me and these Sunday rides are not getting along so well...
Let me qualify the above statments by saying that I really do love this plan and the training - really, really! I am on week 10 of the 20 week beginner IM program. But, ever since I started I have been struggling on the Sunday rides. I have been able to juuuust barely keep my heart rate in my target zone. I have always thought that it would be little easier if I was more on the ball about sleep, hydration, nutrition, etc. I am pretty good about that already, not 100% as-best-I-can all the time.
So the entire past week I got on the ball and stayed there. After my Saturday ride I gave myself a delicous all day take it easy recovery. And on Sunday? I STILL felt like i was running myself full speed into a brick wall. over and over. For almost 2.5 hours. The bottom of my target zone is 151bpm, and i spent a truly maddening amount of time at 149/150bpm feeling like I was working really hard. 
Yes, there was a nice coastal-type headwind for a solid hour, but there always is. I felt disappointed and frustrated that i finally did the best I possibly could in terms of all my other variables just to feel the exactly the same as before.
Of course I am still going to do my best to take care of myself, because it just feels good, and I think that it helped for all my other workouts this week. I am well hydrated & properly fueled going into the workout and am pretty confident with my nutrition and hydration duriing the workout. But am I missing something in either my prep or the way I am taking care of myself? Or is this just something that is going to beat me up once a week, every week? 
Comments
Or is this just something that is going to beat me up once a week, every week?
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yes! smile. okay Sunday is the last effort for the week so to speak as Monday is no bike. The Sunday ride (to me) is just as hard feeling as the Sat ride is. it doesn't feel easy, takes a bit of getting used to (as I like to run long on Sun), and basically, the back to back riding is where the money is. how you can ride on Sunday on already tired legs, mentally talking yourself up and over hills, taking care of yourself nutritionally, and doing intervals so to speak on Sunday will make for a great race day! the 112 miles are not easy at all. but you will get to the point that on a weekend you will ride that long with two combined... as each weekend builds and not sure where you are , but 4.5 hour on Sat and then 3 hour on Sunday will feel normal. that is 7.5 hours of riding in two days and like me ?? it will take me 7.5 hours at WI next Sunday.
I think that consistent training over and over and over will yield you good results with recovery of course that is built in. for me personally, it would be several weeks before the back to back was normal and you say you are 10 weeks into it. not sure if you have tng partners but having them on Sunday's are particularly useful. so don't feel bad about not feeling like you are progressing, I bet if you looked at your tng logs you would be impressed with how far you have come!
this is from our razorback bball coach, I have shared before but it is on my bb board by my computer. Week and week out of the same tng sometimes not feeling so great or successful does get to be discouraging so I leave you this quote.
Pelphrey said, "toughness is having the mental toughness to do the ordinary things and never find boredom in that, and understanding that is what makes you special."
Sunday rides are hard, no question about it. I have almost always failed at the "just ride at .85 the whole time" thing. Just really does not work for me. Back in the olden days we used to just repeat the very hard part of the Saturday ride on Sunday with a shorter warm up and intervals after. When I am struggling I either bag it and say who cares cause I did a really hard ride day before and do the best I can OR fall back on shorter harder intervals. It is easy for me to go hard when there is an end in sight, even if it is 20 minutes away, then take a few minutes to regroup and do more. Not sure that I have ever managed to do a Sat and Sun ride as written hitting all the targets. Certainly not often.
It is not easy, never will be. You will get more used to it. Good luck.
Chris, I am glad to about your issues with "just ride at .85 the whole time." I thought it was just me being a wuss.
@ coachP: oh thank GOODness. This is exactly how things are feeling. The course is actually the same one - a separate bike path so that I can go all out to z4/5 when called for (with the exception of the occasional rabbit and $%*& horse). Sunday was actually windier than Saturday... My speed on Saturday for the z3 intervals was 18.5mph (18.0 for the whole workout including warmup & cooldown), and on Sunday my speed was 19.4mph for the 2hour 20 minute z3 portion, (18.3 for the whole thing). Please tell me this means I am doing better than I thought I was...? (if not though, I'd rather have reality).
@ everyone else: thanks SO much for the encouragement and understanding. I am not sure if I feel better or worse about it, but at least I am not alone...!