
I’m going past my old test rate quite easilly now?

Got a copy of this on the weekend, again for the cross season,
Not sure I’ll go through with the whole thing, I commute to work each day so was planning to do very easy commutes as rest days, not sure if it’d leave me too hammered or not, I was just planning on doing some of the intervals on the way home 3 times a week.

Being a plodder I’ve never done intervals and don’t really have much of an idea of how to go about them, I’ve been doing 3x15mins on the big hill by the house for the last 4/5 weeks, feeling the best I’ve felt all year so hopefully a few shorter sessions should push me on a bit.

I have found the same as each week goes on, but the plan is about the the cummalative load it puts you under during the week, so more than likely your resting HR was slightly higher today as you had not completely recovered from the last session perhaps. You do have some leeway in the RPM on the O/U sessions so I just lower the RPM a tad to keep it in the zones. Did you start to feel the burn in your legs on the Over parts?

I had another SEPI session and it was a hell of a lot easier to get above 182 this time round, even hit 194 tonight.

One thing I did notice from the first time I did the test to the second time that the results had increased in distance covered and the HR values. So either I’d got better and/or was prepared to push that little harder knowing what I was capable of.

This is the first time you have tried it, wait and see what the effects are. You can always push a little harder if you ever try it again once you know your limits a bit better.

Once past the first Over, the Unders felt easy even though it’s just a small reduction in HR.
I’m going to do Saturdays session on the road, it should be O/U again but I’m going to do it on a 2 mile steady climb.

Anyone completed a program? What did you do after you were done?

Completed a program and had some good race performances and felt great. Then a few weeks after felt like I completely crashed, just couldn’t complete a session and had little desire to get on a bike. Felt a lot like over training. Does warn of this in the book though.

Done the beginners comp one last year and the experienced comp one earlier this year, found that I peak towards the end of week 9 on both plans and after I completed the experienced one this year I just vegged out for 9 weeks doing nothing structured at all and put 2KG on, but I’m now into week 3 of the experienced comp again and feeling good.

End of week three and I was knackered on the road today. Still 1mph quicker on the climbs than I was when I started, not the big leaps like last week though.
Though it was the first tough week, and it was raining and windy out today.
Never the less I’ll have to have a week out before my first cx race of the year.
Is this normal.

Week 3 and Week 7 are the really hard weeks, weeks 4&8 are easier (taper) You’ll be better for a bit of a rest during the week.

Very very good day on the road, pretty pleased with that. It can only be the training. I particular bridging gaps whilst in the saddle, even to the clubs fast boy.

Question
My programe is nine weeks long, and my first race is on a Sunday and the last day of week eight.
Would you stop at the end of week seven, and take week eight easy?

What about resuming the programe once racing is underway, baring in mund the season is pretty well non stop.