Tuesday, January 27, 2009

And that my friends, is how it's done

Great workout tonight, about 90 minutes on the trainer with 60 of them being low cadence strength work. This workout involved six 10 minute intervals, which scared me a bit at first. I'm used to doing 2 to 5 minute intervals, and this seemed like a tall order. In fact, about 5 minutes into the first one I really started to doubt I could finish the set. I tried to distract myself with television, during the workout I watched the news, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, TMZ, and a little bit of Border Patrol. I mostly just left the sound off and listened to the Mouse, I really can't understand how all that drivel stays on the air while the greatest show in history got canceled after only one full season. Concentrating on controlling my breathing and moving my feet efficiently really went a long way. A little bit of vomit in the back of the throat slowed me down on the last interval, but I made up for it by finishing strong. I knew from my previous test that my Functional Threshold Power is 230 watts. My plan was put the bike in whatever gear got me 230 watts at 75 RPM and hold that. It worked pretty well, here's the numbers:
Interval 1: 234 watts, 136 BPM, 75 RPM
Interval 2: 228 watts, 135 BPM, 74 RPM
Interval 3: 222 watts, 135 BPM, 74 RPM
Interval 4: 222 watts, 134 BPM, 74 RPM
Interval 5: 227 watts, 138 BPM, 75 RPM
Interval 6: 226 watts, 139 BPM, 75 RPM

I know it looks like it was boring and easy to just do the same thing over and over - trust me each interval got progressively more painful. I was constantly negotiating with myself as to whether I would pansy out and shift to an easier gear - I never did.

The filthy residue of a workout well executed

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