Long day...

I set a new longest training day ever record on Saturday - 7 hours. First up was a 6.5 hour ride. Stacey and I headed out toward Brighton and Milford (via Stacey's Vibe) in hopes of finding a decent route on the outskirts of the collection of parking lots that comprises the metro-Detroit area. We were only moderately successful, as the route was rideable in that almost every road on our route included a shoulder, but the speed limit was still 45 mph and most of the route was moderately busy with traffic. Still, the weather was perfect (75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, almost windless), and we spent a lot of the ride in two nearly conjoined parks where we felt safe. Also, the route included a few decent hills - I got to use my 39 x 25 more than I have in any ride I've ever done (though the powermeter was partly responsible for that, as I'm finally holding a somewhat constant power while climbing).

Lots of turns on the route:

Pretty close to the beginning of the ride, I realized that 200-210 W results in a 130 bpm HR for me. I tried to keep my wattage around that level when on the flats, but erred on the low side. Climbing, as I mentioned above, can really spike the power. I must have spent a lot of time in IMLP at 300-350 W, as I blew by everyone while climbing (to use Gordo's analogy, I wonder how many candles I unnecessarily burned). Now that I see my output thanks to the Powertap, I realize how easy one must take it while going uphill to keep the power level. There were many climbs where even 39 x 25 at 70 RPM produced 230 or so W. At least hills provide a good return on power spent.

I was also amazed at what gear I can push with ~180 W. My position must be pretty good because even with that measly output I can push a good gear on flat terrain. (I think it's my narrow and thus aerodynamic calves, which most female supermodels would be jealous of.) Of course, I still don't have a speed sensor (damn LBS!), and the speed estimated by the Powertap hub doesn't seem too accurate, so I don't have objective info of my awesome velocity.

I averaged either 181 W at 123 BPM for the whole ride (according to my CPU) or 159 W at 122 BPM according to the PowerAgent software. I wonder what's up with that discrepancy. (POST SCRIPT: I'm guess it's because my CPU does count "zeros" in the average and the software does.) Looking at my power over the course of the ride, its trend appears to be a drop of about 3W/hr, and that concurs with my estimate while cross-referencing my power/HR over the course of the ride.


Despite the downward trend, I still felt strong at the end of the ride. I didn't experience signs of fatigue like having to dig deep to keep my legs going or feeling like I just wanted to get off the bike. Stacey was bothered by my lack of fatigue. "Just lie and tell me you're dying," she pleaded about four hours into the ride because she understands misery's love of company.

I tired on Infinit for the first time. The goal was to hit 400 calories per hour, which would have been a bottle of Infinit mix plus half a Clif Bar. However, we had trouble finding water at various times throughout the ride and my nutrition plan got all mixed up. Instead of scheduled hydration and caloris at my planned intervals, I consumed calories like a camel does water - in bouts. Two or three times during the ride we ran out of water for a while (45 minutes at one point!), then had to try to make up for it when we eventually found fluid. I also forgot to bring a scale with me, so I don't know how much water weight I lost (it probably would not have been pretty). It's tough to keep properly hydrated on new routes without knowledge of where water sources are. I may put another cage on my bike for more liquid capacity. Anyhow, the Infinit was palatable, I didn't have any stomach issues, and I was only mildly sick of it after 6.5 hours, which I'd say overall is a pretty good review.

Specially formulated sugar/protein/electrolyte mix, or $18,000 worth of cocaine?

One last note about the ride is that monitoring my cadence was too challenging. I had enough stimulii with tracking our route, holding my HR steady, trying to monitor caloric/water intake, etc. to keep close enough of an eye on cadence. Looking at my data, 80 seemed to be where I hung out most, though 90 is plenty comfortable, too.

We followed up the ride with a 30 minute transition run, during which some old creepy guy told Stacey "Girls like you are why I come to the park" during her run. Scumbag. My legs were pretty tired, and I just plodded along at 130 bpm or so. No land speed records were set.

Afterward, I drank as much as possible given my suspected dehydration.

***

Today Stacey and I set out for Stoney Creek park for the second time in three days for a hike/run. My legs were feeling the 7 hours of training from yesterday, but the workout wasn't too tough given the slow pace I jogged at. My feet were noticably tired at the end of the workout, so I guess goal achieved. Now, off to the pool for a 45 minute flop (then maybe some TCBY...)