Week of April 16th, 2007 - Bike VO2 Test Week

Monday:
Swim 30 minutes, 2500 yards
Bike 60 minutes - Did Carmicheal Training TT video that came with my Cyclops Trainer. It focuses on high cadence and what not. Good to spin out the legs.

Tuesday:
Swim 45 minutes, 3300 yards
WU: 200E - 2:57
MS: 3000 continuous swim Easy to Steady...splits are as follows:
500 - 7:14
1000 - 7:08
1500 - 7:08
2000 - 7:00
2500 - 6:55
3000 - 6:47
CD: 100E - 1:33

Wednesday: VO2 Max bike test with Mark Kendell
Mark just completed, well, DNF'd IM AZ on Sunday. He caught something from the man made lake they swim in for the race. It rained the night before...and he swallowed too much water...next time.
The test: It went well, I was shooting for 500 watts before I quit, but as soon as he started moving the watts north of 440, I was done, could turn the pedals anymore. My target HR of 140 for the IM bike seems to be right on. I produce about 240 watts and burn 6.4 calories a minute. Five more beats and my calorie expenditure is 25% more at 8.4...maybe a little too much. I'll have full numbers as soon as I get the pdf sent over. My VO2 Max is 10 points lower than my last test on the run...68.
PM Run to shake out the legs of 40 minutes, 5 miles.

Thursday:
5500 yard swim (90mins)
75 mins fast spin on the bike up around Fairmont watching Dave and Co. suffer through mile repeats...

Friday:
Lunch run: WU: 10 minutes easy.MS: 30 to 45 minutes steady then 15-20minutes zone 5 (HM to 10k pace) with hard 400 finish. CD: 10 minutes easy jog. 7.5 miles (60 mins)
Swim: Made up workout since I forgot it...500e, 300k, 6*300 r30, 100easy (45mins)

Saturday:
Skipped the run (adding it to workout tomorrow)
Easy 2.5 hour ride around, nothing exciting

Sunday:
After getting tested again on Wednesday, I had the chance to borrow a wireless Power Tap and test my numbers. Gant and I had a 4 hour IM pace ride followup by 10 mile IM pace run planned. The Power Tap is very easy to setup. There is some drivetrain loss in the PT compared to the Ergomo that Gant was using, so I was shooting for 200ish watts, while Gant was at 220ish. It was very eye opening how my power flucuated on small inclines, etc. The spikes were huge and my HR didn't budge. In the beginning my HR was 120ish holding 200 watts and VERY easy. After several hours, my spikes were pretty much nill, and my HR had drifted to almost 140 all the while still pushing 200ish watts. I also bumped up my nutrition to 400 calories an hour...I felt fine with that amount. I looked pushing 240watts (my test results) and that was too high in the real world. Maybe after a nice taper, but not now, not today. Knowing that my HR needs to be 120 in the first third of IM is very helpful and knowing it can and will drift to 140 after 5 hours is good too! My legs felt pretty spent, but not painful. Off to the run we go after 4 hours 15 minutes of riding...
Gant was running 8:15's so I tagged along to mile 5 before I turned around, he was going a bit longer. My legs felt really good and that made me really happy. This was one of those confidence boosting workouts that says, I am damn near ready! 10 miles in 1:22 on Leif. Now, I really need a power meter...too bad I just ordered some Blackwell Research 100s...its time to go tubular!


Actual Time 15:49
Planned Time 15:55
Swim Distance 14300 yd
Bike Distance 153 mi
Run Distance 22.5 mi