Last night I was supposed to do sub-lactate long intervals, 10 minutes in Zone 4 with gradually increasing intensity. I could barely get into Zone 4 at all and could not sustain it for more than five minutes (and that with difficulty). This makes no sense to me considering i managed to ride a good chunk of Page Mill in Zone 4 on previous occasions – so I’m looking for reasons. I think part of it might be that riding on a trainer is more boring (so I tend to slack) but I think the majority of it is a nutrition issue. I don’t eat much lunch because eating more than 300 calories makes me sleep through my afternoon meetings – so by the time I get home I’m pretty food-deprived. I think I’ll try eating a Power Bar or two an hour or so before starting my workout.
Today I’m just doing a 45-minute easy spin and then Thursday and Friday are rest days before Cinderella. I finished putting together a pink outfit for Cinderella and think it will look FABULOUS – hot pink off-the-shoulder top (think evening gown) in Thai silk, hot pink sparkly tutu, pink marabou feather boa on my Camelbak straps, hot pink ostrich feathers on my helmet. Think pink. Very, very pink. 🙂 I’ve also draped more glittery pink fabric over my Camelbak in back, so the blue doesn’t show.
I’m considering riding sans Camelbak – it really does look better without it – but I only have room for one water bottle, and I can’t remember how frequent the rest stops are. If they’re every fifteen miles I can ride without a Camelbak. If they’re more distant than that, I’ll need the Camelbak. Time to do some research, I guess. I love looking fabulous, but running out of water is just plain stupid.
All in all, I sincerely hope that the next few workouts go better than the sub-lactate long intervals. Must work on nutrition.
Sounds like you have set your LT threshold too high for now.
back it off a bit, this isn’t an exact science. Drop 5 beats and see where that goes.
As you gain conditioning you should find you can push harder, but what I have noticed is that I get faster as the same heart rates as conditioning grows.
Good luck.
brian
Hey, Tien! One powerbar about 90 minutes before your workout should be fine. Two powerbars is probably too much — you won’t be able to digest that many calories in that shot a period of time. Let me know how it works next time.
How was cinderella? I’d love to see a photo of you in your pink tutu.