IMCDA Training - The Start...

Tonight was the official start of my IMCDA training. It was Sweatlab night. Admittedly, I was a little nervous about going as I haven't been for quite some time and I know the workouts are hard. Now that it's done, I'm quite proud I hung in there...but I was right - it was hard. No, it wasn't hard, it was FRIGGIN hard. haha.

The program was 2 hours long at various cadences (80, 90, 95 rpm) with a set power (or watt) threshold. I haven't done the watt threshold test yet, so wasn't quite sure what to set it at....or how to set it for that matter.

Luckily I was sitting beside John and he helped me out a ton! Once I got the computrainer calibrated it was a matter of listening to what he said we had to do, then doing it.

I can't remember what my threshold naturally set itself too, I think it was around 180 watts. John pointed out that that was likely a bit high for now. Okeydokey! haha. So I lowered it to 150 watts. Mind you, I'm not holding this - this is just what the computer uses to set my resistance....I think. In all honesty, I have no idea how this magical computrainer works. I just know it automatically gets harder and easier. (All relatively speaking of course.)

Within about 10 minutes of the workout I was glistening perfusely, haha. By about the 1.5 hour mark, I wasn't sure I could keep going. So I tapped into my mantra about 'expanding my comfort zone'...that didn't really help though because I thought 'I'm beyond comfortably uncomfortable!' haha. John saw I was struggling, and likely heard the f-bombs I was dropping under my breath, so suggested I turn the threshold down. For a split second I was thinking 'No! I don't want to wimp out!'. Then reality hit me and I remembered I haven't done a hard workout like this in a while and it was going to take a bit to get back into the game.

I turned the threshold down and carried on. It was still quite hard, but I dug deep and kept going. My quads hurt like hell, especially when we did standing drills, and I was drenched in sweat but I didn't give up. I noticed during this time that it felt 'easier' to spin at a higher cadence. Hmmm. Finally, the 2 hour mark appeared on the screen. Wooo hoooo!!! I did it!! I am so glad John helped me out and I stuck with it. It gave me the little boost I needed.

I see how much work I will have to do this year to accomplish my goal of sustained power, but I know I can do this. Especially when I have the support of riding buddies. This type of workout is what I will need to accomplish that goal because that's exactly what it is....a sustained power workout over set period of time.

The final numbers were 106 watts average power, 144 bpm average heart rate, and about 56 km.

I am now ready for an Epsom salt bath....sigh....

PS I did try to do a brick run after the bike...I made it about 400 m and thought, I'm cold, tired and hungry. So headed back to the house, haha. I feel absolutely no guilt about that either! LOL.