Midnight Bike Intervals: 6 Sets by 4:30 @ Medium Intensity with 1-Minute Active Rest

Jan. 19, 2022

I went out for a bike ride after a long time. It was freezing cold tonight. But nonetheless I had no intention to give up, because my mind-body was craving for some high intensity cardio.  With a knee still recovering from medial meniscus injury there is significant limitation to what I'm able to do. Fast running is out. Jumping is also not good either. My solution? Bike intervals. There is a long, mildly winding road several kilometers from home. I went there for the training.

One set is 4:30. You keep on kicking the pedals for 4:30 at medium intensity, which is somewhere around 25 km/h. The route has slight undulation. On upward incline I slowed down. On downhill I accelerated. I could feel my heart pounding as I climbed a hill, which is a feeling that I had missed so much.

During the 4th set I felt my legs so heavy that I thought of ending the interval session after this one was over. But then a brief moment of active rest that immediately followed it brought out renewed motivation. Soon I found myself heading into the 5th set.   

When the 5th set was over, I thought I did enough for the night. But then another side of me said, "Hey, what's the difference between 5 sets and 6 sets? Why not do it one more set and make it all together 6 sets." Soon I was into the 6th set. 

When the 6th set was over, stamina wasn't much of a problem, compared with both of my toes feeling numb from the freezing cold. Half of each of my feet was completely numb, and they felt like knuckles from the ankle below. I was afraid of frostbite. 

When I finally got home and took a long warm shower, the toes hurt on warm water like I'd never experienced before. It took a couple of minutes before a normal feeling was back.

Overall, the training was pain-free as far as my injured knee though cardio-wise it was fairly hard, but that's OK, because that is exactly what I wanted--cardio-vascular challenge!

I really think I must find a way to protect my toes from the cold if I want to make bike intervals a regular component of my winter endurance training. I am going to window-shop online tomorrow.