Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Motivation

In the run-up to Belgian racing my coach has had me on an intense workout regimen. Yesterday's work-out went something like this:

BT: Warm up 20-30min. then on 6-8% grade do 5 x 3min at CP6 (3min recovery) STANDING all the way up. Head up. Otherwise zone 1-2.

CP6 BTW currently equals 424 watts. Allow me to translate this workout into terms more accessible to non bike racing nerds:

Go for a bike ride alone because none of your riding friends would do this crazy shit with you. Warm up for 20-30 min, easily - but not so easily that your legs aren't ready for the suck part that's about to start when you get to that 6-8% hill. Then, get up out of the saddle and mash the pedals until the power meter says 424 watts and hold that for three very LONG minutes. Then take a break for a very SHORT three minutes. Repeat this exercise FIVE times.

This is what yesterday's workout looked like:
If you're really interested in a visual graph of my self imposed suffering you can click through to an interactive version - yay isn't technology cool?

Readers with a keen eye and a disciplinary disposition will notice this work-out lasted for only 57 minutes - when the scheduled time was supposed to be 90. Okay - I was short on time so basically got right to the suck part with less than a proper warm up. I should get something for that, right?

Well that's what I'm trying to get at here. I made a commitment to do this thing. I pay a coach to dream up these daily suffer sessions and I told the world that I'm going to go to Belgium and race in arguably the most competitive amateur racing on the planet! Do you think I spring out bed every morning, shouting for joy at my dose of hill repeats, or cardio endurance threshold intervals, or sprint drills? No I don't, but they are making me faster and fitter and just maybe I'll be there when it counts.



1 comment:

  1. dude Jim... your coach sounds awesome. and it's inspiring to see you going beyond your limit, simply to raise the level of that limit.

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