I was hoping that after resting most of this week I’d be raring to go today. The weather was shaping up to be nice and a bunch of the Intermountain Orthopaedics/Lost River Cycling racers were meeting at Reed Cycle at noon. By the time I got to Reed’s a good-sized group had gathered and they were about ready to head out. The plan was to do a modified Hamilton-Corner Loop.

We headed out at an easy pace and my legs felt good but we weren’t doing anything to hard yet. Once we got to Middleton Rd we headed north and things picked up a little bit. The erratic nature of the pack and wasn’t gibing with what my legs were telling me. Anytime I had to go over 400 watts it just wasn’t feeling that great. So by the time we got to Old Hwy 30, I decided to cut out of the group ride and do my own thing.

We had a tailwind on the way out so I knew I’d have a headwind back but since I wanted to do some low-end VO2 intervals, that would be fine. I hadn’t done VO2’s in a while and I know from past experience that I need to aim low for the first couple VO2 workouts before I develop my top-end. The intervals went okay, but it was difficult to maintain decent wattage. The roads were somewhat rolling which didn’t help. I ended up doing 5×4-minute VO2 intervals with three minutes of rest in between.

After that set I cruised easily for a little while then slowly brought my wattage back up to Tempo range. My legs were feeling somewhat worked at this point but it wasn’t hard. By the time I reached Beacon Light, I was riding at about 270-280 watts and it didn’t seem hard at all. The ride ended up being about 2:35, much shorter than the original ride plan but I think this is a good thing. Leaving something in the tank for tomorrow when it’s supposed to even warmer.