Evil Bike Workout

All right, sports fans. It's been 5 days since my last ride, and I still have a lingering cold/cough (the fever is gone). The weather is getting shitty in Chicago, but I still haven't set up my trainer in the house since I am still drying/sanitizing the carpet downstairs. I didn't want to ride outside today because of my lungs, so I headed to the Y to use the Precor bike to do this:

WU: 15' Easy, include 3-4 x 30" spinups.
MS: 6 x 30/30's, 6' @ FT, 2' Easy,
8 x 30/30, 8' @ FT, 2' Easy,
10 x 30/30, 10' @ FT, 2' Easy,
10 x 30/30.
CD: 5' Easy

If I thought last week's Tuesday/Thursday bike workout was hard, welcome to today! I don't feel too bad about using the Precor bike since it at least has a watts readout, and I have learned how to calibrate it against my "real" watts on my tri bike and also by feel.

This workout was a bitch. A mean, ugly, won't leave you alone bitch. Even though the work intervals weren't that long, I was pushing so hard on the 30/30's that I gulped when I would get to the FT section, and then cry when I only had 2' to recover. But I did it, and I actually got stronger as the session wore on. Sweat was pouring off me like crazy!

And then, of course, I got to run. But only 20' today, thank God. I was supposed to have run a lot more last week but couldn't because I got sick, so I wasn't sure if the 20' limit was because this was a drop week for running or just because the damn bike workout is so hard. I am choosing Option B, thank you very much. I was happy to only run 20'. At some point I must have been groaning out load because the trainer on duty came up to me to ask me if I was all right. I asked her why was she asking and she said she heard a sound coming out of me and thought she should check. I smiled broadly and told her that it is just that I'm doing a really hard workout, and thanks for checking on me, but unless I'm laying on the floor I am doing just fine!

The run went just fine, negative split as always, and boy am I tired. It's tough to tell if the residual tiredness is from the difficulty of the workout or whether from being still a bit sick. This time I'm going with Option A.

I feel like I executed the bike workout almost spot on today, and let me tell you that's one mother of a workout. But all I can think when I do something like this is that if I don't work hard, I don't get faster. Period. Getting faster the way I do it on the bike is not what most people would consider fun. Hell, much of the time I am not thinking, "Boy is THIS fun!" I am usually thinking "Please legs just hold out for the rest of this mother-fucking interval." But when it's over it feels great because I know I put in a good effort that will pay dividends down the road. And you've heard me say it before, riding hard like this is NEVER boring. How can you be bored when you are pushing yourself so hard? I don't care whether it's fun. I just care whether I can do it, and whether it makes me faster. Does this mean I don't appreciate riding my bike? No. I just appreciate what I can do and what will happen as a result. I sure do enjoy my warmup and recovery periods, though. Those are the best! And there is usually enough of them (in my long rides, anyway) for me to look around, smile, enjoy just being on my bike and feeling good.

I am going to sleep like a baby tonight!