threshold intervals

This image has nothing to do with my training

However i do sometimes wish i had something like this available to combat asshole drivers.

"sorry sir i was skeet shooting at the time and i didn't see you trying to squeeze me off the road so you could get to sit at the next red light 5 seconds earlier!"

OK so today i hit the spit and did another round of 3x20x10 threshold workouts, making darn sure to refuel in between intervals.

first 20 avg, 351w
second, 347w
last, 335w

Last two intervals i also included a "race-break" interval into things about 4mins from the end of the time i sprinted for 15-20 seconds then held my ftp before giving a final kick again at the end.

This hurts a lot, (a regular theme) especially after going hard for 16mins already but then thats whats it all about right?

You hammer it hard break away from the group stick it and dive for the line.

anyway it was a great work out after yesterdays anaerobic stuff, tomorrow i might do a long steady tempo ride up north before the snow returns!!!

anaerobic hill reps

Snow cleared this afternoon, roads kind of cleared, i was getting antsy being stuck in all week

So i headed out for a short ride.

The cycle paths roads here were a mix of snow and icy puddles.

So i put out some short anaerobic hill reps close to home

6x 1min 40sec efforts (standing climbs in the big ring and the the time to top the short climb and sprint at the end)

averaging from 380w to 420w with roughly 6-7mins of easy spinning in between sets.

Whole session was done and dusted within an hour.

Tomorrow the roads will be clearer and the weather somewhat better so i'll risk doing some 3x20x10 FTP intervals down at the spit.

Springs around the corner, thanks goodness, all this snow is getting old.

SnOW dAY!!!!!

I call .....SNOW DAY!!!!!!!

Feck it spring is around the corner, warmer snow free weather is two days away.

i woke up at six am looked out the window at the 40kmph winds and drifting snow and said "feck that!" ate my breakfast and went back to bed!

Got up went for breakfast...pancakes.

Went home swapped out my winter gearing for the summer drive train and decided to take it easy and wait for the storm to pass....went and bought an old copy of Nina Hagens "Nunsexmonkrock" on vinyl. I'm sitting here listening to it as i write...classic German....something (not sure how to describe it) but it was a pivotal musical moment in my life,

The combination of white lightening blotters and this album corrupted my childhood for ever ;0).

Later I'm going to go for a Indian and sit on my arse all night....

I've been in a state of constant starvation for the last 3months, i've lost 11lbs, as soon as the weather breaks I'll be back out again heading in to lactic overload on a regular basis,


bUT 4 nOw...

death by turbo

Snow covers the ground outside.

i nearly crashed 4 times trying to get home from work yesterday in rush hour traffic before i thought fuck this! I`m getting a taxi!!!

Brimley road hill repeats cancelled for this week.

Instead its death by turbo.

15mins warm up

5mins at FTP or 356w

5mins cool down

then 5 times 1.30min at 117% of ftp or around 390w-420w.

Got to get some bigger gears on my bike again, spinning at 110rpm is just making it all the harder

i breath hard and heavy, my legs scream, i shout internally at my self to keep going just one more time.

heres the details

wish it were sunny outside.....

back in the fridge

Well its back to the grind in the GTA.

But unperturbed I'll try to keep things rolling, race season is just around the corner, the sun was even out today.

Kept it busy this weekend with a 3x20x10 threshold interval session Saturday at my new FTP level, which hurt a lot!

20 mins at 340w, 3 times, although in fact i totally popped just into my third set but keep it going none the less despite the drop in power output, cause thats just how we roll right!?

Mental beefcake!!! or mentalist masochist perhaps...I feel that way sometimes.

Just gotta keep asking yourself "how much do you want it!?"

Ended dizzy and reeling, hypoglycaemic, shot, but satisfied. Got to remember to eat in the middle of those workouts.

Today was a simple tempo ride; 300w avg for 60mins.

Tomorrow I rest, then Tuesday its off to the bluffs for some VO2 max workouts on the climb!

Nice!

Last day of Training Camp.

Well I'm writing this sat at the airport in Tucson after an amazing trip.

I'm sad to leave but happy to have been here and take home what I've picked up and learnt whilst being here.

Anyway I finished off the trip with a ride to the top of Mt Lemon, more or less, 21 miles of steady 4-7% gradient and up to 8000ft, from where i set of that was over 2000m of vertical ascent!



and to start it off i began with a 20min ITT to test me threshold power level again.

i hadn't meant to i planned on doing 3x20x 10 level 4 workouts, but after starting with a steady output of 370w and feeling fine i thought i might as well kick it for the last 10 mins and see if i could raise my peak levels.

I finished the 20 mins with an average power output of 375w which sets my FTP at a new high of 356w - 9w above my last season peak and although i've not weighed myself in a while i'm pretty sure i've lost a lot of weight being here so my overall power-weight ratio will be even higher than last year.

anyway after the hard slog up the climb i had the fun of a 21mile decent :0) racing pick-up trucks down the mountain at up wards of 72kmph sweet!!!!

anyway thats it trips over for this year now the really hard work begins, I've just got to make sure i continue with the workouts at threshold and VO2 max and keep up the weight loss.

Anyway Coach Mirek had some very encouraging words for me about my progress and potential (prefixed as usual with the mention of being too fat)

So i'm going to keep focused, work hard and see what happens this time next year.

anyway here is the details from yesterdays ride.

This time tomorrow I'll be in the snow and cold of Toronto again. wondering where the snow and daylight went. Glad I got those winter shoes finally before leaving. brrrrr.


first race is in 6weeks.....Good Friday road race.

hopefully i won't get dropped this year!

The last weekend

Blue skies, clear blue skies,
open roads, and cacti....

Its been a wonderful trip...hard, challenging, painful yet exhilarating.

Lots of hard grinds up steep climbs, rolling hills and desert flats. Already counting the days till i get back here next year.

today was due to the the end of a hard 3days of riding.

140km and 30mins of seated big ring, low cadence intervals up Mt Lemon a steady 4-7%).


Then standing big ring intervals at a higher cadence up Gate's pass (image left) which topped out at 15%, sandwiched within a 100Km ride.

Then today was another blatt on the local shoot out, a 180km hammer fest!

however karma had other plans for me today, just as we reached the outer limits of the Indian reservation , the tempo picked up and i dropped down a huge rut in the road. At first, despite the bone shuddering crack, i thought had escaped without damage, but shortly after my rear tire began to deflate and i watched the pack disappear up the road in front of me. At that point i knew it was over, there was no way i was going to hook back on the end of that again today.

resigned to my fate i fixed my flat, and headed back home, only to find my front tire and taken the full force of the impact as well and was also flat. (see this is why i always carry two spare tubes) at that point i could only hope to be able to make it the 35km back home incident free.

which of course, given the fact I'm writing this now i managed. Slightly more successfully than some of my fellow riders. I met another a short distance away from me that had fell foul to the very same hole, yet his fondness for deep section wheels and his lack of a valve extender had resulted in him being stranded on the very same reservation i was now gleefully peddling away from.

I also saw "team" charlie one of the young riders one the camp get caught out by the unforgiving pace of the group. He picked a bad time to pee, by the time he had gotten back on the pace was up and he was left in the dust, with no hope of catching back on. I saw him later as i wrote this sitting in Starbucks...you live and learn.