Wednesday, April 7, 2010

25 mph and more lava swimming

Yesterday afternoon I met Michelle at the Gtown Rec Park loop for a power bike workout: 4x7 minutes at 60-70 rpm cadence, meaning lowest gear. Unlike spinning, this workout forces you to push hard on the pedals and FORCE yourself forward. It's tough on the quads. It was also hot and dry out, so we had to contend with that, but WE ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE!!!!


"Will YOU accept the challenge?" Thor asks.

Keeping my HR around tempo pace or slightly higher, I averaged 7 minute interval speeds of 23.8, 23.5, 25 and 24.5! Those last two are some of the fastest intervals I've ever ridden! It helped that some smarmy road bikers were out there bragging to each other about their racing exploits. I don't always have the luxury of chasing people during workouts, so it was nice to catch up to and pass those road bikers and their logo-emblazoned jerseys. Now I know how Michelle feels whenever she sees me, a smarmy triATHAlete, in front of her! Oh, and she rode well too, reaching 23 mph on her last interval! Record!!

This AM I accepted the challenge again of Mt. Etna/St. Helens/Kilauea/Krakatoa/Vesuvius (aka Germantown Indoor Swim Center) and churned out a tough swim (6x50 descend and 300 WARMUP.... 4x300 race pace, 50kick, 4x150 race pace, 50kick.... 300 cooldown). It WAS hard, as the water was still LAVA hot.

Kind of like this:

1 comment: