I guess you could call my century training plan building blocks: I\’m starting with small steps; and I\’ll let them build up over time.

Last week I took a break from pace-pushing and force exercises; and yesterday, I began again with pace work. Now I\’m working for five minutes of pushing for 15 mph or faster; and three minutes of easy riding in between efforts. Before now, I had done four minutes \”on\”; four minutes \”off\”; and I need to get used to riding harder, for longer at a time.

So there\’s a little bit of build! Next week, I can make the pace efforts six minutes long; and keep the easy in-between riding to three minutes. The following week will be \”break week\”; and the week after that, I can increase the pace efforts to seven minutes; and so on. Hence, building blocks.

Now, how about the \”force\” intervals? Ten seconds at a time now seems like too little; but is 45 seconds too much? I think that several years of doing these exercises once a week (admittedly with breaks several months long!) has helped; so I need to keep them up. Especially if I\’ve got any idea of riding 100 miles in one day! I feel like I\’m a bit stronger than I used to be; but I wish I could know whether my power has improved!

Forcing It?

Today I worked on those “force” intervals, and made them 30 seconds long. The workout had a rather loose structure. First, I rode comfortably for about 10 minutes; and then I began the intervals. After I did my half-minute, I rode easily until I felt recovered; and then began another hard effort.

I lost count of how many force intervals I did; but it wasn’t a huge number. The overall ride, in fact, was rather short. As long as there isn’t a Love to Ride challenge in progress, I can omit a few miles; and I got started a bit late, anyway. Besides, there\’s no point in forcing it too hard and/or too often. Why risk an overuse injury?

The sky was heavily overcast, and I’m glad it didn’t rain. I didn’t see any lightning, either. Yesterday morning, outward-bound, I saw flashes of lightning in the clouds off to the South and West. Good thing that lightning was far away!

I suppose you could call a cyclist\’s diet building bocks, too; whether you\’re omnivore, vegan, or in between. We need proper nutrition to keep healthy and strong, even if we aren\’t Tour de France material — which I definitely am not. Despite all the \”building blocks\” that I have on hand (e.g. broccoli), I came home and couldn\’t face cooking. One of those days!