Remember me saying before about how some days you're the windshield, and some days you're the bug?
Well, today I'm the windshield, baby.
The legs were a bit fatigued from commuting the last couple of days. It will take a week or three to get to the point where those efforts barely count towards fatigue levels, but right now, I can feel it. Still, I needed to get back on the bike and prove that Saturday was an anomaly. Once more, I was looking at 4x8 min @ FTP (~270w), with 2 minute rest intervals.
And I crushed them. Bug-splatter everywhere. The first interval was 270-280w, the other three went 280+. During the last two minutes of the last interval, I worked it up to 290-300 for one minute, then 30 seconds at 300-310, and 30 seconds at 310+. I'm not going to claim that this was easy in any way. It was a bunch of work, but at no point was I concerned that I wasn't going to finish an interval. Feels good. I'll keep a closer eye on my rear tire in the future so that I don't have anymore horrible, unexplainable days.
Next week it goes to 3x12. That'll be fun.
Bike: 65 min w/4x8 min @ 270-290w, 2 min recovery
Run: 2 miles @ 7.2 mph
Fantastapotamus! "Athletic redemption" is truly a wonderful experience.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for you: Why 4x8s? A lot of people seem to have really bought into the Coggan 2x20s (myself included) but I like the sound of 4x8 better... keeping myself focussed for 20 minutes is awfully tough.
I snuck out the bike shop at lunch today to pick up some tubes and a fresh set of tires for racing on Tuesday -- I treated myself to Conti GP4000s... I rode last season on the cheapest tires that Vittoria makes, so I'm hoping better tires will compensate for my lack of fitness! ;)
The 4x8 is all part of a slow build. With as much time away from hard efforts on the bike as I had during marathon training, I felt it was more useful to build up the strength to handle longer stretches at FTP. I started at 5x6 (30 minutes of work), then 4x8 (32), which I'll follow with a couple of weeks each at 3x12 (36), then 2x20 (40).
ReplyDeleteGood tires are key. I have a set of Pro2Races I'm saving for Muskoka. In the meantime, I'm burning through all the cheap rubber I've stockpiled over the years.