Feb 7, 05:47 PM by Steve | Training 2/1-2/7

Posted in Cycling & Training

The theme of this week is threshold, threshold, and more threshold. Two good threshold workouts during the week, and several threshold and over-threshold efforts over the weekend. Sunday I got my leash let out a bit and had a chance to play at Worlds again. But a week of hard training took it’s toll and I blew up on Goob, the first time I’ve been dropped on it in a long time.

This was my most intense week that I can remember. My ATL is 142 right now on a CTL of 130. My TSS this week was second only (barely) in the last several months to a week where I had two additional hours.

Total: 14.75 hrs, 264 miles, 914 TSS, 9,223kJ

Mon: 1 hr easy spin
Goleta/University Loop

Tue: 2 hrs easy
Refugio and back

Wed: 2.5 hrs w/4×8 threshold intervals [see power graph]
Went out to OSM for threshold climbing repeats, after warming up on Cathedral Oaks and Glen Annie. Ended up 10W over target on first interval, but felt good so I tried to the same effort for each subsequent time, and ended up increasing 5W each time. Each effort felt the same as the last and I did not feel wasted at the end… I made it halfway in the 8 minutes and felt like I could have kept that pace the rest of the way up.

Thu: 2.5 hrs w/3×12 threshold intervals [see power graph]
I pretty much flailed my workout today. After yesterday I shot high again, but ended up losing power each time. I felt like crap on the second so I cut them short and did 10 minutes instead of 12. I figured it was better to recover a bit and go again than continue to slog it out. For the last one I felt like death, I could barely keep power up… It would dip and I had to muster all I could to crank back up before it dropped again. The 10 minutes couldn’t come fast enough.

Fri: Day Off

Sat: 2.5 hrs w/2×10 40s on/20s off [see power graph]
I Was supposed to do the Painted Cave TT today, but the forecast was pouring rain so I made other plans instead. It ended up not raining when I woke up and radar showed clear for a few hours so I got out on the road after all. I did the first set of 40/20 on the 101 out to Refugio. Friggen ouch, I wanted to hurl. It took me about 20 minutes to not feel sick to my stomach and do the second set. I felt better and was able to sustain higher more power the second time.

I was cooling down on Glen Annie and saw the Echelon group coming up so I doubled back after I finished and rode with them for a bit. Of course it started raining as we went through UCSB. Todd and I hit it hard on the bike path as it rained harder and harder and by the time I got home I was completely soaked.

Sun: 4 hrs Sunday “Worlds”
It was good to have a chance to just have fun today, try to get some speed work in but otherwise just sit in and take it easy. I did my warmup over the Riviera at a tempo pace, then sat in the group not working too hard until the high school. I got antsy and kept finding myself around a really sketchy guy so I made my way up to the front. Smitty and Kim told me that we had someone off the front (turned out to be Adrian) so I did not push the pace at all when I got to the front, and mostly sat on Lynn Bessette’s wheel. Unfortunately a week of hard training took it’s toll and I blew up when we hit the wall. I cruised up and tempo’d out to the regroup. After the Polo Fields I rode Toro and Ladera to Mountain Drive with several others, and then through Hope Ranch with Bill and Randy.

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