Zombie

Why is it that I'm so tired?

I regularly go to bed before 11PM and though my alarm is set for 7, I simply cannot claw my way out of bed until 8AM every morning.

Though I'll note: I feel remarkably well rested once I arise and caffeinate.

Training Stuff

Took Monday and Tuesday pretty much off completely as indicated. Commuted to and fro work and ordered a foam roller that I hope will help me fix my long standing stiff-and-in-constant-need-of-a-good-pop upper back. That was the long and short of it.

Wednesday 5/21/08

Skipped the weights in favor of said sleep. I did manage to get that all out TT in on the trainer though.

I made the same mistake I make every time...

I set up for an 8 mile TT in 4 two mile splits with a goal to record a total time, average HR, max HR, and average Power.

My previous 8 mile TT was an Aerobic TT done about 2 months ago. Aerobic meaning I didn't go all out for it. So this one, provided I'm doing at least one or two things right in training, should have been markedly faster and markedly more difficult.

It was both.

Previous stats Aerobic TT:

Distance: 8 miles
Time: 24:55
Average HR: 165
Max HR: ~168
Average Power: 250 Watts

Last Night's stats:

Distance: 8 miles
Time: 23:14
Average HR: 174
Max HR: 184
Average Power: 283 Watts

I had planned to start off slow and ramp up the effort depending on how I felt shooting for a goal time of 24 minutes. So for my first split, I shot for 6 minutes even. I did it in 5:50 and it felt pretty easy with my HR getting up to about 165 and average power ~270W.

So I dialed it up a little for the 2nd split, hit a harder gear, and started doing ~300W. I held it about there through the end of the 3rd split.

By this point (I had about 5:00 left to go until 8 miles), my heart rate was indicative of anaerobic work (184) and my power output was getting kind of erratic. I tried to relax and breathe and it brought the HR down a little but it stayed in the red zone for 5-8 minutes. With about 2 minutes to go, I lost it, downshifted, upshifted, etc.

So again, I shit the bed on the last split and couldn't really hold the pace I'd initially set for the last bit of the test.

The average power came out exactly the same as my last 20' threshold effort (283) despite a Heart rate that was a good deal higher (5-8' > 180).

One of these day's I'm going to learn how to do this right...

Still, I set up a baseline time and power for an "about as hard as I can go on a trainer for 25 minutes in a TT" which I hadn't done yet this year. Time to beat is now 23:14. I'll test again in 4 weeks and see if I can get a little more steady on the splits. I think I should be able to do it without going so much over LT (the 5-8 minutes of HR > 180) next time if I pace myself a little better.

It's not quite there yet, but 300 for half an hour (or definitely for a 20k TT) certainly seems possible by the end of the season--especially in a race situation. I'm at roughly 90% of the goal right now. Will keep working on it.

Considering how bad 275W felt when Eric tested me in January, things have come a long way. I remember flat out lying to him with a "Yes" when he asked me if I thought it was possible (once I was in race shape) to hold 275W for an hour. I'm getting closer to having that be the truth.