Super Bowl Ride

A ride to the Snake River out to Swan Falls was not bad. At least the weather warmed to the mid forties by the second half. I ended up actually taking a backpack with a few extra clothes in case the chill stuck around after a nice sweat. I ended up not needing it, but a cold ride back wouldn't be too fun.

I've been going by the Maffetone Method for some time now. Running and riding at 180-age, so keeping my HR at 140 or below. It seems I've hit some standing point. My threshold for pain won't allow my HR to go much higher now. I have gained speed at that heart rate for both bike and run, but going to 150 is about like trying to hit max. Last year, Olympics, Sprints and a very hilly half marathon (November) my HR was lower 170's throughout. And my 10 mile TT's we about the same. For a 5K as late as October I averaged lower 180's for just over 7 min/mile.



The MAF tests I did showed an 8 min mile at 140 HR for five miles. That has since dropped to 9 minutes. On the bike I tested 4 mile route at 140 BPM and averaged 18.8 mph, last week average was 20.0. Problem is the accumulation of lactic acid seems very low now. So time to do some periodization.

Today I had a hard time getting up to 140 on the bike. This is probably good base. But it's interval time. Time to up the threshold a bit. I'll start working a bit more in zone 2 and 3 for now and ramp a bit in to zone 4 later.

Hills today felt like an 8-9 on effort scale of 10, all while HR was in mid 130's. This is what it felt like last year at 165ish.

So on to periodization. Maybe Maffetone will get revisited in the fall. I may continue with the MAF tests, but ramp up the HR a bit.