We are like tea bags - we don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water.

3.5 hour trainer ride with big ring intervals.

First off, WTF?! Who does this kind of workout? Don does and apparently I do with no persuasion. Ok, well I was sold once I knew we were going to watch Lord Of The Rings. It's a damn shame I've never seen any of the movies until now, but having a HAOCD type personality rarely allows for movie watching unless I'm on a trainer. Sadly I was only able to follow the story for about 2 1/2 hours in....reasoning I'll get to in a bit. I had a few goals for today, one was to push the 3.5 hour mark. Before today I had never been on a trainer longer then 3 hours. 3 hours was best and that was taking the whole ride at a pretty easy wattage. Along with time I wanted to throw some interval work in. The bike doesn't hurt my injury and I need to start growing some power, today was my time to do that. Last but not least was to test my hydration and nutrition, all IM workouts should include this.

The first hour or so went by pretty quickly. I started remotely easy and dialed in hydration/nutrition and the movie of course. The plan was GUs every 30-35 minutes with a salt stick every hour, water drinks every 10 minutes.
Don started spin-ups around 20-25 mins in, I politely declined the masochistic intervals as I thought it wouldn't be healthy pushing high cadence and gears on my leg. His bike sounded like it was an F1 car and at the cadence he was spinning at I was sure he was going to fly off the trainer into the wall. About 50 minutes in I shifted to a harder gear and alternated every 10 minutes, not pushing too much, just enough to change it up a bit. 1:40 in and I started my big ring gear intervals. 5 x 10 min intervals - pushing the big ring at 55-65 RPMs. 5 min recoveries. The first 2 weren't so bad. It was kind of nice to spin slow, hard but slow. My third one I started to feel dizzy and sick. I should have had another salt stick at this time but kind of spaced it out, bad Kat...I payed the price for doing so. My big ring work put my wattage around 180-200. Somehow on #3 my wattaged peaked at 820. WTF?! Was that possible? Maybe I stood up. I reviewed the PowerTap csv file and the recording was listed 3 times so I don't think it was a glitch but based off of my weight I find it hard to believe. Anyhow, maybe that's why i felt like I was going to puke. Interval #4 and 5# I felt like I wanted to die. I kept drinking water but I was starting to feel water logged. Like the water was going in and just sitting in my tum tum = not ok. Lesson learned from this was that I clearly needed more sodium. After the 5th interval it was survival for me. I was pretty much incoherent after 2:50 into the ride, reasoning as to why I was losing the story line to LOTR. That's a complex story. So many damn names, I'm really a face person. I really wanted to stop pedaling by 3:15....but all I had was 15 minutes. 15 grueling minutes, the thought of stopping repeated in my mind lord knows how many times. But I don't quit EVER, I will suffer but suffering will end at some point of time, quitting will always stay with you. With that being said I finished my 3:30 hour long trainer ride. :) Yay, go me. I felt kind of bad as I had formed a small lake in Don's house, really I'm not %^#^ing with you. I changed bike shorts 2 hours in, I am a MASSIVE sweater...and not the kind you wear at Christmas time.

Lessons leaned -
I can handle GU for a long period of time - nutrition was on point
I need more sodium, a lot of sodium - 1400mg for 3.5 hours was not enough
I am badass and can mentally block out training pain - I'm good at blocking out other things too...I have some strong ass mortar for the walls I build

Thanks Don for putting together the workout and taking me to another level of insanity.