Scouting the borders of Hurl Territory.

As we all know, Hurl Territory is a wild and untamed place. The terrain can be seductively easy, yet suddenly unmanagable. Things move on you, and you can't totally trust the landmarks. The problem is that the road to success skirts perilously close to the heartlands. Up to now I've been preparing myself, staying well away. Today I thought to push a little closer to see for myself what the edges of this fabled territory looks like.

The IGP™ called for an hour on the spin trainer, but no run. I missed last Thursday, so I thought I'd make up part of it today.
20 min warmup, gradually building to 100 rpm, then easing back for the last couple minutes
One leg drill
4 x 24 sec right leg, 25 sec both, 45 sec left leg, 45 sec both, 15 sec acceleration to 140rpm or so, 1:45 recovery
Main set
10 x 2 min hard, two min recovery
10 min cool down

Total 90 min

The goal during two min hard was to get my heartrate up into the 140's, which is solidly zone 4 for me. I tried different ways, hill climbing, fastest rpm without bouncing (just under 110), and once standing. The high rpm technique was best for driving the heart rate up. It wasn't so long ago that I would have bailed on the last two reps. My legs and core were beginning to feel the burn, my lungs were beginning to feel hollow, I could feel my face flushed more than usual, and the sweat was running off me more than it ever has. But I figured everything up to now just got me to where I could start to see the edge of Hurl, and thought, "I can't go from this to hurl in 8 minutes, can I?" As it turns out, I didn't. Maybe I should have done a few more. None the less, I'm happy. I'm edging up against my current physical limits and started exploring what it felt like. So far so good.

And besides, it snowed yesterday and the sidewalks are crap for running.

Weekly totals.
Swim 2.25 hrs
Bike 3.25 hrs
Run 1.29 hrs
Total 6.8 hrs