Another LSD ride in the books

I am glad it is over.

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. I felt great and had a lot of energy. I was able to get 2:30hrs in zone 2 and about 10min in zone 3. The remaining time was a high zone 1. Some highlights: 2600Kcals, 55miles, avgCad92, avgHr145

I felt good immediately after but later that evening some body parts started to tighten up. Mainly my shoulders. I didn't want to think about it but I had another 2hr workout waiting for me the next day. I went to be early but had restless sleep. Got up at 5:00am to ride again but had no energy. I stopped the workout after 30min.

Next week I am going to ease up on the intensity. I should be tired and drained after a long ride not rev'd up.

Tomorrow I am going to try and make up one of the hours I missed today. I will spend the first hour doing today's Spin up workout. Then I will move on to my Force workout.

I shouldn't look ahead

This week will be relatively easy compared to the upcoming 2 weeks. The weeks total hours is 13hrs. Next week is 16:30hrs then a the big week of 18hrs. That means 4:00hr & 4:30hr rides on the trainer are looming. Not Good.

So I should be happy today is will be only 3:30hrs on the trainer for an E2 endurance ride. The goal for this ride is to stay in Zone2 for a least 2:30hrs.

Building the Pyramid

I have a good foundation with lots of time is Zone 2. Now it is time to work on Zone 3 the next layer of my pyramid. This morning I rode continuously in Zone 3 for 30 minutes with some time in Zone 4. I wanted to focus on muscle endurance so I kept the rpms lower near 80rpms. I could of gone longer but decided 30min was a good start. I may do another workout like this later this week.

Phase 1 is Complete!

All 4 weeks of Base 1 are done.

Yesterday I did my first fitness test. It was a 30min all out test to get my LTHR. This time I took 45min to warm up. I basically used a warm up you would use to get ready for a Crit. Easy at first, the about 15min zone 3, and a few zone 4-5 efforts.

The test - with a good warm up it was very easy to get my HR up to 170. After 5min, I was at 176 and working very very hard. I thought it wouldn't last. Then 178bpm, I was going to blow up. I kept it there. I faded a little bit in the last 10min but not much. So my avgHR for the 30min was 176bpm. My avgHR for the last 20min was 175bpm. Not bad of an old man!!

For my training, I will take that 175bpm result a bit down to 173bpm. So now my zones are:

Z1 113 - 141
Z2 142 - 154
Z3 155 - 161
Z4 162 - 172
Z5 173 - 189

I think the test was a good estimate of my current LTHR. I was well rested and highly motivated. I think keeping my cadence high through the test helped. I didn't have the muscle fatigue in my legs to slow me down. My avgCAD was 105rpms.

I have a Muscle Endurance workout on the schedule tomorrow. I am going to make sure that I am comfortable in Z2 before I start. The goal is to ride in Z3 for 30-40min at 90rpms. I want to ensure that I keep good tension on my quads throughout the 30-40min.

Not much to Report

Just sat on my butt at work today. Last week was a hard week and I was very much looking forward to a week off. I could get use to sleeping in late.

I know the "Rest Week" is very important but I am ready to go again. Next week will start base 2. I start building on my aerobic pyramid. I have been doing long endurance ride with 2-3:00hrs in my Zone 2. Now I will put on the next layer of the pyramid and add some time into Zone 3. In the next 3 weeks I hope to be able to sustain up to 90+min in this zone. I still have 5 Muscle Strength weight lifting sessions left to complete.

Sunday I will do my fitness test. I am looking forward to that too. This time I am going to spend 30 - 40min warming up before I make an all out effort. I have no idea where my LT is now.

Now We rest.

I finished my longest week of Base 1. Hooray!! Now it is time for a rest week and then start Base2.

Saturday I did a 1:00hr spin class and tried to lift but was pretty wiped out. So I went home, recovered for a bit and then went out on a 3:00hr ride. I used my Single Speed. I figured I could use the Single Speed on hills to make up for not doing a weight workout.

Sunday I rode with Pat C. for about 2:30hrs. We headed straight North into the wind up to Blair.

I had a good training week but I am ready for some down time. I was able to ride 17:00 of the scheduled 17:30hrs. This week will only be 9:00hrs... that should be easy.

Mid week

I think of Friday as the halfway point of my training week. Today I going to do speed drills. This will include some isolated leg drills and spin ups. I have been working diligently on keeping my cadence high on my endurance rides.

I am sold on the merits of keeping a high cadence for endurance rides. In using a high cadence I can get into my zone and stay there without the muscle fatigue. I still am tired after a long trainer workout but after recharging my energy stores I can carry on with my daily chores. More importantly, I can do another aerobic workout the next day.

I am not sure at this point if the high cadence is making me faster. I seemed to get better speeds when I drop my cadence down from 100rpms to 80rpms at a comparable heart rate.

Tomorrow, I have a 4:00hr day which I am going to break up into two workouts. Probably Spin Class/weights & 2:00hr E2 workout. Sunday it is 3:00hr E2 workout.

BTW- Did 2:00hrs on the trainer last night with 0:55mins in Zone2 and some time in zone 3.