Training is not all about numbers and performance, it is also about feel and paying attention to how your body responds to the variety of training defined within the spectre of load, rest, intensity and volume.
“Do you carefully observe how your body responds to different training loads or a given training session, whether it is high intensity intervals or long steady state endurance rides”
Every training session should have a purpose that leads to an outcome. It might be to hit a certain intensity range in your intervals, get in the hours on a longer endurance ride, go for a recovery spin og simply just go out on a feel good ride. The main purpose can be either physical, mental or technical or a combination, and will lead to a certain focus during training and a specific outcome. The outcome is often measured in intensity and duration, becuase this will tell if you did get in the intended quality of the session. Did you hit the numbers and get ind the hours?
But as important as the right numbers and hours, is the right feel. Training should feel right whether it is with a hard or easy intend. By developing a feel of your training, you will get to know your body not only by 'the numbers', but also 'by the feel of the numbers'. In this way you get to know how a given interval workout should feel like during the hard efforts and afterwards in the recovery phase, or what signals the body sends during a long endurance ride, as fatigue sets ind physically and mentally.
Very often we get to focused on the numbers and the hours, and forget the feel and how you percieved the toughness or easiness of your training. As the quality of your fell, can make the quality of your numbers or hours even better, then it is really worth paying attention to how your body responds during, after and even before a training session. If you know the feeling of a hard interval session, a long encurance ride or an easy recovery spin, then it is so much easier to prepare mentally, as you know what to expect and how much the session wil tax your body physically and mentally.
"So remember not only to look at your numbers, but also how your numbers feel"