Weekend bumps.

Happy to have the weekend behind me. As I mentioned it was all about getting some good fitness testing in. It didn't go that smoothly. Saturday at least we had a break in the weather.

I set out to get in my swim test on Saturday. I really wanted to get in a 50 m pool as that is my standard at this point and I find it "easier" and more accurate to do one turn per 100m. given that my turns still are pretty weak and its just down and back. I was forced to go to the Y and the pool was wedged. I guess the first sunny day and weekend combined. Masters had 5 lanes and the rest were all over the map with at least 2 per lane. I pulled the cord and decided to wait until Monday to get it in. I did but will talk about that later. Off to the track at PL college to get in a 3 mile tempo TT.

3 mile tempo test.

The protocol was to warm up to 155 bpm and then 3 miles at 155-157 bpm checking correlating

pace. I made the mistake of stopping briefly before the test. It took about 400-800m for HR to catch up and started too fast as a result. I also took HR too far towards the upper limits and ended up with 158 avg. Every time I tried to relax I sped up and HR creeped as a result.

DATA:

3 mile

HR max: 162

HR avg: 157

Avg. Pace: 7:36

last 2.5 miles where min HR gets to 155.

HR max: 161

HR avg: 158

Avg Pace: 7:46

I think the last 2.5 miles is a pretty good portayal of where I'm at. Not a perfect test but at least it was easy and should be an easy test to repeat. Not true for the other two.

Sunday had its own challenges. The rain. It poured all night and my 20 min test on the climb up Black Mountain was out. It may have been rideable but most likely really soft and slow. Not a good baseline. I talked to Jim about it and he said a 1:30 trainer ride would do with a solid 20 min section. Fine. But I construed that comment into a 20 min TT which would give some good data. Here's the ride.

Happy about figuring out how to get the graphs up. Here's two looks from PowerAgent and WKO.

I did my standard 40 min warm up then hit it. Its been a while so I divided the test into three sections which helped mentally. Ease into the effort steady 7min, shift up 7 min, then hang on (or try to). It was brutal! made worse by the lack of motion but begrudgingly repeatable. Knowing that I would post the data kept me going. Accountability. I was pretty happy with the numbers since I haven't seen ANY intensity on the bike for the last 6-8 weeks. Did I mention it hurt? Here's the numbers:

20 minutes/306kj

Power: 181 min. 306 max. 255 avg.

HR: 93 min. 175 max. 158 avg.

I was stoked to see that number as my best is 275 after a lot of cycle specific training last september. This time its been all base. Good News. Plus I think the drainer accounts for at least a 10 watt decrease in recorded wattage. Why? dunno, it just appears that way over time.

Now for the ugly. Todays swim test. I was feeling pretty fresh and headed to the 'Nado pool. I warmed up well doing 2x200. 1 easy 1 build then 1x100~Tpace. The repeats were all out on 10s and this is how they went.

1:24, 1:27, 1:33, 1:35, 1:40, 1:43, 1:47, 1:48. I stopped the test at 8 seeing there was a 24 second differential between the first and last. 4-8 were pure survival. My stroke was breaking down and was pointless to continue. I did take a 60 s rest and did 1:35 and 1:37 on the last two just to complete the workout. It's pretty apparent this is the weak part in my swim. I would have been surprised if it went any better but I was still bummed out and smoked. Like the bike all the swims have been sub-threshold let alone at Zone 5. Still a baseline but brings up feelings of dread when it comes to doing this test again.

I finished up the day with a solid strenth training session. Upping the weight and seeing some solid leg strength gains. ~15-20% on the sled.

The rest of the week looks great getting into some T-pace, good fun. Friday night Conrad Stoltz is coming to B+L San Diego. I'm stoked to have him come to our local store rather than Solana Beach where traffic makes it almost prohibitive to get there by 6pm. Also is the BLVD race. The weather report does not look good but as long as its not raining (or snowing) I'm in. Wind, cold, no problem. I'm just not getting in that pack with no brakes, let alone the misery of being cold AND wet.