I used to hate running in the heat and would avoid it at all cost. Then I decided to change my attitude and told myself that I loved running in the heat and would seek it out…now I actually love it and crave it…
Love that Cindy and agree it is all in the attitude. I’ve “tried” to learn to love running without having to bundle up like one would up in the North. After more or less 15 years, it is still something that frustrates me. Maybe this year I’ll finally crack the code. what is one thing you love running when it’s hot?
I love the feeling of the warmth on my skin…
I’m doing IMTX and oh how I would love to be able to get outside in the heat! Except I’m in Ohio and this morning when I went to the pool it was snowing. I hope sitting in the Sauna will help and have been trying to do that at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes. That TX sun is going to love my white northern skin. Sign up for a spring race they say. It will be fun they say. I haven’t been outside on my bike since October. This will be an adventure.
Relevant thread here @Kathy03csi
Hey Kathy! We all love what we can’t have, eih?! I am deprived of cold and snow and I know for the fact most northerners would love to trade with me!
I think sauna after your workouts are awesome for you to get ready.
Welcome to Texas! I’m doing IMTX as well - would love to meet up then!
MJ
Back from some relative visiting over the Easter period. Some VO2 max today in my recovery week. Legs didn’t have any DOMS after my 24hr event, which was good to see. A minimum Workout Reserve of 8% and an efficiency factor of 1.7 today. Feeling good.
Tomorrow is scheduled as a day off and Sat as 3 hours aerobic endurance. I’m going to split that into 2 hours and 1 hour across Fri / Sat to better suit my schedule this week.
No DOMS after a 24-hour event? You clearly prepared and paced yourself well! Congratulations!
It was a team event, where you ride together for the full period… I was team captain in charge of pacing and stop timing for food / drink. The trick is not to be the least fit member of the team you are in. The key to that is good fitness preparation. The other key during the event is keeping on top of your drinking and eating. Small amounts in not drinking or eating enough will catch up with you and make themselves known over 24 hours. Similarly if you try and eat or drink too much that’ll get found out.Its a delicate balance.
How do you know how much to eat and drink? Past experience?
Yes, a mix of past experience plus also testing the limits of how much to take on.
When you first try long distance events such as 200km, you might find that you can get by filling your bottles with an energy powder or bags of jelly babies.
But as you go up the distances, 300km, 400km, 600km, 1000km, 1200km, 1500km, 2000km etc you find that purely fuelling on simple sugars doesn’t work that well.
The other thing about these events are that they are unsupported. In theory you could have a few kg of powder mix in your bike bags. Then buy water to mix every few hours… But as above you simply can’t palate that over such durations. At least I can’t. You then become dependent on what you can buy commercially along the way.
My palate tends to switch between sweet and savoury and I’ll carry both on the bike. Then also have stops where you’ll buy additional items, some to eat straight away and some to put in my bike bags for later.
Then there are other things to keep an eye on, ensuring you’re taking in enough salts etc.
From experience you get to recognise quite early on how your fuelling and hydration is going. You know whether you’ve underdone or overdone certain elements. Experience tells you to tackle these elements before they become ride ending. Experience tells you how to tackle them.
In ultra type distance events you’re used to pushing through a lot of discomfort, whether gastric or physical or mental but you still need to get the balance right of what to push through and what needs adjusting for and / or tackling.
I’d say getting your eating and drinking wrong, and then ignoring or not recognising the warning symptoms early enough, is one of the main causes of not finishing these type events.
There’s also a simple rule to go by. No matter how bad you feel, don’t even consider quitting till you’ve had the opportunity to eat, drink, and rest. Once you’ve done those three things , see where you are at, and whether you think you can keep going. It’s surprisingly how you can turn it round, if you want something enough, and you know what you need to do to recover it… But don’t do that at the expense of safety or health.
Thanks for this. I find it challenging enough to fuel for a three to five-hour gravel race!
Back-to-back Zwift races seemed a good idea about an hour before the start of the first one. Not so much five minutes into the second…
Hardcore SoCal Mark!!
If only! Alas…regretfully…those five or so minutes were all I had in me. Hardcore I definitely was not today. Dropped out first full lap of 6. Next time!
VO2 Max long HIIT intervals yesterday.
Traditionally I’ve been doing these on a local hill I know well. For variety I did them on more undulating terrain which is good for developing my ability to put high power (for me!) out when the terrain isn’t assisting. It also provides a more flowing ride, compared to hill repeats.
I hit a minimum Workout Reserve of - 13%. That has to be balanced with workout reserve being based on my last 6 weeks of power data. My power meter bike was out of action for 4 out of the last 6 weeks. Thus my power profile will be incomplete till I have a few more recent sessions in the bank.
Having said the above I did push towards the top of the proscribed range.
I also wore both shorts and short sleeve top. Warmer weather reaching the UK, at the dizzy heights of 18C!
A tempo session yesterday where I paced it to a minimum workout reserve of -1% right at the end. All thanks to have it showing in real-time during my session.
@Andrea and I have been talking about the future evolution of real time Workout Reserve. There are some quite interesting ideas we are working on. Ideas that we think will bear fruit and be useful in real time. I can’t tell you what or when at this stage. But I’m certainly finding it interesting, to see where we can take it.
Hi all,
Newbie here. Have read the blogs about Workout Reserve, but yet have a question. In our hard workouts should we be targeting to achieve a negative WR? Is this the goal even at the cost of exceeding the power targets of the training plan?
Thanks in advance
Hi @nhc ,
Not necessarily, but great also when it happens. I note your session today was 3% mWR in your over-unders. That represents a max mean power that was right around what you’ve done previously. Some days it might be a bit stronger (reaching negative) and other days not quite. This is the advantage of doing your sessions outdoors and ‘open’, or open on free ride mode as opposed to being fixed in erg mode. When the system is open, your brain is the interpreter to decide whether or not you might do a bit more when you’re feeling good, and/or a bit less when you’re centrally fatigued. We use it as a guide only. Not every workout will be a breakthrough and that is okay. Today you hit the power target perfectly and now you get to adapt and do it again. That’s what gets results long term so carry on…
More info on what to expect with Workout Reserve here across all session types…