8x4'

I think I might be onto something with this fascia thing around my hip. Last night I spent 5-10min using this little ivory tool I have that somehow is supposed to break up (or smooth out?) fascia. If I wasn't so lazy I'd take a picture of the tool and the "atomic oil" I used along with it (like a wintergreen oil that brings heat/blood to the area). After a few minutes doing that last night my hip felt as good as it's felt in 2 months, and good enough to run a few easy miles with Maia this morning. So that was a nice start to my day! I'm cautiously optimistic.

Later I headed out for my staple strength ride, 8x4min heavy gear uphill in aero bars. I did this session (almost) weekly in 2013 and got to the point where I was avg 250+w for all 8. Today my goal was to see if I could keep them 220-240. I started at 222 then built 224, 225, 240, 242, 253... That 253 required some digging and it just felt like a harder effort than I wanted to be giving. I don't always think that harder is better(!), but I have this problem where I feel the need to descend (or in this case I guess ascend) every session I do... So I had a decision to make after that 6th one. I could:

a) Keep digging and see if I could get the power up above 253 for the last 2.
b) Bail on the session and say 6 reps was enough.
c) Do the last 2 but control my effort to be mod/strong instead of max.

Lucho taught me a long time ago to not compromise volume for intensity (and vice versa), so bailing on the last 2 reps didn't feel like a good choice. And I've done the digging thing before where I have ripped my legs off to achieve power numbers in training that ultimately hurt my performance down the road b/c the effort was just too much. So given that, I opted to do the last 2 reps but backed off the effort a bit. I finished with 225, 228 and felt good about that.

I work with a few athletes who are always pushing power numbers up a bit higher than prescribed... Like if I write 180-200w, they read the session as "minimum 200w" and end up pushing 205. I have a special place in my heart for these athletes because my brain tends to work the same way. On the surface this seems like a good thing, but you can get yourself in trouble with power when you're always going for numbers as high as you can make them. I think given the demands of our sport, quite possibly it would be better to do an extra rep or two at the prescribed power vs going above the goal. In triathlon, being highly durable and resistant to fatigue is preferable to having the highest max power numbers. And finishing a session knowing that you could do it again tomorrow is good for consistency... and consequently, fitness.

My mom flew in this afternoon. She brought fresh sourdough bread from San Francisco. I'm pretty sure I could have single handedly eaten this whole loaf! I haven't had good sourdough in years.

Should be a fun week with Grammy here. She only comes to visit maybe once/year so I suspect I'll train a bit less over the next week but I'll figure out a way to fit in a bit here and there without disrupting the family time.