Training Log, February 24, 2010

Submitted by adammyerson on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 00:08
I'm so exhausted by the time I get to these entries, I forget most of the things I want to tell you about the ride. And it also means there's other work I'm not getting to. But today was a big day. A special day. Let's start with the totals for a change:
 
Entire workout (172 watts):
Duration:   7:27:18 (9:02:14)
Work:       4625 kJ
TSS:        357 (intensity factor 0.699)
Norm Power: 220
VI:         1.28
Pw:HR:       -8.36%
Pa:HR:       -4.37%
Distance:   134.857 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:        0 647 172  watts
Heart Rate:   73 183 140  bpm
Cadence:      31 173 83  rpm
Speed:        2.2 37.1 18.3  mph
Pace          1:37 26:49 3:17  min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 1185 178  lb-in
 
I say it all the time, but it takes 8 hours to do 6.5 hours, and today it took 9 to do 7.5. Somehow our coffee stop at hour 3 was a full hour long. I had no idea. The other 30 minutes are a second store stop at hour 5, and random stopping for lights and to pee.
 
The script today was to ride out to Lemmon, do 3 x 20 at threshold, stop for food, and then continue on for another 3 hours or so. 3 hours turned into 4 and a half. I got excited, what can I say?
 
One thing I haven't been including is the time in the ride the efforts are happening. I think that's actually pretty crucial, and I'm surprised WKO doesn't include that as an item in the summary for each interval.
 
It takes about an hour to meet up and then ride out to Lemmon, and so that's when the first threshold block started. Last week I did 2 x 20, with the first one at 310, but dropping to 297 for the second one. The first two went better this week, partially because instead of continuing to climb, I flipped it after the interval, recovered on the descent, and did them all below 4000 feet.
 
 Interval 1:
Duration:   20:16
Work:       371 kJ
TSS:       32 (intensity factor 0.973)
Norm Power: 307
VI:         1
Pw:HR:       3.36%
Pa:HR:       2.52%
Distance:   4.545 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:       0 420 305 watts
Heart Rate:   137 181 169 bpm
Cadence:     60 121 84 rpm
Speed:       7.5 18.1 13.4 mph
Pace         3:18 8:03 4:28 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 520 307 lb-in
 
Interval 2:
Duration:   20:12
Work:       375 kJ
TSS:       32.6 (intensity factor 0.984)
Norm Power: 310
VI:         1
Pw:HR:       4.8%
Pa:HR:       2.67%
Distance:   4.528 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:       169 408 310 watts
Heart Rate:   125 180 169 bpm
Cadence:     60 104 78 rpm
Speed:       10.4 18.5 13.4 mph
Pace         3:15 5:45 4:28 min/mi
Crank Torque: 176 478 336 lb-in
 
But here's the good part. I wasn't sure how the 3rd block would go, and I had to remind myself that my only goal was to complete the workout at a reasonable power, not to smash anything. Still, because I had already improved on last week's performance, it took some pressure off, and felt like I was going to be able to leave it all out there. And so I did:
 
Interval 3:
Duration:   20:04
Work:       388 kJ
TSS:       35.2 (intensity factor 1.025)
Norm Power: 323
VI:         1
Pw:HR:       5.99%
Pa:HR:       5.64%
Distance:   4.69 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:       194 448 323 watts
Heart Rate:   125 182 172 bpm
Cadence:     55 103 80 rpm
Speed:       9.2 18.1 14.0 mph
Pace         3:19 6:31 4:17 min/mi
Crank Torque: 211 511 343 lb-in
 
Something just finally clicked on the last block. I felt comfortable on my bike, I wasn't afraid to go hard, my breathing opened up. It felt good.
 
We all met up at Le Buzz at the bottom of the mountain for coffee and a treat. Dave Chiu, Mark Vautour, and Christina Tamilio are all here for the rest of the week, and they, Toby, Dave Glick, and I sat for a little longer than I realized. But hey, any good job gives you an hour for lunch.
 
It took me an hour of easy riding once I climbed back on before I started to feel good again, and I almost accidentally found myself easing into a block of tempo at around hour 4, heading out on Old Spanish Trail:
 
Tempo:
Duration:   58:26
Work:       701 kJ
TSS:       42.4 (intensity factor 0.66)
Norm Power: 208
VI:         1.04
Pw:HR:       3.1%
Pa:HR:       -10.51%
Distance:   17.892 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:       0 366 200 watts
Heart Rate:   113 159 149 bpm
Cadence:     44 156 82 rpm
Speed:       2.2 35.9 18.4 mph
Pace         1:40 26:49 3:16 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 522 211 lb-in
 
Nothing special, really, and not even really tempo. It was more like just finally feeling good enough to push on the pedals again. Once I got to Sahuarita there's a 30 minute descent down to the bottom of the valley, where I stopped to refill my bottles again at around hour 5. Once I climbed back on I immediately felt great, and started pushing it up Helmet Peak Road. I thought I'd get 30 minutes out of that, but once I hit the top and turned right into the headwind down Mission and towards town, I just kept it rolling until the first stop light. I just felt better and better as I went, and was really surprised. This block went from 5:45 to 6:45, so naturally I was pumped about that:
 
Tempo:
Duration:   54:56
Work:       751 kJ
TSS:       48.7 (intensity factor 0.729)
Norm Power: 230
VI:         1.01
Pw:HR:       1.75%
Pa:HR:       -55.72%
Distance:   19.16 mi
Min Max Avg
Power:       0 385 228 watts
Heart Rate:   132 166 154 bpm
Cadence:     46 129 86 rpm
Speed:       9.7 35.1 20.9 mph
Pace         1:43 6:11 2:52 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 598 228 lb-in
 
From there I was just riding home, but I still kept catching myself at 250 watts when I was trying to ride easy. It felt euphoric, like I was just switched on finally. It was a good feeling.
 
Enjoy.