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Lactate Threshold Training: 10X Repeats on upper Pave Alpine Rd
Get Shimano Di2 @AMAZON at Amazon.com.
I’m loving the 34 cog on Shimano Di2. It lets me spin through slightly steeper pitches with a flick of the shifter. This pays off for hill repeats, and I think it will pay off for endurance events with steep climbs.
While five double centuries in two months has paid off handsomely in deep reserves of aerobic endurance, my lactate threshold and peak power now needs attention as spring waxes and summer approaches.
The next big event is Alta Alpina 8-Pass Challenge, and since Steven Barnes (organizer of the Everest Challenge) seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth (I hope he’s OK), the Alta Alpina 8-Pass Challenge is the only major hard-ass goal for me left this year. And one I have designs on winning. So I need to make sure my peak power and anaerobic fitness are pushed up, and I have about 3 weeks to do that.
Shown below is a 10-repeat workout, average time 9:34 @ 313 watts. I could definitely feel the burn by repeat 6, but it was perfectly tolerable. I could probably have done 12 and maybe more, but I had work to do and could not afford the time. For me, 313 watts is a bit disappointing; I should be doing at least 330 watts or so on these repeats. But, well, I’m some years older than 2012 and maybe age is acting up. More threshold training will prove or disprove that.
Besides, it was National DumbF**k Day on Alpine Road: wrong side of road drivers, dogs on leashes spanning road, and one dumbass with his car in park (you can’t make that stuff up!) on a blind corner in the middle of road, with a cyclist crashed as a result, with me narrowly missing. I yelled at this sh*t for brains to move his car over, but he wanted to argue about it while his car remained in park in the middle of the one-lane road (as it had been), a deadly obstacle for the next hapless cyclist to round the steep curve in the road. Nothing wrong the car, something seriously wrong with the brain. Where is that phaser when you need it?
