I raced in the last part of the season last year. I’m still a rookie and I know it. I had planned on changing that with a full season of racing this year but a surgery got in the way and I didn’t start base training until the 24th of April. I’m 5 weeks from my first race of the year. It is a little sprint and I’m real excited about it.
I have been training with a heartrate monitor for the first time in my life this year. I love it. I understand my workouts better than ever. I think it is a great tool.
Yesterday morning, I overslept and missed my planned bike workout. It was supposed to be a little 64 min ride in Zone 3. I had done my first zone 4 workout on Wed and it felt good but the schedule called for Zone 3 so that is where I was going to stay. I finally fit this workout in about 5:30 last night. By the time I got the bike out and ready to go at my favorite spot, I had exactly 40 min before the I had to start home. So much for my scheduled workout.
Anyway, I started slowly, 5 min in zone 2. I picked up the pace and although I was a little down because this workout was not going to be as planned I jumped into zone three at about a 144 bpm. About 15 min into the ride, a big bee started buzzing around me. He would dive bomb my face, land on my pumping legs or fly circles around me. Needless to say, he was distracting and I decided I needed to lose him. I picked up speed and 2 to 3 minutes later in zone 4, I thought I had lost him. NOT!!! I picked up the pace again and what seemed like 2 to 3 more minutes in Zone 4 at about 168 bpm, he landed on my thigh and proceeded to inject a little poison. I promptly smacked him(good riddence).
I looked down at my watch and I had 7 min to get back to the van or be late. Problem was, I was on the far side of the park and I know that it usually takes 15 mins to get back even at a good pace. I decided zone 5 was better than the wrath of a wife who had been watching kids all day. I really hammered. I have read lately that you cannot stay in zone 5 more than a few minutes. My mhr is 190(so I thought). A minute into this wild ride, my heartrate was at 189. 3 min into this thing I’m sitting at 191 and breathing heavily. I went faster and the heartrate monitor responds by going to 193. 5 min and the monitor peaked at 194. Guess I got a better estimation of mhr now. All said, it took me 7 minutes to get back to my van. All at 187(I gradually dropped to that in the two remaining minutes) or higher. 7 minutes in zone 5. I didn’t even think you could stay that long in zone 5.
So, what does all this mean. Did I get a good workout despite it not being the planned workout? This early in my season, should I plan more of these?
I swear, the bee made me do it.