No run, I bagged my long run and will end the week at 76 miles. I'm coughing up stuff and with 2 weeks to go for my race I'm not going to risk it. I did however do a damn hard bike workout but one that doesn't get my HR high. If you're one of my triathletes you'll recognize this.
15:00 wu) building from 50w (watts) to 130w.
4 X 2:00 ME (muscle endurance) starting at 280w and building to 320w. Cadence 20-30 revs. This workout is like doing squats. Max HR was 132 but my legs fried. Recoveries were spinning at 50w leaving on HR 119, so I rested between each until my HR dropped to 119. Kind of bummed because I used to be able to 4 X 10:00 at 380-400 watts for this session.
10 comments:
Sweet. Is there a way to do that workout without the aide of a power meter? I'm guessing just find a steep hill and stick to the time intervals. Sounds fun!
Feel better!
Dave
Yep. I used to be able to do that too.
Just kidding!
Hope you stop coughing up the gross stuff. Doesn't that mean its on it's way out, though? At least that's good.
My daughter just went DOWN tonight. fever 104. Can't wait for it to go through our house. Fabulous!
Mary- Good luck! I am on my way to being healthy but I've rested and didn't stress my immune system. I hope you make it through OK!
Dave- If you aren't doing ME work then you're missing out big time. Yes- hill work is very good. You want a hill that's ~4%+ steep, put the meat saw in to the big ring and grind at a cadence that barely allows you to stay upright. If your knees are 100% then these should be like doing squats in the weight room but they work you from your forearms to your ankles, and every core muscle and leg muscle gets fired big time. You also want to work your pedal stroke technique and try to apply force at nearly all degrees of rotation, avoid pulling up in the back though as this stresses the backs of your knees a bit too much. Make sure to push hard at both 12 and 6 o'clock in the pedal rotation too. And also avoid dropping your heels at the bottoms and loading your achilles, keep a neutral foot angle.
"If you aren't doing ME . . ."
wtf?
Ha! I didn't catch that! Your mind is in the gutter... sweeeet.
Muscle endurance. Muscle endurance.
I was hoping you might briefly explain ME. For a running program, some ME work-outs on the bike like the one you described?
Some serious pushing!
"I was hoping you might briefly explain ME"... Well, I don't really know you. :) Back at you.
The muscle endurance is summed up as functional bike strength. You increase the resistance immensely and lower the cadence so that the muscle fires slowly. It's similar to squats in the gym but it's specific to cycling movement. You can do this with a low HR because the muscle's movement is so slow yet I was over LT in wattage. Sort of a conundrum. I would liken this to the AMT trainer for running, it's like running very slowly through mud.
Benefits would be increased power and strength with endurance, also increased strength in connective tissue.
Hey Tim - for triathlon training, how often should you be doing an ME-type workout? Weekly?
The only rule I would have an athlete follow for this is do as much as possible while remaining healthy. The ME work should be a heavier focus early in the season, the same as hand paddles in the pool and long hills in running. As the race approaches the focus should shift more towards race cadence and race speed. For an athlete cycling ~3 times per week they could do the ME work in every workout with one workout focused entirely on ME work and lots of it. If you bike 4-5 times per week then include ME in just 2-3 sessions. I used to do ~3 hours of ME work on big days. One thing you do want to do though is break up the ME intervals with short recovery spins at a very high cadence. Vary the cadence between very low ME work at 30-40 revs and short recoveries at 100+ cadence. You can also do ME work with intensity specific to your race. So if you're training for a 1/2 IM then you could do something like 4 X 5:00 at 50-60revs and at 1/2 IM HR (8-12 beats below LT).
Depending on your fitness and strength, the lower the cadence the lower the HR because the muscles are firing very slowly. So by raising cadence slightly to 50-60revs you can elevate HR to race specific levels.
Brilliant, Tim - thanks for taking the time with such a detailed response. Tonight, I'll start my journey to: 4 X 10:00 at 380-400 watts ;-). My knees hurt with just the thought ....
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