Blowing Up a Workout – Sometimes ya got it, sometimes ya don’t.
Blowing Up a Workout is just something that happens. You can get a good night’s sleep. Warm up properly. Get hydrated, and be mentally prepared. But some times, the power just is not in the legs. Today I blew up a workout of intervals. It wasn’t fun, and it cluttered my mind pretty significantly.
Here’s the Xert File:
The goal
When we look at the Xert Adaptive Training Advisor, and Xert Training Pacer, the needle is at 11 O’Clock, and I need to get some points on the board.
But I don’t have time to get 125 points in and keep my FOCUS at 10:00.That would take about 2.5 hours… Remember – a “Lower” FOCUS, trending towards “0:00”, is MORE intense, and will ultimately get you MORE points per minute. I cannot FOCUS on climbing, and get 91-125 XSS in a timely manner. Therefore, I chose my favorite set of intervals, the “Billat 30-30’s“. The intervals work, and when you’re on your game, the intervals can lead to a breakthrough. I haven’t had a breakthrough in weeks, so that was also a goal.
The Warmup
The warmup itself went pretty well. I like to use the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Sensor to measure my body’s warmup, and I focus on Saturated Muscle Oxygen, and Total Hemoglobin.
The goal is for me to achieve a recovery between warmup intervals of about 80-84% SmO2, and a ThB of about 12.70 or higher. The first warning I got for Blowing Up the Workout was that the Recovery SmO2 saturation would not rise above 74%. ThB was fine, but maybe my muscles just were not completely ready for a hard interval set. I chose to ignore this, and continued with the workout.
Furthermore, when I finally received a notice about my Garmin Performance Conditioning, something I have written about recently, it read “-5”.
The Workout
My first mistake was in preparation. I needed to make some changes in the warmup, but I’m not the biggest fan of the Xert Workout Builder. The changes I wanted were made, but I also ended up making 8 warmup intervals, instead of 8 starter 30-second intervals. That meant that I had to dance around in the workout itself, jumping here and there, to get the warmup I wanted in.
The next problem I encountered in setup was that the 30-second warmup intervals were just too hard. I set them based on % of FTP, instead of % slope, and they pulled my SmO2 values down to SEVEN PERCENT. I only performed five of these, but they really hurt.
Blowing Up a Workout – The 30-30’s
The 30-30’s started out just fine. The first six were based upon my 6 Minute Mean Max Power for 30 seconds, at a 2% slope, with 30 second recoveries at 0% gradient. These were fine.
It was the 30-30’s at my 3 Minute Mean Max Power for 30 seconds, at 2% slope, with 30-second recoveries at 4% slope, that just killed me. The recoveries were too hard, the intervals were too hard, and after just 9 intervals, and no real dip in my MPA, I could not hang on.
CONCLUSION
After just 9 of the intervals at 400+ watts/30seconds, I just couldn’t do it. I cratered, dropped the intensity back down to the 6MMP values, but was kind of mentally crushed at that point. It was then that I looked at my XSS, decided to just ride for points, and exited the program. The rest of the ride was spent at 190-ish watts, and time on YouTube, watching DCS World Videos (in another life, I was a fighter pilot. Not this one, mind you. I’m a TERRIBLE fighter pilot! But it IS fun!).
I DID achieve my points, and I DID keep my needle at roughly 11 O’Clock. However – it’s been several weeks now since I’ve achieved a breakthrough, and my deadline of November 14th is fast-approaching. I know I’ve pushed the limits on the slower, aerobic component of my preparation, but I’m determined to keep a proper profile. I need a breakthrough or near-miss now and then, to keep my signature accurate. I’ll try again over the weekend, using my trademark 8×8’s, and I may also be climbing the Kingsbury Grade in an attempt for a PR there as well.
Anyway – Blowing Up A Workout happens. You can eat right, sleep well, be balanced in life and work, and still, some days, blowups happen. I haven’t had a blowup in a really long time, so I guess I was due. I WILL try this workout again, but I’m going to try to follow the Xert ATA suggestions a bit more, and build some more custom workouts to follow the plan these next four weeks. 300 watts FTP remains elusive, but staying steady at 275-ish is a fun level of fitness and reward in its’ own right.
One Last Thought —
IT IS OKAY TO FAIL A WORKOUT! FAILING A WORKOUT IS NOT REALLY FAILING! It’s finding out where limitations lie, where other issues outside of the workout matter. Where “life gets in the way of life”. I preached this for years. Now I need to live it myself. I didn’t get too down – I resolved to get another good night’s sleep, and try again later.
Thanks for reading!
