Egg Yolks

Today's blog title brought to you by the People Who Don't Know What to Title Their Blog Posts.

Back "on" again today. Once again last night Julia was coughing and puking until past 11:00. Funny thing, she's fine 23 hours a day now, but at 10 her congestion tries to drain and she coughs and sometimes vomits, sometimes not. Anyway that limits me to 5.5 hours of sleep and this morning I don't feel any worse for it, surprisingly. Yesterday's brief scratchy throat didn't turn into anything, thankfully.

I think I'm about ready for nothing but high-end work on the trainer now. Today was the following:

8 x 1 minute on, 30 seconds off
Rest 5 minutes
Repeat
Rest 5 minutes
Repeat

Total work time was 24 minutes. Resistance was 5
Gearing 52x20 (ish)
Cadence about 80

This is a workout from the Ross book. My timing is screwy here because, well, you know, I'm leaving the country in 9 days and this is usually a 4-6 week ramp of HIT training. You basically work at Critical Power, which is found through a test but equates to a level you can maintain for roughly 2 minutes or so. I didn't formally test myself to get to this stage on the new bike. I don't see the point with the new bike on a trainer that's going to get exchanged. Then I'll be on whatever in Taiwan. Then I'll come back to a new trainer. Basically I'm going at a level I know to be roughly accurate from experience. Is my experience enough? GIGO?

The reps hurt, to be sure. My heart rate zooms up to the 180 realm by the end of the minute. And the 30 seconds of rest go quite fast. But I don't have a problem completing the sets and after I'm done I don't feel that spent. There are a few different things to take away from that.

First is to note that I have done some high-end work in the past few weeks, but not too much. Second is what Coggan says, that these high-end sessions aren't really all that much overall stress on your body. Yes they're very hard, pointed workouts on a very specific power output level. But even seasoned riders are only "supposed" to do 30 minutes of these. Point being you can't physically do much more than that and can't tally up a boat load of stress in 1 session. Third is that these are 50% of your max duration by design, not full duration. This is what Ross suggests to help you build most efficiently. Fourth, the higher end stuff is highly trainable, so gains and adaption will happen very fast. Thus what might have been brutally painful 4 weeks ago might not be nearly so tough now.

Anyway that's my take. The long and slow 20 minute sessions seem to take their toll on my legs more than these. But then, I'm also more careful about eating and drinking enough when I do the higher-end work. When I'm in the 3x20 sessions I only drink water and that may be a mistake. That may help explain why I'm crazy hungry every day this week. Today I went a bit heavier on the calories and feel better. Maybe it's as simple as that.

Steve aka Cupcake

"still reading, bitch. my run-on sentences are as bad as glenn's from BS-US. no other nickname - cupcake stuck... BTW - the cyclops is a great trainer."

I'm torn on the trainer. I like the adjustable resistance but I also know the quality of the CycleOps is better. Plus the word CycleOps is cool because it's almost Cyclops. It would be more pertinent to the title of this if it were EggYolks but you know. Also, the TravelTrac/Performance brand isn't consistent. It seems to get easier and harder in spots. Some days it gets harder after 20 minutes. Some days it gets easier after 45. For the sake of consistency that's certainly not good.

Oh by the way the dude who sent me the email was a little vague and it turns out he's from the International Affairs Department, which means little to nothing to me. I Googled his email and came up with 2 matches, both on the Taiwan Cyclist Federation web page. So as opposed to being reported to the government it appears I was reported to Taiwanese bikers. Still trying to work out something though. His English name is Million. Really it is.

My reading has stalled. The Taiwan book is a guide book so it's not riveting. Every time I ask Nat what she wants to do she says, "I don't know." When I asked if we were going to be able to do anything she said the same. This explains some of my desperation to find a bike, lest I be stuck in a house full of crazy Asians for 12 days straight. Anyway, the book is of minimal excitement because every time I find something I might want to do I have to temper that with the fact this may be an expensive foray into another person's living room, accented with a LOT of eating. I'm also reading Pyramids by Pratchett which is interesting and entertaining but Pratchett is not an author you can sink your teeth into, so to speak. It's pretty thin in its depth, even if it is enjoyable to read.

I'm also at a loss on the jerseys. Nothing could possibly make this any more painful than it is right now. Seriously, I don't think a single thing has gone right. I'm very frustrated and on the brink of giving up entirely.

After all this blathering, my legs do hurt a fair amount going up and down the subway steps after all. And when I had to run up the last 12 steps 2 at a time to catch the E before the doors closed, my heart rate skyrocketed and legs burned like a bitch. So much for instant assessment of today's workout.