The week started bad. That is I wanted to do TR Beacon; 6 320 watt intervals of 8 minute length each. I simply failed after 3. Simple as that. So I just quit. My body was just very tired and when you just can't push the watts it's better to quit. I think the hay fever also has to do with it.
On Wednesday went for a 2.50h ride. My goal was to ride 280 watts all the time and that did go OK for the first 1.45h but after that I had to let that go, simply becaue some cramps were coming up and the legs felt tired (again). I drank too little and I get cramps very easily. With another longer ride for Sunday on the program I decided to install a second bottle cage. 240 AP, 263NP.
Friday was the day for VO2max, but unfortunately my daughter had to go to the hospital so no VO2max. So on Saturday I just went for an hour to warm up the legs for Sunday.
So, today did a 3.20h ride. I was inspired by a recent article of Hunter Allen in which he describes his Kitchen Sink ride. I kind off copied some of those intervals and tried them on this longer ride. First warmup 15 minutes (248 watt, 78% FTP (OK that's a bit too high for a warmup.) After that 1 hour at AP 257, NP 263 (80% FTP). Then 30 minutes at 280 watt (88% Sweet spot). 30 minutes at Endurance, 240 AP. Then I did 22 minutes at 312 AP (That should have been 4 x 12 minutes @ at least 105% FTP, but hey this was the first time...;) Rest of the ride was basically at 240 watts. Total ride ended up 260 AP and 270 NP, which was a nice ride. It was a nice ride with lot of Tempo and Threshold Elements in it. Not a waste of time! Hopefully end of May I can do 4 hours at 280 watts (and have my weight 1 more kilo down to 67).
Doing some harder intervals later on in the ride is definitely going to make me stronger I believe. So, I will definitely do more of these rides, and also incorporate harder riding towards the end of my rides. Also I started 'practising'with timely eating and drinking during the ride. This really has effect, because as I said I get cramps easily, but when I drink enough there is no problem. On this ride I ate a chocolate muesli bar, a Maxim gel, some magnesium (also against the cramps), and some kind of candy stick (from the brand World Cup), a Red Bull (that was however not a good idea, too much gas in it), and also drank 2 bottles with Isostar. A bit too much? Not for me.
What's up for next week? On Tuesday a good VO2max session (I hope). On Wednesday a 3 hour ride with some elements in it like described above. On Thursday a ride on the Kurt and on Saturday a race (one Cat higher that normally). We'll see where the race ends, because lately I have not done too many VO2max sessions / anaerobic sessions anymore and those are quite handy for crit races.......Last but not least it's my son's 2nd birthday on Sunday so that will be the week highlight.
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