Or dinghy, or…
Could do some beer can racing, minus the beer.
Pretty much found my new sport…
Jealous yet?!?
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My daughter is about to turn pro, I think.
Are there structured training plans available?
This is real!
Earlier this month in the news, NASA was looking for 10 males and 10 females, ~19K USD, to spend 2mo in bed.
Yes. The most popular is a 100/0 structure of ‘Zone 0’. Pro sleepers can do upwards of 50hrs/week.
However, it’s not recommended to start with high volume training. Many suffer symptoms such as acute pyjama burn, prolonged bed head, and varying degrees of pillow face.
Good luck to your daughter, lots of competition out there!
Weaklings. Flabby babies! I’m going pro! Gunning for the World Champion’s rainbow quilt! My ZZZmax intervals will crush the competition!
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My daughter’s performance is severely limited by equipment - her bedroom is in the basement, she has to go up some stairs to go to the bathroom or eat. This causes HR to peak, and delays the start of the next interval. Make sure you address the equipment layout.
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UPDATE: pt. 1
(tl;dr at bottom)
With global suffering happening at the moment, this seems like small potatoes, but it’s big-ish in my world…and might even be a bit of non-doom-&-gloom news.
The Break-Down:
Family doc hooked me up with a UMAC doc (Urgent Medical Assessment Clinic – medical Shelocks!) to investigate a couple non-cardiac issues. By coincidence the guy was a heart doc and after telling me “No idea” about the other problems, he starts looking at my heart info. Asks me what the specialist said. I say, “No idea…still waiting to get in…” He spins around in his chair and gives me a crazy look. “That’s not right”, he sez and literally runs out of the room. He comes back in about a minute and about four minutes after that his assistant comes in and says, “They have him booked as ‘Elective’ and is scheduled in 2-4 months”. Doc spins around again, same crazy look. “That’s not right”, once more. Says standard angioplasty is categorized as ‘elective’ but he’s pretty sure I don’t need that. Note: that’s also why I’ve been waiting sooooo long – my ‘elective’ designation kept being shuffled to the bottom of the pile! Anyway, doc schedules me for a CT angiogram. Three weeks later I’m lying in the whirly machine with weird junk shooting through my veins.
Results: zero blockage/obstruction/narrowing in my heart. 
There is a “single tiny calcified plaque” in one of the secondary branches, doc says that does not effect blood flow or is of serious concern. I asked about my HRE (hypertensive reaction to exercise) and he said that it’s not a heart issue (from test results) and it’ll be caused by some other mechanism. However, he did say that it’s nothing to worry about because he sees a lot of people, including athletes, who have HRE, it’s just a thing. Second opinion, please!
There are still some questions to be answered, such as does the all-clear CT scan result supersede/render void all the ECG and stress test “possible positive” results? Among others (e.g. low-normal ejection fraction).
I asked him about returning to competition/exercise intensity, he gave me the green light.
TL;DR
I’m baaAAaacccckkkk…??? 
con’t…
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UPDATE: pt. 2
(tl;dr at bottom)
A few irks, praises, and etc. to get off my Schleck-like chest:
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there is very definitely miscommunication and/or loss in translation within the medical system. The heart specialist has me down as an ‘elective angioplasty’ when, from my understanding, the initial referral from my doc was for a consultation! I’m thinking the spec clinic gets paid more for doing a procedure than an in-office consult. As well, over the course of the year, my initial red flag – the HRE – somehow got lost in the shuffle and turned into SOBOE (shortness of breath on exertion), which never occurred, my HRE is completely asymptomatic. And when discussing the CT scan with the heart doc, he said he talked to the doc who administered the nuclear stress test and said he stopped the test because I had reached the required level. This very definitely did not happen! The test doc was panicking and slapping all the buttons on the machine to get it to stop…after he calmed down I had to have the drug-induced test because I couldn’t reach the desired protocol lever w/o HRE! I can definitely see how things can get totally messed up in the medical system, especially the longer you are in the system and the more hands touch your case. As a patient I will be hardcore about self-advocating going forward.
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flip-side from 1). The UMAC doc I saw was awesome. His only purpose and goal was to help people get better and this was very apparent. I’ve never seen a doc actually run out of the room to help a (non-emerg) patient. Without him I’d still be waiting for god knows how much longer and without any answers or communication and then eventually getting an unnecessary procedure! I don’t know if it’s because he’s not tied to a practice or clinic (i.e. money dependant) but there was no bias or influence on his actions and decisions. I’m his new best friend that he doesn’t know he has! Ha!
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For a bit of eeriness, it was 1 year TO THE DAY! from my stop-work order doc appointment to my CT scan. Flying Spaghetti Monster hard at work.
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No medical assessment on this one, merely observation of data and intuition. First step was to decline the doc’s offer to take both beta blockers and statins. Hindsight says that was the correct choice; it would have delivered only side-effects. I don’t hold it against my doc, obviously he was doing the tried and true method of keeping people stable and alive until. Spent 4 months doing only MAF/low HR rides (building to high volume) followed by 4 months of no training. Recently started doing sub-FTP intensity training again and quickly noticed my heart behaving noticeably differently than it did 1 year ago. It’s lower during exercise and is slower to increase vs increase in effort. I did a blood pressure protocol test yesterday (cycle-specific designed by Medical Uni of Poland) and was VERY surprised to find my exercise BP to be far below what it was 1 year ago and well within normal range: (2019) 267/83 @ 95% HRmax vs (2020) 183/110 @ 95% HRmax. As well, and perhaps more importantly, BP holds stops increasing once I reach ~80% HRmax. Other metrics (as discussed in an endurance runner study) such as certain heart rate variability measurements increased: SDNN +64%, pNN50 +50%.
Basically, I’m hunching that my non-elite level heart was simply fried from 6-7 months of hard unrelenting training w/o a rest. The last year was basically an 8-month vacation during which I did healthy (or no) exercise allowing the heart to rest and recuperate. You’re welcome, buddy! -
I may have lost a year of training and racing but I gained a lifetime of perspective. Not gonna lie, it was a very difficult year but I don’t think I would trade it for an alternative. I spent it healing and learning (about many facets!) with a mostly positive outcome. My grand 3-yr plan would have been derailed by COVID anyway soooo…onward and upward!
Bonus Outcome: I don’t have to sell my new race wheels that have been sitting in a box for a year! 
TL;DR
Starting fresh with expanded knowledge, wisdom, self-awareness, health, and perspective. 
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Very hard for most of us to do…best wishes for continued, improved health.
Great news!
A number of us (starting here) had the same hunch and recommended you take rest weeks and not go for so much volume/intensity. FWIW I’m finding success with just two intense days a week, plus long endurance rides on the weekend.
So happy to hear everything is ok! 
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Back then I was taking a Lionel Sanders approach to training recommendations…
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Together?
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LOL 
the gif is awesome
Great to hear! That’s awesome. The last year seems like quite the long road to journey down. Kudos for staying positive and building up a new perspective.
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Glad you are back in action! And thanks for the details which may help one of your brethren here.
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Great news Doughnutman!
Are you planning on taking the Traditional Base route back to training?
Ha! I’m actually trying to put a plan together at this very moment!
This whole lockdown/shutout thing, as well as the time of year, has thrown a bit of a spanner in the usual works. I’ve got two months off to mess around but the weather right now is typical Spring-ish – chilly and damp and not something I want to spend 5hrs riding around in slowly. But, now that I’m acutely aware of the value and power of long Z2 rides, if the world is still messed up come May/June, I’ll def be transitioning to a large block of outdoor Trad Base.
What I’m thinking at the moment is 3 3-week cycles (2on/1off): i) SSMV, ii) SPBMV, iii) TBHV; all with 1 VO2max/on-week. Hopefully it’ll be more sunshiny by that third cycle and I can do long Z2 rides outside. If not…not sure. If not, then I might do a TempoHV indoor third cycle.
That’s also the beauty of having no races/deadlines, I can switch things up on the fly and do whatever I feel like – with no regrets or guilt!
Sorry to read this, take care.
Ummmm… thanks?
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