Level 2/3 ride ~ A Bit of A Hiatus

I felt a bit under the weather after last Tuesday's session and I remember getting home a realising that my lumbar region was aching. Shirley has had a virus and I think I might have been fighting it off. I've had symptoms but not had them if you know what I mean, in fact I don't think I would have noticed them at all if I wasn't trying to train. I went out on Thursday night but my body just did not want to play game, I just could not get my heart rate up or get the power down on the pedals. I soon had my windproof top on and was making my way back home. Experience of using a power meter has taught me that if perceived exertion is high, but power is low then it's best to call it a day.

Yesterday I felt OK and managed my plyometrics, they are getting easier and I can do more tuck jumps without having to stop for breath (I could only do 5 per set when I first started). 

Today has been wall to wall sunshine, so very different from the fog of last week so I set off through the lanes. I was soon taking it easy along any shaded bits of tarmac as there was a lot of black ice and I could feel the tyres loosing traction even on the straights. I attempted some threshold efforts, but they still felt a bit too hard so I settled for 3x 5mins at 100% and then just rode along at high endurance and mid tempo for 3.5 hours. I finished off with some 1 min efforts at 110% and 115rpm. Despite enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, I still felt disappointed at not being able to work a bit harder. However, I was pleased to see that the ride had produced a pleasing 219tss which was a lot more than I had expected. Average normalised power put the ride just into level 3 (tempo).