So this story starts yesterday. Decided I was probably good for threshold, given I’d had two fairly easy days after Friday’s 225km 9h 295TSS treasure hunt & RLGL said I was in the clear, even on the moderate setting. But a bit of help wouldn’t go astray. So I made myself a double-shot coffee from the granulated stuff in as little water as possible, because frankly I hate the smell & the taste of coffee & I want it to go down the gullet as quickly as possible, & I always chase it very shortly after with an apple juice or something else of strong flavor. (I was turned off coffee from a young age from a few too many visits on road trips to roadhouses that stank of coffee & ham-&-cheese toasted sandwiches, also something I could never stomach even as a teenage meat-a-tarian.) I reflected that this would be the first ride I’d caffeinated that wasn’t a race or other sort of test. Anyway, on the bike to go to the track to do the workout I’d lovingly crafted & named Starr King -0.5, given there was a bit of a jump from the -1 to the 0:
| | # of intervals | Interval duration | Interval target | Recovery duration |
| Starr King -1 | 3 | 12' | 100% | 4' |
| Starr King -0.5 | 3 | 13'30" | 100% | 4'30" |
| Starr King | 3 | 15' | 100% | 5' |
Just climbing the driveway, I felt that bit of loading up I remembered feeling on the steeper, longer driveway at my last house when not fully recovered. Uh oh… I was in trouble. I willed it away thinking, I’ve got coffee in my system, it’ll be alright. Well, the legs loaded up a little too much in the very short sweetspot interval in the warmup. So I thought no, this is very bad news. Canned the workout, headed home, called the rest of the day easy, & hoped that the little bit of stress I’d induced with the warmup would not derail my attempt at it the next day.
Well that night I was looking through the cupboard, stumbled across the coffee jar & noticed something very bad indeed:
Bl¤¤dy decaf, it’s the devil-spawn’s dream: all the bad stuff of coffee & none of the good. I had a bit of a tanty over my failure to check the label at the shop & I promised myself to toss it out. That also explained why I was a bit tired later that day.
This morning I nicked some of my housemate’s coffee which does indeed contain the performance-enhancing drug of choice. Headed out again.
First interval was hard but got it done. Second interval I knew I could get close but was in trouble for the third, which, well I was never really in the hunt. Still threshold, but a few % below target & just could not ride the target power for more than a few seconds. Every time I looked up the road & then back at my computer I saw I’d dropped off a bit. So resigned myself to finishing this one at about 95-96% & called it all-out.
This is good. I’ve found my limit on threshold. Thinking I’ll go back to shorter intervals & more of them: longer TIZ. Perhaps some over-unders. And limit the really big rides to end-of-block.
Perhaps I’ll need to rethink my back to back workout regime and move Wednesday’s back to Tuesday’s commute but that’s not ideal the new commute is a bit more lively on straighter, busier and faster roads, I also have to stress out about the train being on time and not wanting to be too late making noise for my neighbours 
