Empty The Tank
Week 9, 21 days to go.
Today I took the Empty Tank Express.
I'm in the Peak phase of the plan, and while I haven't tested my legs in a race or anything more demanding than the Full Frontal Test, I'm hitting minor breakthroughs consistently.
Xert helps me keep tabs on my progress, maintaining the balance between informative analytical data and analysis-paralysis (e.g. Today's Plan).
What you see here, are two Sufferfest workouts done back-to-back.
"Revolver," followed immediately by "Half is Easy". Here, have a taste:
Both these workouts revolve around the same idea: equal work to rest ratio, at VO2max or above.
Revolver is 1 minute On, 1 minute Off.
Half Is Easy dishes out 2 sets of ~10 minutes each, with 15sec On, 15 Off.
Now, look here. On the one hand, I have a VO2max (MAP) weakness.
On the other, I have Repeated Efforts as a strength ("Attacker!").
The result of these two combined? I can pull off these kinds of workouts without too much difficulty.
Why? Becuase 1 minute at VO2max is hard, but not anything like 3-5 minutes where it becomes a mental game.
These intervals hurt, don't get me wrong, but perfectly bearable. I recover quickly so ready to hit it again when the engine revs.
15 seconds intervals/rests are a bit different because of the +300W surge. They feel almost like sprinting, yet are too short for causing major damage.
Admittedly, though, I was cautious.
I felt like increasing the cadence and difficulty on Revolver, but respected Half Is Easy, which I had not done before. So I kept it at the 100% difficulty setting.
The biggest struggle with HIE was actually switching between Slope and ERG mode because the Tacx Neo had trouble keeping up and occasionally wouldn't increase the resistance when the interval started.
So I'd just hit "9" on the keyboard for max slope, then go back to ERG for the 15-sec recovery if that happened. Only had a few of these instances, nothing drastic, but still, it was a bit distracting.
I wonder if the Neo 2 /2T handle this any better?
I'm thinking about the Tacx Neo 2T for the cycling dynamics benefit.
I'd love to get that running on a screen in parallel while riding. But anyway, let's keep the fantasies down to one paragraph.
What else? The Downward Spiral earlier in the week was also fun. I really enjoyed the video as I reminisced about the Spring Classics. Dege crossing the line at Roubaix, etc... As a workout, it's a solid VO2max session very similar to the ones above - with 1:1 work-to-rest ratios. It delivers over 15 minutes at VO2max in less than an hour.
Other than that, a 2-hour endurance ride in zone 2 helped me fortify my anti-coma abilities.
All things considered, it was a fun week, and I pushed hard to empty the tank at the end.
With Holy Water dripping into my eyes and a host of other liquids emanating from nearly every orifice, I concluded with a smile. Well, sort of.
Today I took the Empty Tank Express.
I'm in the Peak phase of the plan, and while I haven't tested my legs in a race or anything more demanding than the Full Frontal Test, I'm hitting minor breakthroughs consistently.
Xert helps me keep tabs on my progress, maintaining the balance between informative analytical data and analysis-paralysis (e.g. Today's Plan).
 |
| Revolver + Half Is Easy |
What you see here, are two Sufferfest workouts done back-to-back.
"Revolver," followed immediately by "Half is Easy". Here, have a taste:
Both these workouts revolve around the same idea: equal work to rest ratio, at VO2max or above.
Revolver is 1 minute On, 1 minute Off.
Half Is Easy dishes out 2 sets of ~10 minutes each, with 15sec On, 15 Off.
Now, look here. On the one hand, I have a VO2max (MAP) weakness.
On the other, I have Repeated Efforts as a strength ("Attacker!").
The result of these two combined? I can pull off these kinds of workouts without too much difficulty.
Why? Becuase 1 minute at VO2max is hard, but not anything like 3-5 minutes where it becomes a mental game.
These intervals hurt, don't get me wrong, but perfectly bearable. I recover quickly so ready to hit it again when the engine revs.
15 seconds intervals/rests are a bit different because of the +300W surge. They feel almost like sprinting, yet are too short for causing major damage.
Admittedly, though, I was cautious.
I felt like increasing the cadence and difficulty on Revolver, but respected Half Is Easy, which I had not done before. So I kept it at the 100% difficulty setting.
The biggest struggle with HIE was actually switching between Slope and ERG mode because the Tacx Neo had trouble keeping up and occasionally wouldn't increase the resistance when the interval started.
So I'd just hit "9" on the keyboard for max slope, then go back to ERG for the 15-sec recovery if that happened. Only had a few of these instances, nothing drastic, but still, it was a bit distracting.
I wonder if the Neo 2 /2T handle this any better?
I'm thinking about the Tacx Neo 2T for the cycling dynamics benefit.
I'd love to get that running on a screen in parallel while riding. But anyway, let's keep the fantasies down to one paragraph.
What else? The Downward Spiral earlier in the week was also fun. I really enjoyed the video as I reminisced about the Spring Classics. Dege crossing the line at Roubaix, etc... As a workout, it's a solid VO2max session very similar to the ones above - with 1:1 work-to-rest ratios. It delivers over 15 minutes at VO2max in less than an hour.
Other than that, a 2-hour endurance ride in zone 2 helped me fortify my anti-coma abilities.
All things considered, it was a fun week, and I pushed hard to empty the tank at the end.
With Holy Water dripping into my eyes and a host of other liquids emanating from nearly every orifice, I concluded with a smile. Well, sort of.
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