Trying to beat the weather

May 29, 2009

I was off work today. I checked the weather forecast and radar this morning and saw that the rain forecast had changed, yet again. I had a 2 ½ hour window to get in a ride if I got ready and left right then. I killed ½ an hour getting ready and got on the road around 10:45 am. Today the workout ramped up the intensity a bit. I had to get in a good warm up and do 2 x 12 minute sets at LT (lactate threshold) followed by a long steady cool down. It was already 71 degrees, but breezy and cloudy. It actually felt pretty nice. I had some good tunes and podcasts on the iPod to pass the time. About 30 minutes into the warm up I started feeling those familiar signs of hunger creeping in. I had a shot of Hammer gel and some drink mix. This seemed to do the trick. I felt much better by the time I was to start the real work. I had timed the warm up to place me at the foot of a climb when the first interval was due to begin. This is the climb I got soaked on earlier in the week. Off I went. I felt really good, very strong. I actually had to back off several times to stay within the LT zone. The 12 minutes went by relatively fast. I did a 10 minute cool down and got ready for the next interval. This one was going to take place on a pretty flat route. It turned out to be much harder to maintain my watts on this session. I don’t know if it was due to maintaining a higher speed or if I was just a bit fatigued from the first effort. This seemed to be a LONG 12 minutes. I was glad to see it end. I averaged only 2 watts over my LT. I was about 14 watts over that for the first interval. Seems like I would have had lower numbers going up a hill that on the flats. This is a question for the coach. The 45 minute cool down was nice except for the head wind, which caused me to do more work than I wanted or needed, and the rain that started 10 minutes before I got home. Luckily it was a light shower and I didn’t get soaked. It has been almost 7 hours since I finished and I am a little sore already. I will have to break out the massage stick and maybe sit in a bath of Epsom salt tonight. I have rides scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. There is no time for sore muscles. Saturday looks nice and sunny. Sunday I will have to get in an early session to beat the rain.
More later…