What did I do to piss off el Train?
After Tuesday’s workout I decided to put the fate of my legs into the hands of fellow Thresholders. I threw up a post asking what my next workout should be. I explained where I was at in my week and how much time I had to commit. Oh and that weather would have me inside on rollers.
Bake was the first to reply. In retrospect, his suggestion was the training equivalent of FedEx’ing me a fluffy pillow, a pot of fancy tea and some Yanni to listen to on my iPod.
Professoro El Train, however, must be made at me for some reason. I’ve looked back over all my previous posts to see where I went wrong. Did I some how offend him by noting outwardly praising the mighty Jens in every post I made? Did I take the wrong side in a Shimano vs Campy argument? English vs Italian? No idea. I did something wrong and Train made sure I paid for it.
The workout. 4×4 VO2max intervals on rollers. 4 minutes of sheer pain taking myself to 10-12 beats above LT by the last 30 seconds. Full recovery.
Set out on the first one. Shifted into the 53×12 and gassed it. By 2 minutes I was above LT. By 3 minutes my legs were rocks. By 3:30 I was above 180BPM (105% LTHR). Finished, I think at like 183 BPM (107% LTHR). Damn. That was probably too hard. 33.3 MPH AVS over the interval. Legs are solid rocks. Easy gear, spin out the legs, bring it back under control.
Second interval. Stupidly tried to nail the same effort. Ended up going into the red pretty early and finishing at 185 BPM and an AVS of 32.8 MPH. Gasping for air, trying to spin out the legs, fearing for my safety. Stepped off the bike for a minute and then got back bringing the HR down to full recovery.
At this point, I really wanted to stop. I don’t even remember starting the third interval. I do remember having a plan though. I was going to ride at an easier effort and go until I either hit 4 minutes or 180 BPM. Unfortunately for my legs, both happened at the same time. This one was considerably slower with an AVS of 30.0 MPH. Dying. Dying. Dying.
That’s it, can’t keep the legs smooth and was totally going to come off the rollers if I hit one more. I stopped it at 3 intervals. Failing, but learning and feeling like I accomplished something pretty hard. Sad warm down attempted. Shower, shake, dinner.
Next time, I think I’ll back off and try to do 4 intervals at near 30mph (if done on the rollers and not the Dover hills) or whatever gets me to 180 by the end of the interval.
Train. I hate you. Thank you.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:15 am
vo2 max intervals are the worst. really, nothing has them beat in terms of the combined magnitude of pain and duration. good job.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:22 am
You’ll be pleased to know that I read recently that all gains are made with the first two intervals and that it is okay to cut it short after three or four if you can’t execute the same effort. Nice work!
March 12th, 2009 at 10:47 am
nice workout, Mover!!
Sounds like you went a bit hard on the first… I think a 31.5 MPH AVS for all 4 intervals will be you sweetsopt though.
Yah, I agree with Ken too. Quality trumps quantity, BUT if you get the pacing right, you’ll get both!
nice work Mover, and
I LOVE YOU!!
-ElPain