30/30 Intervals Revisited

A couple of years ago, Mark Twight from Gym Jones introduced me to the 30/30 interval workout. Go hard for 30 seconds, go easy for 30 seconds. Repeat. Or so I thought. Although I came to really like this workout, it turns out that I really did not understand the concept and performed them incorrectly. It's no wonder that I liked them as much as I did. Going really easy during the rest interval allows for decent recovery and makes you feel pretty damn strong during the work bouts. I don't think performing them in this fashion is a complete waste of time but, as you will see, performing them correctly is a different beast.

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Training and Racing Observations - week 4/18 to 4/25

Since most of you are interested in my musings on all things training and racing, I thought I would start a regular post discussing my previous week's efforts both preparing and performing, successes and failures and how I think I got there. Lot's of stuff goes through my head guiding my decisions on volume and intensity for any particular block. Perhaps writing my thought processes here will give others insight that could help their own progress.

I finished the 25 hour, 8-day endurance fest with a long drive over two days. I was not able to get on the bike for either of those days so last Monday and Tuesday were a bust for miles. Wednesday I decided to hit with all guns blazing. My Restwise score was 90 which indicated I was good to go.

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Endurance block comments

I'm back in Jackson after a long two-day drive back from the Mexico border. I did what I set out to accomplish this past week getting 25 hours of bike time in 8 days. For a near 50 year old working stiff, that is a significant chunk of training volume. Attempting to be intelligent about it, I drove home without getting on the bike, effectively getting a two -day recovery. My sensation walking around today is that I am quite recovered. My Restwise score (80) indicates as much. Of course, numbers are great but all I care about is how I will feel in the weight room and on the ride after work today. Time will tell.

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Training Monotony

After discussing over-training in the last couple of posts and introducing readers to the on-line recovery monitoring tool Restwise I thought I would maintain this vein of commentary and talk about training monotony a little further.

The idea of training becoming monotonous is easy to grasp emotionally but it’s important to understand the subtleties of the concept and how they apply to our conditioning program.

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Cycling Begins...

As strange as it sounds to say on March 7th, I have not been on skis for two full weeks now. This time last season I was still putting in huge days with bouts of intensity getting ready for the two biggest rando races of the season - The Wasatch Powderkeg and the National Championships here in Jackson. Well, as everyone knows, this season has not exactly been huge on the snowfall front. It has also been sketchy with a predictably unpredictable snow pack that has killed at least one friend. So, when the temps warmed and the skies cleared I got on my bike and went for a road ride. Nice. I'm not skimo racing for the rest of this year so it matters little.

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