Tuesday October 2nd Training RideThe Wheelsucker Report

While it rained on and off most of the day, the Wheelsucker was determined to ride if he could. So he was in the Park & Ride ready to go, before 17:30. With sunset earlier each day the route was reduced to the a single loop, so only doing South Polling House and Bayard once.

His coach's workout instructions were:

"Group ride. Ride how you feel today: If tired, sit in at heart rate 1-3 zones; if fresh, ride race efforts in all zones. Be smart."

At his advanced age the Wheelsucker never actually feels completely rested and fresh. So the Wheelsucker was unsure how to approach the ride (he has this same issue each ride).

Rollout was easy, and the Wheelsucker waited for his muscles to warm up and his breathing to stabilize. But once he was feeling good he surged alone after crossing 214 and hammered hard. It was not quite a steady TT effort, rather the Wheelsucker was going easier on the descents, steady-hard on the flats, but saving enough to go rather harder on the Harwood Hill (331 watts for two minutes) and South Polling House stairstep (440 watts for 1:15) climbs.

It was a hard effort all the way, but when the Wheelsucker hammered across the finish line no other riders were in sight.

However this is most probably due to their being no other riders on the ride than to the Wheelsucker's efforts.

Wheelsucker Data (from 214 to the finish line): 55:49, 20.51 miles
263 watts average, 635 max
140 bpm average, 161 max
84 rpm average, 110 max
22.05 mph average
881 Kj

WHERE WERE YOU GUYS?