First up was Baxter. 90 minutes of constant spinning even at relatively low intensity really does start to get to you.
Next up was the first two sets of Lion Rock. I started the third but my ability to keep the pedals spinning was questionable at best at that stage and I didn’t want to spend 13 minutes at 80rpm grinding it out unnecessarily.
There should be no “buts” for back pedaling during the recovery. Nice job!
Nice work. When does your XC season start?
I’ve been going back and forth between doing short power vs general… (still am, even though i’m on week 1 of general lol).
Spanish Needle -3 as part of General Build. First time I’ve ever done Microbursts. Quite enjoyed it! Tough but comfortably doable. The biggest challenge was trying to ramp up to target power with the slight lag in erg mode, requiring a decent jump in cadence, and then having to coast for a couple of seconds in each valley to allow the inertia to drop far enough so that I didn’t end up with an ever increasing cadence! Required plenty of focus to juggle the details alongside the burn.
First race on dirt will be June 2nd. A quick scan shows that the first 3 weeks of short power are the only ones different than the general build, doing the burst style over unders instead of the gradual ones like carpathian peak, fang mountain and avalanche spire. It really depends on where you live and if you’ll have longer climbs or shorter punchy climbs. The xco plans have those in there too, but also with an added degree of difficulty of doing them after a 30 second sprint at 165 to 180%.
Yeah ik, I just keep flip flopping between the two. I did general last year, and short the year before. Majority of the climbs I see are 4m with a couple courses in the series having a 8m-ish climb… but I’m in the northeast US with lots of rocks and roots so it’s always punchy lol.
Spanish Needle up for today!
Week one of my custom Xterra specific build is almost in the books. Did a steady state ride today, trying to keep the IF of my weekend rides rather low and going for steady power/pace and time. I really feel that when I’m doing well on my endurance workouts, those harder ones really get better, and the solid endurance work improves recovery between hard sets/within sets. Plan is short power LV, adding in a low z2 ride on wednesdays, and swapping out the weekend interval session for a steady state focused ride.
Reduced intensity of Gibraltar -2 by 5% to try and put my HR right around 125, got it almost perfectly.
I usually take a quick stretch break every 15 minutes. Might need to add in a 5 minute break on the hour as I’ll start stretching these to 2 hours before the weather picks up here and i can work up to 3 hour outdoor rides.
Mary Austin
What an absolute beast she is! Those 1 min recovery valleys are evil.
Not the tidiest steps ever but very pleasing to get through it at the end of SS base II.
Will enjoy some well earned beers tonight and immensely looking forward to recovery week
Tallac +4 (6x15 @ ~90%), the highest TSS SSB HV workout. NP was 242w for 2 hours, not bad at all! Last tough ride for SSB2 HV coming tomorrow
Tray Mountain, easy just a bit of mental focus required during the last interval. it was my last bike workout of HIM Base, and I’m eager to enter recovery week
Red lake +8. Ouch. Felt tired at the start but pushed through with no breaks or backpedals. The last minute of the last interval cadence dropped down to close to 80 down from 95-100. Felt accomplished at the end
Completed Warlow early door this morning.
Tough for sure, but enjoyed first Under, Over TR workout.
Also a first of actually taking on a recovery drink after, really felt it would be needed after a tough workout & Geiger tomorrow.
Nice - jamais allé. Sherbrooke, right?
Black.
I liked this one way more than the Beech, Pettit, Bald Knob borefests.
Squeezed an aerobic hour in. 2.5 hours in two days home with new baby. Hoping for Truuli -2 tomorrow and Ramp Test Monday starting LV Sustained Power Build.
The trainer will sit by itself this weekend, we got tons of snow this week, so it’s ski time!
Easy week ending SSB1 LV waiting for me Monday.
Oui, Parc du Mont Bellvue
