Phew. That one was a fairly intensive workout. Whilst I had no definitive plan heading out tonight, I just knew my route.
The route is one I’ve done before. Its largely flat, very straight, just follow the roads and take a small u-turn at the half way point, then come back the same way. Last time I did this route it was a bit too busy. Tonight it was nice and quiet. Shame the weather wasn’t great. Wind and rain. Well, drizzle and gusty headwinds on the way back.
Anyway once out on the road I decided to repeat last nights workout, Emily’s Short Mix, but on the open road and without a proper structured workout programmed into the Garmin.
The idea here was to do 3 minutes at 200w, 3 minutes at 240w, and then the really hard part, a final 3 minutes at 275w. Without ERG mode it was pretty tricky to accurately hit the targets, especially with road works interfering and some pesky downhills making it extra difficult to reliably find those higher watts.
I can’t say I did this one perfect, but it’s unusual for me to come back from an outdoor ride with a sweat on, so I was definitely working harder than usual. Pretty much bang on 30kph, covering 31km in an hour. I’ll take that.
Getting outdoors wasn’t really supposed to be on the cards tonight but frankly I needed some time out of the house. It’s nice to be back working again, but it’s also deeply exhausting with all the new stuff to learn and really wanting to contribute and get up to speed quickly. As such I’m mentally drained but my body wanted to do something. Getting out on the bike killed two birds with one stone.
Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow. I’ve got a job to do after work so there may not be time to get on the bike, indoors or out. I’m kinds wanting to do another sweet spot session. Not done one of them in ages, and I always rated them for a solid workout that didn’t leave me absolutely dead.
