After 2 days off (not counting the active recovery ride on Monday) I was back on the bike this morning. Normally I would have jumped back on Tuesday but my legs were sore in ways I've never experienced before. Link here:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3928938
This was a mixed bag of a ride. Since numbered lists are the rage these days (hi Ben) here goes:
1. I actually warmed up for 20 minutes today. I spun for about 5, then climbed a hill at medium-high effort for a few. Then spun out some more and dropped down the hill into the swamp. I turned around and sprinted back up the hill for 30-60 seconds. Did about 5 minutes of tempo, then a 2 minute hard climb, then finished it off with tempo.
2. I tried Ben's "race start" workout today, sort of. I put the bike in a medium high gear and clipped out. I sprinted for a minute then did tempo/threshold for another 4-5 minutes.
3. The first run was tough, and it made a few things clear. First I was reminded of Maurice's comment that most people train too easy. The second was that this effort was much more like a race pace and no, I had not been training this hard all summer. These are hard efforts.
4. At the end of the run I rested a bit and practiced my CX mounting and dismounting. Yes I realize how much of a reject I probably look like running and jumping on the bike at an intersection in the middle of the swamp in the pitch black. But this is my game and I'll play however I want. Dismounting is simple and it should be relatively easy to do this at speed in no time. Mounting seems to have a bit of a steeper learning curve. At the very least I didn't squash my wedding tackle on any of my attempts.
5. The second start was much "easier" than the first, leading me to believe that I was still warming up on that first run. By "easier" I mean the first 15 seconds were not like pedaling through sand, and mud, and muddy sand. After 15 seconds and for the rest of the run it was just as hard. I just had more "snap" on the second start.
6. Riding in the dark makes it hard to see every rock and pothole in the road, especially when noodling around between reps.
7. The final set was hard again, probably underscoring the fact I wasn't resting 20 minutes between efforts. But we work on limited time so I don't have all day to ride my bike.
8. I just kept going on the third set and ran out the "race". I kept the effort fairly high, probably on the border of threshold and tempo. I felt good doing this so I kept doing it. If we're not having some modicum of fun, it probably won't last. I kept a pace on the flats and tried to keep some speed on the hills and did a fairly good job with that, I think.
9. People have a mental block on the Base-10 number system so often times we will stretch to make any numbered list that is at least 7 items extend to 10. This isn't a knock on Ben's list mind you, I just find myself searching for a 10th point to make here.
10. On a workout like this your average speed is not really going to say much. But I will say that for me, on a ride that was 1:00+ in duration and includes 20 minutes of warmup and maybe another 5 minutes of dicking around in between, coming up just short of 17 (before my cooldown) is pretty good.