What a Difference 20 Degrees Makes!

....and I suppose a lot of biking lately.

Today I did a brick workout, and I have to say it just felt totally awesome. Of course, it included my usual interval ride:

WU: 15' Easy, include 3-4 x 30" spinups. MS: 8 x 30/30's, then 3 x 8' (2') @ best effort (benchmark previous sessions), 5' Easy, then go into 85-90% for all but the last 5-10' of the ride. CD: 5' Easy

followed by a :30 brick run.

Last week I did the same bike workout, only the temperature was 100F. My NP's (Normalized Power) readings for the (3) 8' intervals were 175, 171 and 175. In addition to it being stinking hot, I think I wasn't quite recovered from a 106-mile ride 2 days' prior. At any rate, you just have to accept what you are able to put out on any given day.

Today when I did the workout, the temperature was only 80F, my most recent longest ride was 112 miles on Saturday on the IMWI course, I only rode 2:20 on Sunday, and yesterday was a relative rest day (I only swam 3,800 yards). Today's NP's for the (3) 8' intervals: 198, 205 and 197! HO-LEE-CRAP! I double-checked that my SRM calibration was good (I calibrated it before I started the ride and checked the value when I finished), and it was, so these are real numbers! I had thought I was on the upswing, FT-wise, since I'd been seeing numbers in the low- to mid-180's. I put in about 240 miles of biking last week, so it was really nice today to see a fitness pop, although today's boost should in theory be related to work I did about 2 weeks' prior. Whatever, I'll take it. I'm hopeful that after this mega-cycling phase that my FT will test out around 183-185. OK so that's only a 3-4.5% improvement, but it's significant. Not bad considering all the racing I just got done with.

My quads were screaming at me while I did the ride when I initially fired up the hard stuff. I mean they HURT. But it was a good pain, you know? Reminded me that I've been hitting it hard, and it's been a long time since my legs have actually HURT like that instead of just being fatigued. I must be doing something right :) I remember thinking dang my legs hurt, and pretty badly, but I have an objective for today and other than my legs I feel pretty damn good, so let's see what we can do today.

Since my run would be pretty flat, I really wasn't worried about how my quads would feel once I started running. Actually, I felt really, really good on the run. I just kept my stride short and quick, and was smiling the entire time. Heck, what's not to smile about when you only have to run for :30? As always, I didn't feel too fast when I started out (and I have to run up a bit of a hill right out my door), but stride felt good, I felt really light on my feet, and I was all tingly thinking about how much power I had just put out on the bike. Plus absolutely gorgeous weather. And yet, I was thinking that this wasn't a race, that I could go even faster! Of course I negative split the run, as is customary for me, and all I could think when I finished was DAMN AM I STRONG OR WHAT? I average 8:30/mile (which is a little slower than 5K pace for me).

See I put in 19.95 hours of training last week (why I couldn't manage another 3 minutes to get to an even 20 I will never know, except I will say that once I stopped biking on Sunday I was trashola for the day), I have a slightly swollen, rather itchy right inner thigh from a bee sting on Saturday (received while beginning the second ascent of Old Sauk Pass on the IMWI course), and I felt like I was struggling last week during the heat wave. But I pressed on, got the training done (even cutting out strength training and a little bit of biking to ensure I didn't totally fry myself), and look what I got for my efforts today?

Sometimes it's just about a great workout. I can't even count all the great to oustanding workouts I've completed over the years. Races are few and far between, and I've been blessed with a number of good to great ones there, too. It is all about relentless hard work and attention to detail, and a coach I believe in to ensure that I recover from my "crazy train" episodes, like the one I'm on now.

I will not be on my bike again until Saturday, when I will attempt to ride 180 miles in 13 hours (with lots of climbing). They will be timing us and there are cutoffs to continue on a certain distance. I will be on my road bike, sans SRM, sans bike computer. It's another opportunity for me to put my fitness to a test and keep myself motivated. I know what the right power feels like, and hopefully I can dial it in and keep myself rolling all day. I fully expect this ride to ring my bell--most likely it will be rung louder than an Ironman race. What fun!

I have to mention 2 of my friends here:

• Cindy ROCKS. She did 5:51 at Steelhead. She is such a sandbagger. We are going to make one helluva team at Triple T next year. I am surely motivated to keep training hard. Everything I am doing now is money in the bank towards that race.
• Pattie also ROCKS. We rode the IMWI course together on Saturday, and she looked fresh and strong all day. And then she goes home to 2 young daughters! She is going to do really well at IMWI.

Enjoy the journey!