Last weekend it appeared winter had finally set in. I woke up to a hard
frost on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately it has been dry so it
hasn't been too icy and my training hasn't been affected other than having to
go out in 2 pairs of tights and losing the ability to speak once my jaw muscles
had frozen solid. The preceding couple of weeks training had just involved
getting my legs used to the idea of training again. Other than 1 or 2 interval
sessions on the turbo, I had just been riding to work twice a week, keeping it
nice and steady and trying to stick in zone 2. This weekend was the first time
I have really felt like I was being pushed. On Saturday I went out with a
couple of guys for a fairly steady 100km road ride. I felt pretty strong on
this ride and spent quite a bit of time on the front towards the end when the
others were starting to struggle. On Sunday I met up with the same guys for a
hilly 70km ride. In the past I have never really suffered much the day after a
ride, and certainly not after only 100km, but yesterday my legs were in pieces
on the hills. I actually stopped at one point to check my back brake wasn't
stuck on! I was running out of gears almost as soon as the road started to
point upwards and I was very glad when we reached the top of the final climb. I
was still pretty knackered after I had eaten, gulped down a Bikefood raw protein
drink and got home.
This was the first time I have ridden with a power meter and it was
interesting to see the results. The first thing I noticed was that my power was
very inconsistent and was jumping all over the place. I suppose the more you
use it the more you the better you get at regulating your effort. The second
thing I noticed is the minute amounts of power my legs appear to produce,
especially compared with the numbers the pro's put out. Certainly no He Man-esq
shouts of 'I have the power!'
I had a rest day on Monday and a recovery spin on Tuesday to give the legs time to rebuild. On Wednesday the aim was to use the Sufferfest film 'DownwardSpiral' to really cause myself some pain (in a constructive manner of course!). If you don't know what these are they are basically interval training sessions set to high tempo music with video clips from pro races to motivate you and distract you from the pain. Annoyingly the disc is scratched so it crashed during the first set of intervals and also caused my computer to crash for about half an hour. By the time it finally restarted I was completely cooled down so I had to start the whole session again using classic early 00's house music for motivation. Benni Benassi - Satisfaction anyone?!
This was the first time I have ridden with a power meter and it was
interesting to see the results. The first thing I noticed was that my power was
very inconsistent and was jumping all over the place. I suppose the more you
use it the more you the better you get at regulating your effort. The second
thing I noticed is the minute amounts of power my legs appear to produce,
especially compared with the numbers the pro's put out. Certainly no He Man-esq
shouts of 'I have the power!'I had a rest day on Monday and a recovery spin on Tuesday to give the legs time to rebuild. On Wednesday the aim was to use the Sufferfest film 'DownwardSpiral' to really cause myself some pain (in a constructive manner of course!). If you don't know what these are they are basically interval training sessions set to high tempo music with video clips from pro races to motivate you and distract you from the pain. Annoyingly the disc is scratched so it crashed during the first set of intervals and also caused my computer to crash for about half an hour. By the time it finally restarted I was completely cooled down so I had to start the whole session again using classic early 00's house music for motivation. Benni Benassi - Satisfaction anyone?!
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