my coach threw me a curveball for my ride tonight. a typical workout on the bike is warm-up, maintain a certain heart rate/wattage, then gradually build up. tonight's workout started the same way with a 30 min warm up followed by a tough hour of steady state riding. but rather than building up from there i had to blast right up to my maximum heart rate, hold it, and then start coming down gradually over timed intervals. three minutes into my second set, just below my max hr zone, i had to pull the plug because i went out too hard and overly ambitious. this is the first time i've struggled mentally through a workout and been defeated by one. a few minutes after some easy spinning my legs had recovered and were ready to go again, but by then it was too late. it was already over for me.
i'm trying to think of what i can learn from this and take away from it. right up until i crashed my heart rates and my wattage were bang-on, but for whatever reason i just couldn't push through this one. i was fueled and hydrated and feeling strong. this was a tough workout for sure but i should have been able to get through it. aaaarrrgghhh... very frustrating.
