Getting destroyed by a legend

So today Blizard Physiotherapy put on a turbo session with Kev Dawson for the members of Doncaster Triathlon Club.

With a slight sense of trepidation I signed up for the session. I mean this was Kev Dawson the World Record holding RAAM rider, the 11 time Best British All Rounder, fastest rider at Outlaw for 2012 and 2013. The man is a living legend. When it comes to cycling there are few who know more about the sport in my opinion.

I had no idea how much Kev would hurt us.

I can however safely say I have never sweated so much in my life.

The session was held at Hatfield Marina and started at 10:30.

Everyone was nicely warmed up on their turbos by then. Kev then explained the session to us.

The first portion would be a warm up consisting of four minutes of pedalling at around 100rpm.

Then we would start the spin ups to ensure an adequate warm up before commencing on the lactate threshold work and then rounding out the hour with some spin ups to act as a cool down and clear out our legs.

The spin ups consisted of 10 reps of 10 seconds of high cadence pedalling with 20 second of easy pedalling. After the 10th rep, I thought to myself. "And this is still the warm up" as I had sweat leaking from every pore on my body.

But Kev wasn't finished with us just yet. We then proceeded with 5 reps of 20 secs high cadence pedalling with 40 seconds of normal pedalling.

Well and truly warmed up. Well truth be known I was actually blowing out my a*se at this point. We were to start the main session.  Oh the joys.

The main session was 40 seconds pedalling at 7/10 effort or just above lactate threshold HR (LTHR) which meant just above 159BPM for me. Then 80 seconds pedalling at just under lactate threshold HR repeated 4 times.

Then 2 minutes of easy pedalling.

Then another 3 reps of the above 40 above LTHR 80 below LTHR but this time working at 8/10 effort.

Another 2 minutes of easy pedalling.

The towel I had taken to mop up the sweat was dripping by this point. I don't know if it was drying me off or spreading the sweat around my body.

Kev finished the main set with another 2 reps of 40 above LTHR and 80 below LTHR but with an effort of 9/10.

By this point I was feeling absolutely horrific. Maybe I shouldn't have run that 5km after my open water swim.

Finally the main set finished. All that was left was the cool down. This consisted of 2 reps of 10sec fast 20 seconds normal, 2 reps of 20 seconds high cadence 20 seconds normal and one rep of 30 seconds high cadence pedalling 30 secs normal pedalling.

I peeled myself from my sweat drenched saddle to stand on incredibly wobbly legs a dripping, shaking mess.

I have never worked as hard on a turbo before and I felt bloody fantastic when my legs started working again.

After rehydrating I listened to Kev who was sharing some of his vast knowledge with the rest of my triathlon club.

Many thanks to Kev Dawson and Blizard Physiotherpay for putting on the session which is the hardest I have ever worked in under one hour.

And who said that cycling on a turbo wasn't hard work.

Thats all from me,

Michael