This was my first official week of Leadville training!

My week was a little disrupted by having an out of town guest at work who was training me on some software.    

Monday night was 4 intervals of 20 minutes at 90% of my threshold. Threshold is what you use to measure your bike fitness.  There is a lot of science behind measuring your threshold or power.  Basically power = velocity x force.  High force and low cadence can be just as high power as high velocity (cadence) x low force and your power is measured by what you can manage in a certain time frame.  There are entire books on the subject http://www.amazon.com/Training-Racing-Power-Meter-Hunter/dp/1934030554#reader_1934030554.  The test I typically do is a 20 minute test.  To calculate your threshold you cycle as hard as you can for 20 minutes then take 95% of the average threshold for the 20 minutes to get your number.  I hadn’t done a test in well over a year so I had been using a very old threshold to train with.  The test itself is really hard and I was also afraid that the number would be a lot lower than my last test. The other factor is weight.  Two people with a threshold of 200 may not be equally strong on the bike depending on their weight.  The true measure is watts per kilogram.  As previously posted my required watts per kilogram should be at least 3.5 in order for me to complete Leadville.  To calculate this I take my threshold and divide it by my weight in kilograms. This goes without saying the lower your weight and the higher your power or threshold the stronger you are on the bike.  The following is a table of watts per kilogram and how it rates amongst categorized riders:

www.cyclingtipsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/powerprofiling.jpg

Tuesday was dinner out with the out of town work guest. Wednesday I swam because I had to be at work for training. Wednesday night I was exhausted from two days of software training. Thursday morning I finally caved. I did the test, mainly because it was in my training plan. And god forbid I don’t follow my training plan to a T!  I was very nervous, I was going to find out exactly where I stood, knowing where I need to be for Leadville.  How far behind was I going to be?  I don’t do well with these tests, precisely  because of the nerves and the pressure.   I completed the first 20 minutes and ended up with 219 average watts which equates to 208 functional threshold (95%).  In the last few minutes I couldn’t even stand up out of my seat my legs were shot.  With my current weight a 208 TH puts me at about 3.14 watts per kilogram.  The bottom range of good according to the chart above.  My plan to get to the coveted 3.5 mark is to lose about 6 pounds and get my threshold up to 220.   I did another 20 minutes, initially just riding then finishing strong and ended up at 192 for my second 20 minutes so at least I have some endurance.  My new threshold will now be used as a benchmark for training from which to build off of.  Your threshold or power can be monitored while on the computrainer or while riding outdoors if you have a wheel with a powertap hub and bike computer picured at the top.

I also played around with my basil rates on Thursday morning.  I bolused 50% for a banana breakfast and reduced my basil to 60%.  I did this because I feel like I consistently go low during my computrainer classes.  The idea backfired, I think mainly the intensity and adrenaline raised my blood sugar and left me with high blood sugars for the next few hours.  My next plan of attack is to reduce my basil but only for about an hour, so that the normal basil kicks in prior to finishing the workout.   Thursday night I treated myself to a massage, trying to alleviate my on-going neck and shoulder issues.  I finished Friday off with another functional training class.

Next on the schedule was another intensity ride on Saturday.  I’ve never done 3 in one week before.  It consisted of a 15 minute warm up followed by 4 x 1 minute intervals at 135% of my new threshold then 2 x 10 minute blocks at threshold then a final 4 x 1 minute of the same 135% intervals.  I got off the bike and could barely walk!  I did a bit better with my bolus/basil plan this morning but it still dropped during the workout which required me to inhale 3 blocks.  I ended up at 120, so will continue to play around with my basil and bolus rates.  From here I had to rush out to get to the winter bike swap where I was volunteering for four hours at the American Diabetes Association booth.  I was also hoping to find a good deal on a used mountain bike.  No such luck.  Mountain bike shopping has been very time consuming and is very confusing!  More on that in another post. I ended the week today with a 3 hour endurance ride.  This ride was particularly hard.  I spent 3 hours on the computrainer pretty much by myself.  I hadn’t had much dinner the night before and I bolused a bit much for breakfast.  I ended up taking at least 7-8 cliff blocks, a gel and about half a protein power bar.  With all these carbs my blood sugar ran at a steady 90-100 a little low than I would like.  I rode fairly steady, on a fairly flat course.  At certain times I really had to muster the strength to continue which was probably a result of poor nutrition on Saturday,  picking up an additional intensity ride in the week and low blood sugar. Oh and lastly, this numbskull left her cycling shoes at home so I did the entire ride in running shoes.

Overall I’m excited to have finished my first week of Leadville training.  Next week should prove to be challenge as well.  I need to squeeze in the workouts with Wednesday night concert plans and Thursday night cooking class. I typically don’t like to plan mid-week events because it messes with my sleep, my eating, my blood sugar and my overall training schedule.   In order to guarantee that I get all the required workouts in I had to plan out my week ahead of time.

Monday am – Functional Training

Monday pm – Threshold progression training

Tuesday pm –  Strength Endurance training

Wednesday – rest

Thursday – rest

Friday – Functional Training /swim

Saturday – endurance ride

Sunday – Intensity ride

Ideally I need a rest tomorrow but I really need to make sure I get the workouts in and knowing that Wednesday and Thursday I am out it will be better to get them in early in the week.

Have a great week everybody!