1, 2, 3, 4, 5… crap. Lost count. What’s the screen say? 6 minutes left. Crap. I’ll start counting again at the next minute. 56, 57, 58, ok, start counting pedal strokes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…. focus…. 9, 10, 11. crap. lost count again. How many minutes now?
We’ve been working on building strength in the last few weeks at Endeavor Performance, which means pyramid intervals at or above lactate threshold and all done at 70 rpm.
Normally I try to spin at a cadence higher than 90 rpm, which works the cardiovascular system more than the leg muscles. Tonight we were doing the opposite. Slow cadence and high torque quickly fatigued my leg muscles and forced me to eliminate as many distractions as I could in order to finish the intervals. I settled on counting pedal strokes as the best method.
Since we were holding a steady 70 rpm, all I had to do was count that many pedal strokes for as many minutes as each interval lasted. It worked great for the first two efforts of two and four minutes at 105% of lactate threshold. I started into the next interval of 6 minutes at 100% and quickly found myself losing count. Each time I started counting I would make it to 15 or 20, then I would lose the count for a second and forget if I was on 20 or 30. It didn’t really matter what number I was on, as the mantra of counting was offering the real distraction. Watching the seconds tick by always makes it seem a lot harder.
This class was tougher than usual because I had already been through it two days before (two sessions this week since I will miss next week), and because last week we re-tested power levels and increased our training zones.
…63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70. Can’t believe I counted to 70! Look at the screen. 3 seconds left – cadence must have been a bit high. Oh well. Workout over. I know I will be feeling the combined efforts of tonight, last night, and the night before in the morning.
