Cycles workouts

The first update is that Chuckie is now in Boulder, so I finally met him in person on Saturday. We were planning on riding, but the wind was so strong that riding wasn't an option (unfortunately, this sort of wind has been prevalent as of late -- yesterday the wind was projected at 45 mph, and gusts up to 70 mph were reported). Still, I got in a hard swim led by Jane Scott at a masters program in Boulder, then managed a 1:45 run. I'm told I need to keep my head down in swimming to get my feet a bit higher. I've been swimming uphill.

The next day Stacey and I volunteered at the Summer Open tri in Longmont. This was my first time volunteering at a race, and I intend to continue volunteering because without volunteers I would not be able to race. Stacey and I were each assigned an intersection to guard, and Stacey had the added duty of signaling for riders to make a turn. My day was very uneventful -- I only got to tell two drivers to turn around and neither one cussed me out. Stacey, however, got to deal with a minor medical emergency. This should come as no surprise, she is kind of like Hurley from Lost -- accidents seem to happen with far greater frequency when she is around. Apparently, some fast older lady was passing a slow mtn bike rider and the older lady didn't give herself enough room to make the pass. Instead, she clipped the mtn bike's rear wheel and both riders went down pretty hard. Headaches, minor scrapes, and an ambulance ensued. Not fun.

Anyhow, after volunteering I did a 3:30 ride. My orders were to include 10 x 5 min at 260-285 W at a low cadence of 65-70 rpm. I took about 2 minutes rest between sets. For whatever reason, my Garmin recorded the whole ride and it will display the results under its History, but I can't get the stupid thing to upload the ride. (That's the second time this has happened, but every other ride is fine!) I did the odd reps seated and the evens in the aero position. Here's the stats:

(1) 297 W; 59 rpm; 150 bpm -- this was up Old Stage Coach and I couldn't go easier with my 12-15 cassette.
(2) 272 W; 68 rpm; 145 bpm
(3) 280 W; 63 rpm; 148 bpm
(4) 277 W; 67 rpm; 150 bpm
(5) 276 W; 65 rpm; 149 bpm (elevation is probably around 7,000 ft here)
(6) 278 W; 68 bpm; 147 bpm
(7) 272 W; 65 bpm; 149 bpm
(8) 273 W; 66 rpm; 147 bpm
(9) 276 W; 64 rpm; 149 bpm (elevation is probably around 8,000 ft here)
(10) 274 W; 65 rpm; 151 bpm

Those numbers look great. I'm happy that my power to HR ratio barely varied even as I passed 8,000 ft. My HR looks great - riding at 270+ W at a HR of about 150 bpm is excellent. I could absolutely crush an Ironman ride if I could hold 270 W at 150 bpm for hours on end. (150 bpm is only a few bpm above my avg. Ironman HR for the past two IMs.)

Unfortunately, those HRs are averages, and since I started each interval with a HR of 120-130 bpm the averages are not too representative. Still, my HR peaked at 154 bpm during the intervals. That's good, but I bet it would continue to rise if I held 270 W for longer than 5 minutes. Oh, and I don't think I'm physically strong enough to sustain 270 W for hours on end. My legs get too tired.

At the end of the set I had a nearly 4,000 foot descent to tackle. I am a giant chicken going downhill. I don't know why I can ride 30+ mph on the flats (e.g., when the wind is at my back) and not worry at all, but put me on a downhill and I ride the brakes. This time, however, some kid that appeared to be on Garmin's U-23 team (does Garmin have such a team?) was descending at the same time as me. I copied his lines for a while before using my aero advantage to pass him on a straight-away. We swapped positions a few more times, and then I was in the lead heading into a turn with a "Warning, 20 mph" sign. I tapped my brakes to slow for the turn and the Garmin kid was instantly 100 feet ahead of me. I watched in awe as he took the turn at 30 mph or so.

The descent was a blast and hopefully will change my attitude about descending. I tapped the brakes three times during my descent, which is a lot less than normal. (Okay, there was a headwind, but it was still my best descent yet.) I've got to become a more confident bike handler to enjoy descending more.

Oh, and yesterday I did an easy run around Wash. Park. I tracked my pace for one mile: 8:24/mile with a pretty strong headwind at 128 bpm avg. That leads me to believe that either my HR was suppressed or my economy is excellent.