Another dose of Tempo

Monday and Tuesday were much needed off days with Wednesday duplicating the first workout of the season. After a 15 minute warm-up, 3 minutes at 325W and then 1X45' @ 85-95% of FTP. The temperature today was 30F warmer than it was when I did this workout last Tuesday but it seemed about 20% harder. Looking at the #'s they were pretty much identical to what I did last time.

2x20's tomorrow at Sub-LT with about 20 minutes of pyramid work - 320 to 260 and then back up to 320. After that I do 10 minutes at upper endurance pace with 5 second bursts to 450W every 30 seconds. Should be fun!!

I Made It Through The First Week

The first week of my training plan is in the books, riding 210 miles in 11 hours and 17 minutes and racking up 704 TSS points. As far as calories, I burned 7,587. As of today, my CTL is 65 and TSB is -24.

On Saturday, the plan called for 4 hours of endurance/tempo riding in addition to 2 x 20's in a range of 85 - 95% of FTP. The alarm clock went off at 5:45AM and at first glance out of the window, I knew it was too dark to ride. I waited until 6:30AM and headed out in a temperature hovering around 38F. My daughter had a soccer game at 10:30AM and we were leaving for the South Carolina football game at 3:00PM. so I knew getting in 4 hours after the late start would be impossible. I was able to complete 3:10 of the 4 hours and near the end, my right hip starting getting tired. I got home in time to change and mix a recovery drink before heading out with the family for the soccer game.

We got home at 1:30AM Sunday morning from the football game and I knew that riding before church was out as I needed sleep. The alarm went off at 7:45AM and felt tired. In fact, I felt tired all day long. The plan called for 2:30 with 2 hours in range of 180 - 220W and the rest WU and CD. I started a little after 9:00PM and I felt terrible. I think I was on the verge of bonking with an hour left and I stopped to find a PowerBar Gel. It was all I could do maintain an average of 180W and to top things off, my right hip started hurting. I stopped the ride at 2:01, got a recovery drink and hit the showers before bed. Monday and Tuesday are off days (which I really need) and plan to fill this time with plenty of stretching. This week is relatively light as it is giving me a breather for the 17.5 hours scheduled for next week.

Training for 2008 Season Starts Today!

Today was the official start day for my 2008 racing season. Hunter Allen uploaded my training to TrainingPeaks on Saturday and we discussed and refined it yesterday. Everything looks good and I dread Thanksgiving week as the blocks for the week have me doing 4 hours on Monday and 4 hours on Tuesday, 1.5 hours of subLT on Wednesday, off Thursday and Friday and back to 4 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday. That amounts to over 17 hours on the bike. I better stock up on Chamois Butter and PowerBars as I'll be going through quite a bit that week.

My plan actually started yesterday but I was scheduled for an Active Recovery day and completely off the bike. Hunter wanted me doing at least 6 hours over the weekend but I was only able to muster 3 as life got into the way. Before the ride, WKO+ PMC had my TSB at+7 and CTL at 57. The plan for today was to ride 45 minutes in a range that amounted to 85 - 95% of my FTP which is estimated to be around 260W. After a 15 minute warm up and 3 minutes at 115% of FTP, I started the 45 minute interval. I must say, I felt great today. Not sure if it was the positive TSB, excitement of starting the season/plan, or possibly the Hornet Juice I added to my water bottle, but either way, I managed an avg power of 245W for the 45 minutes and had plenty in the tank. Racked up 1210kj of work in 98 minutes, covered 32.3 miles and had a TSS of 122 with an IF of 0.863.