After feeling a little disappointed lately I was glad to get in a great workout today. I did Pilates in the morning then went for an outdoor ride at around noon. The temperature was right at my limit, 38°F, but it was sunny and seemed like it was going to warm up some more. I started out on the trainer, which has become a habit when I ride outside. I did a 5-minute warm-up push at my functional threshold power (FTP), yet another habit I’ve gotten into. I like doing an effort as part of my warm-up to see how my legs are feeling early on in the workout. Depending on the average power and how my legs feel, I may modify my workout accordingly. Today’s push burned, but my wattage was fine so I decided to go outside for some solid Tempo (Level 3) work.

I headed out on my usual westward route (Floating Feather, Foothill, etc.). Since I never know when I’ll be outside again I did a few sprints to start off. Then I did a nice, long tempo interval for 1hr 35 minutes. Half of the interval was heading west into a headwind; the second half was with a tailwind. Being outside made it easy to keep my wattage up, especially on the headwind portion. There were times my wattage crept up to FTP, but my legs were definitely burning when it did. I kept a conscious effort to keep my wattage up for the duration of the interval. The average power for the interval was 271. Then I cruised home for 20 minutes at Level 2. Total ride time was 2:33 with a norm power of 264. Not terribly long, but a solid workout nonetheless!