One session, called 'attack and hold it' was particularly fun... After a thorough warm up it was a 15-second-out-of-the-saddle-and-go-for-for-it-100%-effort, followed by 2 mins at FTP (258W), 5 mins steady then rinse and repeat 5 times. I'd not run my trainer in level mode before (always in erg mode where the power is held stable) so I had no idea what power levels I was capable of in a sprint. I managed to max out at 789W and hold over 700W for 15 seconds... Probably equivalent to one of Chris Hoy's legs, on a rest day... I hear he can generate considerably more than 2000W - so I won't be pushing for the Olympic team soon ;-)
On Friday I went for a swim at Virgin Active but noticed the tell tales signs of a cold coming on. I'll blame that for the rubbish pace in the water... nothing to do with a poor technique ;-)
On Saturday I was back on the turbo trainer but this time trying to maintain a steady pace and hit 10 fast cadence (100+) intervals of 1 minute each, followed by 1 minute at normal (90 rpm) before going on to do a 15 min threshold time trial effort. After 5 or 6 minutes of the time trial effort I realised I was dying off and my cadence was dropping faster than my heart rate was rising! I ground to a halt, but because my trainer is sooooooo clever, it decided I had merely paused the workout. No other way to get through it but to grind my teeth and push on through. I stopped a couple more times before I eventually made it through the interval and back onto lower power levels that I could push comfortably without having a heart failure. Oh the joys of technology.
The sensible thing would have been to listen to my body and realise that I wasn't up for the session but I'm stubborn and I hadn't missed (or not completed) a workout for the last 15 weeks or so. Maybe not the best call...
I skipped Sunday's run and spent most of the day glued to the radiator in the study writing up worked examples for my National 5 Physics class. Unfortunately I woke up on Monday with the cold in full swing, feeling like I'd been set about with baseball bats. Luckily Monday is a rest day, so to date, I've only missed out on one full day of training.
I *think* I've learned my lesson though... no full on training until I'm 100%... I'm giving swimming a miss this evening (but a gentle run on the treadmill might be on the cards! ;-)
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