Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Problems, Propitiousness, and a Push

Tough 2x 15min @ 55-60 rpm intervals today. It didn't help that I pressed the wrong button on my garmin and blew workout. It happened right at the start of the first 15 min interval so that one ended up being a few minutes longer.I had to cycle through, restart and get to about the same spot again.

Well, this was a chance to test out something I thought about yesterday on changing how I planned my workoutouts on the road. I needed to figure out if the data from the first part plus what I was doing while I got things setup again plus starting in the middle of a second attempt would all be recorded in a single session. Good news. It worked fine.

In the future I think I'll also modify the road workouts by requiring my to tap the lap button to start the segment rather than having it atart automatically. That should give me a little more control over when and where I do things.
On the plus side I did the first 15 minute interval in 53-15, which I think is a first. I was really focussed on keeping the upper body still and relaxed. The legs did not like that one bit. I also noticed that when I started to tense up the HR started to creep up but when I relaxed and got a smooth cadence going again it dropped back a bit (~2%). The rest interval was done @ 100 rpm and my HR above 80%. On the second interval I didn't think the legs would let me do the same gearing so I backed off one and did it in 53-17. I could feel my form slipping at the 5 minute mark but could not get my legs to smooth out my stroke. I actually think that is a good thing since I feel I was really pushing my LT effort and while I was able to complete the interval, it was not pretty. But, it was the longest one I've ever done (and consciously tracked). The form will come as I get more accustomed to the longer efforts.

Distance: 20.35 km

Speed: 20.67 kmh

Cadence: 76 rpm

AVG HR: 161 bpm

Weight: 205.6 lbs

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