With temperatures plunging to sub zero, snow and ice covering the roads I decided not to risk riding in Lanzarote with a broken collar bone and opted for the tacx machine instead. Unfortunately the weather stayed like that all week which meant that I ended up doing six turbo sessions A total of eight hours, 8 minutes and 35 seconds stuck in a saddle with little relief from the saddle pressure and loosing about 3lbs in weight each session in fluids. I covered 235 miles in the sessions with some high speeds though of course this is often distorted when doing normal turbo sessions rather than the tacx session that tends to replicate the genuine road speed.
While it was hard to motivate myself, often doing the sessions late in the evening after finding something else to do all day I still pushed myself up to a 2 hour 8 minute session. To give you an example this session was 20 minutes in zone 1, 25 minutes zone two then four seven minute sessions in zone three with five minutes recovery in zone 1 between. I finished up with 20 minutes zone 2 and twenty minutes zone 1.
To keep myself going I always have an energy drink on the bike and a recovery drink in the fridge. I always have a TV in front of me with some bike racing on it resulting in me sprinting with the racers on the screen. I ride in my conservatory and even in this weather have the window and door open. I always have an extra top on to warm up and usually put it back on when cooling down. Always worth doing these few things and perhaps a fan as the turbo is a really intensive session that takes a lot out of you. If you are changing from road to turbo then you should half the planned time.
Although I avoid the turbo I sadistically enjoy it once I am on it. It helps with weight loss and my cadence has jumped from 90 something to 102 rpm which could prove useful. So despite my complaints I will carry on with the tacx.
On a more enjoyable note I was followed by a world champion on twitter this week. Colin Lynch @TTworldchamp is the current UCI world champion in time trial and pursuit in the Irish Paralympic team. Amusing, insightful and well worth a follow. he also has an interesting blog on his preparation for Rio. You can find it at 637daystogo.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment