Welcome back to the academy
Good evening.
There have been a few more Academy workouts in the last few days. I now checked all bike workouts and in regards to running there are still three pieces for me to go. Afterwards, in the first week of December, I have to give it my all – twice: a 40km TT and a 10km run. It will be exciting. Especially with a short break last weekend. The why follows now. Have fun.
A quiet weekend
My last weekend shows how quickly a weekend with two workouts can turn into a break without any academy workouts. A slight infection, something knocked me out on Saturday a little and the focus shifts fast. Thanks to my coach who reacted very quickly and changed the plan to regeneration. So from a relaxed week with a banger weekend in the end we changed to a week with only one tough workout. No weekend full of fun, excitement and intervals, only some walking, fresh air and relaxation. The whole relexation-thing went on until Tuesday. Unfortunately. But I prefer to be fit again after a 5 full day break and be able to accelerate than having to take a longer break after two or three sessions with half of my power.
And yes, it took me to realize that. I still always want to step on the gas, but I’m slowly get my terms with macro planning and taking a few days off voluntarily. So it currently looks like this:
(Due to a bug in Zwift, certain workouts are not displayed: 1 was a group ride and 3 has a bug with workout 2 and therefore is not shown. But everything done on the bike.)
Two workouts for the price of one
It was all about the workouts on Wednesday and Thursday after in the infect. Normally I do one workout and have a day of, cause I have enough time until December 23rd, but my legs were good and two workouts from the academy fitted perfectly on two consecutive days. On Wednesday evening I was on the treadmill at my trainers in his basement and on Thursday I sat on the trainer at home suffering from suffering (more on this in the screenshots later). The academy HIIT workouts on the bike went down easier. But lets talk about the run first.
The workout consistes out of 3 sets starting at 19 going to 17 and finishing at 16 kmh. In total, Zwift ended up with 13.28 kilometers with a short shake out. We measured with the Zwift treadmill measurement tool. The speed on Zwift differed from that of the treadmill by 0.6 to 0.8 kmh. So the treadmill was already at 20.0 while Zwift displayed “comfortable” 19.2kmh. In the end, the treadmill showed 13.7km. A large difference to the measurement of the Zwift sensor. But who cares: the training effect was there and that is what it is all about.
But another measure is also interesting: I had set my Garmin on the treadmill and let it track the run as well. On the Garmin it was “only” 11.69 km (I started about 2-3 minutes late, so probably 12.2-5km). Unfortunately I didn’t have the Stryd there as a pace data source; only the Garmin itself. Perhaps the Stryd would have shown slightly better values. Here is a comparison of the Garmin KM and the Zwift kilometers measured with the treadmill sensor:
Overall everything is very inaccurate accross the platforms. That’s why, unfortunately, I can’t say more about the numbers, because I simply can’t use any data for proper comparison. But there is hope for more testing:
Tomorrow is the next run workout. I want to compare the Stryd with the Zwift Run Pod. I use my coach’s account with the Stryd and my account with the Zwift Run Pod. I will run the workout on my account and see whats shown in my coaches account. Let’s see where we are at the end and how the avatars will run together (or not).
Tri Academy: Yes cycling is also part of it
Workout 4 on the bike was much harder than the previous run on Wednesday. The program consists of 4 times (4 times 2 minutes at FTP and a 30 seconds break). In between there was a 2 minute set break. So a total of 8 minutes interval and 2 minutes break per set. A total of 32 wonderful minutes on threshold level. And as I am ambitious, I have set my threshold on Zwift a little higher and due to that I always train at the upper end of the workout zones. A little mind-trick that demanded a lot from me, especially in this workout.
I think 32 minutes hit differently at 340-345 watts than at 350 watts. But nonetheless: In the hardest interval (set 3, number 3) my head just focused on working hard: “Tom, stay tuned now, pull through! Grab the handlebars as tightly as you can, then your legs won’t hurt so much! Push yourself through. ” Mentally and physically a challenge. I can recommend this workout to everyone with a clear conscience (that I have regained since then). And my coach can recommand this workout too. Short quotes just before and a day after the workout:
"Never reached V02max, but always close by. The set did not look that 'dirty'."
So everyone: Always listen to your coach. Especially when it comes to regeneration and tough workouts. Regeneration is hard and hard workouts might look easy just like a “wolf in sheeps-cloth”. And if you want to do a vEresting in an Ironman season, then … yes, I’ll leave it here for you and your coach to decide.
Tomorrow comes the next running workout and on Sunday a solid, longer training day. And that is it for today: I wish you all a wonderful, sporty weekend.