Thursday, August 12, 2010

Training Like a Pro

Earlier this week Rachel Kiers (elite ironman athlete) asked if anyone wanted to go do intervals at Iona on Thursday morning. Since I have decided that intervals are pretty much the aspect of my training that is really lacking I decided to take her up on this offer. That and the fact that she is a nice person and makes good company to ride with!



The plan: Meet at 8:30, ride to Iona and start intervals

10X5minutes race pace / 2 minutes easy

2X20 minutes just lower than race pace / 10 minutes easy.

On paper this didn't seem like such a hard ride. Race pace is for 2 hours 30 minutes of riding. I can easily make it 50 with breaks.

We started and for the first few I was feeling pretty good but then as I started to tire, the race from the past weekend was still lingering.

To say the least I was drafting pretty hard most of the ride. For the 5 minutes on, Rachel was holding a steady 37-42kph depending on wind direction while I drafter my best! Impressive!

After the 2X20 minutes I split off from Rachel and did the last 10 minutes of the ride home realizing that I had just completed 85km of riding in 2:35. Not bad for a practice day when you consider that had rest intervals and some cruise riding to get out to Iona and on the way back.

What I learned today though was that I don't push myself hard enough. These raises in intensity nearly killed me. I got home, made a shake and sat on my couch. Next thing I know I've napped for 80 minutes. Oops. Glad I decided to work from home today!

It was a good ride and hopefully my legs will appreciate it in the long run. But one thing is for sure, if I plan on training seriously this winter I will need to get my act together and learn how to suffer in intervals.

3 comments:

Lance said...

nice shake, way to feed the warrior

The Boring Runner said...

Wow, that is awesome. I need to make a LOT more elite friends!

Vincent said...

it was pretty fun and I'll admit its exactly the type of training I need to do more off.