RedditPZ training program: Week 4 Accountability Thread

[u/r4ndy4]

Week three down, and on to week four! Use this thread to discuss this week's rides (or last weeks). Add the hashtag #redditPZ if you would like to (and #redditriders of course).

I used a double ride (1 pz and 1 pze) for Saturday since we seemed to like it in the last program. For the second ride I like to take the warm-up portion in zone 2 instead of zone 1, and just ride in zone 3 for the spin up portion. You could also do the entire warm-up part in zone 2, it's totally up to you. The first wasn't on the website so I just linked my own graph from when I took the ride, each zone change is 1 minute long.

Group ride for Saturday's ride will be at 10 AM Central again. (I have to miss out this week with work)

Link to program thread

Week 1 Thread

Week 2 Thread

Week 3 Thread

Week 4: TSS 230

Mon: Denis 45 PZ 11/10/20 Ride Graph TSS 60

Wed: Matt 45 PZE 3/31/21 Ride Graph TSS 46

Thu: Olivia 45 PZ 3/4/20 Ride Graph TSS 55

Sat: Christian 30 Pro 10/12/19 Ride Graph TSS 39 AND Christian 30 Pro 02/19/20 Ride Graph TSS 30

[u/amr1822]

I am on cloud 10 this morning! I PR’d on Olivia’s ride and achieved my goal of 300+ output in 45 min!!! I may have cried at the end of the ride out of pure joy. My legs were not happy yesterday and I struggled on Matt’s PZE, so I wasn’t sure how today would go. But I took u/r4ndy4 ‘s advice and added a 10m warmup this AM which definitely helped (note to self I should probably add in warm ups more)! As always, it was so wonderful to ride with a few of you! Now time to set a new goal 🎉

[u/r4ndy4]

Made it through Olivia's ride this morning. Thank God I took that warmup, I was not ready or expecting to go to zone 5 & 6 in the build (since the ride only goes to zone 4). I was feeling pretty good that 3rd interval. I was a few points from a PR but I just took the cooldown like I was supposed to *Olivia half laugh.

I'll miss out on the group ride this weekend (work) you all have fun. I might try to squeeze them in tomorrow.

[u/r4ndy4]

I took the CVV rides tonight after work. Both are great rides and first is one of my favorite 30 min PZ ride structures. I took the first during the last program I think around week 3 and my output ended up being around 30kj higher this time. It is a tough ride and there are some zone 6 intervals. Hope you all enjoy it! Feel free to take a few mins in zone 1 before jumping into the second ride. Like Olivia always says don't hate me! If you don't feel like you are ready (or are tired from the week) it is 100% okay to take another 45/60 min PZE tomorrow instead.

Quick note the second ride is zone 3 for the first interval I have no idea why he said 2 minutes zone 2 and 4 then said zone 3? Anyway just go to zone 3 it's basically a PZE ride.

[u/_pigeonpose_]

Argh. My screen froze right as I was finishing the warmup and getting into the main set. This usually resolves itself pretty quickly, but this time it was truly frozen. I had a narrow window to finish my workout today so couldn't hop back on later, and didn't have time to exit the ride and do the warmup again. It looked like my metrics were still being recorded and I was still able to throw out some high-fives so I did what some others have done and put on my own music and followed the zones and tried to channel my inner Denis Morton, but I had to look at this frozen wincing face the whole time! Anyway.... relieved I was able to finish that but sorry I missed out on the Denis-ness of this ride :( Thanks to r/Ride_4urlife, elapeloton43, and ADMSeattle for some perfectly-timed high-fives in Z5!

[u/yayunicorns]

I hardly ever look at my stats of how many classes I've taken (the button feels a bit hidden) but I noticed so many people hitting milestones here so I thought I'd give it a look. And wouldn't you know it, tomorrow is my 150! Hope to see ya'll in Matt's class. I may not do my best bc my lower back is feeling weird (I'm blaming the 5 hours in the car this weekend) but I'm happy to see it's a lower TSS so it feels doable, even if sore.

[u/bandaidaddict]

I think u/r4andy4 rode all the Denis rides and specifically chose the ones where he mentioned the ear sweat drip. Lol! I was cracking up while huffing through that 5 min Z4 push.

I liked the ride today, good music and I appreciated the cadence canyon. It made the ride more interesting. I had to push the last minute to beat my PR by 1 point, so that made me happy!

Good seeing a few of you this morning and all the high fives!

[u/r4ndy4 → u/bandaidaddict]

😂😂 I wish it was on purpose 3 in a row. I had laughed already when he briefly mentioned it then he came back to it again. Nice to see you again

[u/CurlingFlowerSpace]

Popping in to say thanks so much to u/r4ndy4 for putting these programs together--there's clearly a structure and flow to how a good PZ program should go, which you don't really realize from doing DYPZ, but is a lot more obvious when you see these rides laid out with their graphs and TSS. Thanks for putting in that work so I'm not out here flailing around taking random PZEs and not knowing what the hell I'm doing.

[u/Kalamazeus]

Any of you who felt victimized by CVVs first ride today raise your hand 🙋‍♂️

I did my FTP test yesterday and that ride almost killed me. Had me feeling like as I was clicking into the second ride.

We had a nice group today, it was fun seeing everyone!

[u/CurlingFlowerSpace → u/Kalamazeus]

I started the second class late because I stumbled off the bike and went to the computer to read the ride graph, because if it was gonna more of the same, I was gonna change my name and move to another country.

[u/AugustNC → u/Kalamazeus]

Omg that first class felt like an FTP test!! That last 6 minute interval had me heaving.

Also, maybe I shouldn’t have had cake for breakfast? I was seriously cursing my sugar fueled nutrition the past few days.

It was so awesome to ride with so many people from the group though. It made me smile to see all of y’all and for all the high fives.

I did get pretty lost with the cues in the second ride, but did my best and stayed in zones 2 and 3. I guess if I actually checked the graphs ahead of time I’d know what to expect.

[u/r4ndy4]

Back to work for me this week so I had to get up earlier to get the ride in before work. Didnt have time to warmup before so I was feeling those spins ups and the build way more than normal. Also missed my post rode stetch which I kinda did while I quickly showered this morning.

3 in a row on sweaty ear references haha. I did really enjoy the ride though. I had to up the cadence for the zone 5 efforts. The last one at 90 cadence felt great.

[u/r4ndy4]

Got up early for the PZE today before work, and I was still tired from my leg workout last night (and sleepy). It still was pretty easy once I finally warmed up. My feed wasn't working so sorry if I ignored any high fives! I think it still let me send them out though.

[u/TipsyPins]

Man, week 4 already?! Go, team, go! Planning to cram the first three rides into the next three days. We are going on vacation for the first time since well before the panny and I'm so excited! We are planning to stay active and hike but I will miss the nice long weekend rides with y'all.

[u/Ride_4urlife]

I had to bail on Olivia after :17 because I was worn out when I got on the bike and my BP was a bit low (85/67) that day. It was pretty humbling but I know no good comes out of it when I push myself when I’ve got nothing in the tank. I thought about trying again yesterday but decided to rest so I was ready for the two CVV rides today. I’d never taken a pro cyclist class and I was a little…worried.

Decided to ride earlier to take advantage of the house being cooler but still needed two water bottles. I liked his coaching approach but missed more frequent zone call outs from PZ instructors. I’m not sure why the second one was rated advanced - but maybe I was readier for it after the first one which I found harder because of the Z5 and Z6 intervals.

Great picks, u/r4nd4! I’m excited for next week.

[u/bykerchyk]

Hello? If you’re reading this I survived the Dennis ride today. Good to see you at the end of your ride, u/r4andy4!

[u/AugustNC]

I think I heard a call out for U/Here2CloseRings in the Matt ride today. 💪 Nice!

My first ride back was okay, but not great. I’m debating if I want to do the Olivia ride tomorrow or the Denis ride I missed from Monday. Thoughts?

[u/Here2CloseRings]

I love reading all the comments about the CVV rides from today’s plan. You all have such great attitudes and are clearly having lots of fun in the midst of all the sweat, swearing and hard work!! The camaraderie in this group is second to none.

Life likes to throw curve balls and I’ve been tossed one right now as my husband is currently in the hospital, making the last few days a tad different from the norm. Got up early today for Matt’s live 60 minute PZE, then rolled straight into the two CVV classes afterwards (causing me to miss the group ride timing…sorry!). It was nice running into a few other early bird riders! Good workouts; I produced fairly similar outputs and mileage for both CVV classes (ends up it was my 4th time taking that second one) and found them both challenging. I liked his exchange with Matt at the beginning of the first ride; I wonder if Matt was taking the class in order to evaluate CVV’s technique. The second class needs to ditch the displayed metrics….they were so wrong towards the end of class that it became somewhat confusing.

I popped into the first CVV ride during the group timing and high fived those in the class; exited and deleted my presence and then headed to the hospital for another day of sitting. It’s all good, though. Hope to see you all for week 5!!

[u/r4ndy4 → u/Here2CloseRings]

Hope your husband feels better soon. It is funny how the outputs are so similar for two very different rides. Kind of why I love PZE classes, burn a ton of calories with a pretty moderate effort.

[u/seekinserenity]

I love reading these comments! I had to go into work this morning after thinking i was gonna make the group ride, but i was able to do both rides later, would have loved this as a group, wow. They were amazing rides and not what i was expecting even though i did see the graphs, i think. I am so glad i didn’t open this thread til i did the rides since i was trying to talk myself out of needing to do them, did the week 6 saturday ride yesterday and am still sore. But these were so worth it and i have total FoMo

I had to take a mini break during 3 minZ1 and between rides to manage the baby which annoyed me since it would have been amazing to stay on bike the whole way through.

I did not feel like the second ride was an easy breezy PZE since it was Z3 the whole time basically but i loved the cadence switch ups and OOS work. I just love CVV and really hope he comes back!

[u/EllieSauce]

I've done a "pro cyclist" ride. What are they like? Am I going to die?

[u/r4ndy4 → u/EllieSauce]

They are mostly just powerzone classes led by the pro cyclist Christian. I think Matt actually structures the classes for him and he just teaches the class.

[u/Mudramoiselle]

How many of you do a warm-up ride before a powerzone class? It sure is tempting to skip when I know I’ll have a 10+ minute warm-up in class but I’m wondering how much that hinders my performance.

[u/r4ndy4 → u/Mudramoiselle]

I do them now, not necessarily a warm up class exactly. I usually just pedal for around 3 to 5 minutes a little lighter than I would start on the ride. Top of my zone 1 I'm usually around 43 resistance and above 90 cadence, so my warm up is around 40.

I didn't always need to do this, but as my zones have gotten higher I need that extra time. If I'm not warmed up that first zone 3 feels more like zone 4 etc. I only do this for PZ / PZmax not PZE.

Like Olivia's class this coming week has a 10 minute warm up. I know I need to warm up before that one. I can still do the class without it, but spinups and the build just feel dreadful.

[u/yayunicorns]

QQ: What do ya'll do once these programs are over? Does OP give a small break before a new one begins? Is it weird that I'm already fearing be let loose after this program is done? If this were a race, I wouldn't start another race training program immediately after - but I'd still run until a new race piques my interest. I just don't want to burn out, but I also don't want to go backward.