Week of January 5

Kind of boring this week - not much riding due to work and feeling unmotivated.

Monday - 18th wedding anniversary, so it wouldn't have been a good idea to squeeze a ride in.

Tuesday - 45 minutes on the Powercranks doing a little "opener" workout of a couple of short VO2 power efforts. Planning ahead for Wednesday's workout.

Wednesday - Time to start the L6 training. The plan was to do 8x2 minutes at 135% of my FTP with 2 minute rests. The plan didn't work. The first 3 were decent, but only at 130% of my FTP. Halfway through the fourth interval my body protested and gave out after a minute. I rationalized that I was doing too much too soon; I need to work up to this intensity and duration. So I scaled things back and did some 30 second L6 efforts with 60 second recoveries around a 6 mile loop. After that lap I moved it up to 45 seconds on with 75 seconds off. I found these much more manageable and likely a better introduction to all that L6 work. The 1:35 on the Powercranks was a challenge, not because of the PCs but because of the intensity. I was spinning quite well with the PCs. The only issue was the lack of a good jump on PCs compared to regular cranks. Overall I racked up over 17 minutes of L6 time.

Thursday - Got home later than usual and had to squeeze a hard workout in to make the most of time. I was able to get in 65 minutes of "surge tempo" before sunset. This is a ride I do where I'll ride at the upper end of L3 but for each turn or stop sign I have to slow for I ride 20-30 strokes in L6 and recover in L3. Not a lot of fun as the duration increases. Overall 80 minutes on the PCs with another 10 minutes in L6.

Friday - no riding.

Saturday - Started off great on the group ride but suffered stomach cramps about a third into it. Then the weather changed. A cold front was approaching but it seemed like it would hold off. At the start it was around 70 degrees and muggy - it felt great. About 25 miles in it felt 15 degrees cooler. It was drizzling, and wet and cold is not a good feeling. My body just didn't want to work during the second half. A bit of a blah ride.

Sunday - Just couldn't get motivated to ride. It's "cold" for us Houstonians. Currently in the low 50s, but that dry wind makes it feel even cooler. I just don't want to ride. Screw it...

PC time this week - a pitiful 3 hours and 40 minutes
PC time to day - 163 hours and 45 minutes

Volume was way down this week, but it's not all bad. Sure I only racked up 500 TSS points, but given the amount of riding (less than 7 hours), the average intensity factor was around 0.85. In other words, I was making good use of limited time. No new bests set this week, and honestly I'm not sure if I'm carrying some residual fatigue from the previous 2 hard weeks or just in a funk. In either case I need to get my butt in gear as I may be racing Saturday.