Training Camp Wrap-UP

My Friday recovery day that was basically comprised of eating, picking up my new kit from Nimblewear, sitting on the couch, and getting acupuncture…

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I don’t like the “needles going in” part of acupuncture, but from there on out, it makes me feel amazing. I leave the clinic feeling like I could run a marathon while doing backflips on a pogo stick.

Saturday and Sunday, I wrapped up the last of my training camp with two road rides. Saturday was interval day, and, despite some slight protest from my legs, the intervals were pretty boss. Being one of the first rides of the year with temps warm enough to necessitate at least 1 bottle of water per hour, I finally did a test fit of the downtube cage on the Cysco road bike. It’s a tight squeeze, but it’s safe and sound down there (Matt even tried to lay in to the front brake and force it to rub tire on bottle, but he was unsuccessful in doing so).

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On my way home from my interval-ing spot, I met up with roommate Matt and Matt Robbins. I did not participate in the tow home.

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Sunday’s 4 hour ride was just long enough to finish me off at about hour 3. I was doing 3, 1-hour tempo +Z4 on hills intervals. The first two felt amazing.

Side Note- exceptional “I should be tired right now” workouts have been a theme of this training camp. I attribute this in part to immediate post-workout consumption of a Gu Recovery shake mixed with Pure Clean Beet Powder and later, plenty of rest and good whole food.

However, I could tell as I started the 3rd one (at about 2:35 into the ride) that my legs were starting to argue. I made it about halfway through that one before a combination of warmth, built-up fatigue, and “I haven’t ridden a road bike for this long in months” pain all snowballed into implosion. I was satisfied with what I’d already done and conceded to calling it a day on the interval and spinning easy the rest of the way home. The good news is that, in spite of my slowdown, the average wattage on that last hour was still as good as or even a little better than what I was doing on similar rides earlier this season.

Once I was home and cleaned up, I all but gorged myself on leftovers, Easter supper at my parents’ house, and Easter candy (like Penny- seen here getting to clean my dad’s ice cream bowl).

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This morning, I was up for an early recovery ride/video shoot at Shelby Farms. Drones still give me the heebie jeebies because they’re big, sharp, and sound like a swarm of angry stinging insects. Definitely can’t wait to see the finished product, though…

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I’m also very excited to experience the finished product of this training camp. Final total? 28 hours of riding in 9 days. I feel surprisingly good, though my quads protested quite a bit any time I had to pedal uphill this morning. I am super excited about the Ogre 150 this weekend, because I think after a few days of recovery, I’ll be prettymuch bulletproof.