computrainer night

We had computrainer night in the garage again. I had a couple of friends over for a real good sweat fest.

We did 3x8 minutes with a 15 second surge every 2 minutes and then back to tempo. I held the 8 min at 210-220 watts with the surges at least 240 watts. Very hard to settle back in to tempo pace after a surge but the surge itself is not hard.

My legs feel wobly now.

working on my pop

Today I did 10 minute intervals but this time I went at a slower pace and did a spin up for 10 seconds every 2 minutes. The idea was to keep in the same gear but spin really fast and work on muscle coordination. I was hitting about 430 to 450 watts on the 10 second efforts the first time through. Then I took a break and did another 10 minutes and was able to go over 500 watts on the last one. 500 watts was the peak but I was still in my saddle. I hope this helps for accelerations on the track.

On Sunday I did 3x8 minute intervals at about 230 watts with 300 watt surges every two minutes.

Today's workout was much more fun but now my legs feel bloated - in a good way. :)

8 minute intervals

I did 8 minute intervals on Tuesday. I did them last Tuesday too. I do 220-230 watts with a 15 second surge every two minutes. Last week I went higher power but really died at the end. This week I did 220 watts and felt better as the workout progressed. The surges are 280-300 watts. I felt like my pedal stroke was getting better and I concentrated on the recovery part of the pedal stroke.

Track Class at Marymoor

I helped teach the track class at Marymoor with Bilko yesterday. It was really fun! My goal was to pass on my enthusiasm for racing to the new riders and get them excited about track racing. It was a good experience.

I took the track class so long ago that I didn't remember what I learned or even who taught the course. When I went out to the track two years ago I didn't remember how to get off the track!

Bilko did a great job of deconstructing the process of getting on a fixed gear bike and riding it safely around the track. The class was an all women's class and none of them had ridden a fixed gear bike before so we had to start with just getting on the bike and stopping safely. Soon we had them comfortable and taking flyers around the track. Then we got to play follow the leader. I had one group and Bilko had the other group. I took them up and down the track and dove down the steep part. I hope they had as much fun as I did! It will be nice to see them at the races. I hope I get another chance to help out with future classes. It was super nice weather too which made it even more exciting because I know that track racing is coming soon.

Today I did more intervals - 10 minute efforts again but this time with 15 seconds hard every two minutes. I would hit 350-400 watts on the hard parts and then drop down to 200 watts until the next 15 seconds effort. This was Mark's idea and it was one of the hardest sessions I've done! Afterwards I took a recovery ride around Greenlake. It was a mob scene because of the nice weather but a fun place too cool down when you aren't in a hurry. Very entertaining!

Intervals

I did some intervals last tuesday. I've been taking a French class but now it's over and I can work on training during the week again. I did 3x10 minute power intervals pushing a big gear at a fairly low cadence. I held them all at about 190 watts. On thursday I did my first hill repeats. Just three to get the legs used to climbing again.