It takes money to make money

You know that saying about the rich getting richer or that it takes money to make money? I'm starting to feel that the same thinking applies to training. It takes fitness to make fitness. I'm going on my 3rd year of good solid consistent training (Morris plan). And I think I've got some money in my realestate that is appreciating in value.

This year, more than any year in the past I'm just feeling less torn up from these first intervals. I'm not sure if it's the accumulated fitness, or that fact that I did some harder rides prior to entering this phase but I've entered them strongly. In the past the first week of SMSP has usually been a real struggle.

But it just seems that the fitness and tolerance built up from the past few years has set me up to work hard w/o feeling as blown up. As any good over analyzer it worries me that 'I'm not working hard enough'.

But the 'hard enough' part is taken care of by the power setting on the trainer. The goal is to do the entire workout at the highest power level that I can. So either I can do it or I can't. If I can't than it's more than hard enough.

They are hard and my face is as contorted as ever while doing them. And Mentally it's tougher than the past cause I don't have the same eager enthusiasm as when I first got my plan from Dave. But in the past I've also been pretty trashed from doing them. Right now I do feel fatigued and HUNGRY ALL THE TIME, but otherwise not too bad.

Yesterday was some 3sets of 8x1on 1 off. The first set was at a higher power level than my first day of 1 min intervals so some adaptation has occured. In fact it was easy to the point of my almost questioning the calibration on my Tacx. Though the next two sets were hard enough that I failed a few reps and had to bump the power setting down. It was encouraging though.

These weeks on the trainer are also mentally tough because you're training in a bubble. Yes I've got the quantitative feedback of the trainer to tell me how I'm doing. But it's not the same as riding outside with a group or in a race, where reality is king.

Compared to last year I'm running almost the same power levels. Maybe a tad higher. But I am also doing at least one additional rep compared to last year. So that's added between 7 and 9 minutes of work over last year. AND I'm also close to 7-8 lbs lighter. Boo Yah!

For the future, I plan on shooting for the same total work but place more emphasis on upping the power output.