While last Sunday was a very zen battle with heat and the will to continue riding. Wednesday and today were the flipside-  repeated, leg-searing ramp intervals.

The workout goes like this:

8 minutes- starting in zone 3 (about 200 watts for me)
every minute, increase wattage
last minute should be a maximal effort (by this time, my goal is to stay over 300 watts)
rest 10 minutes, repeat 3 more times

Because of the need for a steady wattage for short periods of time, it’s best done on a perfectly flat road. My favorite is the river road in Shelby Forest- a gorgeous gem of a State Park that a lot of Memphians have no idea exists or are afraid to visit because you have to drive through Frayser to get there. The 5 miles of totally flat road lies at the bottom of the two largest hills in the county. This, along with the low traffic, heavy tree canopy, and other steep large-ish hills, make the park a haven for training. The singletrack in the park is foot-traffic only, but the terrain is similar, so it’s equally as much a haven to trail runners.

I digress.

Wednesday, I headed out to the park with Matt. He’d never tried the ramp workout, so he opted to sit on my wheel and yell at me if I slowed down. Motivation comes in many forms. My internal dialog normally ranges anywhere from “this last minute is what makes you stronger” to “you’re fat, slow, and you’ll never make it.” I told him to go totally drill sergeant on me. It was very helpful except for the part when he got dropped.

Once I was home, I took a look at my power file. My average wattage for that particular workout have generally been inconsistent. I’ll have one strong interval followed by a drop in the other intervals. This time, my first and last intervals were very close to each other with a dip in the middle.

Yesterday was the same workout, except solo. I finally felt the improvement. Each time I’d get to the hardest part, I found I was able to dig deep and pound out the extra few watts to keep going. Somewhere amidst the drool and snot, I almost smiled. The result? The average watts for all 4 intervals increased a tiny bit each time.

Bam.

It’s nice to feel top end & top end endurance improving before Fool’s Gold next weekend. Hopefully it’ll get me up the climbs a little faster.