I had a pretty mammoth of a weekend of riding this last weekend. It was all over the country side at every level of pace imaginable.
Saturday's group ride was extremely aggressive. So much so, that I should probably have bailed on it. I knew I had two long days of riding ahead, but I did it anyway. We rode about 90 km as a group up to the Nishiki River/Pure Line stop. The route we took came up to Yasaka on Rte 186, down to Miwa and to Rte 187 via Pref Rte 2. As usually happens, when we got back on the bikes at the 2/187 intersection, it was off to the races. As a group, we were riding right around 40kph pretty much the whole time. As the number 2 guy in the pack at the start, I was doing low level 1 riding. On the front end, I was at/above threshold the whole time. The group ride up to Nishiki whole averaged 250 watts, normalized 289 to include the climbing. The trip home was a comfortable endurance pace, as I lead two newer riders in the area back to the base after peeling off the group a little early.
Sunday's ride wasn't anything particularly eventful. It was simply 3 hrs 50 minutes of upper L1 riding. Some good climbing and I did the reverse of a route I've done a couple times. The climbing going this new way is MUCH steeper so I'll remember to save that for the L2+ days. 109km and some change.
Monday was a 5 hr 15 min day. Super Bowl "Monday" here in Japan means I could ride all day with the kids in school. I had a partner for the day, a triathlete in town with VMAQ-4 out of Cherry Point. I rode a mainly low L1 day around Oshima Island. We had a bit of climbing coming over Oshima when we found out the road was closed down near Katahzoe Beach.
By the time Monday finished off, I'd just completed 3 long days of riding for a total of 361 km and 12 1/2 hours of riding. But, I think I'm paying for it now. I woke up Tuesday morning with some crazy stomach cramps and have been fighting stomach dissatisfaction ever since. Tuesday was an off day, so that was good.
I hopped on the bike today determined to beat the stomach bug. I was a bit nervous about today's workout. Called "MIET" (medium intensity endurance training), it called for an hour and a half at 290-310 watts after warmup. With my new training zones, that puts it right in the middle of zone 3, right?!
Well... here's the catch. Mentally, my mind is still working on two week old training zones. I wouldn't have considered riding an hour and a half at 300 watts two weeks ago. That would have been 93% of my functional threshold! But now that the zones have shifted, it's only 87% That doesn't sound like a lot, but that disparity in intensity would FEEL quite a bit different.
So, I hopped on the bike and got to going. Warmed up and fought the wind. My stomach wasn't very cooperative and (grossly enough) I was having a hard time keeping down the water if I gulped too fast. (not pleasant on a windy day if you aim wrong) An hour into the ride I was beginning to contemplate calling it a day. BUT I PERSEVERED! 30 minutes later I rolled into the main part of the base with an average of 299 watts for the hour and a half, right at the target zone.
I'm pounding liquids to help battle this little cold I'm now fighting, but I have two reasonably easy days of training until I have to do some VO2max work this Saturday. Next week I'll be doing the same MIET workout at the same intensity and now I can safely look forward to it knowing that it's well within the realm of work I can do.
These new training zones are daunting, but my wife has been quick to remind me that they will only serve to make me stronger.
Finally.. this will probably be a "banner week" for me in distance/time on the bike. Based on the work schedule and getting really long rides in on Sunday/Monday, this is probably going to be about 20 hours and 560 km of riding this week. Phew... lots of time on the bike!