Week Ending March 11th in Review

Tough week for me as coach was gone, I was still battling sickness and my efforts were less than ideal. However, this is part of the process.  I remained consistent despite a few hiccups.  I’ve been doing this long enough to know that not every workout is going to be spot on.  There will be days where I just don’t have it and need to pack it in to live for another day.  The week in summary:

    · Bike cadence is coming around and starting to be part of my neuromuscular changes.  The 95-100 rpm spot seems to be right where I like to stay these days.  I’m happy to be able to generate power this way, especially as we start creeping into the higher power ranges.  I definitely notice a power loss in the aero position.  I’m hoping to work on that in the coming weeks.

    · The FTP 2X10 intervals brought me back down to reality a bit.  I could not sustain the FTP effort for the 2nd interval.  Sickness and fatigue are expected to have played a part, but I was somewhat disappointed in this effort.  As a result, we’ll be doing an FTP test this week, which I’m already dreading.  2X20 min – all out effort.  Yikes!

     · Weekend sessions started out great.  Saturday was AeT intervals on the bike.  This meant ~210W and not-to-exceed 159 beats for 3X18min with 2min recovery.  Went really well.  Power improved over the course of the 3 intervals.  Followed up with a 20 minute jog.  Felt great.  AeT on the bike is a nice place to be.

     · AeT on the run is another story.  This means anywhere between 7:15-7:30 pace with a not-to-exceed HR of 173ish.  This one hurts quite a bit more.  All was going well until the 2nd interval, when off-road, the right knee tweaked on a little incline.  Seemed to steady out and then on the third, both knees began to cry – patella tendons.  Cut the last in half and rolled E/L pace all the way home.  Iced, Ibuprofen and rest.  I am so paranoid of injury now, that I didn’t want to take any chances.  Hoping it isn’t something serious and on-going.

     · Inked for two new events:  Providence ½ marathon on May 6 and the CRW century ride on May 20.  Think this will be fun and challenging.  The ½ will be planned as a B race and expecting a race-pace performance.  The hundo will be a C race to begin understanding my sustainable power output over 100+.  

All-in-all: a good week.  A few minor setbacks but continued growth and learning.  This week will be better.