I’m in the middle of a 3-day training block so today I went out for some Lactate Threshold (LT) work. I headed out at about one o’clock, and initially, I wasn’t feeling that great. But after a few minutes, I started to feel better and my power output wasn’t too bad given my perceived exertion. So I decided to do the Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop. It’s a great route to do threshold intervals since there are long sections of uninterrupted road.

I started my first interval right after turning north up Hwy 16 from Beacon Light. I kept the pace moderate since I knew this was just the first interval of the set. I worked it all the way up to the top of the Freezeout hill which gave me a nice 22-minute interval with an average of 295 watts. Not bad considering it didn’t feel that hard (unlike the trainer)…I just love being out on the road again!

I cruised down Freezeout hill, then headed north on Substation Rd to Hwy 52. I wanted to do a longer interval, so I didn’t mind the extra rest before starting up again. I waited until I got up the hills by the Black Canyon Dam then started my second LT interval. At this point, I had a slight tailwind, typical for this canyon. Yet another reason why I like this stretch of road so much. It was colder than usual because I was riding right next to a frozen river! But after about 10 minutes the road isn’t quite as close to the river and it got a bit warmer. During this interval, my legs were feeling the burn. I was able to keep the wattage up but at the halfway point it was really hurting. But I persisted and kept on plugging along.

About halfway through I passed another rider going the same direction. I only had enough breath to say, “How’s it going!?”. To which he responded, “Apparently not as good as you!” I thought that was pretty funny, but I was breathing too hard and going too fast to respond with anything else. Sometimes I wish there was a signal I can use when I’m doing intervals so I don’t appear rude to other cyclists. I always try to wave when passing other riders, but when I’m in the middle of an interval I usually only muster up a hand gesture, if that.

I continued to suffer through the rest of the interval and just barely completed 40 minutes with only 300 meters to spare before the Hwy 55 intersection. I should probably start earlier next time! My average power for this one was a decent 298 Watts. I took a quick pit stop at the Chevron, only to fill up one of my bottles then quickly jumped on my bike and headed through town. I rode easy until I started my last interval on Old Horseshoe Bend Rd. By this point, my legs were officially wasted and I was in survival mode. I still managed to average 285 watts for a time of 27:22 cattle-guard-to-cattle-guard.

I threw on my jacket as I rolled over the top then resumed a tempo pace the rest of the way home. I was hoping with 90 minutes of threshold work I would be in contention for a record time, but I missed it by a few minutes; my time was 3:01:30. Oh well! But as I’ve said before, a lot of that has to do with the wind conditions; both times I broke three hours my average wattage was 241-2 watts. Whereas today my average wattage was 248 (my highest 3-hr average outside of a race).