Lots of adaptation going on right now – and it all seems to be coming at the speed of light.
The past several years I’ve done blocks of high intensity training (HIT) in the winter & spring months. The basic MO for these training periods is stringing days of self-flagelation together until you crack, rest a few days, repeat. VO2max and anaerobic capacity intervals with a smattering of threshold work is the standard fare. It’s super powerful stuff and raises all of my power levels in a hurry. The timing of this stuff was partly due to race goals and partly because short workouts are easier to get done in Durango winters. Here in St George, there’s a short window of daylight in the AM before it gets too warm for quality work – so it’s sort of the same, but in reverse.
I haven’t done any of this stuff for the ’07 season – once I could get outside after the collarbone I was outta control on long rides. Now that I live in Utah I’m in Durango training mode, how ironic ;) In any case, this area is awesome for this sort of training. Snow is seldom seen here so there are short super steep hills all over the place. Great stuff. And…I’m adapting quickly. Having some extended down time has been a gift horse as MC says…this week I ended up with 1200 TSS of self-flagelation and there’s no sign of a crack. Sorta scary – that’s a truckload of L5&6 – so I’m taking time off anyway. That’s tough for a manic to do…but EweTSS has taught me all too well that my intuition in these things isn’t always on the mark.
One workout this week is worth mention – I’ll call it the full spectrum VO2 workout. The interval durations are descending, the power levels increasing. 5-4-3-2-1 minute intervals with a 1:1 work:rest ratio. I started the 5 min int at 116% of FT then raised the power 15-20 watts each interval until the 2 & 1 min ints, which were done out of the saddle the final 30 seconds. 2 sets of these and boom, that was a 200+ TSS workout with the warmup/cooldown.
This stuff is my catnip, it fills my crackbag and morphs me into a racer. Utterly beautiful, purposeful suffering.
Desert living in the summer is another round of adaptation. Yesterday I was in the garage getting the Lev sweetened up some (new wheelset ala MC totally rocks) for a couple of hours – like 1-3pm – and realized it seemed cool. So I checked the temp and it was 101F. Freaky! I’m gonna freeze my ass off this winter. A benefit of heat adaptation seems to be leaning out – weight has tanked 5 lbs since getting here too. Of course I’ll have to admit to carrying a lot more goo than I needed on arrival ;)
The foot is on the adaptation plan too. About every other day it feels really good, so I push it some, rest it, and it responds. I’m going to be normal again soon (my foot, that is) and that’s a relief. You can only hear so many dire predictions from surgeons without letting a bit of doubt in.
Now for some tidbits on other folks…
Lynda’s mojo is returning. She’s not completely out of the woods, but feeling waaaay better. She will be at worlds – so depending on who you are you can be happy for her or start tweaking your gameplan accordingly ;)
Matt McFee put together an outstanding writeup of his GDR experience complete with tons of pics. Check it out!
Jill struck out on a long solo journey in Alaska/Canada. Great story from a fellow enduro nutjob.
Geoff has been on a tear this summer. I think it’s his first summer of serious competition (Geoff?) and based on his accomplishments it will be fun to watch his progression in endurance sport. His last big race gives me goose bumps. I really hope to meet Geoff and Jill in the spring.