My knee pain has been uncharacteristically bad these past 2 days. Stairs and changing direction suck. I feel like a marionette with a broken string. Usually due to doing an activity like skating and frog kick in the water… which I did both this past weekend. sigh
Yesterday’s ride was unaffected (my cleats are set up nicely), but today my lower body strength exercises needed some care.
The rear leg elevated split squats were not a good choice, Romanian deadlift in split stance were good. 3x8 at about 15RM for my first strength workout in too long. I really need to be more consistent with the S&C sessions.
well well well, guess what guys, i fell ill on friday in the eve of the big marathon. life happens, my key take home message is that I got a really great marathon training done and I am walking away without the extra added stress from marathon. Mentally of course i’d rather have run the ara and have some fun - I really love racing and it’s been a year since my last “race” and year and a half since my last “real race”.
7 weeks to IM Texas.
Calgary Marathon in the works end of May. Gives me an excuse to go “home” and hopefully even get a short day trip to my favourite mountains, The Rockies… But first things first, IM Texas.
This is what it did last week. I added some easy z1/z2 workouts and it responded by reducing some of my later workouts to capture fatigue.
However, this week I again added time to my workout, and the AI responded by increasing all my future workout times.
I guess I can reason that it’s realizing my fitness is maybe better than it thought and so it’s responding by increasing. I just found it interesting in how it responded.
So, I did have a z2 ride in my schedule today. But over night OG reduced it from 60’ to 22’ and then removed it completely. I now have a day off.
My HRV and RHR are doing very well this week, so physically I don’t feel like I need a rest day. However, my mood has been down yesterday and today and I just feel tired, like I didn’t get enough sleep.
Looks like OG is right on the money telling me to take a break. Which I will do!
Was originally down for 1 hour aerobic development today and 5 hours on Saturday. Increased today’s to 2 hours, reduced Saturday to 3 hours, and have let the AI increase Strength Endurance and Threshold in between.
Started misty, but sun burnt through into a pleasant morning. Roads damp, but just one flood that hasn’t yet receded. Another mild day and windproof and gloves carried but not worn.
Question for @Prof. If I edit a session, does that stop the AI changing it, if I unlock it again?
I believe OG can only remove the session. I saved all the different sessions to my library and add them as needed. Which is what I did today.
The session was 22’ and didn’t have the “Workout wizard” option at the bottom, so I added an AER session from my library and unlocked it. After some background computing, it was deleted from the day.
The whole point of the AI is that you don’t need to stick rigidly to the plan put forward. Want to do some unscheduled Z2 today as you have nice weather and the time? Then get it done, and let the Athletica engine figure out how to keep you on track.
In my view the overall pattern of volume, frequency and consistency and increasing load are the keys. Individual days aren’t so critical. Just make sure not to do hero sessions that impact the former.
Correct @Phil, if you make any adjustments, the AI considers that you know the context best and leaves the session be. Of course, whatever load you accumulate during that session will be considered in any subsequent session…
Maybe it’s my fitness is up, or maybe it’s I finally lubed my chain after way too long (oops), but I’ve been nailing my workouts the past 2 weeks.
Today was 30/30 day had my best effort in a while. Gotta enjoy these highs for when the lows come…
If there’s one suggestion I could make it’s to consider a more dynamic warmup structure, especially for workouts like the 30/30s. I don’t know about others, but I need more than z2 to get my legs ready for z6 work.
Big gear low cadence L3B work today. It was scheduled as 5 x 10 min but I made it 3 x 10 min + 1 x 20 min as best suited my outdoor circuit today. My usual road is closed for 2 weeks.
I’m without my main bike at moment as frame gets a refresh. That also means I’m without my power meter. But this session can be done easily enough based on how heavy the legs feel and the rate of pedal turning (cadence).
Tried a new warmup for the 30/30’s today. The usual is a 5’ ramp from 125 watts to 180 watts, then another 5’ at 180 watts and right into the hiit. Today I did the usual 5’ ramp and then 4x 10”/30” at heavy / easy followed by 5’ at 180 watts and into the hiit. At this time I’m not certain the change in warm up made the hiit feel any different…
What I can say is that I can feel the cumulative fatigue in my legs. Today’s 3x6x30/30 was no easier this week than last week’s 4x7x30/30. Maybe the S&C workout on Tuesday that’s left my legs feeling sore also has something to do with it I did notice that my HR responded more quickly to changes in load during this workout. Faster rise and drop off vs last week.
Heath metrics are excellent, RHR is lowest in a long time, 2bpm lower than 60d average and HRV is also excellent. S&C tomorrow!
Tonight was my Stryd prescribed “Supra Threshold” intervals - basically 4 x 4.5 mins at around 10k power
Absolutely loved it, my running feels really strong at the moment so I’m hopeful heading into my first half marathon in Lisbon next week.
Have to say, really hope a link with Stryd and Athletica gets sorted soon as it’s the one slight downer I have, having to adjust plans to match power and not pace/heart rate!
Must say that I love having the swim workout guidance. Used to be I just logged steady-state meters or simple repeats in the pool. With my FR955 (combined with the Swim HR to get proper HR readings) telling me what to do, the suggested workouts make the pool time much more enjoyable. And productive, it would seem!
I chuckled, though, at the suggested target lap times for today’s HITT. I’m still a good bit away from 1:19-1:25 / 100yd, even for just 50-yd repeats. Inching closer, though!
Threshold today. It was scheduled as 2 x 6 x (4’ / 2’) but to keep the cognitive load low I treat it as 12 x (4’ / 2’) for interval counting purposes.
Garmin Edge have auto lap by position. This was perfect for today on an out and back section of road. You press lap the first time you pass a location, and do that for all locations you want another lap recorded. Then as you go up and down a road doing the intervals , the laps get triggered automatically without needing to press the lap button again.
I did an extra interval today to bring it up to 13 x ( 4’ / 2’). This was to return to a cross roads mid way and turn right for home, making it more circular. My legs were feeling a bit tired in that extra interval. But I had swapped my strength endurance into yesterday, instead of the aerobic development, thus not surprised.
It seems to be local road closed week around here. At least 4 roads I use on my circuits closed this week. Thus some different choices at the moment.
Exercises felt better than Tuesday and I reversed the order so that it was compound followed by single joint. I suspect it’ll be a couple of weeks before I settle into a routine that doesn’t leave the following day’s session a little more challenging than usual.
Long aerobic development session today. A mild and sunny day with dry roads. Felt great to be out on a longer outing. Friday’s is often Threshold during build and it’s nice working at an easier intensity for longer the next day.
This bit of rural cycle track used to be gravel, but was tarmaced at end of Pandemic. It’s a nice option, especially with the parallel road having traffic lights, roadworks, and delays.
Not great sleep last night, and woke up with a nice headache. Wasn’t sure how the ride would go, but a little Advil and some coffee later it was a good session. Even needed to hop off at one point to increase my fan speed.
First z3a interval was easy as I wanted to see how my HR would respond. Ended up at the same power as last time I did this session. Working at this level is getting easier each time.
Yesterday’s strength session didn’t leave me as sore today, making the session easier.
@Phil too bad all my training rides are indoors right now. I don’t have any nice photos to share
I did notice that my HR responded more quickly to changes in load during this workout. Faster rise and drop off vs last week.
