Not all the way home

Submitted by Unit on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 6:51pm
Unit's picture

My body may have returned from vacation, but my form still has not.

I have been sleeping pretty good lately, but I was still dragging my tail around work today. I figured it might prove interesting to do some testing. I hit the rollers today with a crystal clear plan for what sort of workout to do. Basically, I would warm up and then work up the block quickly to maximum resistance then ride it to failure (this is a bit of a trick because you can not totally fail on rollers without crashing).

So basically I ramped up and rode until the RPE told me that any longer would result in a crash, at which time I shifted to an easier gear and spun for a couple songs. Then repeat several times.

The goal of the workout was (in simple terms) to answer the question: Did this "vacation" allow me to rest and recover such that I can throw down some good efforts? Some may ask, why do relatively short intervals with relatively high intensity? Basically, the answer deals with the desire for a change of pace from my usual riding which consists of a lot of tempo and threshold work. Variety is the spice of life...and I felt that I needed some spice today (another obvious sign).

The result of the workout shows me what I should have figured...driving a van with a wife and three boys across four states and visiting my mother-in-law (and her extended family) took a lot out of me. Anyone who knows my mother-in-law (including my mother-in-law) can attest to her energy level...I am not sure if the woman even requires sleep.

Not sure what I was thinking really. Even though I have been sleeping well, I knew in the back of my mind that this workout was going to be far short of stellar.

I feel I did the right thing though. I could have drawn up a Tempo or Threshold workout, but I am certain that my mental state right now would not allow for long intervals or steady state riding. In any event, I manged to get a good workout relative to what little I had in the tank...which is to say I have very little left.

Let the recovery begin!