On the trainer, I prefer Over-Unders to straight LT work. They have you bounce around between an effort right around LT and then right around VO2. Today's were 3x12 2U,2O, 8 min RBI. That means each interval is 12 minutes long where I alternate between 2 minutes Under (290-300 watts for me) and 2 minutes Over (325 - 345 watts) for the duration of each 12-minute interval. 8 minutes of Rest Between each Interval means that the work begins every 20 minutes.
One way to think of these is a hard 12-minute TT pace, that you make harder by jumping into your VO2 Max zone a few times. But when I'm doing them I end up thinking of the "Under" part as recovery, trying to convince myself that I'm not actually going hard and that the work is just the 2-minute VO2 jumps. LT pace feels very different when juxtaposed with efforts 10% higher.
At 1:09, this may well be the longest trainer session I've done all season. And there wasn't much light spinning involved. For the full 1:09 workout the NP was 284 with an IF of .95 and a TSS of 104. These buggers are efficient.
I'm afraid of those.
Seriously, if I try those I will know for sure that my last FTP test was a fluke.
Seriously, were you well rested? That's a beast of an effort.
Posted by: Cliff Dog | January 18, 2010 at 03:43 PM
What I like about the Carmichael Plan is that I'm almost always well-rested. I ride 4 days a week, and each ride is typically about 80 TSS points. So I end up doing 300 TSS points during the week, but almost all of them are coming after a rest day. I'm supposed to be doing longer rides on weekends, which I haven't been doing because of the weather. Once Sundays become group ride days that changes (last time I rode the Bicycle Place 8:30am I did over 200 TSS points). But right now there's no overloading in my training plan.
But I've also been training for these 2-3 minute efforts for the last couple months. My body is well-adapted to them. Ask me to hold a high tempo pace for 20 minutes though and I fold like a Dahon.
Posted by: Mike May | January 19, 2010 at 06:13 AM
hold on, I have to google "dahon"...
Posted by: big cliff dog | January 19, 2010 at 11:39 AM
oh I see, the folding bikes.
I think the 2-3 minute bursts is ideal fitness for these crits.
In the Carmichael crit tape, there are 7x 2min on, 1 min off...max effort. not very different from the above Ov.Un. workout.
Posted by: big cliff dog | January 19, 2010 at 11:42 AM
I hope you're right. I do some plain old LT work as well but don't post it up here as often. The charts are flat and boring.
Posted by: Mike May | January 19, 2010 at 11:48 AM