Word of the Day: "Expeleration"

For the past two Saturdays, I've trained indoors to avoid the terrible climate outside. This means that an otherwise three hour endurance ride has to be modified for indoor duration and intensity. So what I do is repeat Tuesday night's workout and add 30 minutes of zone 2 to the end. Tuesday's program goes like this:
20 minute warm up
3 minutes FT+10% (for me this is about 270 watts, right now)
3 minutes Recovery
Repeat 2 more times
10 minute Recovery
3 minutes FT+10%
Repeat 1 more time
5 minutes recovery
Let me give you a visual of the meat and potatoes of this workout:

I applied 30 second smoothing so the data isn't so choppy. Please bear in mind that during the intervals, my PT display is set to show average watts, so I don't know when I've spiked or dropped wattage, I'm just aiming to manipulate the average as I go. Also notice the heart rate and how it increases during the interval, peaking at the last second. Not for nothing, but I believe that trying to do this workout with a HRM would attain a much different result in output- not necessarily a bad thing- just different. But that's coming from an admitted sufferer of OCD.. which will explain my infatuation with power data.. Anywho.. As you can see, I'm already tired going into this session. Each interval starts out strong and there's some weakness in the middle and then a strong finish at the end. It so happens that this past weekend was the final two days of a pretty stressful 4 week build, which the chart at the top will attest to.

Long story short, this means that I was not prepared to be a strong contender at either Bethel last Sunday, or at Ninigret yesterday. Fresh legs were needed, and mine were over-cooked. What I seem to have built up over the past 2000+ miles which began on Nov 18th is: cruising speed. Yesterday I can go at a pretty good clip and make average Joe suffer and wince in my wake- so long as the tempo didn't change.. but as soon as someone jumped and the speed of the pack went up 5 mph in an instant, I experienced something I will call "Expeleration™".. which is defined as "an acceleration which causes one to have sensations of riding their bike in reverse and getting spit out the back of a pack of bike racers." So yes, much like it happened at Bethel last Sunday, a certain expeleration™ in minute 10 of Ninigret required me to sit up and question whether I should regret not suffering through the episode or whether I was wise to catch my breath and try again. I soft pedaled to the start finish and cut across the course, taking what amounted to a half lap breather. From then on though, it was game-on. I rode with some [former] AFD and NBX folks- 6 or 7 of us total, and we did a nice rotation for the remaining 40 minutes of our race. I tended to take my pull from the fifth left hander out in back, all the way to the finish. Felt strong. People remarked to me that I was strong, but "what happened in the beginning there?" Seemed to me that Jim Peters, Mike M of AFD (riding a pristine 90's CONCORDE made rom STEEL) and myself did the lion's share of work while others skipped pulls repeatedly. In the end, we were lapped of course.. and I even sprinted for the line just because I felt like sprinting.. and almost took the "field sprint" if you can call it that- the field was shattered all over the course- with no telling who was in what position or who was lapped 3 times.. anyway, one guy came around me at the end.. but it felt good to finally accelerate on my own terms, at my own personal zone 5b.. Afterwards, team mate Brendan and I did a 60 minute tour of Charlestown, rode the old Bob Beal course in reverse.. after that my OCD kicked in again and I resolved to complete 3 full hours of riding so I did another 15 laps on the Ninigret couse by myself, which was more meditative than beneficial to my form.. Brendan was in the lead break for the first 15 minutes of racing and I was so happy to see him up there with Amos and Adam S and other big engines. He had to ease off later on but did a fine job of finishing somewhere in the top 6-8 guys. Bravo.
Today marks the beginning of a rest week- just a few active recovery zone 1/2 rides until Saturday- when a Field Test is scheduled to check my FT level. Weather permitting, this will be done on the road, as it should be. Future 08 training will be mostly outside, so establishing the new FT outside is kind of important.
Thanks for reading. Please spare me the "I-am-a-purist-and-ride-by-feel-and-you-suck-because-you're-a-slave-to-an-overpriced-toy" rhetoric. I don't need it. I don't appreciate it. Tongue-in-cheek one-liners are okay..