Finding the limits

Everyone has their limits. I think I may have found some of mine this evening. As I've been doing all winter, I set out to complete three 20-minute intervals at sub-threshold power levels. Coach Scott has raised the target power zone for this workout each week, putting me at a new high tonight.

While these workouts, which I've been doing twice a week, are always painful, tonight was, by far, the most painful. I pushed through the whole set, but it wasn't easy. Maybe because it was my 11th-consecutive day on the bike, and I probably didn't take my easy ride on Monday quite easily enough. I've got one more workout planned for this week, another set of three 20-minute intervals, and I'll certainly be taking tomorrow's easy day very seriously so I can hopefully get through the week's last set.

Don't worry about me over training: Following Thursday's ride, I'll be off the bike for four days, skiing with my brother in Colorado for two of those days, and traveling for the other two. After that, it's five days of riding in Austin. If that sounds good to you, rest assured that it sounds even better to me. While in Texas I'll be riding some of the best and brightest bikes of 2011 in the process of determining Bicycling's Editor's Choice bikes, and will not be riding my own bike at all.

The privilege of testing new models is, at once, one of the most exciting and onerous aspects of my job. To clarify, I say onerous only because I'll be separated from my power meter, which I've quickly come to view as an important training tool. There was a time, really not that long ago, when I viewed even a simple cycling computer as an ugly, unnecessary addition to an otherwise clean and beautiful bike. How things change. I guess, if I miss the quarq too much I'll just console myself in some Super Record or Di2.

Life, is rough. And, as we all know, even if I'm complaining about not riding my own bike, I have no limits where new gear is concerned.