Today was a good recovery day and an important one. Mondays are important days and I find it to be perhaps THE most important day of the week. It sets up the rest of the week in terms of overall volume, and more importantly, I tend to recover much quicker if I do a recovery ride rather than taking the day off entirely. Looking back at my training log, I've noticed that I tend to struggle for most of the week and only feel completely recovered on Thursday if I miss the Monday ride. And thus the quality and volume of my Tuesday and Wednesday rides tend to suffer. So it is important that I do not miss the Monday ride from now on, though mentally, it tends to be the toughest day on which to ride because I tend to be tired from the weekend, have to recalibrate my internal clock so that I wake up early--much earlier than the weekend, and also think--incorrectly--that I have all week to make up for the lost volume.
Today I broke the ride up into two parts to make sure I got it done and to prevent too much exercise stress. I rode 70 minutes this morning and then 101 minutes this evening. I felt great on the first ride, and even better on the second ride. 170w for the morning ride and 192w for the evening ride, capping both rides at 124bpm. The total for the day. FL: 2:51:59; 182w; ###bpm; 79rpm; 19.6mph.
My motivation right now is extremely high. I think that in retrospect it was probably a good thing that I got a little sick, which forced me to delay my Tempo training. Tempo training is very tough mentally and physically and you need to be completely focused to complete the training block. I don't think I was ready yet and I think the extra time will help me in the long run. On the other hand, with only 6 months to go, the margin for error is becoming smaller. While I have a good base, I have a lot of work to do if I am going to go sub 10. I now have to pick up my training and stick to my program. I can no longer afford to miss periods, days, or workouts. The time is now.
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