Test, rest, recover

Monday
Today was an easy recovery ride, just an hour and a half of light spinning. I got in most of the light stuff then hooked up with the normal Monday group. They passed me going in the opposite direction so I turned to give chase. They were cooking pretty well when I passed them. I poured all I had into the pedals for several miles. I had them in sight, but could not make the bridge. I backed off and went at my own pace. I knew they stopped about mid way on the ride. I might catch them there. NOT. They had already pulled out when I got to the midpoint of their ride. The slower riders were still there so I decided to continue my “recovery” ride and put in a few more miles with them. I sat in until my turn at the front rolled around. I got up to about 22 mph and held it there for several miles. I got lots of comments when I pulled off. (“great pace, nice pull, you’re killing me”, etc.) I did one more pull before I peeled off for home. I didn’t go too hard, so I still felt fresh and like I had a good recovery ride after all.

Sunday
I did NOTHING Sunday. I did yard work after running errands Saturday, after the LT test. I was dead by the time I finished Saturday night and didn’t feel like doing a thing Sunday, so I didn’t. It’s that simple.

Saturday
Today was the LT test. I’d spent the week recovering, not doing any hard efforts and resting when possible. I headed out around 10 am Saturday morning and was feeling pretty good. I was ready to get this behind me and see what kind of gains I may have made over the past few weeks. That’s about as good as this day got. Once I finished my 30 minute warm up, I didn’t really feel warmed up. I did an additional 10 minutes before starting the 15 minute all out set. I was at the base of the same climb where I’d done this test initially. There was no rain this time, but it was very hot. I was already pouring sweat. I started the climb and pushed hard on the pedals from the start. I was maintaining a high wattage output for about 10 of the 15 minutes. I felt myself starting to fade and was struggling to keep the power high. It seemed like the harder I tried, the more the watts dropped. At 13 minutes I was toast. I stopped the lap on my power meter and turned to descend the hill. It was not a great descent. I could not put out any more effort. I was completely empty. I’d left everything on that hill and hoped I’d get home in a reasonable amount of time. I stopped for a sports drink and rested a few minutes at a local store. I pedaled easy all the way home and the dreaded hill on my road just slayed me! I didn’t think I did well at all today. That was later confirmed. I didn’t do as badly as I’d initially thought, but I made no significant gains in my LT. I also got confirmation that the blood donation on Monday may have been a contributing factor in my less than desired results.

Friday
Today was just an easy day. I was out to run through all my power zones to prepare for the LT test on Saturday. I had done the work and was on the way home when an old fart in a Ford pickup pulling a rusty horse trailer decided he could not wait and pulled right out in front of me. I grabbed both brake levers and almost came to a complete stop. He never checked up. He continued in my lane of travel. He was going pretty slowly and I continued on my course. I was beside him when he decided he was going to take a right turn. I had to take the turn with him and he still nearly ran me into the curb. I was right next to his open window and yelled, “Hey buddy, watch what the hell you’re doing!” His head jerked around and revealed his dumb founded face. He continued to turn and made another right into a vacant lot. He continued across the lot, pulled back onto the road and turned left, the way I had come from. Why in the world did this man not just turn left in the first place instead of taking 2 right turns and nearly taking me out TWICE? People are idiots. I still cannot figure out what he was thinking. I just shook it off, and continued home thankful that I had not been hit.