Saturday with the Tribe

To be honest, I am not recommending that you follow in my footsteps.  After a fantastic evening with friends and some brilliant bottles of fermented Tuscan golden orbs,  I was not operating at my usual 100% enthusiasm as I entered the "prow" this slushy morning.  This first week back to serious workouts has pushed me a bit and I was sore... everywhere.  Hammies.  Hip-flexors.  Traps.  Lats.  Back.... you name it ..... there was a serious groan from my conscious mind wondering if I really had to do this thing.

We began with our usual HR recovery set.  6 minutes at 60% of Max HR.  6 minutes at 80% of Max HR. 3 minutes at 90% of Max HR.  I was right on the money with my HR at 157.  We then rest for 90 sec and see where we end up.  My HR came down to 101... so that is a recovery HR of 56.

The next set was a max HR test.  You start at an easy spin and when coach say go you up your speed 2Kmph every minute.  Your partner records the data and keeps you focused.  To get to your Max HR you go to fail... you just keep adding speed until you cannot pedal any more and.... for the lack of a better description..... want to pass out.

Why would you do this?

Test #1 was November 9th.

Time    KMPH    HR    RPE*
1:00       17          109      1          *Rate of Perceived Exertion
2:00       19          119              
3:00       20          125      1
4:00       22          129      2
5:00       24          137      3
6:00       26          143      3
7:00       28          149      4
8:00       30          153      5
9:00       32          149      8
10:00     34          160      10
11:00     34          167      10

Test #2 was today.

Time    KMPH    HR    RPE*
1:00       16          115      1          *Rate of Perceived Exertion
2:00       18          119      1      
3:00       20          126      2
4:00       22          136      3
5:00       24          140      5
6:00       26          146      6
7:00       28          153      8
8:00       30          156      8
9:00       32          160     10

I got my heart-rate up, but today I just could not hold it.   At the end of 9:00 I was done... and I mean cooked, but I was mad.  Mad that I just couldn't find the way to get through the wall and spin it out.



From there I left the bike mad and hammered out 2 miles (12 laps) around the track.  That went fairly well with a time of  16:44.  Avg pace - 8:22 .  I can live with that.  That's about a 7 on the tready, so I will continue to pursue that next week when I tackle that bad boy again.

And, as always, we left the rack and headed into 20 minutes of core work through 4 stations of a circuit.  Each station has 3 exercises and we do each one for 1 minute.