#kurt kinetics

What will happen is what will happen, but I am preparing for something.

I have done two indoor spins since last report.  One was a HIIT based on the GCN 8 x 30 that I programmed into my InRide App.  The GCN videos are still plagued with ads at exactly the wrong time.  YouTubes Business model F’ing up the functionality of the content. The other was a 45 minute unstructured thing.  The effects of feasting and such (drinking fermented beverage) has knocked my FFF up to 5.8ish.  It is a small but noticeable difference.  

The Green Monster App reports higher power numbers than the Garmin speed log does.  I guess it is from the averaging effect of the log, but still I used the formula on the Kurt Kinetic website.  The average power should well average out.  Not a biggy as it is between my geek self and I and as I am looking for trends it really does not matter which number is better.  Stronger is stronger and weaker is weaker.

I am riding less, so I am less strong.

I am at 127 rides for the year. 5153 km (3200 miles).  202 ish hours of riding.  My average over the last ten years was 4612 km over 106 rides.  So I am well above my averages.

I will do at least one more likely 2 more rides before New Years.  If the slush is gone I will go outside. There has been a lot of slush.  I missed a couple of good rideable days visiting my Grandbaby.  I am not a fanatic.

Soon I get to blank the sheet and start all over again. 

I had other things to do so I did not go for a ride outside on Sunday.  So I did an experiment.  I simulated a ride to YVR on the Kurt Kinetics Green Monster.

I did 33.35 km at a medium hard pace averaging 27.7 kph.  The first half my Heart Rate was steady near 75 to 77% then went up to stay in the low 80s.  I used the fan and one bottle of water.  It took 1:12 ish.  One goal of this was to see if inside on the trainer is actually harder than outside.  It feels so.

It is interesting that my Heart Rate notched up in the second half hour.  There was no increase in effort or power output.  I had that pretty well controlled.  I did not feel hotter as my fan was working OK.  Something was happening.  Hmmm.

My last ride to YVR was 1:18 so slower but also lower average Heart Rate.  If I had gone to or held that lower speed on the monster I think I would have been about the same. My FFF for the simulation was 5.35.  The last YVR ride was 5.28 and one before that on the same route was 5.56.  So on that basis the monster is representative.  The difficulty is one of perception.  Riding inside is boring unless you are doing intervals.  A long playlist is a big help.

For fun I did one hard push.  As it was one and only for about 15 seconds I pushed really really hard.  I hit 828 Watts.  That is a big number.  I wonder if I could do that in a hiit session if I did really short ones?  That is full Anaerobic Power.  No way for me to hold that for 30 seconds.

The thing about “As Hard As You Can Go” is that it is hard.  I tried to duplicate the 8x30 efforts like the GCN video, but I got lost. 

I started out with 5 minute warm up then 30 seconds AHAYCG.  Then I rested for 4 minutes and tried at that time to figure out the rest of the intervals.  I could not.  My brain just could not do it.  Funny actually.  Hard physical effort reduces my brain power.  So I struggled and guessed and lost count.

In the end I did 32 minutes covering 14ish km and did about the same as my last try at 8x30.  I only did 7x30 when I looked at the log.  Like I said I got lost.  So at lunch hour I fired up a spreadsheet and worked out 8 intervals in 30 minutes to finish with 6 minutes for cool down.

Warm up for 5 and get to easy cruise then at the stroke of 5 minutes HIIT it for 30 seconds.

Back off and spin then get back to cruise and at 9 minutes HIIT it.

Repeat with a HIIT at 12, 14.5, 17, 19.5, and 23.5 minutes.

I have it written down so I can keep track.

The last two rest periods are 90 seconds which is really short. 

My max power and average power were much better than the last try when the bug had me.  Actually they were the same as the last try before the bug got me.  Same power, same FFF. I guess I am climbing out of a bit of a hole.

I will do another on Thursday and see if there is a difference.  I remember last year something similar happened.   I did not start having really good numbers until mid March.  And the Pacific Populaire was on March 29.

I do two kinds of rides on the green monster.  I have the 30 minute HIITs and one hour easy rides.  The easy rides are harder because you have time to think.

I decided to try to follow the you tube GCN HIIT video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRylMkvahjM

Last time I did 5 x 30 seconds and then saw the video on YT where they did 8.  Felt a bit crazy so why not try that tonight.

The basic thing is they did 8 by doing shorter and shorter rests between the intervals. The good thing about “As Hard As I Can Go” (AHAICG) is that it is self limiting.  If you are getting weaker or tired then naturally you do not go as hard.  My peak power  Tuesday was 598 Watts and last night 553 Watts.  Maybe I held back a bit, I do that.

It was hard, but that is the objective.  It is also busy which gives you little time to think, which is good.

I also found the Rah Rah of the leader far less annoying as the work distracted me.  I basically was only aware of the start alarms and timers.  Yah there was some skinny guy talking.

They reduced the rest periods between intervals down to 90 seconds at the last one I think.  The end had a 6 minute cool down pedal.  It was not that bad once it was over.  Just like banging your head against a wall it feels so good once its over.

My FFF was the same for a slightly harder session.  I burned about 320 Calories based on my average power.  The skinny guy said that HIITS raise your metabolism for about 24 hours after the session.

I overheated again as my fan is still stored away.  I drank a couple of glasses of water before and a full bidon on the bike.  This was an hour after dinner.  So after I had a cold shower to dump the heat I got on my scale.  I weigh myself most mornings naked.  So after my shower I was a full 9 lbs heavier than that morning.  Hmmm.  Same scale and gravity had not changed and I was naked.  Exercise swells your muscles with fluid, but I did not eat and drink that much over the day.  At least I thought not.  Next morning I was back to my usual recent weight.  Hmmmmm.

There is real University data on HIITs and usually it is good.  Studies are very specific and often the results only point a direction as opposed to detailed solutions to problems.  The best information I have is that it is a reasonable replacement for fitness “Base miles” that are long and tedious and time consuming. It also is good for strength.  A time saver in the fitness journey.

Well this was interesting. High Intensity Interval Training.

The basic concept is that by going very hard for very short times you can really reduce the amount of time you spend training.  Some studies indicate a five fold reduction in time for the same benefit.  That particular one found the basic fitness benefits of doing a few short hard sessions a week was similar to what was gained by numerous long aerobic sessions.

I tried it before but the old trainer was well not up to it.  The green monster however is more than capable.  The limit here is me.

The other factor is as hard as you can is rather easy to find in this scenario.  No pacing or saving strength to summit a hill, just push as hard as you can for as long as you can until you cant.  I did time limit it, but in that time I went as hard as I felt I could.  I swear looking at the seconds tick by while I was getting “wobbly” was hard.

I did a ten minute warm up to get my heart rate to 75%. Some sources say 5 minutes is fine.

I did four intervals AHAIC.  The first one I managed 45 seconds with a peak speed of 42.7 kph which works out to 497 watts.  I rested for 4 minutes then did the second one for a full minute peaking at 40 kph (425 watts).  I rested for 4 minutes and did a third basically the same.  Again rested for 4 minutes and did a fourth which peaked out a 38 kph ( 375 watts).  Noticeably weaker. Then I cruised at my usual 75% speed to let my legs clear out and stopped at 45 minutes.

Apparently you can get a really good workout in 30 minutes, and I could have stopped at thirty, but frankly I count my trainer distance in my totals and 14 km is just too short.  So I did another 15 minutes easy.

You can also reduce the recovery time between intervals, but I like to see my heart rate get back to “normal”.  I may shorten it if I see progress in later sessions.

This is supposed to be good for people who are short of time.  And in Cycling time is arguably the biggest investment.  I have been doing just over 7 hours in a week of riding / training this winter.  Last year I did 223 total hours of riding and this year I am going for more. This is my hobby.  Much better than watching the Canucks not win another hockey game.  I know other people have commitments and getting a ride in is an imposition. So for fitness so you can ride when the opportunity arrives this is a good solution.

You can do this on the road of course but that requires more daylight than we currently have around here.  I invested in the green monster because it is an investment in me.  A couple hours after dinner I can get in my biking gear and go nowhere, but have the lots of health benefits.

So next session I will find out if I can go harder or longer.  I hope I can.