Saturday, January 15, 2011

It's Working

Awesome. That is how I described my ride today in my Training Peaks post-workout comments. Of course I went into more details for coach, but the gist of it is that this HR training is working. It helped, of course, that we had a perfect (nearly windless!) day for riding today, but beyond that, I can tell that I am becoming faster and more efficient at a rather low HR. So riding is still easy, but it is not quite as slow. And today I was granted the gift of being able to work a bit harder... 3 x 20 min sections at ~HR+10 from where I have been doing the bulk of my riding... and it was simply awesome. What a difference 10 beats makes! I was quite surprised at how hard I had to work to get my HR to where I wanted it to be, and how fast I was able to ride at that HR. This is what coach has been telling me would happen, and all I can think is that if it is only January and I have to work that hard and can go that fast at a HR that is still very aerobic, then what's in store for April?? Oh my. This is cool.

And I think I mentioned before that coach doesn't screw around with volume... I had my first 5+ hour ride on the schedule yesterday (hey, I thought this was a run week? Interesting that long ride popped up anyway...). What was most interesting to me about that (besides the fact that I set a new world record for Slowest Ascent Ever up Pineapple Hill trying to keep my HR<150 into that headwind from hell) was that starting off this morning I felt fresh as a daisy. I mean seriously, you'd think there would be at least a bit of residual fatigue from riding nearly 100 miles yesterday, but apparently if you do it easy enough, and fuel correctly during/afterward, there's not. Good to know.

So to recap, long easy distance is not overly fatiguing. And easy does not always mean slow. It's sinking in.

7 comments:

Kiet said...

Early January and already a 5 hour ride, me thinks I'm behind.

kerrie said...

i'm feeling behind too!!!
so glad to see you getting it...low hr, when you are fit,does not mean slow!

Rebecca DeWire said...

That is exciting about your training. Glad to hear that you are enjoying it.

Regina said...

This makes me very excited for the obvious reasons. Yes!

Running and living said...

This is great. I am incorporating some of the low HR stuff in my biking and bricks. Glad is working for you! I really want you to snatch that Kona spot at Honu!!

Mark said...

HA! Yeah, I am always amazed biking how much 10 beats makes. The legs sometimes have an argument with my lungs about getting there.

N.D. said...

Love it when you find something that works!