Matthew

Intervals, Intervals

The best part about intervals is realizing you can go much harder than you thought. About a month ago my coach sent me a new workout. The idea was to figure out how many watts I was generating at my Z4b heart rate. Z4b, for this coach, is roughly equivalent to a "hard" effort. Below it is a "moderately hard" effort, and above it is a "very hard" effort. For me the exact heart rate zone for 4b is 169-172 bpm. It's a narrow target to hit. This particular interval works like this: a 20 minute warm-up, at the end of which you bring your heart rate up to Z4B for the last five minutes. This is done on a trainer so that wind, rain, cars and inclines don't affect your wattage. The average wattage that you hit in Z4b during the warm-up is your target for your intervals. The main set of the workout is the wattage you produced during warm-up in zone 4b + 20 watts for one minute, then watts in Z4b +15 watts for one minute, then Z4b + 10 watts for one minute, then Z4b + 5 watts for one minute, then Z4b watts for one minute, then 2 minutes easy. Now repeat this interval 5 times. It's a smoke-session, as we used to say in the military. These days, that translates to me getting off the bike feeling like I just blew my legs apart, breathing hard, and feeling awesome. These things make you faster, quick. Intervals rule.

Mother’s Day Brick

Being home in Colorado is great, it really is. This Mother's Day was the first I got to spend with my Mother and Mother in law in as long as I can remember. Of course, Sunday is also my long ride day. Being the good son and son in law that I am, I planned on getting up at 5am, driving up to my buddies house on top of Lookout Mountain, and riding from 7 to 10 with a short run afterward with just enough time to make it to brunch with my mother-in-law, followed by dinner with my mother about an hour's drive north at 5.

Sunday morning I woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast, my warm clothes (it was 45 degrees in Denver) and headed up the Mountain. As I got closer to the top, I realized a problem was developing: fog. Fog in San Francisco may be an everyday thing, but not so much here in Colorado. My friends house was so fogged in that we couldn't ride. We could have seen the road and been allright, but there was no way I trusted cars to see us; I myself had almost run a stop sign on the way up because the visibility was so bad I didn't see it until I was almost in the intersection. So we waited for the fog to break. It didn't. I trucked back down to Denver where I had a very nice French brunch with my mother-in-law, then grabbed my trainer and went back up to Lookout to ride trainers. In retrospect, I should have ridden my trainer at my house and save 30 min of transit time, but I got two hours in followed by a thirty minute run. The first hour and a half was at 200 watts, then 15 minutes at 260 watts at 55-65 RPM, then 240 watts at 95 RPM for 15 minutes. Then a run keeping my heart rate in Z2. It's been a while since I've done a brick, and I've forgotten the oh-so-interesting feelings that one's legs generate coming off the bike. They don't feel like jello, that's too strong. Mine felt like pudding…. More oozing and useless than jello… but they snapped out of it after about ten minutes. I was also almost on time for my next mother's day engagement. Thankfully, mom understands!