Saturday, February 14, 2009

Taste of VQ Week Three

Lance Armstrong might argue with me about this one, but sometimes it IS about the bike. Or at least that's what I thought walking out of class Monday night after putting in the effort but not seeing likable results, nor having a worthy explanation.

I'm getting better about getting to class early enough to snag a seat in the front row, but this time I was feeling like I belonged in the back of the pack. Spinning fast during warm up but the minute it's time to calibrate for the CompuTrainer set and follow the resistance route, I'm a strugglin'. Turns out I was Speedy Gonzales thanks to a loose knob--we're supposed to calibrate when we see somewhere between 2.5 and 3 on the screen and I was apparently less than 2--and I definitely felt the added weight. And especially after we got into the crux of the workout.

Tonight was all about cadence...beyond that I can't say much because just as my legs produced undesirable and unexplanable failed results (in my mind), the computers copped out on my side of the room. Instead of following the workout on the screen, we were looking at black and having to track our wattage and speed the old-school way, and working on the correlation between our threshold numbers from week one and cadence. We reached that threshold average--mine was 185--during the workout but not until we pedaled first at low speed, low resistance and worked up to high speed, high resistance and high speed, low resistance. We held speeds of 15-17 mph up to 26 mph for two-minute intervals, and the workout looked like we were going up and down a hill.

But if you can't get your legs up to 26 mph, with or without resistance, you're screwed. The guy near me who makes the riding look effortless was spinning away and hitting his intervals--I'm having a hard time even cracking 24 mph, and feeling like I'm going to vomit. OK so part of me thought that maybe I was pushing and not moving as a result of postponing a trip to the bathroom, but even that didn't provide any relief--as much as I didn't want to get off in the middle of class I was happy for the respite, until I had to get back in the saddle. Still struggling, with intervals at lower speeds even becoming difficult I call out to Dave for some suggestions. Everyone else is riding without a hitch so why can't I? After making sure my gears are set right he lowers the resistance, providing temporary relief but I'm still missing the mark. Hmm. I'm chalking it up to some faulty bike mechanics or a night without the computer throwing me out of whack. I couldn't be that bad, could I? Not to toot my horn but I usually have highs, not such lows or failure with a fight.

The saving grace of the evening: We skipped the off-the-bike core training. Photo grabbed from amazon.com. Posted by Kate

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