Looking at the power demands and 16 minute interval durations I’m rather apprehensive about tomorrows workout.
Should I be so worried or is it not as bad as I think it’s going to be given that Darwin felt tough and that requires less power and a shorter interval 
Couple of existing threads with decent comments:
https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/search?q=Carpathian%20Peak%20%2B2
I was in the same situation with the same feelings last Saturday. Did the first at 96%, the second at 98% and the last at 100%. Helped big time with the mental component.
I try to go in with the mentality that if the workout was not doable, they wouldn’t put it into the plan. That of course doesn’t account for any FTP discrepancies or individual strengths and weaknesses but everything SHOULD be doable.
I did this in July
And yes, it was SUPER hard…
As long as nutrition is on point, you should be fine!
Make sure you eat properly and in advance of the workout.
I have found that if eat my carbs 45 min to 1hr before the wo, it tends to be a less painful expirience.
Thanks, this is the first time I have genuinely questioned if I have a chance of completing the WO.
Thanks, I’ll try that approach.
I did it two Saturday’s ago and followed up with Mary Austin -1 this past Saturday. It was hard, but not a killer. I rated it as a 7.5 on my scale of RPE and Darwin a 7, which I also recently did. One thing to appreciate about Carpathian Peak is you get a good bit of rest between efforts. Darwin is a bit tighter.
First of all, no matter what exercise you’re doing, understand a large part is in your head. Your muscles do the work, but your brain is in control.
As a general rule of thumb, the harder the workout, the better your prep needs to be.
Give yourself the best chance of completing by sleeping well beforehand, making sure you’re eating enough carbs, resting well, lining up your favourite tracks, making sure fans are at the right angle, hydration before and during is appropriate, see where I’m going? There are so many decisions you make before getting on the bike that all add up. Call them marginal gains, if you want 
Good luck and don’t get too “in your head” about it. You might just surprise yourself.
agreed. i did get too “in my head” yesterday with Spencer. Was not my best. I think it’s best if the things you describe are just part of your every day routine and then you kind of go into the workout like it’s just another workout and there is no concerns about completing it, you just do it. In particular, i’ve been really happy this block since I bumped up to mid-volume I have those back to back workouts Saturday and Sunday and in the past I would let the fear that I haven’t recovered block me, but this time, I just assume I’m good and can do it and have had great success.
Carpathian Peak +2 was scheduled on the calendar for me this morning.
I can confirm it definitely wasn’t easy (at all), but as others have said, it’s doable.
I approached it by taking the first set at 100% and reminding myself that the first one is always the hardest (or at least that’s what I tell myself in order to normalise the high RPE!).
I’ll admit to engaging full distraction mode; The Bourne Identity on Netflix, counting in/out breaths up to 10 when things got tricky & telling myself I can re-assess after the current set finishes all seemed to help.
Once you’ve got the first set out of the way if you can get through the next one you’ll be well over halfway. After that, you’ve only got one more to go, by which point you’ll have two sets in the bag (and hopefully some belief that you can see off the last round!). Rather nonsensical I’ll admit, but it works for me!
All the best for tomorrow…
Completely agree. The one change I make for particularly hard days are jelly babies. Works every time 
I think if you go in ‘fearing’ a workout, you’ve already lost. You are going in with a negative mindset and that sets the overall tone and direction of how you will perceive the uncomfortable sensations from your body and RPE will go up and you will probably have less will to push yourself to complete the intervals / workout.
Its just a normal workout in your calendar. It will be uncomfortable, but you know that going in. No big deal. Do your best to complete it. Maybe think going in how its going to be tough but you are going to crush it. Having a positive mental attitude can change your perception of what you feel during the intervals. Its not pain, its uncomfortable and that is what going hard feels like. Its what putting the hurt on everyone during a group ride feels like. Its what you need to feel if you want to get stronger.
If you’re not having the occasional issue completing a workout, you aren’t pushing your limits. If you blow up, who cares. The next time it pops up on your schedule, just see if you can do it better. Not completing a workout 100% as proscribed doesn’t mean you ‘failed’ it.
Strangely I find Carpathian peak +2 one of the more manageable over-under workouts - way easier than Mary Austin for instance.
But I agree with the above sentiments about a lot of it being in your head. I activity dread Mary Austin and I feel my high failure rate on that particular workout is partly psychological.
Just trust in Chad - he wouldn’t t prescribe workouts you can’t do 
Did you survived?
confidence is definitely key as well as considering what’s the worst that can happen.
Yes…just!
I took @anon13702412 's advice and did the first at 96% the second at 98% and the last at 100%. This really worked well as I doubt I would have made all 3 at 100%. If I had to do it again soon I’d do the first 2 at 98% now I have an idea of how they feel; not as bad as expected.
Thanks for everyone’s advice on this one…I pulled in all the advice and it made all the difference.
Well done!
I think there’s a lot of psychology in many of the workouts, it’s not just as easy as saying “that’s got an IF of 0.92, etc.” or whatever. We’ll all find some workouts or classes of workouts hard depending on our weaknesses but that’s partly the point of them.
You can’t look at how other people view individual workouts either - about fifteen months ago there were a lot of posts about how hard Mary Austin and variations were. That was a bit worrying as it was in my schedule for a few week’s time. When I eventually did it I thought it was tough but nowhere near the hardest workout I’d done to then.
Obviously dropping the intensity by 10-15% is going to change the whole point of the workout but adjusting the intensity, by small amounts, isn’t a problem if it lets you complete the workout. 98% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
Wish I had read this thread before tackling this bear of a workout this morning. Didn’t help that I tried doing it fasted…made it thru two intervals @ 100% but was flailing by the end of that second interval.
If 16 minutes of threshold is scary your threshold is wrong.