Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Give Me A Challenge

So you say you want a change…to mix it up…make me stronger....give me a challenge???


For a couple of months - once a week I have attempted to reach the very end of this workout at the level it was written to complete it at. After 6 attempts I am still trying. It must be possible or coach would not have written it..right??


Now I know you are just dying to know what workout challenge I am talking about so here goes:


Trainer Ride (come on stick with me)

Duration Goal : 60 minutes

Heart Rate Target : 155 bpm

Cadence : 100 rpm


Sound easy enough? After your desired warm-up start the clock and maintain the HR and RPM for as long as you can for up to an hour. Once you take a rest than the game is over. It is all about maintaining a constant high cadence at a locked in heart rate.


Note: Music is a MUST and it helps!!


Now for added incentive if you attempt this workout leave me a comment on this blog post with the number of minutes you made it and I will place a LiveStrong wristband in the mail to you! It is that easy. So are you up for the CHALLENGE?


Tonight I am taking another attempt to go past my mark of 38 minutes as I inch closer to the 60 minute goal. Momma’s gonna knock you out…..

Robin

13 comments:

Wes said...

LOL... I would fall asleep sticking to one cadence and one HR. Still 155 is probably not in the same zone for everybody. I think that's my Zone 4....

Marlene said...

Maintaining a steady heartrate does sound tough! Keep at it!!!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I was doing sorta the same workout last night on my trainer, I was suppose to keep it over 100rpm in my 53/15 for as long as I could for 4 intervals, first one was 17 minutes, avg HR 159, Next was 12 and I thought I was going to die, then went down hill from there. I can only dream at keeping that pace for 38 minutes, you know what I take that challenge, my goal is to make 60 minutes before the start of next season.

Mike Russell said...

Great challenge. I will probably do it outside and let you know how it goes...

Dave said...

don't even want to tell you where my heart rate was last Saturday when we hammered 27-28 mph for 30 miles....just saying...

Grey Beard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grey Beard said...

Follow the links, and I won't be surprised at all if you exceed the standards! :D

http://pedalingzen.blogspot.com/2010/03/fun-in-sun.html

Grey Beard said...

155 is (155/(220-age)) is 86% of max HR. That's doable. Suggest a different approach. Instead of going at 86% for 38 minutes, try going at LT for 1 hour. A good guess for your LT is 150-152.

Ditch the 100 cadence for now. Nobody rides a 1hr/40km TT at 100 rpms anyway. Not Lance Armstrong, not Contador, or Dave Z. That's why they have 54T chainrings. You can come back later and add that to the goal.

Once you establish your LT/1hr/40km TT HR you can creep up on your HR goal, instead of your time goal. Pretty standard Power-Duration Curve stuff.

Of course you'll probably do it tonight just to prove me wrong, and that would be cool too.

Anonymous said...

You sounds full of energy and strong. If I had a bike I'd just do this for the wristband alone:-)

Scott McMurtrey said...

I've kept the same heart rate all day at my desk so far. (except for that one NSFW email I got and had to delete real fast...that jumped up the heart rate.)

Lauren Starks said...

Do you get any fluctuation on that HR? or, if it jumps to 156 it's game over?

RunToTheFinish said...

ok i really am working on being a better rider, but um not there so I'm pretty sure this would in fact kill me

Grey Beard said...

@ Lauren, you can fluctuate as much as you want, but going significantly under means you have to go over a lot to make it up. Going over will push you into oxygen debt, burn through your fast-twitch muscle and glycogen stores very quickly, and create a lot of extra fatigue.

Having said that, your pancreas makes insulin on a 3-6 min cycle, depending on fitness level and other factors, so you will not be able to maintain the exact same level if pushing hard. (86% isn't TOO hard, but still good to keep in mind)

There is also the phenomenon of "heart-rate creep" where your HR will increase over time as you fatigue even while power will start to decline.

However, this test is entirely internally focused, IE: focused on your 'engine', not its effect on power, speed or distance.

I will not attempt this at the goal cadence, as an injury has slowed my cadence, but suspect the cadence creates muscle fatigue late, and disrupts breathing, at least until you adapt your breathing.

This dummy is going to try for the full hour, as I have already bested the HR goal several times for 30-45 minutes, and Friel says that should translate into about the same 1hr HR.