Wondering how many of you have successfully completed a 20 minute FTP test on the way home from the grocery store, while carrying 2.5 dozen eggs.
Yeah, so I donāt know what I was thinking. Today was supposed to be just a 45 minute endurance ride (Carter), but I rode earlier with the kids and my wife, then had to run errands in the evening. Something came over me to just hammer all the way home. Especially once my headlight battery indicator went from green to yellow. Anyway, I got a 24 watt increase from when I did the 2x8 protocol less than a week ago. Grantedā¦that one had its flaws. Very, very pleased with this result. This may be the highest my FTP has ever been. Iāll have to go check.
EDIT: I checked, and itās about 13 watts off my highest ever real FTP. The only higher values are from virtual power.
Yesterday eveningās effort. I put dinner in the oven at a low temperature and watched a film. FTP is a guess, ramp test not allowed until after heart checks done. Possibly conservative, but there was some cardiac drift by the end.
This is TB HV1. So there are three more of this, this week, then 2:30, then 2:45 the week after. Even if I get a clean bill of health, I might stick with it. Working from home 50% makes it easier to find the time.
One thing I discovered yesterday was IMDB has top 250 lists and 1000 lists which I knew about, but you can sort by duration. So I can easily look for highly rated films of the right sort of length. I might stick The Matrix on Thursday as itās forecast to be wet.
Pretty bumped to be honest. 294 tot 299. Last week of build iāve managed to do 3x15 over/unders @300 watt ftp so thought 304 was possible.
Reviewing the data showed that i dropped my cadance from 97 to 92 in the last 20 seconds, and that the trainer (flux s) couldnāt give me the targeted resistance.
So after that ramp, iāve decided to end my relationship with the Flux S. Buyer is coming over tonight to buy it and the Kickr Core is already in the house.
After my ramp iāve done Ericsson -5. Nice to fill in some TSS with this efforts:
Not entirely sure how I feel about this performance. Iām building from the 3x20min 30/30s Taylor intervals last week and thought I would try Mills decaying intervals on my way up to Spencer. The thing is I had much more time in HR zone with the 30/30s, but RPE-wise this was much harder, (and required backspins).
I guess for vo2max the pain is the gain, and time in zone is not the same.
Monitor -4. Something up with the trainer today, several times it wouldnāt resist enough to allow me to hit the power targets. I could hear the rear wheel slipping occasionally so it must be time to take the bike off and clean the roller.
Last nights workout, Warlow.
Admittedly, I felt pretty nervous before this workout; this was my first over under since my last ramp test, and I ran 12 miles that morning. I found the vo2 intervals pretty dam challenging, but I felt confident, nearly comfortable, during the sweet spot āunderā intervals. During interval three my left calf cramped (Charlie horse), which was inconvenient to say the least. However, I kept pedaling, mental toughness gains? lol. Overall, Iām pretty proud of this effort, I was trying to find a reason to skip this, but I showed up and put out! Happy Alex!
Legs toast going into this again. They were dead for Mondayās TT after a hard weekend. Rest day yesterday didnāt quite do the job, but got through it. Followed it with a hour base run, so I can give myself another day off later in the week. Run felt good - nice to shake the legs out a bit after those efforts.
I had this scheduled for Friday, but Iām planning on attempting the Etape Du Dales route (109 miles, 10,000ft elev) on Saturday and didnāt think it would be wise doing this the night before!
Just an easy one today, looks like Iām extending my recovery as Iāve been feeling like trash. Admittedly I didnāt have an ideal recovery week.
Normally 60 mins of threshold work is no problem, but yesterday I only managed a total of 27 mins split over 2 intervals. I spun some Z2 to fill 90 mins, and later felt so tired that I felt a bit ill.
Gonna play it cautious til Saturday and try some intensity again then.
Monday: Juneau -1. Same thing as I had on Saturday. Not too hard at all kinda like Saturday (which I mentioned was strange in my last post because my plan has been kicking my ass on those specific days so far)
Tuesday: Eclipse. Much harder. I guess the plan decided Tuesday/Thursday should be the hard days now as I have the same one again tomorrow. 20 min SS intervals with ERG mode just kick my ass every time.
Today (Wednesday): Glassy. Looked hard when I first read the description on my phone but actually easy in general due to overall reduced power requirements throughout. I guess giving me some time to recover for Eclipse again tomorrow.
Was going fine, and then I finally really understood about cognitive load, as I got hit with a load of work and club messages during the recovery between 2 and 3.
Just never found my rhythm after that, had to stop twice in 4 to deal with stuff. From being as comfortable as could be expected in 1 and 2, I completely fell apart in 3 and 4, couldnāt keep my cadence, and basically just ground them out any which way I could. Mainly standing, justified on the podcast as to what youād do outside (which I would do on a climb).
Anyway, not sure it was good training, but the easy thing wouldāve been to totally bail, so I take solace in that.
3 Weeks in & loving it!!
Also got out for 45 mins skills session - jumping higher and easier then ever before - gotta love progress. Using mental rehearsal while reading Lee McCormack book (best ever!).
Sorry to have missed the Flight Centre Epic 100k on the weekend, congrats go out to Jared Graves who was Epic.
Just some light endurance today. Crazy work week, family getaway to the cabin, and catching a cold while on said getaway eliminated most of my available training time for the last week and a half. Medium-long run yesterday with 7x 200 on/200 off. Followed it up with an easy ride since I still have a lot of sinus blockage. Heart rate started a bit elevated but settled in nicely. Taking the down week as scheduled before getting back at my threshold progression.
I used the workout to focus on how I sit on the saddle.
Some recent threads about peopleās woes resonated with my poor under-carriage! This roll of the dice was about sitting āsquareā on the saddle. I think I have a tendency to lean forward and always get saddle soreness (and sometime sores) in the perineum. Previously when trying to āfeelā my sit bones on the wings of the saddle it all felt a bit vague, but I definitely felt the sit bones on the saddle this time.
Good news is that it felt quite good, even with my oldest, most knackered bib shorts on! I noticed I have to engage my core a lot more - something I need to work on anywayā¦
Good stuff. The day after my major surgery last year I was doing slow walks and I gradually built up distance and speed.
I was told itād be 6+ weeks before I could cycle. Thankfully I saw the chemopherapy consultant before that and he told me to get back on it and see what level Iād get back to post chemo. Iāve never got back to that pre chemo level as I constantly built upon it.
You are definitely going the right way IME
