[hungrycoop]

I am starting Week 5 of the Evoke 20 week intro to Ultra plan on Training Peaks and I have two quick questions

1. I did my first gym based Muscular Endurance work out as prescribed. In the write up, it was a suggested TSS of 150. I did the full workout and tracked my heart rate and came up with a 39 hrTSS according to either Garmin or Training Peaks. This appears to be significantly lower than required. I broke a sweat, got into about Zone 3, but recovered my heart rate during the rests. Maybe I am misunderstanding the TSS score. The workout felt good, didn’t kill me, but I’m feeling a bit sore. Just wanted to make sure I was getting the right stimulus.

2. Reviewing the Hill Sprints across the next several weeks, it appears that it is 1 set 8×12” sprints for all the work outs, yet there are instructions to “take 5 min easy stretching between sets”, but I never see a 2 set work out.. just wanted to make sure there was no progression to the hill sprints once the 8×12” is completed.

Thanks. I am enjoying the plan. Good variety and so far adequate recovery built in.

Ryan

[Seth Keena]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for writing in.  1) HR TSS is not such a good measure for the way we/you are using TP, beyond a simple flat-ish run or cycle. The reasons why, simply put, is HR indicates only a small aspect of effort for strength work, including ME as well as anything involving vertical gain. So, to ‘calibrate’ your TP metrics to produce a meaningful fitness model we suggest some TSS scores for certain workouts,  hence the 150.

2) There are 8sets of sprints, so take the 5min between the 5. On the whole, the workout should feel like more resting than working! To be clear, each set has one, 12second rep.

 

[hungrycoop]

Hi Seth,

Thanks for answering my question. I am still not clear on number 2. This is how all of the hill sprints workouts read:

“1 set 8 x 12” sprints OR UNTILL…..YOU CAN’T REACH THE LINE….SEE BELOW

Make a line in the dirt at the top of the 2nd or third sprint. When you can not reach that line stop. You’re done with the workout. You have accomplished the goal of fatiguing the FT fibers.

Easy 2 min walk down recovery between each sprint. Take 5 min easy stretching between sets.”

I read that as 1 set of (8) 12 second sprints with 2 min rest/recovery between each sprint. I never see a progression to 2 sets of sprints where the 5 min rest would be used. I think this workout is cut and pasted through all of the weeks during this block. I did my second week  of this workout and was able to hit all 8 sprints with 2 min rests.

Maybe I am just confused with how the work out is written? I have been very disciplined with the plan and just want to make sure I am doing everything right.

Thanks,

Ryan

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