Testing... testing

A quick update on training.

Prep phase of six weeks is complete - a really light prep phase seeing as it's been so long since I've done anything meaningful.

Finished with an FTP power test indoors on the bike with PoweTap, result 212W. Ugh.

Swimming test in a 50m pool 3x300m on 30s rest yielded a T Pace of 1:58 / 100m. Also Ugh. I could hardly move my arms in the third 300m rep.

Luckily there's a loooong way to go before IMDE next year.

Running still at zero - my ankle is almost 100% there, very rarely any pain, but I'm not in a rush, and don't want to risk starting back to early.

This week was the first Base, or proper, training week. After the test last Monday in the pool, I followed with two swim sessions of 3.3km and 2.9km respectively. I follow the workouts in the book "Workouts in a Binder: Swim Workouts for Triathletes". The book is a Godsend. Without it, swimming would be very, very dull.

Cycling saw one classic 2x20min FTP session, one VO2max intervals session, one 80min endurance (30min 70% 30min 80% 20min 90% FTP), One steady hour @ 75% FTP.

Next week is much the same at the start, but I fly back to the UK on Wednesday, so I'll be on the MBike until the 2nd Jan.

Spinervals Review - Dropping the Hammer

Dropping the hammer is category "Choose your cadence going at a hard to very hard effort". The workout lasts just over 60mins, including the warm up.

The workout is as follows:

a. 2.5min easy warm up

b. 3 x 30s on / 30s off, which is done as a further warm up, a sub TH effort.

c. 1 min easy pedalling

d. 3min of 10s on / 10s off. This is further warm up for the hard sets to follow. Normally the Spinervals DVD's get straight into the main sets after part 'b.' These are sub TH accelerations.

e. 3.5min easy spin.

f. The hardest set of the DVD - 3 x 6min @ 2min rest. These are meant to be over TH level - I did them at VO2Max 110%-120% Power. The choice of cadence is up to you, though. These were very hard - especially the third one.

g. 5min rest, during which you get off the bike and do 2 x 1min @ 30s rest of isometric squats. I stayed on the bike, pushing a hard gear and staying in Zone 2 @ 65 cadence.

h. 6 x 1min @ 1min rest - Going harder than the last set of 6min reps. I didn't find this so bad, as the rest period is long, althugh I was at 120% of FTP, should maybe have been a little higher.

i. 2.5min easy spin

j. 4 x 30s @ 1min rest where each 30s is 20s hard as you can seated / 10s standing sprint. This was a killer.

k. Cool down.

First thing to note is you do over 30min of VO2 max work in the hour - very hard workout.

From the production side, it's one of the better ones - the athletes look generally fit (some of the groups on the more recent DVD's are a disaster), the sound level is good, and doesn't vary, you can have with / without the cheesy music, and the workout is split into chapters, so you can start wherever you want from the menu (seems like a standard feature, but it's disappeared recently).

The sets are varied enough so that the time passes, and the coaching job is done pretty well. He keeps reminding about gearing, concentration, HR and power, to keep you distracted from looking at the clock.

All in all, a really good Workout, one of the better ones in my collection.

At the top of this post is the power file from the workout (My last FTP test was a lowly 212W)

Spinervals DVD's

Seeing as there aren't many reviews available on the web of Spinervals DVD's, I thought over the next few weeks, I'd add my thoughts, seeing as I have 16 of the competition series.

They are all interval workouts, that basically fall into three sub-categories

1. Choose your cadence going at a hard at very hard effort

2. Choose your effort at a specified cadence

3. Ride at specified candence and effort

Number 3 get's a bit crazy on some of them!!

The list that I intend to review is as follows (in no particular order):

Dropping the hammer

Hardcore 100

Have Mercy

Have Mercy 2

Tough Love

Extreme Threshold Training

Threshold Test & Suffer Fest

Totsally Time Trial

Time Saver 1

Endurance Booster

Muscular Endurance Plus

Aero Base Builder 1

Aero Base Builder 2

Aero Base Builder 3

Aero Base Builder 4

Aero Base Builder 6

If any anyone wants a particular review, let me know.