Rude Awaking
Tuesday morning was my first interval session of the 2012 training year. If you needed further evidence that I'm a sadist, I'll let it be known that I actually was quite chipper as I descended the stairs at 5 AM, into the dark basement and then up upon the trainer.
It had been nearly 3 months without any structured intervals -- my first month of training had me at the gym lifting weights 3 days a week, but on the bike it was strictly endurance paced riding. And for the two months prior to that, it was all play time on the bike for me. I was pretty jazzed to get back into the routine of precisely dosed pain for specific durations, so that excitement, plus my 24 oz water bottle of coffee, had me smiling through the first warm-up part of the work out.
The plan sent to me by my new coach for the season's kick-off interval was one designed to tax the muscular endurance system -- 3 sets of low-cadence 10 minute efforts at around my LT for last season (270W, which corresponds to the green horizontal line I drew on the WKO+ chart below). It sounded like the kinda work-out I'd enjoy suffering through, but the smile on my face slowly fizzled though just a few minutes into the first interval. I knew I couldn't keep the Watts at 270 at such a low cadence, so I went with a quick (and in hindsight, mistaken) decision to abandon the low cadence goal to at least maintain the Wattage goal.
Just a couple of minutes into interval #2 I had to choose between the Wattage goal and the duration goal, and again, Wattage won out, and I had to pare the effort back to just six minutes. There was no hint of a smile on my face at that point.
And by the time I barely made it to the six minute mark for the third and final interval...well...let's just say it is a good thing that I'm in the basement and that the girls and Mrs D were still fast asleep two floors above me. I'm sure I said things that I'd rather not have them hear, or at least I think I uttered some profanity. I was too deep in the pain cave to recall specifically what actually happened vs. what I might have imagined.
0-3
In 2011, I was pretty proud of my training plan success rate -- I can think of only two interval work-outs prescribed by my old coach where I failed to meet or exceed the prescribed Wattages, cadence, and duration goals. That's probably two misses out of literally hundreds of intervals over the year.
So you can imagine how much of a foul taste was left in my mouth after finishing up the morning's work-out, and I'm not just talking about the normal foul taste left behind after downing coffee from a plastic water bottle. It only took one work-out for me to rack up 3 big misses in my intervals for 2012!
Those of you who know me well would not be surprised that failure such as this had me quickly digging deeper, looking for answers. I knew it wasn't a case of me just wimping out. As you can see by the yellow lines I drew on each of the three intervals below, the rate at which my HR zoomed up to 200 bpm got increasingly faster with each interval. There's no faking 200+ bpm, so the pain was real, but what brought it on so quickly?
- Last year I had a very bicycle training friendly work schedule, so I rarely did big interval efforts so early in the morning. Perhaps this morning I encountered a case where the mind was willing, but the legs were still slumbering?
- Also, with the bigger efforts coming later in the day last year, I had a couple of the day's meals in my belly supplying the muscles with a steady supply of energy. While I did down the 24 oz of coffee early into my work-out, maybe there just wasn't enough juice in the system to keep the muscles pumping?
- Over the last three months nearly all of my riding time has been in the 135 to 155 W range. Any time spent at 270 or beyond was during brief climbs or sprints. Maybe I've lost too much fitness and I'm just not ready for such efforts?
- Lastly, I'm now training with a new coach. While we've met once and exchanged a bunch of emails, maybe we need a longer "dating" period so that he gets to know me better, understand what I'm capable of (and all of what I am incapable of!), and until then his plans may miss the mark for me?
Rapid Response
It didn't take me long to get the answer (or at least an answer). Within an hour after hopping off the bike, I had downloaded my data and fired off an email with my powerfile to my coach from the breakfast table. By the time I headed upstairs to start the day of work, I already had a response back.
After analyzing my powerfile, he pointed out that I completely ignored something he explicitly had called out in an email to me earlier in the week. What made that even more remarkable was that the email he had sent earlier in the week was in response to a question I had raised myself, specifically to be proactive about the matter that I now ignored!
The plan he had given me had assumed my time would be outside. When I had asked him earlier in the week if and how I should alter the plan if I was confined to the trainer, the recommendation was to knock 15 to 20 Watts off of what he had asked me to do. Had I aimed my target at that lower Wattage adjusted for the indoor training, he was confident that I would have completed all three intervals as planned.
So perhaps the real reason for my failure was that I should have had two coffee-filled water bottles, as clearly with just 24 oz's worth of caffeine, my brain was unable to remember the clear directions I had been given. I'll know for sure though on Saturday when I attempt the same work-out, but this time outdoors and after a bit more coffee!
