Threshold Test!

Yesterday was 70 and sunny and the day of my Threshold test.  After lingering over breakfast for 2 hours I rode out to Sauvie Island (flat, slightly windy to a non-midwesterner) and did a 20 minute TT.  I warmed up for 20 minutes and did a couple of spin ups and max efforts, and then started the test.  Only once did I have to pull out in front of a car so as not to slow down..

I'm not really sure how to do these things, so I just gradually pushed harder and tried to go all out on the last 5 minutes.  It hurt pretty bad at the end.  Of course I always think when it is over that I could have gone harder, but could I have really?  I guess one only knows after doing a lot of these same types of efforts.

My average watts were 202, or 4.05 Watts/kg.  (There Morgan, some numbers!  Never posted those before.)  Not sure how the number stack up but I'll see what coach says.  I think they are not excellent, but not bad, and certainly fine for a the first Threshold test of the season (?)  Looking back, I really think I could at least average 210W.. !!

The rest of the day was too nice to rest, so I rode home (45 minutes in the wind, stopped for a lemonade) and ate some food, then went back out with Dan, Clint and Kristin.  Clint is Dan's boss at the Hub and Kristin is his fiance and my teammate. Kristin's got quite the story...  Last season, she was in a crash on the last lap of a crit, and suffered a freak brain injury that left her in a coma.  After a crazy few months and some therapy, she's about back to normal.  Talk about a strong lady :-)  She's pretty amazing.  She's back on her bike now and doing well!  We climbed up SW Montgomery onto Skyline yesterday and she dropped me on all of the descents, which I am still a little scared of.  She kept saying "anona--look THROUGH the turn!  look where you want to go!" which helps, but sometimes I just look at the ground....  oops.  It was a good ride.  We could see four (maybe even five!) snow-capped mountain peaks!  And two dead snakes!

We were going to ride at 9 this morning, but it didn't happen :-)  We've got all day... no races this weekend!