Beautiful indoor ride

Some people really hate riding indoors, but I am not one of them, really it gives me so much more control over HR zones and does not involve any of the complexities of riding in the world!

This was a strangely enjoyable one. Brent's condo has much better air-conditioning than the gym, and I can point the fan directly at myself.

I listened to some favorite albums of my youth (Sinead O'Connor, Prince) and some more recent (Sam Prekop), and I structured the 3-hour stretch in the style of Spinervals.

(To give credit where credit is due, the first set here is actually from Workouts in a Binder for Indoor Cycling - this is an excellent resource, and the particular bit I borrowed is an endurance workout that Lauren and I have done several times recently; the second is a classic Troy Jacobson Spinervals bit used as filler for long workouts; the last is a mid-week higher-intensity interval workout recommended by Gale Bernhardt for long-course triathletes in the truly indispensable Training Plans for Multisport Athletes, a book that should be in every library!).

One of the many things I love about swimming is the structure of a classic pool workout, which feels to me like an enjoyable corset (I particularly like workouts that come in symmetrical or balanced chunks, i.e. always more appealing to structure as 5 x 400 than to just mess along in bits and bobs).

Warmup: 3 x 6 mins. (2 mins. easy, 2 mins. transition to zone 2, 2 mins. zone 2)

Set 1:

6 x 2 mins. zone 2, 1 min. recovery
3 mins. set rest
6 x 3 mins. zone 2, 1 min. recovery

Set 2 (starting at 1:10):

3 x 15 mins., with 5 mins. recovery: (1) and (3) alternating 1 min. standing and 1 min. seated in medium-hard gear, (2) seated alternating 1 min. hard and 1 min. easy

Set 3 (starting at 2:10):

4 x 8 mins. zone 3, 2 mins. recovery

10 mins. cooldown

Totals:

3:00 (avg HR 132, max HR 155)

zone 1: 54:08
zone 2: 1:29:51
zone 3: 28:08
zone 4: 1:56