What has certainly helped make this month more enjoyable is the very dry weather conditions (good for my training, bad for forest fires here in Washington) and Tour de France coverage. Thresholds are being improved, endurance building, muscles retrained...and the body is seizing these transformations relatively well.
I've focused on getting a fair amount of quality in from the start given that I had a relatively good base of fitness before making the aforementioned race goals. While I tend to be a bit more "low tech" in my riding (no HR monitor or cadence sensor, occasionally won't track elevation gain, etc.) I have strived to include the following work into my regiment.
1. long ride(s)- um duh, but one of the hardest things to learn is that a long ride doesn't mean a lolly-gagging spin for 7 hours, it means a steady quality day on the bike with maybe (maybe) several longer efforts thrown in either in climbs or a 10-15minute hammered flat section. 5-7 hrs is usually the goal for these.
2. tempo rides- 1 or 2 a week, depending on my weekday schedule and how the legs are responding. 80-180 minutes, maximum, trying to get in some quality intensity and likely over-gear work to get the muscles truly firing.
3. intervals- I hate intervals on the bike but I love what they do for raw speed. 5-10 minute efforts at 80-90% of maximum x 4-6 sets after a really good warm-up. If I'm not thrashed after this work I don't feel like it's been a good session. I do these on the trainer because that kind of work is dangerous on the roads
The rest of the time is spent on either an easy spin, rowing, or elliptical with 2 days of lifting and core in the mix. Total hours are typically ranging from 10-15 training hours/wk-- I anticipate the load to go up closer to Pullman and Maupin, but currently that tends to be a good amount of training hours given my 60 hour work weeks. I have also learned that sleep makes a world of difference.
While I have focused on my recovery using Hammer Nutrition products, I've started looking at ways to augment my performance on the bike. The two products I have found to be really beneficial on the longer rides and/or dosed on tempo rides are the Endurance Amino and Anti-Fatigue capsules. The branch-chain amino acids found in the Endurance Aminos help keep muscle catabolism down through replenishing myofibril-specific amino chains. Anti-Fatigue works by buffering ammonia using 275-550mg of Potassium Magnesium Aspartate. So far, both have worked well on keeping my legs from hitting rock-bottom even after longer, harder efforts. I pop 1 capsule of each during every hour on the bike or do a 2 capsule bolus dose prior to tempo efforts.
