Fuel For The Slow Burn

Welcome to Base 2 Loyal Grinders. After a very relaxing week of rest and recovery with an LT power test thrown in for good measure, this past Monday saw things off with a solid 2600m swim workout and some heavy-duty, muscular endurance-styled work with the weights. Tuesday we got up on the rollers with the tri bike, again, feeling it out and getting it dialed in. I feel pretty good on it, at least so far as I can tell from riding the drums, and I know once I get those final tweaks in on the road this spring it's going to be a perfect machine for the long-course.

I'm not sure how exactly this happened, but someone must have snuck into my house, all tip-toe-like, and filled my trusted DS Trainers with cement without my knowing. You see, Wednesday brought around one of my big workouts: around about 90 minutes of sub-LT tempo pieces on the bike immediately followed by 45 minutes of sub-LT tempo running. The ass-kicker of it was the big power I was putting out on the bike (compliments of my latest power "test scores") which on the run that followed, caused my leg turnover to feel major s-l-u-g-g-i-s-h. Or at least I thought... Reviewing the data afterwards, the numbers were right where they should have been. But, I was positive there was cement in my shoes. In retrospect, it was probably just the 30 extra pounds of lactic acid in my quads.

Today greeted me with a swim workout where I concentrated on "force". So, lots of laps with the pull-buoy and paddles, lots of kick-sets, and plenty of FS thrown in there to keep the form up. I spooned out 2700m this morning before work, and then another go around with the weights this afternoon. Thump.

Yessiree Bob. Base 2 is where the magic happens. I can't wait to blow the circuits on that power meter next time I go toe-to-toe with it.

Another thing that goes in hand with Base 2 is an added riding day on the weekends. Now, in addition to the long run on Sundays, I can look forward to a long ride on Saturdays. And with the weather being so favorable here in the Northeast, it's going to be great to get outside a little earlier than usual this year. And while there's still a bite in the air, rest assured you can find me at a coffee shop at all the halfway points of my spring rides.

Who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other?

Keep it easy.