Shovel Talk

Just finished ‘The Shovel’ for the first time (or was I ‘Violated’??) Wow, it lives up to the hype. @emacdoug I’m glad I didn’t run it for the first time during my KOS attempt. Great workout and grat training. Kudos to the creators…this stuff is gold! Next up, the “Downward Spiral” Ugh!

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@ronburgundy Have you seen this thread yet? Check out what @JamesT put together.

I don’t mind The Shovel as much as Violator which I am scheduled to do on Tuesday.

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Duly noted…I shall report back!

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Violator was brutal last week for me. I’m a sprinter but it shattered my legs.

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Is it wrong to feel good to be ‘Violated??’

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I just did The Shovel, again, this morning. 6th time I’ve done it.

To be honest, I was NOT excited for the workout, this morning. I felt tired from a 3 hour hard group ride on Friday and a 2:15 hour tempo ride on Saturday night. On top of that I overate my dinner last night. So, I was feeling fatigued and bloated and gross. PLUS, I am starting just my second week of training on higher 4DP numbers - the highest I ever have used for The Shovel. So, all around I was not feeling good and not expecting good things, at all.

The warm up didn’t go to bad. It’s a really long warm up and I have had a least a few time doing The Shovel where even the warm up felt painful. Anyway… I smashed it. I really don’t know how. I felt so awful coming in to it. But in the end, this may have been the best I’ve felt for any session of The Shovel I’ve ever done. And doing it on my highest 4DP numbers, too. So, I am super happy. I don’t feel that smashed. Instead, I smashed the workout. Feels great to finally smash my nemesis.

I did the workout in ERG mode on my Kickr Core and the power changes were all bang on. I was able to hold power at every interval including the NM intervals, except for the 4th one in the first shovel where I hit the death spiral but managed to push hard and die right as the interval ended. Strava shows my max power at 999w. lol

Overall, I travelled more than a mile further than my previous best attempt. Had my highest average pace and best 20 min pace for any of my Shovel attempts. I also averaged 16w more than my previous best.

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Where is Mike Cotty riding at in The Shovel? Is that somewhere in Colorado?? I need to know for my bucket-list haha :slight_smile:

If you felt terrible before you started, maybe you just felt good relative to that when you were finished it😵‍💫

Congrats on smashing it🎉

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My fourth shovel this morning. First time on Erg/smart trainer. Not as bad as I remember, but still rough.

A few thoughts/questions:

  • I think coming up from the mines (the second set of 23 intervals) is physically harder, it feels harder and my heart rate is higher, BUT, mentally it is easier because the end is near and I can see myself finishing it.

  • I remember reading that Sir Neal had Rohan Dennis do three sets of Shovels as part of is training, I wonder if that was three times 46 intervals, or three time the 23? I can’t imagine the former…

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I did the shovel for the first time today. Beautiful workout. I really enjoyed looking at the heart rate data after I finished and the difference in heart rate trends when going up vs down the pyramid

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Only just noticed this question over 18 months later. As a Coloradan I can verify that beginning with the recovery interval after 8/23 in the second set, he’s riding down from the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado. Every time I ride The Shovel I always think how the Minions missed the opportunity to note when he rides through the area of that descent called “The Devil’s Playground.” I can speak from experience (thankfully in an automobile, not a bike) that the Devil’s Playground is no place to be during a thunderstorm! Bound to include lots of lightning and hail!

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