Big gear day.  Some of my bike workouts involve extended intervals, where I push relatively high power, at a low cadence in a big gear. This type of workout helps build the cycling strength needed for long course triathlon racing.

Tonight’s session was a 4 x 6 minute big gear workout, sandwiched within an overall ride of 80 minutes.  It turned out to be one of my best workouts in a while.  I haven’t been pushing high power since I hurt my knee, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel, going into the session. With this in mind, I was relatively conservative on the first interval.  Half way through that interval however, I already knew it was going to be a good session.  I was pushing good power, my legs felt good and my heart rate was still quite low.

I gradually increased the power from interval to interval and finished out by pushing really hard for the last few minutes.  There is a lesson to be learned here.  That lesson is … ease yourself into a workout.

All too often, we triathletes get all pumped up for a big workout, and we start out going too hard.  It’s alright for a while but then the fatigue and pain sets in, and we end up limping through to the end; or even worse quitting the workout all together.  I have done this many times and will probably do it again, but I am getting better at pacing myself.

It’s been a good training week for me so far. I have a big swim tomorrow, a long bike session on Saturday and an easy bike session on Sunday.  I am also planning to do another treadmill run tomorrow morning.  I can sense that the training volume is starting to increase, and the good news is, that I am super excited about it.