Back in the RED

Sasha Riding Hard

I hope to parlay my fitness and hard won slimness into some success this Cyclocross season.  Race fitness means base plus intensity. Intensity means intervals and lots of them.  My base has been built and it just needs some maintenance to survive into the fall.

I had deliberately added weekly intervals in my build up to Italy and it helped tremendously.  The irony was that after all of the Z5 training my plan in Italy was to stay Z1-Z3.  It worked. The Z5 stuff made my legs stronger and when the grade went to double digits you need strength.

On a recent evening commute home I returned to my interval routine which I cleverly refer to as Commutervals.  It had been nearly a month since I had hit Z5 and clearly the zone was rusty from lack of use. 

After executing the plan for Italy in my mind this was just another plan that, if followed, would yield success.  The plan for Italy involved a big investment of time to log the miles. 

Intervals are different.

Zone five hurts.  It really hurts.  It is the key to racing success but the coin of the realm is pain. It took forever to get to Z5 and when I hit it, it hit back.  When I finished my lungs were burning and I was light headed.  My legs ached and my right calf started to twinge like a cramp was coming.

It felt good to be back in the red.