Sprint practice and weigh-in

Today's trainer workout was inspired by part of a workout that Chris Charmichael posted for Stage 3 of the Tour yesterday. His version is preceded by a 1 hour 30 minute Zone 2 ride, but I did it as a separate workout today. In short, the workout proper is an interval workout (after a fasion), with a 10-15 second maximum effort, couldn't-go-any-harder-if-you-were-at-gunpoint out-of-the-saddle sprint, followed by a 5- to 8-minute recovery. Beginners, he recommends, should do six of these intervals; intermediate riders ten, and experienced riders fifteen. The basic theory behind it is to drain the muscles of their ATP, then allow your body to fully replenish those stores with a recovery period, then drain them again. The muscles are being trained to superadapt by developing a higher density of mitochondria and glycogen stores, increasing the muscle's responsiveness to stimulus from the somatic nervous system, and improving the speed of the transmission along those nerves.

Anyway ... given that, I did a beginner-level Sprint workout (Coach C. calls them FlatSprints, IIRC) this morning while watching Stage 4 of the Tour. All told, I did forty minutes (including a few seconds' time before sprints to shift gears appropriately and then jam) plus the warmup, stretch, additional warmup, and warmdown. It was a pretty good workout, but I think the next time I do it I can move up to the intermediate level because I still had a LOT left in the tank after. Or, perhaps, Coach C. knows what he's doing more than I do, and I need to add that workout to the end of an Endurance Miles workout just like he said LOL.

Weigh-in this morning: 231.0 pounds (+2.9). I am sure that it's because I hadn't gotten on the trainer hardly at all the previous two weeks. That won't be a problem this week :D