That’s maybe the purpose behind POL — all the “easy” stressless work creates the physiological infrastructure you need to really smash those hard workouts with consistency & quality.
5 Likes
Can someone please explain the below images.
TR calendar show 241 NP and IF at .77 while intervals.icu show 215 NP and IF at .69
Why the difference? intervals.icu matches up with my bike computer where TR is completely different…
I expect its because intervals.icu logs the breaks as part of the ride and TR doesn’t.
1 Like
TR used to though… they use the overall time and not just the moving time. But looking at a recent ride of mine where I stopped for a bit to eat something that it is no longer including the stopped time in the calculation. My most recent ride though they are the same, well at least close enough.
1 Like
Guys appreciate the comments, sorry for the delayed response.
Yeah i only have a dumb trainer with a PM so manual is all I’ve got!
I suppose there’s a bit of overlap but ultimately contradiction with these two methods, but I feel its important to get my HR up ASAP.
Today i had Givens +1. I literally covered the power data and charts and done it completely on HR. Hard starts to get HR up (took around 35-40s) then controlled HR to 90-95% max
This felt a lot better, my ave power was always above the target but you can see this meant I was basically riding threshold for periods which no doubt helped lower lactate hence the easier feeling. But is this the right protocol, I may try pushing HR up a touch on the next one.
This seems sensible, i only had the +1 in my plan to increase TSS but I’ll repeat the normal one
2 Likes
To me, thats impressive, I done a 30s climb at about 200% FTP and only just got to 90% by the end!
it wasn’t typical, I was a bit surprised! Without looking I’m guessing that typical is more like 20-30 seconds. In any case, before the workout I peek at power duration curve as a reference, and then outside I put the hammer down, pace on feel, occasionally glance at lap and 10-sec power, and ignore HR field on the bike computer.
Looks like a really great session. If you think you can push your HR more without blowing up then do it. Maybe have a rising target, like 92% for the first 3 intervals, 94% for the middle set, then just go all out in the last 3 intervals.
Out of interest, if you go into the workout and from the start of the first 2.5min interval to the end of the last one, what IF does it give you? That can be a good indication of how hard you were working.
Thanks, yeah I probably played it a bit safe, but I have a better feeling of whats needed now.
For that period its 1.0. For the whole thing it was 0.97 which in itself is probably a record for me. What should I be aiming for?
That’s good!
Possibly TOO good actually - if you can do a session over an hour at 0.97 IF then it may well be your FTP needs re-testing.
1 Like
That’d be good news.
I had a big drop in my last ramp test so its possible i could be a touch higher but I’ll wait until the end of this block to retest
Did Rattlesnake for the first time today. Sent it with ERG off and just tried to go as close to full-gas as I could, without going anaerobic. Consequently the IF is really high and the NP is 307 for 60 min, FTP is set at 310. Interesting. This was a “fun” one!
Time @ 90% HRm: 16m 26s
A metric I’ve been keeping a close eye on this season is my Efficiency Factor. It’s gone from 1.4 up to 1.9 since late March.
7 Likes
I really like Rattlesnake. I’ve done it a couple of times and my compliance is improving. I tend to tweak the intensity level if I feel like my HR/RPE is becoming unsustainable. I also like the fact that as difficult as it is, it passes fairly quickly. It’s almost like your in the middle of a battle and you don’t have the time or mental capacity to be aware of how long is left.
1 Like
You should give Ronnestad 30/15s a crack
What’s the difference?
Rattlesnake is similar to the hard-start version as described here: Prescribing VO2max – Spare Cycles
Also, I’m not going any where near >40mins of VO2 in a single workout.
1 Like
Not according to some analysis:
Unless I’m mistaken it’s an argument about a study? Not that Rønnestad’s 30/15s are completely worthless?
I’m looking for a hard workout that I can sprinkle amongst my easier rides. If I can wake up on a Tuesday and look forward to doing Rattlesnake, then I’ve won half the battle. I also feel absolutely amazing afterwards too.
Is it the most effective workout I could possible do? Probably not. Will it still elicit some positive adaptations? Probably. I’m fine with that.
4 Likes
Most definitely. The analysis of the 30/15 protocol is that it’s probably not the most effective way to build vO2max, however, it’s definitely not a worthless workout. I would think that even @empiricalcycling would acknowledge that.