The title of this post should really be something like “A man has got to know his limitations” – Clint Eastwood. It was another tough session on the CompuTrainer. The performance improvement program had me increase the load this week on the intervals. The peaks are now 16 watts over what I tested at and it was a similar ride to the one I had a couple of weeks ago. I managed to keep pace through the first 10 minutes, but could only get 5 minutes into the second interval before I started to break down. I managed to keep pedaling for another minute before I had to stop. That is one of the frustrating things about the coaching software and the load based training. The trainer is continually trying to keep the load constant so if you don’t keep the cadence up it just gets really hard to pedal. If you stop and start again then you have a chance to get the cadence back up before. Once I failed I did a similar thing to a couple weeks ago. I would rest 30 seconds and then hit it hard for 1 minute and rest again. The last interval was even worse and I only managed 3 minutes before having to resort to my shorter intervals.
I haven’t looked at what the program has in store for next week. Maybe I will do this one again until I can finish it. I don’t much like failing, but they say that this is where the real gains are made, when you are pushing the limits. My heart rate was up to 170 again, so I guess I was pushing the limits.
Weight: 167.6