It’s selfie time again! Er, I mean, time for another double Defender day. Dare I say I’m riding myself back into shape? Okay, maybe not. Alternating between fatigued and energized.
First Defender:
MAP 100%/FTP 75% - last interval: 100/75/80/85/90.
Seconder Defender:
MAP 85%/FTP 80% - last interval: 85/80/80/85/90
Average power and distance were almost exactly the same despite the different intensity.
But regardless of the legs, I’m always making sure I remember who and what I’m riding for.
Back to a single Defender day. Busy morning avoiding laser goats and Sufferandrian wildebeests. Did some post-workout yoga. Now have my compression socks on. Time for some recovery before my next defense.
Just one session today. 81%. Gave 1% more. Then pushed and ramped the end of the final interval: 85/85/85/90/95%
My wife decided to take the family on an a spontaneous weekend trip to a resort on the east side of Zion National Park. Just a 3 hour drive for us. Was gorgeous. Saw plenty of snow, deer, and wild turkey. Plus some Sufferlandrian Wildebeest cleverly disguised as buffalo.
I did 2 sessions on Thursday and still got my Friday session in the morning before we left. Then after doing 2 more this morning I’ve now done 14 sessions of Defender in 13 days. Based on the Sufferlandrian 50 hour day I’m still ahead of schedule, and (barring any unforeseen indoor incidents) with my upcoming double Defender day I should stay ahead of schedule thru the end of the month.
I had planned to do one Defender session this upcoming Saturday followed by 2 hours of Zone 2 volume, but decided it would be better to just do 3 consecutive sessions of Defender instead. Probably will follow that with my usual few minutes of recovery spinning and then a stack of pancakes . That should give me a total of 33 successful Defenses for the month (and a lot of carbs).
I was going to say that by the end of this month I’ll have the entire video and music completely memorized, but even at lower intensities I spend way too much time with my eyes closed or fixed on my stem. The first two minutes of every interval feels like an eternity no matter what intensity I’m at. I can almost anticipate the timestamp of each music track change, tho.
There’s a lot more I want to say, but I don’t want to detract from the overall message of riding in honour of Sir Dan and for overall road cycling safety.
. That should give me a total of 33 successful Defenses for the month (and a lot of carbs). 
