140 Days - Biggest bike ride of my training to date!

The plan for today called for a 48 mile bike ride. I have been behind schedule on the bike portion of my training due to the knee issues I was having a few weeks back. This week I have been able to stay the course and actually work back up to speed as to where I should be training wise. I was able to knock out two 28 mile rides this week and needed one more big ride today of 48 miles. I knew before I even started that I was not going to be able to just ride for two hours. I changed things up a little bit. I decided to dive into part of my bike training in a few weeks by giving Spinervals 13.0 Tough Love a try. I knew from the start I had no intention of riding for all three hours. I am not anywhere close to being able to handle that type of workout yet. Instead my goal was to go for two hours. I am so glad I chose this route because I feel like I accomplished such a better workout by going 42 miles through this workout than just a standard 48 mile ride.

This workout killed me. One of the things you do quite a bit during this workout is stand and ride for 1 minute. Many of the longer intervals consist of shifting gears every minute and alternating sitting and standing. My standing bike endurance is zero. I have not stood and rode in months. My legs were burning. I sweated so much during these two hours that I felt like John B. on the treadmill! I went through four bottles of water and two GU packs. I need to start working on eating solid foods on the bike, but I was not ready to tackle that yet.

Here is the overall workout in all of its glory

This does portray accurately what exactly I did. Here is what I accomplished during the workout

At the end of the last interval session I was around 39 miles. I thought about stopping, but then I quickly added up how many miles I pedaled this week and realized that if I got to 42 miles I would be at 100 miles for the week. How cool is that? I have gone from weeks of no riding due to knee pain to a century of bike work. I gritted my teeth, switched to the hardest gear and just cranked out three miles to get to 42 miles. My goal was to beat two hours and I was successful.

My legs burn. They are tired. My knees are sore. However, I feel great. This has been an amazing week of training for me. I missed one swim workout, but I am okay with this. I thought about swimming this afternoon, but after dodge ball on Friday my shoulder still hurts so I am opting to rest the shoulder. I have a big week of recovery coming up this next week, but I plan on still going hard in the pool so I am not worried.

My last thing I need to get done today is some TRX work.  I have neglected my strength training and I need to stop making excuses and start GETTING IT DONE! Pushups, pullups, and TRX are in store tonight while Amanda runs. Off to enjoy the rest of the day with my family.