Two For Tuesday

Another double ride day in the books. Seems my bike has a semi-permanent home now at HTC. Both rides were done there this morning. First ride was Ben's idea. Main set 30x1min heavy gear which didn't sound that hard until he said goal was 120%FTP and recovery was only 45seconds after each. I made maybe 8-9 of them at 120-123% but the rest were 115-119%. The program he uses is cool b/c it beeps at you when it's time to GO(!) then beeps again when it's time to recover and it tells you your avg power for that segment as well as %FTP. It's really like playing a video game, but a really really really hard video game. This was genuinely one of the hardest efforts I've put out on the bike in a long time.

I had maybe 4 hours between sessions to 'recover'... Then back at it with a 20/20/20 progression. I went 155/175/205w avg for those. I'm skeptical that the power was correct tonight. Either it was off or I've gained a solid amount of fitness in the last few weeks b/c that was for sure the easiest 205w has felt in a long time. But check this out- no one can say I'm not capable of riding steady!

My hip felt pretty solid so I attempted a run off that 2nd ride. Physically I felt great but before I even got 1 mile in I could feel my hip tightening up... Felt like a spasm was forming in the TFL? It wasn't terrible but typically it doesn't loosen up and get better once it starts hurting like that, so when my garmin beeped 1 mile I turned around and ran back. Pretty bummed about that because it kind of feels like I'm on this really good roll with training and if my hip was solid everything would be perfect! In good news I don't think I did any new damage to it tonight by running those 2 miles. And if the pain stayed where it was (i.e. didn't escalate) I think I could run with it as it is. I'm not confident though that I could run on it without it getting (much) worse so I will need to get it sorted ASAP.

In other news unrelated to triathlon, we found another kitten. How cute is he?? We named him Luke. He's been at our house for a few hours and seems to be settling in. Exploring everything and starting to play. The other animals seem to be taking the new addition ok. Interestingly, its Shakira who seems the most upset, which is surprising. I assumed she would be the one happiest to have a new friend? Clearly, Moana is the happiest.