For whatever reason my legs were feeling a little heavy today. Not sure what that was all about but it didn't stop me from knocking out an interval session.
I decided to chance it and not eat prior to the workout. I had lunch around noon (1/lb of brisket and 1.3oz of macadamia nuts) and I wasn't hungry when I got home. I did take 5 MAP amino pills about 20 minutes before I started.
I loaded a program, loaded the bike in to the computrainer, and turned the fans on. The workout today was 3x10 minute threshold intervals in ERG mode. I did these on the lower end of threshold, upper end of sweet spot - giving myself a little buffer considering it's been awhile since I've done 3x10 at full threshold. There was supposed to be 5 minutes off between sets though between sets 2 and 3 the break was 10 minutes.
Going in to this I really didn't know what to expect. Not eating prior to the workout didn't sit well with me but I figured I'd take the training wheels off and see what we had. Worse case I'd implode, best case I'd get through the session.
Set one was uneventful. I felt it but nothing too bad. Breathing was surprisingly low copared to my heart rate. I counted my breaths for two minutes (I do this as something to distract me from the discomfort of the intensity) and I averaged 49 breaths a minute. That's less than a breath a second and my HR was in the 170's. It's just amazing to me how "slow" I breath now...
Set two got a little more uncomfortable midway through. I started counting breaths again. This time it was 46 breaths. 46!?!? At the end I was feeling it but I knew I had more. Frankly I was thinking I might bonk in the middle of set 2 but it never came. Never even felt like I was going to bonk. "this is really good" I thought!
Set 3 and all was well for the first few minutes. These were starting to drag me down. My cadence was dropping a little and I could feel my legs starting to fatigue, not bad, just starting to get that 'we're not fresh anymore' feeling. I started counting breaths 51 this time. The last 4 minutes I just focused on my breath. Yes, I got this idea from meditation and it works for me. It got me up Columbine last year at Leadville. I finished out the set and my legs felt like they might have another set in them.
Set 4 didn't come. No sense digging a training hole. I haven't done a lot threshold work over 5 minutes this year so doing 40 minutes worth today on my new keto system probably isn't in my best interest.
I was quite pleased with today's work. I really thought there was a good chance I'd bonk on set 2 and if I made it to 3 I really didn't know what would happen. I got through all 3 and I feel pretty damn good afterwards despite the puddle of sweet on the mat under the bike. This workout has me excited about what's to come!
Everyone keeps telling me it's going to take 4-6+ weeks to get fully adapted. I supposed I'm not fully keto adapted but my bike performance is coming back and I'm making ketones. I was at .9 this morning, been above .5 for about 10 days now.
Ketonix readings were 35 prior to the start of the workout. 39 ten minutes after the workout. 48 three and half hours after the workout.
For the purposes of this blog and to help others I'm going to continue posting my top-secret workouts and power numbers for the next few weeks. In all seriousness, I don't really care that I'm sharing this with anyone, power numbers mean nothing if you can't go when you need to go or you can't suffer to hold on.
Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, going to see how my legs feel and we'll go from there. So much to figure out....
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