More sleep and a very big hole

Did another test today on the same hill that I have done the previous ones on so far, although the test last weekend was a little distorted as I was pushed into the side of the road by a rider trying to move out of my way while I was undertaking. The hill was being used as part of a charity ride route so I laughed it off, after all it was not as bad as the fall I took while out with my son earlier in the day covering the 10mile loop. I got cought in a deepening tyre rut in the grass (riding on the sides of a gravel track) to the point that I ended up falling sideways and unable to clip out I landed sideways in a heap. Was quite funny as I was on my training bike in kit ready to go for a ride afterwards and looked a right sight laid out on the side of the road ! My son did not think it was as funny and was more concerned about me being ok, although I was laughing too much....

Anyhow, did the same hill again today and this time looked at the time and set off. The dip in power output is when I changed down a gear or two as my cadence felt wrong. Further up the hill I looked at the time and kept on going another 10 seconds until the minute was up.. net result.... 721W.

Well... I'm starting to think about my training and previous style of blasting around, no wonder I did not get much improvement ?

This now brings my profile to a point that says I need to work more on my sprint....

Recovery almost done but at a cost

Seems like my HR response is almost or is back to normal now as my max on the last hill home was 175bpm without too much bother. Compared to Crystal Palace the pick up to 175bpm was a lot, lot faster and the recovery after seemed better.

The overall impact was quite large in terms of time off (3 weeks) and a major dent in my race calendar as the one race I was really looking forward to is this weekend. After the current training outage and the style of course involved I have decided not to enter, which is a great disappointment.

What was gained ? A big lesson on how over training can creep up on you when you ignore what your body is telling you, namely when to recover more. The other really good lesson, which has made it a worth while experience (not really) is the difference a reasonable recovery break can make.

My previous best for 60 a second output was 622W and at the weekend a brief test I managed 649W although I stopped at 55 seconds (not consciously going for a 60 second test, more a heart rate response) and the 55 second average was 689W with my heart rate topping out at 175bpm. Interesting and frustrating as my previous 55 second figure was 624W, which indicated an over 10% improvement on the back of the rest, but frustrating from the point that I had to let it slide to get my heart rate back on further rest.

The other side of the lesson is the difference that recovery rides make, both from a physical and psychological level. They make you feel much better and if kept at a low enough intensity help recovery by boosting circulation for a period of time. I'm at the point of thinking that time off the bike with total rest is at times more detrimental than a period with recovery rides only.