"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - First REAL workout of the year

Did my first LT session of the year two nights. As a collegiate racer, I know, I should have been doing more of this type of thing before now. Just went on group rides, and that was sufficient, in my mind. Nothing really long and consistent, though, just pulling through in a quickly rotating paceline, at the worst.

So last night, on a whim, I decided to do a 2x20 session. First one didn't go so well, a couple of fire trucks, lights blazing, pulled out in front of me. I had to wait a couple minutes for the whole process. This was 13 minutes in to the 20, and so decided just to let it be, and just recover for 27 minutes instead of the planned 20. Recovered, then started the next one, this being the one I was going to take my "data" from. I was on a rectangular course of around 1.5 miles/2.4km, so it wasn't the best situation for getting my average speed up. I don't have a powertap or HRM yet, so I have to use a very reliable, repeatable course to measure my progress. Just take my average speed for each 20 minute effort and see how things are going.

So a couple of questions:
1) What do you do when your repeat gets delayed/shut down during a workout?
2) Is the method above, as I don't have a powertap yet, a good way to do my LTs and track my progress?

1.) I usually keep track of how long i'm stopped, then continue on for that amount of time plus the time remaining before i was stopped.
2) as long as the wind's the same yeah it's not horrible. the better shape you're in the faster your time over the same course. i do the same thing only its an 18 mile loop.

How do you do a LT workout without a HRM?

At any rate, I like to do interval work on my Fluid 2 trainer in the basement. I like having a controlled environment for intervals with no interruptions.