Had all things gone to plan, I’d have likely either continued my morning routine of getting up early and doing an hour on the bike before work. Or, I’d have put in an hour after work, as has been my norm for the past several months.
However, due to some real life commitments, I didn’t manage to get a full hour today. Well, I could have done, but it would have meant getting on the bike right about now, as I write this.
Instead, I decided to grab 30 minutes when I could – pretty much bang on 5pm. And wanting to get a fairly decent work out in during that time, my choice was either Emily, or Jon.
As I haven’t done a Jon’s Short Mix in ages, I opted for one of them.
This one warms up gently. Perhaps too gradually for what immediately horse hoofs you in the face as the first interval.
A minute at 310w, then a 30 second breather, and then boosh, repeat it. Harsh.
I was feeling it by the end of that second block.
With a two minute breather, the next set was 10 second sprints. These are ERG mode sprints, so I decided to hell with it, drop the ERG and give it the beans.
It’s probably easier to show on the timeline, so here we go:
I was happy with the first sprint. The second two were also done in ERG mode, and satisfied the Zwift workout sufficiently to give me the stars. As best I recall, the closest I got to 620w was somewhere in the 550s, and I wasn’t even close to repeating the first sprint effort with even a full minute “rest” between. Ahh well, I guess I’ll never be an amazing sprinter.
Treated to a full on luxury 4 minute breather after these initial two sets, the final 10 minutes of work at 185w was comparatively a breeze. I think it helps doing the SST sessions, and from watching this video:
I’m gathering that SST is also really good for climbing practice, too.
So, another 10 minutes of SST on the week, then.
But really at only 29 minutes, with actually only about 12.5 minutes of solid work, this was a pretty straightforward session.
I’d have liked to have got more time on the bike today. 30 minutes is no longer enough. If I don’t do at least close to an hour I feel like I’ve not pushed myself.
But honestly, last night I had a beer (shock horror) and a nice, but clearly salty meal (not a pizza, in the end). I paid the price for that this morning, waking with a solid headache.
I could have skipped today. I’m almost certainly going to meet my weekly riding goals through Saturday and Sunday, and I typically only do 3 days during the week.
Perhaps I could also have done an active recovery session, instead.
Tomorrow though, I plan to hit Crit City at 16:45 GMT.
It’s going to be my first race on that map, and at 15km, if I combine it with this ride, that does tally up to my typical 30km / 1 hour ride.
So that was a big part of my thinking.
Anyway, it was nice to do something a little different. Just a bit short. I guess the clues in the title.
