Official Tour Of Sufferlandria Thread (Page 7)

Yeah, that's what I was on about with the 'it works for me' bit. I'm more Ullrich and a lot less Armstrong (STYLE, please. I don't mean to say anything about drugs or being a d-bag...). I've said before I've developed a lot more appreciation for Tour riders during this process, but none more so that the lean machines like Van Garderen, Schleck brothers, etc. Not having that body type, it's extremely difficult for me to fathom what it must feel like to spin for so long high cadences to produce power as opposed to just crushing the cranks.  Of course, that being said, I wish I had runner's legs! Pants shopping has always been a pain.

For the recovery, I actually go with keeping a light on my feet feel. So it's a little quicker cadence on low resistance. Just a bit quicker than I might do when just riding, not spinning like crazy. 90 or so, or just over is fine, as I'm often in the 80's for the intervals. Typically about 83-88 when I just go, ignoring whatever they have on the screen (sometimes I follow, sometimes not). Going slower tends to have more of a cool-down effect for me. That's not really what you want for intervals. Especially with the upcoming ones, as they're short, but very high intensity. My normal cadence for those types of effort levels will creep up some more, but it can vary depending on how I feel. In the 90's will be average, though I may be over 100 for a bit in something like Revolver.

Was there a reason you were trying to hold 100+ before? If that's what works then you're fine. It's also ok to experiment at times as things can change, and so you have a little bit of range.

The approach to these is like with the track workouts or running intervals. You want the strong effort throughout the workout up where it's supposed to be. The recovery time is only to keep you loose for the next effort. I'm actually rather low on the recovery, sometimes down near 1/3 FTP, but still spinning lightly. So especially up on these intervals, it's more informative to see that you hit all 15 Revolver intervals within say +/- 5 watts than to know anything about your overall average for the workout.

Although being in the middle of a tour such as this, the survival mode instincts will probably be kicking in more.

It's mostly a product of where we are in the tour. On a typical workout, I'm in the high 80s and maybe into the 90s. I just don't have any mashing left in my quads right now, and the higher cadence is what is allowing me to hit (or approach in this case) the target power levels.

Had I been able to hold 102 for the remainder of The Long Scream, I would have been hitting my targets. I tried shifting down and going for lower cadence, but I drifted even further away from the target ... again, just a matter of fatigue right now. Higher cadence/less mashing allows me to pedal longer on fatigued legs. 

I just came back from a little more than 36 hours of recovery and did stages 6 and 7 back to back. I started The Wretched at 90% (FTP is set at 250, and it was accurate before the tour started) but just felt way to good to do the work out at that level so I just revved it up and kind of went by RPE. I finished it with an NP of 301. I had to do a double check of all my settings and my trainer set up! I guess the first 5 stages really blew the cobwebs off my legs and that 36 hours was enough to get set to really throw down. The long scream I did at 100% (250w FTP) and was way over on that too. Finally the Downward Spiral I barely kept up with it at first but was going wide open and way over on my intervals toward the end. I totally puked after the last bonus interval...that definitely happened. I'm glad I anticipated this eventuality and had a bucket handy.

I am completely destroyed right now, but I'm caught back up and saw some major improvement since the start of the tour.

Whoa. And wow. That's some solid riding there!  Nice work.

I was blindsided by a nasty headcold that came out of nowhere yesterday afternoon. This is going to get ugly. But I'm heading down now to knock off Stage 7.

Onward! 

Meh. I feel like crap, bu it's done. Didn't hit the intervals as well as I would have liked, but I'm overall satisfied. I just don't have any legs left. Still riding at 100%.

Target Power = 178
AVG Power = 185
N Power = 215 

Stage 7 in the books, I was surprised that I liked The Downward Spiral so much but it was a nice switch from the long intervals of yesterday.

NP: 271 

IF: 0.95

Looking forward to the big day tomorrow!

Stage 7 done....I kinda liked that one (I keep saying that -- it's my first time through any of these rides!).  The first interval of each set was brutal and made me want to turn the intensity down, but once that one was done, they seemed to get easier with the shorter intervals.

Two stages left, and then my legs are looking forward to a few recovery rides....and probably a new FTP test to see if I've made any gains through this tour!

I also just finished the downward Spiral - It was easy compared to yesterday

How did you set your FTP?

WHAT?  don't say that.  Why?

Yeah, the head cold won't make the next two days easy that's for sure.  I am pretty sure I have no sprinting in my legs what so ever at the moment, but we shall see how the morning goes.  I have to do these two extra early as well so I can get on the road after

Because of how NP works, it's possible, though still unlikely. Even more unlikely with the use of "easy" in any way/shape/form being in the description.

Maybe I should have put Quotes in front of EASY but yesterday was a killer, so today with a rest between each interval, it felt easier.  Also the IF is a % of effort based on FTP, so it is possible to go over FTP 1.  if your work outs are consistantly above 1.00, then it is probably time to re-evaluate your FTP.  I pushed myself very hard today on the intervals usually going over by 10-20 watts. 

Technically, on something with lots of short intense intervals (kind of like this) it is possible (though still improbable) for someone to break 1.0 for their IF by a little. It has to do with the energy systems worked and also with how NP is calculated. Taking the average of data points collected in 30 sec segments and then going 4th power on the averages instead of 4th power to every point. Though if one is breaking FTP on this, it's still a good idea to recheck FTP.

Also working against this are the warm-up and cool-down sections adding extra easy time. Then factor in that this is Day 7 of the Tour.