Cruise Intervals

I did my cruise interval workout tonight. In the Race phase, it's pretty much my only really hard workout of the week. I do this workout on the trainer so I don't have to pay attention to traffic or anything.

Tonight, I had trouble shifting the front derailleur (my road bike has been on the trainer for a while, so it doesn't get its normal maintenance... doh!). Typically, I shift into the big ring for the work interval, but today I couldn't get it to shift. So, instead, I rode in the small ring and the smallest cog and picked up my cadence to hit my power number. It was a pretty significant difference, a change in gain ratio from 7.28 to 6.18, or about 15%.

I'd been a little unhappy with the cruise interval workout for the past few weeks. While it was tough, I didn't feel like it was preparing me well for race efforts. Today, I discovered the problem! I had been riding in a gear that was too hard, and the result was that my cadence was too low. Tonight, in the easier gear, I had to keep my cadence up to hit my power target, and I felt like the workout was much more effective. This is how I ride when I race; I'm definitely a spinner more than a masher.