TFW you crush most of your all-time power PRs in a single ride. AKA how fitness is 3 dimensional

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Some background:

The unpredictability of life had always made it hard to stack and good base build phases. Sure, I would be able to get a good 6 weeks but some life stress would derail me and I couldn’t follow that up with another 6 weeks. It always seemed like 2 steps forward and one step back.

We made some life changes and I have been able to train with incredible consistency since mid November. I only saw an FTP raise of 7 watts and have since decided to dial it back 5 watts as everything was just too hard.

I completed 95% of the workouts with 100% compliance and got some really good recovery in there but was failing to see the FTP ramp one would expect after 6 months of super solid training; perhaps the best 6 months of my adult athletic career.

I have avoided group rides since April of '19, avoided COVID and got vaccinated. The lockdowns and general COVID stress prevented me from executing much focused training in 2020 at all, but I was still able to race a few triathlons and saw my AP and NP numbers slip each race as expected given my ‘training’.

First group ride back I got a few power PRs but nothing earth shattering as I was more focused on re-learning how to ride in the group. Ride 2 came with much more success!! I didn’t ride specifically hard, but when I was cooling down I was an IF of .96 and wondered what the ride would look like.

Came home to this:
group

FTP has more or less stayed the same but something is very very different in my fitness! Excited to go with the faster group and see what else there is in the tap. Also racing next weekend so I’ll get my first real snapshot of my fitness in comparison to last year.

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Way to go! That’s got to be super encouraging.

And a good reminder to the rest of us. :thinking:

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I have found that under consistent training if my FTP did not move upwards much my lower threshold and ability to recover did. Thereby, I could go faster for longer. :smiley: Good job!

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Ah, the legendary Butler/ Hinkle ride. I have a lot of good memories of those potholed corners. Great job!

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First: congratulations. :slight_smile:

Second: what would you formulate as your learning here?
Could you be more consistent in your training (maybe also sans the usual breaks from a common cold or other stuff) as compared to before?

Or was it the lack of group rides and - I surmise - their seemingly detrimental effect on your consistency by either throwing off the rest of your training week quite a bit or by having your training week consisting of too much unstructured group rides?

Then there is the part with the no ftp gain but better riding. I don’t know if that was your focus here. But this also could alude to a more structured training but not per se. That training has also to be able to net you repeatability as well as stamina. Both of which a good group ride could very well provide if one knows what he does.

Or you could have been well trained, well rested and had a great day with spirits high since there were finally group rides for you again… So - fitness is very well at least 4 dimensional. :slight_smile: