I needed an interval-free day so for this one I just rode my bike. I don't do much of that - most of my ride time is very structured. But if I don't work in one of these every couple of weeks or so - even for an hour and a half - I go a little nuts(er).
Hot day - 91 degrees at ride start.
I don't know what everything means yet, but it's positively rich. The iBike iAero III displays Normalized Power, iF and TSS right on the meter, but I'm not seeing them here. It also does tons of other stuff I haven't figured out yet.
This ride is just the iAero. Eventually I'll pair it with a Quarq. At least that's the plan. If it turns out that this works well enough by itself, I may let it work all by itself.
(I'm trying to find a way to make the image files bigger when you click on them so you can read this stuff.)
Ever have one of those rides where instead of asking your legs to give you more, they're the ones asking for more, eager to faster at each turn? That was today's ride. I felt like I've had the best form I've had in a couple of years. I was off the bike for 3 or 4 days straight this week and the rest seems to have done me good. Not that I've had particularly strenuous workouts to rest from, but based on how I've changed my training this year to emphasize rest, I'm a big believer in its magical healing properties.
Sadly, I'm not racing this weekend so this flash of form is squandered.
I think my biggest problem last season wasn't lack of fitness, it was excess of fatigue. I went into most races just too run down. Not because I was overtraining, but because I was under-resting. With a (poorly sleeping) baby in the house and 2 other kids, I need to make a concentrated effort to stay off my feet before a race, or at least minimize trips up and down stairs. To my brethren with new babies, take heed - and rest, rest, rest. This year I'm paying more attention to how my body feels, and making sure I have more rest going into races. I know I'm not going to have the same fitness, but if I can reduce my fatigue I should at least have comparable form. These "openers" aren't really the same as they were last year, which were pretty structured shorter intervals to get all the systems firing. Now they're just rolling around to make sure the legs are a little loose, and to get a sense of how a couple hard efforts feel. They're easy rides, even by my wussy standards.
Today was supposed to be "Race Winners." Actually, Saturday was but I didn't get out then, or Sunday. So I had them queued up for Monday. Race Winners are a sort of anaerobic interval where I push my HR up high before I start the anaerobic effort. The pushing-the-HR-up part I was ok with, but when I started to ramp it up after that I had a system failure. Nothing was firing right and I felt like ass. So I shut it down and decided to just roll around for another hour or so. Just as well - I'm pretty sick of intervals and haven't just ridden my bike around in months. I think I'll build on my lack of momentum right now and turn this into a rest week. That makes this aborted workout look like it is by design.
