This has been a great 3-day training block and my body is cooked.
by Alison Powers, ALP Cycles Coaching
In February ALP Coach, Alison Powers, announced that she had signed up for SBT GRVL, a 141-mile race with 100 miles on dirt/gravel roads in Steamboat, Colorado. With race day approaching, she’s been blogging every day leading up to the race. She blogs about the specifics of her training, her preparation, headspace, etc. All the things that lead up to race day that not everyone gets to see or understand.
10 days to go - Thursday, August 8th
Today was an early morning so I could get to Boulder to meet and ride with one of my ALP Cycles Coaching athletes. He is a very strong rider and would be on a TT bike, so I needed to bring my ‘A’ game (that’s part of the reason I didn’t go longer yesterday). Surprisingly, I felt just fine after yesterday’s ride. We are both training for an event on the 18th- not the same one but the training and taper strategy is very similar. On tap for today was 3x10min of 40/20’s. 40sec at VO2 watts, 20 sec off. Repeat for 10min, rest for 10min and then do 2 more times. Warm up and cool down included sweet spot and tempo intervals.
It was a very good session. For me, it was like motor pacing as I sat on his wheel in the draft (there’s no way I could keep up if I rode next to him). He rode well, and it was nice to spend time with him person and see him put in the work on the bike. Total time was just under 3hrs.
After the ride, I was pretty cooked. The 40/20’s put a hurt on me (even in his draft). Recovery drink and then back home for dog walking and work.
Evening time brought our weekly Thursday night friends ride. The weather made it so we rode after fries, burgers, beers. Every part of my body was angry at this ride, but the fun factor was huge. We were maybe out for 1hr? 45min? 75min? I’m not really sure, but it was worth it.
This has been a great 3 day training block and my body is cooked. Time to rest and get dialed.
