Training Log-Prep Week 2-One Extreme To The Other

Captains view in the Pain Cave. Spending lots a time here these days.

My second Prep week of 2014 has seen almost every possible type of weather has seen snow, rain, thunder, lightning, heavy winds and temperatures from -3 to 50 deg F. It has been one of the strangest weeks of weather I have seen. But rest assured, Donald Trump says that there is no Global Warming…

This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014

Regardless of the extremes, training marches on. The highlight of the week was my TrainerRoad FTP test on Thursday. I had done the 8 Min FTP test back in November to set a baseline FTP for my Preparation phase. I ended up with a somewhat depressing 207 watt FTP which seemed to become invalid pretty quickly during the Intermediate Base II Plan on TrainerRoad. All my rides quickly ended up with Intensity Factors(IF) in the .90 and above. Even on rides that were rated to be much lower than that. I was very eager to retest again to get things on track and was very happy when I came up with a new FTP of 234 watts. I also ended up dropping a few pounds too, which gave me a 2.82 watts/kg.

My Performance Management Chart on Training Peaks should now be a little more precise since the IF’s are more correct. The high IF ratings before were showing that my Fatigue(ATL) was much higher than what was reality.

TrainingPeaks-Performance Management Chart – Jan 12 2014

The rest of the week consisted of mostly aerobic endurance type work. I am planning on doing a graded run test on the treadmill next week to set my baseline for my run fitness for the year. I had a nice 45 minute LSD swim on Friday night which ended with around 2000m. I am amazed that I am able to maintain that fitness throughout the off-season. I really felt like I could have done twice that much. I can’t wait to get to some open water swimming this Spring and Summer.

I have also been working on my Annual Training Plan(ATP) for the season while working through Joe Friels’ Triathlon Training Bible. I sort using that and also my prior season to try to tailor this seasons training along with changes to help the areas I would like to improve on. It is pretty interesting and I am gettin into the “techy” side it. Now that I have a true power meter on my bike I can get more accurate TSS readings.

I have also been playing around with using my Cycleops PowerCal for quantify some runs using Power. Usually you only have heart rate for running, but the PowerCal uses heart rate to calculate power. It doesn’t do well for instantaneous power, but for an workout average it is pretty accurate.

On Sunday, I got over to the Lehigh Parkway for my longer run of the week. It was a really nice day with highs in the 50’s, but the path was a bit messy to say the least. There was also some leftover ice in places which made things a little sketchy. I ended up with about 7.5 miles in 1:15. It was actually a better run than my time showed since I stopped to take some pictures and never stopped my Garmin.

Downstream-Lehigh Parkway

High Water near Runners Bridge-Lehigh Parkway

A little mushy-Lehigh Parkway

I was listening to the latest Rich Roll Podcast on my run today. His guest was Charlie Engle who will be running from LA, across the country, and finishing in Boston and running the Boston Marathon. He is doing with another guy who will be in a wheelchair. It is a pretty amazing story. It is called Run2Boston so if you are interested check it out. You can also check out this story on Runner’s World.