Evans Pain Center

I'M OUT FOR A ROAD RIDE!


2/4
I had one of those breakthrough training sessions tonight that's so worth posting. I reckon 60% of my posts are negative about how I did. Let's face it, we cyclists are hard on ourselves for so many reasons. "Nobody sees me sweating in the basement", "It's so expensive", "If they could only see my frostbite, saddlesores, tendinitis, road rash, pinkeye..." It's so easy to loose site of the prize-friends who KNOW, experience true views, etc. Well tonight I get to wax poetic about a training session that I finally beat! As you can see from the above snapshot, it was an over/under workout to help break up the long LT reps. I drop almost 30 watts when I'm training indoors based on the two and a half years of comparisons, so the numbers might look low, but THIS trainer ain't exactly new nor smooth.

The last attempt(two weeks ago) I fell apart in the second complete(2minLT/2min Above) rep and totally melted by the 3rd. Today I kept it together all three 12min reps. It wasn't easy, but I've certainly turned a corner after last weeks recovery. I do what YoungGun does and focus on the speed that I know equates to my watt #. This was about 22mph and 25.5mph and keeps from chasing the wattage(it usually dips and that's expected). I'm happy.

2/6
One pedal-stroke. That's it. Read something else.

2/7
Had the hardest and shortest ride thus far. Speed begins. I did max efforts of 3x2min(3 min recovery-400watts), 3x1min(3 recovery-480watts), 3x30sec(2recovery-750 watts). Total time was under an hour and I'm still cloudy/crampy two hours later. LT will continue in two days, so I've got to recover Quickly.

2/8
I got two solid hours of E done. Every 15 minutes or so, I would jump off for 50 reps of some upper-body muscle group and get back to it. Nothing too hard before tomorrow's 5x10min LTs.

2/9
That's the most I've ever done. I was able to complete 5x10min with the higher values coming on the 4th and 5th rep. I finished off the last rep with a "sprint." Averaged between 275-290 for the reps-good # for me indoors.

Interesting that my highest power output came with a 96rpm cadence. It was also my slowest speed by almost 1/2 a mph. The reps at 86rpm were lower HR but easiest PE and fastest. I tried an 80 rpm and I did it, but had to dig deep into muscle force just to complete. Finished with "Shovervals".

2/10
Just "Shovervals".

2/11
I just completed my 2x30min High Tempo intervals. The second was difficult in an accumulation effect. I choose a number that would be just about 10-20 watts below my LT and that equated to 23.6mph avg. Now, Here is where I made the workout difficult. I choose cadences from 65-75rpms, which activated the deep muscle and connectors. THAT hurt! If I am tired for the DD TT, I know that I can ride it in tempo and still finish in 1:07. 2-2-Go beat me last year by 3 min. LAST year!

2/13
Twister and went out for several hours on the TT bike. Position is starting to feel great!

2/14
The team ride was fantastic. I fell apart in the last two miles and was dropped. I almost fought back within a few hundred meters when Twister fell off the pace too. The video on the FaceBook page says it all.

2/16
Trainer Fail. Me, that is. Time for a few rest days.

2/19
I met Jeff, Twister, and Jinksy in the park. I was doing Climbing LT intervals, get this...on an actual hill! I completed 24 trips up the Col Du Civile Warre. There were 4 gear changes to keep in the appropriate zone(the last 4 I used a different selection). It was great to have company on the trips up. Those guys just dropped their plans to keep me company. I was toasty by the last two reps and could not reciprocate by riding with them afterwords. Sorry guys.

2/20
3+ hours of E with the YoungGun.

2/21
Wow! That was the hardest workout of the year thus far. I am really amazed at how strong physically, mentally, and tactically we are this year. We did 5x12min KOM teams. I know I did more than 25 sprints and a heck of a lot of bridging intervals. There were many times I was just pummeled. The good news was that there were others in the same situation. Perfect training and incredible videos of the events. I don't know how many other teams are hammering each other under containment rules like we are. And I feel even closer to my mates for it. We really miss you on these Jordan.