Today, the work out called for long intervals in the main set. They were hard, but I was diligent and finished them.

My Winter Cycling Training Programed called for a 2 and 1/2 long indoor trainer ride, or I could do a long ride outdoors. Since this was a rare rainless weekend in Oregon, so I choose the long ride outside.

And to challenge myself, I decided to ride 200 kilometer Randonneurs USA Permanent, but not just any Perm, but the one I broke my leg on two years ago. I also decided to ride it alone as I intended to hit it hard and fast for as long as I could. This was a training ride after all.

The route starts in Hillsboro, west of Portland and north of where I live. It was an hour’s drive to the starting location. I drove through lots of cold, freezing fog but in Hillsboro the fog had lifted into low clouds. It was still cold as I started the ride.

I wore all of my winter cycling clothing – two base layers (one long sleeve), a long sleeve jersey and then a neoprene cycling jacket I call the “super soaker” because it does not breath. The sweat just runs down the sleeves. I wore two layers on my legs along with my winter cycling shoes. None the less, I was cold before I started, but the four layers kept me warm during the ride.

Elevation

The route was a simple out and back – Hillsboro to Dallas and back with a stop in Dayton each direction.

As you can see, the route is mostly flat with a few minor hills. After a few warm up miles riding out of Hillsboro, I increased my effort and rode very hard all of the way to Dayton, a “control” where I had to stop and have my RUSA card signed. Along the way, I came upon the only other bicycle rider I saw during the day. Too bad I had set my mind to ride hard as I passed and dropped him. After Dayton, the route is very flat until Perrydate. From there all of the way to Dallas are some nasty rolling hills.

Power

Heart Rate

I did very well on the first leg to Dayton – my average speed with 17.7 miles per hour, my average power was 158 watts and my average heart rate was 132 beats per minute. Leaving Dayton, I attempted to keep the same effort, but I did drop just bit. The last leg back to Hillsboro is where I really suffered. My power dropped, but my heart rate remained the same. To be honest, I was very glad to see the end of the ride.

Let’s do some intense intervals!

This workout was hard. After the warm up, it called for fifteen intervals of 30 seconds at 281 watts. I managed to do them, but near the end, I could not do the required 183 watts during my ‘rest’ 30 seconds.

A rather easy day on the trainer.

The workout called for 45 minutes of effort split into three repetitions of 15 minutes consisting of 5 minutes of a modified stair step efforts – five minutes at 195 watts, five minutes at 183 watts and five minutes at 207 watts. I had no trouble holding these efforts.

Another hard day on the trainer.

Today’s workout called for some serious efforts. The warm up intervals were doable, but the main set intervals were very, very hard. The workout called for one minute efforts at 115% or 313 watts, then one minute at 191 watts. I could barely do the intervals, but I met the requested efforts on all five intervals. My lowest average wattage was 316 walls, barely over the 313, but over. However, to do this I could not maintain the requested “recovery efforts” As you can see, each of my rest recovery efforts was lower than the preceding one.

My cold is still with me, and I do believe that this is cause of my having to work so hard.

Well, at least for the first race – the Jack Frost Time Trial.

Last year I finished 21 of 29 folk in my category – Male 50-59. My time was 33:59 with a speed of 21.89. With the training have am doing, I hope to cut two minutes off of my time for a speed of 23.25 mph.

That is something to work for.

Some would say that two hours on the power crank trainer is crazy. I have to agree.

Today’s workout was hard, very hard. Perhaps the fact that I was up til 2:00 am and only got 6 hours of sleep had something to do with it. At least, that is what I’m going to blame.

As soon as I started the workout, I knew I was in trouble. After the warm up, the workout called for two hours of riding, starting with 30 minutes at 65% and increasing my effort by 5% every 30 minutes. Today, I found that working at 65% was hard when it should have been easy. 80% was sheer torture. At the end of the main set, I was done, very done, stick a fork in me done, “He’s dead, Jim” done.

For the record, the first 30 minute interval called 159 watts and I did 163 watts. The second interval call for 171 watts, I did 180 watts. The third interval called for 183 watts and I did 186. The final interval called for 195 watts and I did 191. I was on track on the last interval, but I could not hold the effort and slowed in the last ten minutes.

I am very happy that tomorrow is a rest day.

Last workout of 2011!

I am finishing up the makeup week I choose to do after recovering from my December four to six week cold. Today’s workout was intervals – five during warm up and five during the main set. The warm up intervals were 20 seconds long at 110% Critical Power but the main set intervals were 30 seconds long (with ten seconds less of recovery time.

As you can see, that extra ten seconds in the main set intervals really hit me hard. I managed to hold the intended wattage during the recovery phase of the interval for only the first interval. After that, I could not. Perhaps, I hit the intervals too hard. The workout called for an effort of 110% of my critical power of 244 watts, but I my effort was higher – 136%, 139%, 128%, 133% and 128% for the five intervals.

After these intervals, it took me some time to recover, but I did and extended the final main set item from ten minutes to fifteen minutes shorting the cool down from ten minutes to five.

The other interesting characteristic of this workout, and all three this week, is my high average heart rate. The first time I did this workout, my average heart rate was 138 bpm. Today, it was 152. This difference is magnified by the fact the first time I did this workout was without a rest day before. My conclusion, my cold is responsible – I am not completely well yet.

For this workout, I switched back to the PowerTap Comp wheel. Testing before the workout revealed that the dropped data was not due to weak batteries in the hub – they tested as strong as new batteries. The data dropping stopped when I moved the pickup closer to the hub. Now that this wheel is fixed, I am going to keep it on the trainer until my first race on February 26. I think there is something wrong with the old Powertap hub, not only does it send data spikes but it also creaks. I need to tear it apart and inspect it.

Tomorrow’s work out calls for over two hours on the trainer. This does not sound like fun.

My cold is leaving; I’m feeling better each day.

Today’s workout included four long intervals in the main set – each 7 1/2 minutes long with 2 1/2 minutes of semi-recovery. The fourth interval I was to increase my effort. I did, and it was hard. I was counting down the seconds as the fourth interval ended.

At 1:43 today, I had a migraine attack – right side. I was at home so I laid down in a darken room and rested, I even dozed. The pain is medium – about a 16 penny on the Nail Scale. I have slight pain when I cough.

Food at lunch was a Moroccan Chicken plate with brown rice at Venti’s but a better suspicion is Red Dye #40 in Gatorade G2 which I drank after my workout this morning.

See Dr. Chris Neill’s Blog post on migraines.