Give it to Me Straight

Back in the training mode. Did a grueling workout last Saturday at Coach Stan-O's house, consisting of 2 sets of 20 minute LT's, with 5 VO2 max efforts at the end. This was some serious stuff. I have to admit, that this one burned off almost every match in my book. The following morning, since I had a 3 hour submax ride on my plan, I hooked up with the local cycling club, Proctor Racing.

We had about 10 guys show up in 28 degrees & sunshine. I figured it would be a semi-tame stroll through the fields of Central Illinois. Three plus hours and MANY efforts above the 400+ watt range, and I was a wounded soldier. I have to admit, that my friend Pain did stop by, only for tea & crumpets though. By Monday evening, I had shuffled him out the door.

Last night, we had more LT efforts to do, again! 2 x 15 minutes each at 95% effort. Grueling. The Badger & Myself pounded them out, with The Young One nursing some athlete's foot or something.

One of the "important" things that Coach Stan-O looks at when we are done with each set, is what our cadence, or revolutions per minute are on the cranks, for pedaling. High cadence, like 90-100 is good, I guess. The Turtle on the other hand, seems to be inflicted with a hereditary, non-curable displacement called "Low-Cadence Syndrome" or LCS as they call it in the athlete/medical world.

I get an e-mail this am regarding my workout file I sent to him last night, and he sent his feedback, starting off as follows: "Nice solid intervals Stevo. Your cadence sucks however - 83 on 1st and 79 on second" I in turn explain that I was born with LCS, making it impossible to turn a higher cadence for such efforts, all turtles are inflicted with this non-curable syndrome.

I even included the most recent photo of myself, for your viewing pleasure. As you can see, I have a VERY short inseam, which means that I cannot turn pedals faster, unlike The Badger, who is born with longer legs, good for cycling, running, gathering prey & lawyering. Turtles are also very low to the ground, which makes them vulnerable, especially when cycling. (Throw me a bone here, I'm reaching)

After my self esteem was knocked down several notches, I e-mailed Coach Stan-O back, and asked, could you be more honest? He already included the response I was going to get, "Tough Love my Friend!"