Top left shows time in power zones, top right shows time in heart rate zones, bottom left shows elevation in grey, heart rate in red and power in purple for both races and the bottom right….well, that’s me. As you can see, the 7:00 race is both longer in duration and harder intensity. The big spike in power and heart rate is when I made a dig to cross a gap to the front group after there was a split in the group. The leg is coming around and I can say that because this is the first real kind of effort like that I have felt comfortable attempting in the 7:00 race this year. Bottom right race photo cred: David Longdon

TODAY NOT IN THE GYM:
(Yeah, I’m going to have some fun with this)

Thursday nights in Seattle mean bike racing at Seward Park. This training series has been going for 26 years and is one of the great resources that the local racing community has at its disposal. They have a 5:30 race for people who want to give racing a try, a 6 race for more experienced category 3 & 4 riders and a 7 for the most experienced category 1-3 riders.

I’ve come over and ridden the 5:30 and 6 races with clients to help them with some basic race craft and then raced the 7. I’ve used Seward to prep myself for Masters Nationals as well as having Logan do it when he was prepping for the World Championships as a junior. Last month Logan came over to Seward a few times as he ramped his training back up after a break following U23 Nationals. Last week he won a stage of The Tour of Utah. Coincidence? It really is great training and can be some of the hardest racing we do all year.

As has been the case most Thursday nights the past few weeks I rode to the ferry, took the 35 minute boat trip to Seattle, rolled around at the back of the 6 and then raced the 7 (which for me this year coming back from the broken femur has meant…rolling around at the back of the 7 and surviving). Afterwards I roll back to the ferry, grab the boat home and then roll back to my place.

All in I usually end up with close to 3 hours and 100km with an 1hr45min at race speed. The course is just under a mile in length with a 200 meter hill and a 140 degree turn at the top. That typically translates to being on the gas going up the hill then jumping hard out of a corner.

Tonight I ended up doing 60 laps between the two races. That means I did a minimum of 120 neuromuscular efforts (jumping out of the 140 degree corner and jumping up the hill) with over 2900′ of climbing total. I spent 19 minutes above 161 bpm maxing out at 175 and spent a total of just over 26 minutes over 121% of my functional threshold power. Translation: I got a hell of a workout, outside.

#EnduranceAthletesArePeopleToo #GymJonesEndurance