Uhl in Eagle, ID – After a couple easy days since my record-breaking ride on Sunday, I felt like I was ready to go hard again and my resting HR confirmed that. Today I did a variation of the standard 2x20 Lactate Threshold (LT) workout.
After warming up for 15 minutes, I started my first LT interval. But instead of keeping the wattage steady, I did a 10-second burst every minute. In between bursts, I just tried to keep the wattage above 260. As the interval progressed, it got harder and harder to do so. After 15 minutes of this, I really wanted to quit, but I plugged along. Initially I was hitting 410-420 watts on the bursts, but by the end I was happy with 380.
I rested for a minute and then started on my second LT interval. I was planning on doing the same thing as the first, but I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to complete it. So instead, I kept a steady wattage but shifted gears every minute to change my cadence. I used a progressive ramp, starting at 100 rpm and increasing it every minute. The first "ramp" I went up to 115 rpm. Then I shifted into the big-ring and rode for a minute standing at 80 rpm. Then I sat down and did one minute per gear until I was up 125 rpm by minute nine! Then I repeated the cycle until my 20 minutes was up.
While doing all this shifting, I tried to keep my wattage around 260-270. It was interesting how much easier it was to keep my wattage up with lower cadences. Of course, that's doesn't mean 80 rpm's is my optimal cadence; I don't think I could do the entire 20 minutes at that cadence. But it may be worth a try next LT workout. But all this variety definitely made the intervals seem to go by more quickly!
After resting for another minute, I did a 5-minute VO2 interval. It felt hard from the start and only got a little better, by the end. Then I rested for 5 minutes before starting my second VO2 interval. I was hoping the added recovery time would make the second VO2 feel easier. No such luck! It felt harder than the first and now my legs were really burning...the whole time! But I finished it and then spun easy for a 15-minute cool-down. It was a great workout!
