For those who haven’t kept up on my participation in the hardest indoor bicycle tour of an imaginary place, you can see my original post here. The tour involves 9 stages, 9 days of high intensity indoor training straight through. Today I get ready for stage 3 but I wanted to recap the first two stages. Stage 1 was two parts, The Elements of Style and The Long Scream.
Part 1 of Stage 1 – The Elements of Style. My style sucks. These videos often expect you to average 90-100rpm for cadence. 90 is about my top end, 100 I look like a Fraggle being shaken around by the puppetmaster. Today was no different. What really sucked is that, although I felt I had properly rested, recovered, and fueled, as soon as I dove into stage 1 I knew I wasn’t quite there. Elements of Style is really the most basic video designed to make sure all systems are go before we get into it. All systems were surely not go, but I pushed through.
That brings us to the second part of stage 1. I had never seen the video before and I knew I was in trouble as soon as it started. To sum up the beginning – we assume you’re already warmed up and ready, now GO! Yup, it’s basically a 30 some minute sprint where you’re expected to increase your effort throughout. I suffered miserably! It was hard, but I managed to make it through!
Here’s screen captured of my stats for the first stage. Not great, but I made it. And just think, only 8 more grueling stages to go, right? RIGHT??? They can’t all be this hard….
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Elements of Style
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The Long Scream
