No Pain, No Gain…Power Details from last night

The last 30 minutes of this ride were BRUTAL…simulated hilly endurance on the trainer.  I had to use the biggest gear on a mag trainer to get the rpms and power to match what was needed for hills in zone 4-5a for 3 mins every half hour.  Only did the Hills for the first 3 1/2 hrs.  Probably could have done more but I was being stubborn and did not want to waste time going upstairs for more water…even though I had gone through a 1/2 gallon already.  Started conserving my last two bottles with 1 1/2 hrs to go and still ran out with 45 minute to go…coffee + indoor rides = SWEATING!  Gave in and filled one last bottle upstairs to finish out the 5 hrs.  I think I was behind on water and sugar at this point though because of trying to conserve and not “waste time” running upstairs or wake up my family.  But rides like this are all about overcompensation on the fluids and food.  Try to conserve and end up behind.  This actually wastes more time by not putting down good power when behind on energy and then longer recovery time needed the days after the ride.

Other news….and things I watch to be motivated for rides as such…

What was Sven Nys doing here?  Were those tactics to keep Pauwels from the front and away from Stybar so they could not work together?  Looked a little fishy especially with only 2 points separating them in the Series Overall?  Does Nys  usually ride that much worse than Stybar in the tech stuff?  It looked on purpose to keep him and Pauwels from the front… anyone know why the bike switch by Pauwels?

After seeing his performance in last years Tour de France I think Gesink is a man to watch.  Looks like good form early on…

And with a TT like this it looks like he may be working on what is needed to be competitive…climbing and TT’s.  Cancellara may have had a bad day, but when you can beat the World Champ you may want to count TT’s as one of your strong cycling disciplines.

Thanks for reading and watching.