Saturdays call for OTS rides. The goal is to do between zone 2 and sweet spot as long as you can. Last time I did just under 2 hours and felt good. Today was asking for a tad more with 150 TSS. I blocked out 3 hours and gave it a wing.
Another thing since we last left each other, I really started to hit the sunrise/hour before sunrise weekend rides. It’s perfect since the kids sleep in on the weekends, usually while having a sleepover, and mandi is happy to sleep in on a Saturday morning. In the summer it’s almost necessary because it can be 100% humidity and 80 degrees before the sun comes up. In the winter it kind of sucks, but it’s nothing like a NJ winter.
So I set off at first light, got to the good roads on 15 minutes and smashed the lap button. I decided to put on some old school VeloBeats and just zone out, trying to smash between 200-260w for as long as I could.
Another thing I’ve learned was how important fueling is. I’ve finally dived into trying to hit 60-90g carbs on a training ride per hour and man, what a difference. It’s like race fuel. I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. In the past I had trouble with certain drinks flavors after X amount of hours, the cost of gels, etc. I ended up getting targeted ads for a drink mix called Formula369 and it seems to be the best cost per gram of carb I could find.
I smashed 180g of carbs in 2:45 total riding time, with 2.5 hours at 248w.
Pretty happy with that effort and I’m really hoping this is going to setup a good foundation going forward.
Bike check 2
This is now my oldest bike in the stable, with nearly 5,200 miles on it. I bought the CAAD4 frame for $350. The China carbon wheels have been bomb proof. The 11 speed still has its place. I don’t ride this too often, and really only ride it when I’m racing the Tuesday night crit/road race or think I’m going to crash in a sketchy group ride. Every time I jump on it, I forget how fast real road bikes are. I tell myself I should ride it more, but it being so harsh on a regular training ride makes no sense.
jamespearl 