Bike Test - How Bizarre!!

Bike Test
September 2, 2014

A little background first:
My coach has been having me train with heart rates. I have 5 heart rate zones:

• Zone 1 - Easy; can have conversations
• Zone 2 - Moderate, can state sentences
• Zone 3 - TEMPO - Strong effort, can maintain; few words
• Zone 4 - LACTATE THRESHOLD - Max effort possible for 1 hour; one word This is where your body fails to handle the acide that is produced by your muscles and things start to HURT!
• Zone 5 - Max effort possible for 1-2 minutes

Each zone has a set heart rate range. My coach assigns workouts by heart rate zones. A workout might say, "Zone 2 for 45 minutes with 5 fifteen second builds in the middle." I kind of like training by heart zones because it takes the guesswork out of how taxed I really am. If I'm feeling tired but my heart rate is only in zone 1, then I know I'm not really tired.

Today was my first test to see where zone 4 was (lactate threshold). Once my coach knew that, he'd be able to calculate the other zones.
So . . . I'm on the trainer in my basement with my coach there to "help." He had me get on the bike and start pedaling a warm-up at a 90 cadence in a fairly easy gear. Then he told me to move to a higher gear and keep the same cadence. And then a higher gear. When I was giving everything I could, he said, "OK, now we will begin the 20 minute test."

Immediately, I was fatigued. My head dropped. My eyes closed. "Open your eyes," Coach reminded. I was so glad that he didn't say to look down an imaginary road because I could not have lifted my head. 

Coach asked if I wanted the fan on. I thought to myself, "He wants me to talk. There is no way that I am going to talk. Talking takes energy." I think I grunted. I guess with the sweat dripping off my face, he figured that grunt meant yes.

I looked at my Garmin and only four minutes had passed. How in the world was I going to do 20 minutes? My coach started saying encouraging things in an encouraging tone like, "Your feet are light as air."

At ten minutes, my focus was to just keep my cadence going. I was dying. Not pain - just utter fatigue.

The strangest part about all of this was that another person (my coach) was watching me die. The only things I was controlling were my legs. I couldn't control my breathing. I couldn't talk. I couldn't control my sweat. I was breathing so hard through my mouth that I was drooling. And there I was, totally out of control of my body (except my legs) while my coach was sitting there relaxed in a recliner just watching me. How bizarre!

I had no idea how I was doing. I kept thinking, "I am totally dying and I am probably just being a weenie. Coach is probably so disappointed in me."  Then, during the last few minutes, Coach said, "Good Sue."  I have never been so appreciative of two words.

During the last minute, my coach asked, "Does it feel harder to you Sue?" I couldn't figure out why he asked that. I thought maybe he had turned up the resistance. It did not feel harder.  Then Coach said, "OK, let's stop."   But I still had a minute left.  Why quit a minute early?  I was so fixated on keeping my cadence up for the full 20 minutes, that I told him that we still had another minute and kept going.

When we were finished, Coach said my heart rate had gone up to 180 or so toward the end. He thinks I started working harder as in sprinting to the finish. But I knew that the test needed to be a steady effort so I didn't start a sprint. 

 I think my heart rate monitor was just being weird. But I'm glad that happened because my coach now probably has a better sense of how scary it is when your heart rate goes up so high.

At any rate, I was very, very happy that the test was over.  

Note:  The photo of me on the bike is actually from my second bike test which went much better.  Coach sent me that picture as a text later in the day with the message, "Caught you in action!"  Shoot.  I didn't even want him to be looking at me and he was snapping photos!  I immediately sent a return text:  "Do NOT put this on Facebook!"  I was just so relieved that the photo didn't show me drooling!