E2 (Endurance Ride)

For some reason I pulled the short straw and got to get up early to train. I wasn't that bad, however, because today's ride is a relatively short 1 hour endurance ride. To stay consistent with the last couple of weeks I chose to push the pace towards the upper end of the E2 range.

The legs felt dead and stiff this morning. I don't know if it was because it was morning or something else. Either way after 3 or 4 minutes they started to feel better as I gradually ramped up the speed. At the 10 minute mark I was at cruising speed. At the 30 min mark I dropped into my 42/12 gear and held a pace in the low 19s for the next 10 minutes before changing back into 42/13.

Legs felt good and strong and it was only during the 10 min section that I could feel any burning in the quads.

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 1:00:00
Gearing 42/13
Total Distance: ##.# miles
Average Speed: 18.1 mph
Average Power: ### watts
Average Heart Rate: 1##

S1, S2 (Spin Ups and Single Leg Drills)

I chose to give my legs an extra half day to recover from the 5 hour block of training over the weekend and I think it was a good choice. Although I never like getting up any earlier than necessary for a ride, the extra rest was needed.

I changed the order of the ride so that the single leg drills were before the spin-ups. I think doing the SLDs when the legs are fresh makes more sense. Also, finishing with the spin ups will train the legs to spin when they are fatigued in addition to better training the muscles to fire at the correct time. During the SLDs the legs felt good and on Andreas advice I added an additional 1 minute spin between each right/left set. I did the single leg drills for 20 minutes and then started the spin ups. I did 6 spin ups and finished the ride with a 10 minute E2 before spinning for a couple of minutes.

E2 (Endurance Ride)

I was not feeling 100% today, but I managed to complete the designated 3 hour endurance ride. I am not sure if I have a cold comming on or what, but my head was a little plugged up and I felt a little worn down despite getting plenty of sleep.

On the bike, the legs felt a little sluggish at first, therefor, I kept the speed a little lower during the warm up to "feel" things out. After the 10 min warm-up I settled into a decent pace in the low 17s. I knew the ride was going to seem like a long time and at the 1 hour mark I was ready to be done. It was not that the legs felt bad, but rather I was just bored. I put in Star Wars and watched it with Wyatt for the first two hours of the ride, but it didn't help too much. I thought about quitting at the two hour mark and forced myself to 2.5 hours. At that time Andrea provided additional encouragement buy stating that we might not be able to get in our long rides next weekend because of Wyatts birthday. I did manage to complete the entire 3 hour ride, but I will not say that it wasn't difficult.

After the ride I grabbed some lunch and soaked the legs in the tub for a while.

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 3:0:20
Gearing 42/14
Total Distance: 53.5 miles
Average Speed: 17.8 mph
Average Power: 204 watts
Average Heart Rate: 149

E2 (Endurance Ride)

Felt good, the legs felt fully recovered and the ride went fairly quick.

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 2:0:00
Gearing 42/14
Total Distance: 35.0 miles
Average Speed: 17.5 mph
Average Power: 197 watts
Average Heart Rate: 154

S1, S2 (Spin Ups and Single Leg Drills)

The ride tonight felt pretty good and the legs felt great. Yesterday I could still feel burning in the legs when I walked up stairs, but they felt fresh and strong on the bike. Not that that is saying to much when the objective of the training ride is to spin at a low resistance. Either way the legs are feeling as good as they ever have.

I kept the speed relatively slow for the first 10 minutes then got into the spin-ups. I completed 8 spin-ups each one beginning 5 minutes from the start of the previous one. I was able to hold 19.5 - 20 mph for most of the sessions and only notices a slight amount of bouncing. My objective is to keep the lower body as still as possible while maintaining as high of speed as I can for a duration of 45 seconds (after a 30 second ramp up to max speed). After the spin-ups I rounded the workout out with single leg drills for 15 minutes before doing a good cool down at E2 for 10 minutes and spinning for another 5.

I have a day and a half rest before the weekend two day block with 5 hours of riding.

E1 (Recovery Ride)

After a fairly hard but short ride last night, the early morning spin/recovery ride made the legs feel much better. The legs were stiff starting out and I gradually worked up the speed to around 15 mph after 1o minutes or so. The ride was scheduled for 30 minutes with the only intent to spin the "crap" out from the night before. By the end of the ride the legs were feeling much better. Going up the stairs, however, there was still a slight burn. I will see how they feel the remainder of today and going into tomorrow. I am still up in the air as to what is more beneficial; getting up and spinning for 30 minutes or getting the extra half hour of sleep. I think if I get a good nights sleep I will get up and ride and if I'm tires I will sleep in.

E2 (Endurance Ride)

Tonights ride is on the short side for duration, so I picked up the pace a little bit so the legs don't forget what it is like to be pushed a little. I figured that a pace a little over 19 mph would be sufficient to put the heart rate up near the top of the E2 range (161 bpm). Since the ride is short I shortened the warm-up to under 10 minutes. The legs felt fairly sore throught the day and the beginning of the ride was the same. After the 20 minute mark the legs woke up and holding 19.5 mph was fairly easy and the legs were just under the point where they would "load" up. Towards the end of the ride the speed slowed slightly, but mostly because I was getting a little lazy an not because the legs were tired. I finished up strong and spun for about 2 minutes to cool down.

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 1:02:06
Gearing 42/12
Total Distance: 19.5miles
Average Speed: 18.8 mph
Average Power: 229watts
Average Heart Rate: 156 bpm

E2 (Endurance Ride)

The first long ride of the season. To combat the boredom, I set up the laptop with a few DVDs and my MP3 player. Unfortunately my PC was giving me fits and didn't want to read the DVD I was trying to play. Therefore, I turned on the MP3s and watched a slide show of pictures taken during last race season. I was expecting the legs to be a little heavy from the 2 hour ride on Saturday, but they felt really good. I was trying to maintain just under 18 mph for the ride. The pace was comfortable and at no time did I feel out of breath or that the legs were stating to burn. At the 1 hour mark I started doing 2 minute standing intervals in my biggest/smallest (42/11) ring combination. I did this every 20 minutes to stretch the legs and get the blood flowing to all the muscles. The legs were fairly tired by the end of the workout, but not wasted. This week starts week 2 of Base 1 with slightly longer rides throughout.

Happy Training!

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 3:01:17
Gearing 42/14
Total Distance: 53.3miles
Average Speed: 17.7 mph
Average Power: 202watts
Average Heart Rate: 148 bpm

E2 (Endurance Ride)

Today's ride was in the basement of the in laws as we have a fantasy football party and my nieces birthday part this weekend.

The legs felt good and I purposely kept the speed on the low side because I have a 3 hour ride scheduled for Sunday. The legs felt a little sluggish for the first 10 minutes or so after the warm up but felt fine after that. The last half hour I could feel the fatigue setting in slightly and as usually the last 10 minutes just dragged by.

Ride Summary
Ride Duration: 2:00:32
Total Distance: 35.6miles
Average Speed: 17.7 mph
Average Power: 202 watts
Average Heart Rate: 152 bpm

S1, S2 (Spin Ups and Single Leg Drills)

Second set this week and for this training year for doing spin ups and single leg drills. Tonight I used a little lower gearing (32/20) than earlier in the week. The spin ups went well with the speeds between 18 and 19 mph. I think my cadence was 140+

S1,S2 (Spin Ups and Single Leg Drills)

For this year I have changed the spin ups from last year. The focus is on technique and speed and I should feel refreshed after these workouts. Last year I used too high of resistance and the workouts more resembled anaerobic intervals as opposed to simply working on speed. I picked an easy gear (32/17) and was able to spin up to 21+ mph for each of the 6 sessions. I tried to focus on keeping the lower body still and I would slow down if I noticed my butt bouncing on the saddle. My goal is to steadily increase my speed through the Base phase while maintaining perfect form.

The single leg drills are also slightly different from last year. Again the focus is more on form and less on building strength and endurance. The resistance is lower, (same gearing as the spin ups) and I am trying to carry the duration on each leg a little longer. As soon as the peddling gets a little choppy and I can't correct it I will stop.