Hard Days

I recently made comments that I felt my training plan was "too easy" and that I wasn't getting the hard rides that mimicked real riding conditions that push you to the brink. Well the past two nights, those comments seemed downright foolish. Tonight's workout was a leg busting interval fest right on the heels of intervals last night.

Tonight's ride was 1:20 with 4 intervals of 3 minutes at max exertion with 3 minutes rest between each set. The difference between last night's 6 3 minute intervals and tonight's was the recommended cadence last night was 110 and tonight it was 80-90.

Translation - masher.

I did 30 minutes of warmup in Zone 2, which felt pretty good, then it was time to suffer. To get the desired cadence and heart rate, I decided I'd max out the resistance on my trainer and big ring it to simulate a nasty hill, like climbing Sunshine Canyon west of Boulder.

I suffered. Greatly.

As I hung my head to try and keep the sweat from stinging my eyes, staring at the pool of sweat below me I started thinking about the proverbial "other guy". Is the "other guy" riding this hard right now?

I'm realistic and realize I'm not a racer, and likely won't ever be. I then that I realized that the "other guy" isn't someone else at all, but just an early version of me. I've never started training this early, and I've never stayed this dedicated to a plan. This week has been tough on the legs, and tough on the mind to keep pushing myself.

I keep thinking about that previous version of me who would come out of winter 10lbs heavier than he should be, and I think about being able to grab another gear headed up the climb and drop that guy for good.