Sweatfest

Today was the first day I've done a sweatfest at Todd's studio. It's 2.5 hours of suffering on the CompuTrainer. Thankfully half my team was there (Anna, Lisa, Parri, Lisa, Jonell) and the room was full (Jeff, Gerry, Cindy, Bain, Shawn, Mitch, Chuck), which made the trainer tolerable for that long. I ended up, with warm up, riding 2:45 minus 3.5 minutes when I got off to stretch. Todd gave us a 10-minute break, but we had only 30 minutes remaining and I just didn't want to get cold. So I was off just long enough to stand up and fill up my water bottles.

After the suffering (Parri requested a hill, and we got a hill!), we cleaned up slightly and celebrated Parri's birthday. Team B knows how to feed a group! We had a great selection of food that of course we devoured after the hard class, the rest of the lovely ladies showed up, some husbands and kids joined us, and we discussed the snow that's coming tomorrow.

For the 2:45 ride, my average HR was about 165, my max HR was 182, and my average watts was about 167. Todd said to stay between 160 and 191. That was a huge range and, other than the hill Parri requested and another longer but less steep hill in the middle, we rode flat or downhill most of the class. I found it very difficult to get and keep my watts up during the descents. And I found myself wondering whether it really mattered. Outside, you have the road to help you. Inside, you have nothing to help you—if you want to increase your speed, even on the downhill, you just have to pedal. Pedal I did, but it didn't do enough good and my watts still decreased at every downhill.