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Race The Training Thread

I had a great training week last week. Except for my Tuesday VO2max workout, which apparently is one of the hardest TrainerRoad workouts in terms of completion rate. 7 x 3 minutes at 120 % with 3-minute breaks in between. I managed 3 before I had to backpedal, and doubt my FTP. I reduced the intensity to 97 %, which was not enough, I had to take a 5-second breather in the middle of the intervals to finish them. The last interval was just hard, I struggled to keep the power up.

But the rest of the week went perfectly. Even Saturday's workout, which has you do 3 x 2 x 10 minutes with 2 minutes at 95 %, 100 %, 105 %, 100 % and 105 % and then a 1-minute break before you have to do it again. Apparently, this is also one of the harder workouts. Felt relatively easy, especially compared to Tuesday's workout. Yesterday was another day of relative relaxation, 5 x 15 minutes working that sweet, sweet spot (88–92 %).

Tomorrow, I will have another VO2max workout coming up, and I am already bracing for impact. The rest seems fine. My fitness seems on point, my FTP is already higher than my last season's PR (311 W vs. 308 W). I have no reason to doubt that number since finishing Saturday's workout. The only thing missing … are races. I doubt I will race any time soon. The first race in April has already been canceled and I reckon, Japan will be hit with the Covid-19 pandemic like the rest of the world at one point.
 
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The virus is going to get much worse here, I suspect. That's why I haven't entered any more races since, I'm sure they're getting cancelled. Not to mention Japan is terrible about refunding entry fees.

I myself got an 18 watt bump on my last ramp test, and I couldn't even get my HR to 180. Still not back where I was, though...

I then went on an 84 km ride with 1,300 meters of climbing in near-freezing weather.... hehe. Great sunset, if a bit unnerving.
 
Other than the JBCF races, though most of races get cancelled, smaller events are still on depending on the organizers and the circuits owners.
For example, JCRC race was held in Shimofusa last weekend, the next one in Gunma in April is planned too.
 
Other than the JBCF races, though most of races get cancelled, smaller events are still on depending on the organizers and the circuits owners.
For example, JCRC race was held in Shimofusa last weekend, the next one in Gunma in April is planned too.

As much as I love an excuse not to race while I'm still 10 kgs overweight, traveling across the country while a worldwide pandemic ranges on seems like a really irresponsible thing to do.
 
As much as I love an excuse not to race while I'm still 10 kgs overweight, traveling across the country while a worldwide pandemic ranges on seems like a really irresponsible thing to do.

Well, it just depends on how we see things and the level of fear we might or not have.
Going to a race by car and riding a bike outdoor , in a group or not , is not a risk itself.
 
For example, JCRC race was held in Shimofusa last weekend, the next one in Gunma in April is planned too.
AFAIK the April 26th race in Gunma has been cancelled, too. Plus, I second @baribari's sentiment: we shouldn't be traveling unless absolutely necessary. Japan is behind the curve, and currently fairly careless. I would expect that all races up until the summer are being cancelled. And even if they are not, you should think very carefully whether it is worth it.
Well, it just depends on how we see things and the level of fear we might or not have.
Going to a race by car and riding a bike outdoor , in a group or not , is not a risk itself.
At this point it is not about fear, it is about science. I recommend you have a listen to a video by one of Team USA's team doctors who happens to be a virologist as well. He also has a follow-up Q&A video. The purpose of reducing travel is to reduce the speed of the spread. We are at low risk, yes, but we could become vectors who then spread the virus. But according to Dr. Roshon athletes are at risk, because Covid-19 infections could cause lung damage, which could negatively affect your performance (when you use close to 100 % of your lung's capacity, you can tell if there is damage).

Moreover, there are risk groups. Our team attendants are in their late 50s, early 60s, so they belong to the high-risk pool, for example, where infections are much more likely to cause problems. These are fit guys, yes, but still, they are at high risk.
 
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The next several JCBF races have been cancelled, as well. No idea when I will actually be able to do my first race of the year...

On another note, I remembered the downside (upside?) of a successful ramp test... workouts are HARD!

Sweet spot and threshold workouts with long intervals feel like you're on the bleeding edge of your physical and mental capabilities.
 
Sad to see all the new corona cases in Tokyo. Personally I thought Japan was on top of it with it's 'clustering' strategy. But with a surge on untraceable cases, it could be spinning out of control.

For the moment I'm just keeping active and trying to keep my training specific for races which may or may not happen.

The usual weekly blog link and cut and paste below.

Cheers, Andy



「keeping on keeping on」

last week's training blog

☆the state of things

the uk is in lockdown
tokyo is locked down this weekend too

here in kashiwazaki
I spend my time looking after the kids each day
quality time together
I squeeze a ride in when I can

☆ the training

keep focused on climbing

to the wild boar rindo
hurting the legs every day

・monday: wild boar rindo x 5
・tuesday: zwift intervals
・wednesday: kashiwazaki classic short, wild boar rindo x 2
・thursday: wild boar rindo gravel tyre testing
・friday: kenno rindo, wild boar rindo KOM attacks
・saturday: wild boar rindo x 5
・sunday: kashiwazaki off road classic (plan)

☆ the equipment

some new tyres finally came this week

40 on the front
35 on the rear
plus tyre inserts
plus sealant

difficult to set them up
difficult to get them to hold air
punctures on the second ride!

back to square one

it's a learning curve
an expensive learning curve
but fun all the same!

different tyres are on order for next week...

☆the kashiwazaki off road classic

it was sad that K san crashed on Wednesday!

looking forward to riding this course again tomorrow

hopefully the sun will come out

here we go!
 
Sad to see all the new corona cases in Tokyo. Personally I thought Japan was on top of it with it's 'clustering' strategy. But with a surge on untraceable cases, it could be spinning out of control.

For the moment I'm just keeping active and trying to keep my training specific for races which may or may not happen.

The usual weekly blog link and cut and paste below.

Cheers, Andy



「keeping on keeping on」

last week's training blog

☆the state of things

the uk is in lockdown
tokyo is locked down this weekend too

here in kashiwazaki
I spend my time looking after the kids each day
quality time together
I squeeze a ride in when I can

☆ the training

keep focused on climbing

to the wild boar rindo
hurting the legs every day

・monday: wild boar rindo x 5
・tuesday: zwift intervals
・wednesday: kashiwazaki classic short, wild boar rindo x 2
・thursday: wild boar rindo gravel tyre testing
・friday: kenno rindo, wild boar rindo KOM attacks
・saturday: wild boar rindo x 5
・sunday: kashiwazaki off road classic (plan)

☆ the equipment

some new tyres finally came this week

40 on the front
35 on the rear
plus tyre inserts
plus sealant

difficult to set them up
difficult to get them to hold air
punctures on the second ride!

back to square one

it's a learning curve
an expensive learning curve
but fun all the same!

different tyres are on order for next week...

☆the kashiwazaki off road classic

it was sad that K san crashed on Wednesday!

looking forward to riding this course again tomorrow

hopefully the sun will come out

here we go!


Why the bigger tires on the front? Aerodynamically it make sense, but most of your weight is on the rear, calling for a larger rear tire

Speaking of new tires.... I got some GP5000s and some latex tubes! In theory this should save me something like 30 watts at 27 mph?

I installed the tires with butyl tubes first since I am an sure that I would ruin the latex tubes trying to install brand new tires.

I've been installing tubes and tires for years but I still occasionally find myself ruining tubes (the other day I did it three times in a row....) and looking up videos online to see what I've been doing wrong.

According to videos I saw online, you should actually install latex tubes backwards (valve last) but use lubricant so you can get them on without levers.

I was supposed to do today's workout on Friday, but Thursday's workout was so hard that I ended up putting it off until today. It ended up not actually being that bad... Well, still pretty bad, but not as bad as I expected.

I also officially switched from my autumn/winter fan (regular room fan) to my spring/summer fan (industrial strength!) even though it was snowing heavily today. I found myself wearing a jersey on the trainer for the first time in probably over a year. I was constantly using my window, heater, and jersey zipper to keep stay comfortable.
 
Why the bigger tires on the front? Aerodynamically it make sense, but most of your weight is on the rear, calling for a larger rear tire

Speaking of new tires.... I got some GP5000s and some latex tubes! In theory this should save me something like 30 watts at 27 mph?

I installed the tires with butyl tubes first since I am an sure that I would ruin the latex tubes trying to install brand new tires.

I've been installing tubes and tires for years but I still occasionally find myself ruining tubes (the other day I did it three times in a row....) and looking up videos online to see what I've been doing wrong.

According to videos I saw online, you should actually install latex tubes backwards (valve last) but use lubricant so you can get them on without levers.

I was supposed to do today's workout on Friday, but Thursday's workout was so hard that I ended up putting it off until today. It ended up not actually being that bad... Well, still pretty bad, but not as bad as I expected.

I also officially switched from my autumn/winter fan (regular room fan) to my spring/summer fan (industrial strength!) even though it was snowing heavily today. I found myself wearing a jersey on the trainer for the first time in probably over a year. I was constantly using my window, heater, and jersey zipper to keep stay comfortable.

Unfortunately the rear will only take a 35 and the front a 40. In an ideal world I'd have 45 front and rear.

Gokiso used to give me wheels with latex tubes in but I always took them out as they punctured so easily. You may have more luck!

Baby talcum powder and a small sponge to coat the whole inner tube and inside of the tyre may help to get the tyres and tubes set up.

Andy
 
For the 100 push up challenge, I did day 1 and 2 of week 3 and then repeated week 3 again so I am now about to start week 5. That's 2 weeks to go and I did the max consecutive test last night and ended up with 54 without killing myself. Pretty happy with that. On to week 5! This week, I'm going to move the pushups to Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday which are the same days as my bike training days in order to get a full days rest between bouts. Let's see if I can pull this off!
 
For the 100 push up challenge, I did day 1 and 2 of week 3 and then repeated week 3 again so I am now about to start week 5. That's 2 weeks to go and I did the max consecutive test last night and ended up with 54 without killing myself. Pretty happy with that. On to week 5! This week, I'm going to move the pushups to Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday which are the same days as my bike training days in order to get a full days rest between bouts. Let's see if I can pull this off!

I might try this. Which app do you use (I'm guessing it's an app)?
 
Not an app. It's just a website that @jdd sent to the group a few posts ago after I managed to disable my upper body for a week after being a bit too aggressive on my initial attempts at getting back into pushups. See hundredpushups.com. Check the program link. There are 6 weeks to follow.

I might try this. Which app do you use (I'm guessing it's an app)?
 
Yesterday I planned to do the 60km off road loop, but snow at sea level meant even the lower slopes would be tricky.

So I headed to the Kakuda trail. Sheltered by the mountain range on Sado Island off the coast, it's amazing how different the weather can be.

A short blog post link and cut and paste below.

Cheers, Andy



「no more legs」

today's training blog

today's plan was the kashiwazaki off road classic with Noguchi san

but overnight snow made the passes unpassable

to kakuda then
the sun always shines on kakuda!

if you go to kakuda with Noguchi san
you always get a good workout!

today's menu?
first a trail run
feel good at first
but endless climbing and descending
the legs are screaming!

today's bike menu?
super long x 6 at 17 min pace

sorry I don't understand your japanese!

I slow the pace from behind for 2 laps
but as we enter the 3rd lap

where is he?
behind?
how did that happen?!

he starts to pressure me from behind
side by side where the trail allows
'arrigatou!' is all I can say!

a brief pit in

the legs are cooked

what's next?
lap 4 is a solo TT!

parlez vous anglais?!

he does a blistering time

my tank is empty!

finally some skills training

the lines to take
how to distribute your weight
use your legs to spring over the bumps
he's poetry in motion!

I'm lucky to be able to ride with so many great riders in niigata

this year we will both ride otaki

apparently if I can keep up with him in training
I can podium there!

I'll do my best!

thanks as always for today's great training!
 
Thanks for that. I'll give it a go.
Not an app. It's just a website that @jdd sent to the group a few posts ago after I managed to disable my upper body for a week after being a bit too aggressive on my initial attempts at getting back into pushups. See hundredpushups.com. Check the program link. There are 6 weeks to follow.

I've restarted pushups, but am not really relying on that program (the 'weeks', etc), just some of the implicit aspects of it. While goals are great, the program (IMO) focuses too much on that x100 goal, while offering little/nothing to someone who would then (or instead) want something ongoing (either before or after achieving 100).

Yes, you can--and I certainly did--repeat weeks. And if you've met the x100 goal or not, you can certainly keep at the schedule of the last week or so indefinitely. But a nice addendum would be some post-goal suggestions.

On the plus side, the best takeaway was the way a series of sets are strung out in difficulty. EG, a series from week 6 is: 40-50-25-25-50+. So at that level you do a couple good warmup sets, then back off a lot for a couple more, and then go till exhaustion on the last set. Tho that may be obvious to some, I was never a weight lifter (still not), and that kind of pacing (since I don't know a better word) was new to me.

So after a good six months off (due to a couple surgeries), I'm feeling good enough to get at this again. Since I first posted about this, I happened to come across this bit of paper, where I'd been keeping track. This is what I was doing up till sept. 10th or so. (every other day, as the program says), so that's about a month there on the paper. And as I said before, I do my pushups from my knees, which is why the numbers look so inflated. (one of my sister's comments was "oh, yeah, you mean girls pushups"!)

If I get to this level again by late summer, I'll be happy. I'm at 5 sets/day now (only 130), and may try to up the per-set numbers this time around instead of doing so many sets each time. ((Also, that same website has similar programs for dips and sit-ups.))

IMG_0162.jpeg
 
@andywood
Same here, and I got caught offguard. I thought I did all the right things, stay close to the ocean, check a reliable weather forecast. And I ended up having to wipe my glasses once a minute or so as they were getting covered in snow. I literally froze to my core 🥶

You probably already do it, but the radar is good to watch. Here's mine, the weather is predictable in that is usually coming in off the Japan Sea at this time of year. So it's just about timing.


Great weather here tomorrow before it turns again on Wednesday, so I hope to get in the 60k off road loop.

Andy
 
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