Spinervals 14.0 - Totally Time Trial 8/8/13

OK, I admit Coach will not take the full blame.  I am redoing aero phase of Super 6 program and this was an optional workout.  I should have looked at the rating and had a second thought.  But there were reasons to why I was excited to select this workout for today.

This summer, I did my first fun 10-mile Time Trial and had fun focusing my early summer training for it.  I got clip-on aero bars and purchased missing TT Spinervals titles.  As I spread out my training outside getting used to riding aero positions and learning to pace with Coach Troy.  So I never got a chance to break the wrapping of 14.0 - Totally Time Trial.  And this is the famous workout my friend Michelle Sewell Spina wrote the funniest Spinervals posting EVER, how hot this Tom Holland guy in the workout. 

This is the same old school DVD format as 12.0 - Recharge.  There is not really menu that you get stopped.  In fact, the music in the menu is the same as Recharge.  The music I often hear, when I need Recharge, rather tired and often glad that it is the easiest Spinervals day.  Also it starts and it restarts automatically when it is over.  I have a habit of starting DVD early in case there are problems, so the DVD started to play warm-up and athletes’ introductions.  I usually make a point of watching Coach’s Notes and often go through athlete’s introduction for warm-up, but neither is there. At this point, I was amused. I spotted Tom and thought, “Ah, so that is Michelle’s type, huh.  But look at the guy with HUGE arm muscles.”  I also spotted a young man with Navy jersey and made him a younger version of my friend, David McClung and waved.  It was hard not to notice this is the same location of 13.0 - Tough Love . At this point, technically I have seen the workout spec, but it doesn’t register in brain.  Ignorance is golden.

Before describing actually happened in this workout, let me back up a little bit and what happened after Time Trial focus training.  This spring, I suffered with cold-like symptoms with chest pain and hearing sensitivity/loss all along and barely survived the semester.  Turned out all this is aggravated by allergies that I never knew I had.  Although I don’t act like a person with typical syndrome of seasonal allergy, I am severely allergic and decided to go through treatment with shots.  They have been getting better, but at the start, it gave me the same tired feeling that I had.  So after putting some thoughts and talking to my allergy nurse, I decided to repeat aero phase as I mentioned. 

But this gave me a chance to experiment with cross-training options.  During the original phase, the school was in session and I really had no luxury of trying anything new or time consuming.  Now in summer, I have more time (aero phase is, if not hard, it is time consuming) and I was willing to try to ease into running.  So yesterday, I ran about 2 miles in neighborhood park.  Today, I woke up with pain in left ankle from the old injury (the reason I substitute Flix with Jumping Jacks in StrEndurance) .  So I took pain medication and went back to sleep.  When I woke up at official wake-up time, it was better, but I still downgraded the planned run to walk.

Because the DVD starts automatically, by the time I got on the bike, it had already started, but I wanted my ankle to warm up and felt comfortable before I go into the official DVD warm up.  I span lightly close to five minutes and cued to the beginning of the warm up. It starts with familiar universal warm up (Big ring 15, 30 sec. on 30 sed. Off three times) and high cadence warm up set that feel familiar from other harder workouts.  So far, so good.  But, boy, August in Texas is hot even inside!  Then I finally hear the description of the workout.  Four 15-minute TT reps, at or above Threshold!  I thought 27.0 was bad enough, but that is ONE 20-minute rep.  I thought 42.0 was bad enough, but the rep gets shorter.  I knew I was getting into trouble.

Last night I started the last exercise book to read for the summer: Joe Fiels’s “The PowerMeter Handbook: A User's Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes” Now that I have used power meter for close to nine months, it was a lot easier to move through the pages than initial try.  So I moved my power zones card to the left as it was practically hidden by newly added clip-on aero bars.  I should make the better understanding of all with today’s workout. 

Another reason I thought I was in trouble was that Coach said he would have us stand up.  He must be in the same swing of things with Tough Love.  First 15-min. was in rather higher cadence.  My heart rate went up nicely pretty close to threshold, but my power numbers were nowhere close to be my FTP.  And Coach does not forget standing in those lighter gears!  Whole workout is to simulate 40K time trial effort, which takes about an hour.  Of course, I should have realized that this statement alone is way beyond my capability.  Second rep starts with gear spec of Big 15 and cadence of 95-100!  I quickly and gladly moved to two easier gears, as I often end up doing.  At this point, my heart is OK, but the legs are not just keeping up.  I took some gels to be able to complete the workout.  The third rep started similarly, but the gear spec was getting heavier and heavier.  (Recall this workout and Tough Love, Coach assumes your smallest cog is 11.)  I decided to rename this workout as GTT, “Grinding Time Trial” or STT, “Sadistically Time Trial”.  I was thinking this is ultimate Muscular/Power development, not Endurance like Tough Love, disguised as field test.  Also it is very close to Mt. Lemmon climb.  

I decided this is the most difficult Spinervals TT workout and also one of the most difficult in general.  I sweated so much I could even smell myself.  As I should be doing with any workout, I should start analyzing the rep data for future reference, but I know my power numbers were ridiculously shameful and my workout did not meet Coach’s spec at all.  But I should deal with bad days as well as good days.  At least this is the starting point.  I only have upward motion to expect., right  But forgetfulness is golden.  Would I remember all this next time?