AGAINST THE WIND

Very hard ride today on the dike. Original idea was to cover easy tempo riding of  150 kms, but we got lost and end up doing 175 kms. It was hard due to the constant cross wind (look at the angle of the grass on the photo) and because I got fed up with the wind and started pushing like hell. Good training.

Um treino pesado hoje em cima do dique. A idea original era fazer um treino relativamente fácil de 150 kms, mas acabamos fazendo 175 kms. Foi duro por causa do vento forte (dá uma olhada no ângulo da grama na foto) e porque eu fiquei cansado do vento contra e puxei pesado na última metade. Um bom treino.

 

During the last 2 rides I’ve been having problems with cramps. Especially on the hamstrings and after a distance of 130 kms. Usually that is a sign of lack of endurance. I’ve been training lots of interval sessions and power but every time I was going to the real long rides the cramps were showing up.

To really check if this is true, I wanted to do a steady tempo ride around 150 kms. A colleague from Nike agreed to ride with me leaving from my home and we start at around 9:00 in the morning. The beginning of the dike is around 10 kms from my home and it is quite boring thru the city.

From there we just got into a rhythm and covered the next 60 kms. We kept the speed around 33 to 35 kms/h and heart rate of 160 bpm. It was a good pace and it didn’t felt too heavy. In Rhenen we went thru the steep Pardenveld street that goes up to 7%. It is a good steep climb but not very long. From there we lost the way and end up adding a lot of kilometers that were not in the plan.

Once we find the way back we had already 130 kms in the legs and we went back to the dike and immediately got headwind. I was getting fed up with the wind the whole day and decided to push hard to get back home. I push the heart to 170 bpm to keep a speed of 32 km/h. It was a good effort. But with still 30 kms to get home I decided to save energy.

The last 30 kilometers were done in a heart rate of 160 and speed around 28 to 30 km/h. At the end I was totally exhausted and used all my energy. I didn’t bunk and kept the speed at a good level and didn’t have any cramps the whole day. Exactly what I wanted to do: long training, no cramps and good effort.