Viva Las Vegas!

I'm not one to miss out on great opportunities, so when the chance came up to join three rad ladies on a training trip, I couldn't pass it up...even if it was to Las Vegas (or especially cause it was Vegas). Karen, Saravie and Kim are all training for BC Bike Race and wanted to get away to a warm sunny place to get long rides in Zone 1. Well, before I left I needed to figure out exactly what "Zone 1" was. So I booked myself an assessment at Peak Centre for Human Performance. I spent an hour doing a threshold test where you essentially start really easy and every 3 minutes they up the resistance and you go until your heart is about to explode and your legs just can't turn the pedals. Every three minutes, they take a tiny blood sample and measure the amount of lactate in your system. This is a measure of fatigue and tells you where you aerobic and anaerobic thresholds are. The idea is that below your aerobic threshold, you don't produce much lactate and can essentially go for many hours without getting fatigued. This is "Zone 1", your endurance zone.



Following the test, I had a one hour consultation to review my results where I learned a lot about the benefits of structured training. For anyone interested in understanding more about how your body works when exercising and how to train more efficiently, or simply learn how to get faster and build your endurance, I highly recommend doing this assessment.

So, now with my training zones all set, I was ready to head to Vegas. We were lucky to score a condo on the outskirts of town, a good distance from the Strip. There is a surprising amount of great recreational activities around Vegas, it's sad that so many people don't leave the Strip. The plan for the trip was to spend 6 days in the saddle getting in long rides in Zone 1 and building our endurance for the season ahead. The condo happened to be 10 km from the entrance to Red Rock Canyon State Park, so we did three rides through that area. We rode in West Vegas and out to the Hoover Dam another day, but the best ride was through the Valley of Fire and out to Lake Mead. The scenery was stunning and the roads had so little traffic.

  

Riding through the Valley of Fire

Apparently I'm becoming famous for my riding selfies. Here's one from near Lake Mead

Overall, the rides varied between 48 km to 97 km with a surprising amount of climbing (it's not flat around Vegas). It was also challenging to stay in our proper zone 1 because of the wind. The first four days were exceptionally windy and the added resistance made it hard to keep our heart rates low. But it was great practice on forming a pace line and drafting! 

High winds made for good drafting practice

Riding through Red Rock Canyon State Park

Although we were a solid 30 minutes from the Strip, it was nice to have access to world famous restaurants and entertainment. On our last night in town, we all agreed we wanted to go out for a fancy dinner and check out a night club. We were all exhausted from the biking and agreed to be home before midnight...ya right! We ended up leaving the club at 4am and didn't get home until 5am! Six solid days of training, undone in one night. My body definitely felt more wrecked after one late night of dancing than it did after a whole week of riding. But we had a blast and life's too short to not have a good time. I sure made the most of the opportunity.

We clean up nice!