This weekend was pretty much just comprised of biking stuff: I started Friday with an exercise/VO2 max test, which basically showed that I've been not living up to my potential at all. I want to blame this on the fact that I haven't been doing intervals in the right zones, but I really think it's more my aversion to actual hard work. I have no top end whatsoever: my legs and lungs wouldn't let me actually reach my threshold let alone my max heart rate, but for the curious, my threshold is probably 193 bpm. My max is somewhere over 203 bpm, as that's the highest I've ever seen (on the run up at Steilacoom, which isn't really a surprise). After this, I was talking into lifting (legs), as I've skipped out on the leg part for the last two weeks.
Saturday, I did Mason Lake. I was completely useless; it's like I forgot how to bike race at all. I just kept myself at the back of the pack of 17 cat 3s and pretty much just hung out. Hopefully, this weekend I will remember that you're actually supposed to do stuff, especially when your team is dominating the pack (just a bit). I thought I was going to fall off the pack by the end of the first lap, but I hung on and finished to the end. Again proving that I have no top end, I stood up to sprint, had about 20 m, then I had to sit back down.
It felt pretty awful, and the people I passed in my burst of energy pretty much all passed me again. At least this lack of sprint seemed to be a pretty common occurrence.
Since my legs obviously weren't hurting enough, I did the time trial on Sunday. Everything hurt, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. And I definitely had the hardest time getting my heart rate up. I then proceeded to finish dead last in the cat 3s, almost a minute behind the next person. I would have been somewhere near 20th in the cat 4s, which is always a confidence builder. And now my neck is killing me, and I realized that the saddle I love for road racing just doesn't cut it for time trials, not at all. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the cube that Jen posted on her blog, though.
Anyway, I didn't really get much else done this weekend. And this coming week is going to be a mess. I've got various outreach things going on, and it's my turn to make cookies on Friday. I think I need to get a bit more organized now.
2 comments:
I saw my highest HR ever on that stupid Steilacoom runup too! I thought I was seriously going to pass out and imagined that some nice bystander would pull me under a tree so I could die peacefully.
And why worry about being in race shape now? Didn't you get done racing cross like 2 months ago? These girls have been done since early Sept. You'll ramp up soon enough and be right there with them. :)
Dude, I'm telling you. The funky seat that looks like a torture device is RAD! Especially for those hard on the nose efforts - if you have the means, I highly recommend them. :) Enough of the crotch annihilation - say hello to kicking ass and taking names!
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