Suffering

All for the good, of course!

Friday, my teammate Sam and I headed down to Middletown, CT to Charles Coaching and Nutrition Services for a Lactate Threshold test, and to meet my coach, Aidan Charles. An LT test has you spin on your bike between 18 and 20 mph, while increasing the watts (power output required to pedal) by 40 every 3 minutes. While we did this, Aidan was taking blood samples from our earlobes (Sam likened this to van Gogh, but at least we kept our ears in the process!) to measure LT. The test started out easily enough, but by the time I was pushing 300 Watts and my HR was at 177, it wasn't quite as easy anymore...


Sam, before she was suffering ;-); Ow - that hurts! Aidan tests Sam

So, what did this tell me (or why in the heck did I pay someone for this)? I now know where my training HR zones are so that I can train more effectively and efficiently to meet my goals for this season. I also learned that my zones are higher than what I thought, which means my workouts will need to step up a notch!

Here are the results - I have a long way to go to be world class ;-). Better get going with that training.

Saturday was finally sunny, and a little less windy than it had been on Friday (driving to CT, the wind literally blew the van sideways on the highway!). Mike and I headed out on the tandem, and met PK and Wayne in Concord Center for a ride. The plan was for a "big" ride, but the cold and wind were conspiring against us.

Photo by PK

At one point in the ride (early on - we were still in Carlisle), Wayne commented that he wouldn't be able to maintain the effort we were putting out for 80 miles. I agreed, and I think the pace backed down - some ;-). We rode out towards Dunstable again this week, and about mile 40, after much headwind and climbing, ended up in Groton Center. Jean was going to pick Wayne up and head to NY to her parents', so we all decided bagels and coffee would be a good idea - not really. After a full stomach of bagels and cream cheese, and sitting in wet, sweaty clothes, getting back on the bikes was one of the last things I wanted to do! I actually suggested calling Nanyee for an emergency pickup ;-).

However, Mike, PK and I headed home from Groton, losing PK along the way (he decided the quickest way home was the best way home). We ended the ride with about 4200 ft of climbing, and 66.5 miles of riding. This put me at my highest mileage week so far this season, with 177.1. No wonder I'm tired today!