Redemption!

Last week, 3 weeks post-Goofy, I was back up to "normal" training volume, and for the most part, intensity. Except for one thing. I hadn't done an FT watts test. Trying to do that last week would have been a joke, since I needed to settle back in with some amount of FT time on Tuesday, Thursday, and newly added, my Saturday long ride.

Two days ago was supposed to be the test day--the usual 2x20' @FT watts with 2' rest in between, trap normalized watts for the entire 42'. My SRM's Powercontrol was acting squirrely, but I got it going on Tuesday, and began my ride. Well, after my warmup and some time in HR zone 3, I hit it. I could tell I just didn't have anything in my legs. They weren't sore, they didn't feel tired, I just couldn't push any watts. Other than my swimming sucking due to low volume (fixed that!), I really haven't had any "bad" workouts in a long, long time. So I just accepted what was on Tuesday, did the best I could, and figured I could try again today.

This morning the Powercontrol was still acting weird, but I finally found the place in the manual that told me that what it was doing was configurable--so I guess somewhere along the way some setting got messed up. My experience is that the thing can be a little touchy, and actually I thought I might have received erroneous readings on Tuesday...isn't it funny how a little gadget can affect your mood? I don't have a problem stepping on a scale, although I suppose if I was up 5 lbs. it would cause alarms to go off. But I was really worried about what the silly Powercontrol told me!

Anyway, I fixed the darn thing and charged it up and got on the bike a few hours ago. I don't really notice what my watts are while I'm doing my warmup, but for some reason I didn't think they were very good today. Oh well, if this was just an "off" week for me, so what. I told myself that I would hit it for 5', see what watts I was holding, and if they were in the right range, I would keep going and go for the 2x20' interval; otherwise, I would slack and just do 3x10'.

At 5' things looked just fine. I'm not saying holding the watts didn't suck, but for the first interval things looked great--up 3 watts from my previous FT measured 6 weeks ago, or 3 weeks pre-Goofy, which was about when I started tapering my bike and swim. The question was, could I hold the watts for my second interval? I didn't feel bad (OK, but I didn't feel "good" either), and for a split second I was going to give myself a 3' rest instead of just 2'. But then I thought, NO, that will just prolong the agony. So with a 2' easy effort, I was off again.

The 2nd interval didn't feel that bad, not any worse than the first one. Right away, though, I told myself that if my legs bailed on me that I could just shorten it to 15', and that would still give me a good workout. So I just focused on one minute at a time (that's how it goes for me during these efforts on the trainer). 5', good, I'm holding 162 watts, but would like more. 10', good, I'm holding 163 watts, can I pick up 2 more during the last 10'?

YES!!! I almost hate to say it, but man, I'm a VERY happy camper right about now. I hit 165 (and normalized watts for the 42' are 165) watts, after about a 6-week layoff, a big training week last week (more intensity than ever so far), a killer week this week, and the watts are even UP! WOOHOO!!!

I had some good dry heaves after I cooled down, some Endurox R4, and actually I feel great. I know it's partly psychological, but after Tuesday's travesty and feeling like crap yesterday, I am back with a vengeance. I may yet see those 170 watts this spring!

Oh yeah, and I'm running faster since Goofy, too!!!

The Collective continues to improve!!!