Now THAT's Training

Speed. Higher heart rate. Panting. That's what I call training. This past Sunday was wimpy: 65-75% of max heart rate at 90-100 rpms. B.O.R.I.N.G. 1) I'm not a spinner and found trying to keep 90-100 rpms for 2 hours a nightmare. In order for me to stay at those kind of rpms, I have to put it in a very low gear and I'm barely crawling in low gears. and 2) while I was enjoying the lower heart rate 'cause I was tired, endurance riding is a lot of fun (in my opinion) and it doesn't seem much like work. Tonight was different. 2 x 20 minutes at 80% of max heart rate. And after a day or two of rest, it took some work to get the heart rate up and once it was there, I felt like I was flying! I was on the cyclocross bike on the road and I glanced down a couple times to see 20mph. Kids, that's fast for old Chili. Her normal average on Jake is about 13mph. I truly felt like I was really training. Working. Sweating. It was great. The plan also said feel the slow burn and spin at 70rpm. Yeh baby -- it was burning and the big ring was being pushed. It was a good training session. Wednesday - another rest day in prep for 4 days in a row of riding.