Since today was supposed to be a busy day, I took the day off work, and got to do my ride in the afternoon. Right now it seems that this once-weekly ride, along with the commuting, is just enough to maintain my strength levels. I'm not making any huge gains right now, but since this isn't the focus, I can't be too upset. Sure, I'd like to be getting stronger all the time, even if all I was doing was eating M&M's (what a wonderful world that would be), but that's not realistic. Today's session was almost an exact replica of six weeks ago, to within 1.5 watts over the 90 minutes. I probably could have pushed a bit harder at the end, and narrowly beat last time, but the fact is, I'm where I was. We'll see if there are any big improvements once the speedwork is by the wayside.
Bike: 90 minutes, warm-up, one-leg drills, then 2x15 min @ 315w, 1x15 min @ 305w, 10 min rest between, cooldown
Run: 2 miles @ 6.5 mph
With work demands at the moment, I'm only getting in about 1 hour/day of riding on weekdays and a little more on weekends. A big drop from what I was doing in the summer.
ReplyDeleteNot only am I not gaining strength, I'm pretty sure I'm losing it... but, like you said, I'd be losing even more sittin' on the couch eating M&Ms. Once January hits it's back to a proper, periodized, training plan. Until February hits... and then my training will be at the whim of my daughter.
I do love hard tempo rides though. I think that's probably my favourite type of ride. Not quite as gruelling as long FTP intervals, but you still feel like you're doing some serious work. I've been riding some of the mountain bike terrains on the iMagic, just to mix things up a bit and it's quite enjoyable... effectively becomes an anaerobic interval session.
I would guess that any drop in cycling power is either psychological (you either just think it's happened and it hasn't, or it's real but due to motivation and not muscular degeneration) or you haven't figured out how to distribute intensity in the program (too much or too little). And even then, it's not a bad thing. Regressing a little for a month or two in winter will be fine, since you'll get it back and then some before the season starts.
ReplyDeleteI do love these types of rides too. It's a challenge when the intensity is such that at minute 3 you think, "This is easy", but by minute 12 you think there's a tear in the space-time continuum, since the clock slowed down.
I promise I'll get those RLVs to you soon. They're good motivation for the winter. If you can't make it on the 24th, I'll stick them in the mail.