Originally Posted by
wkndwarrior
Man, I'm glad I skipped yesterday's ride. Because today, I went on a hilly 45 miler with my group, and I was dropping almost everybody on the hills (save for the cat 4/5 racers in the group). In fact, I was looking back and finding nobody behind me until they came up the crest of the hill. Wondered if either they were taking it easy, or my legs found more power than it has ever before. First time I didn't ever shift own to the granny gear on those hills, either. Group remarked on my hill climbing and asked me what the heck was going on, LOL.
Last November I tried to put some structure around my riding, as well keep a training diary. For riding 14-15 hours a week with two rest days, I found I needed a solid 8 hours of sleep per night. Prior to November, I was probably riding 6 hours a week at the most, and sleeping 6 hours a night.
This last week the kids were home all week and I pushed most of my riding into the late evening on the trainer, after they went to bed. I was going to bed much later than normal, and getting 6-7 hours of sleep max. By the second day of the week, I was completely wiped out and had no desire to go near the bike (which I haven't had the feeling of since jumping into 15 hours a week). Swapped around a rest day, got at least 8 hours of sleep, and felt 110% the next day.