a lil quickie today!

Due to a small snafu this am we've had a small shuffling of workouts today, just moving a tempo ride to tomorrow...... and tonight I have my final round of hill bounding. I feel like I have done these forever but tonight I kiss them goodbye.

Because Monday starts the next phase.... the phase you patiently sit in basework forever for....

SPEEDWORK!

It's been so stinking long since I have done any focused speedwork.... like over a year. and I mean focused. Specific targets for distance, pace and the T word (track). I can't wait and I can't believe I said that I couldn't wait!!!!

Here is something interesting that one of my friends sent out this am..... K Dub is his name and he's on my blog roll over there. He will be writing a blog about this..... I find it interesting as I am often asked.... when is the best day to train?????

I've spent some time researching the data on how time of day affects athletic perf. I'm planning to put up a blog post, but in summary EVERYONE has a pretty significant variation in perf over the day. In the early AM data indicates that people average about 10% worse in terms of max effort vs afternoon. This is due to an lower ability to raise HR and to generate power. This delta persists in elite athletes and even in folks who consider themselves morning people. Warm-up does not remove the delta.

Among the most interesting stats/studies backing this up is that nearly 100% of world records in endurance events were set between 4-6PM.

I have started to account for this delta when I set my cycling wattage goals. My afternoon targets are higher than early AM ones, but the RPE works out the same.