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Ive had a few tough weeks training lately, having damaged my rotator cuff with (only light) weights about 3 weeks ago… I knew it was sore, but did Skyline at Afan anyway as I didn’t think it was serious… since then I’ve not been outside on the bike and of course have stopped the weights. Shame as the week before I was climbing pretty well on my first outdoors rides of spring and I felt the weights had helped. Anyway, only been Z2 on turbo since. Shoulders eased so this evening I entered my first Zwift race for a month or so. It hurt lots and I lost the lead group on the first climb and my performance definitely dropped off in the second half. Anyway, as expected my top end was slightly down, but I stuck at it. Got an email from intervals afterwards saying my threshold HR had gone up! Not sure if it’s a good thing or not, but I guess at least it shows I was trying?
Well done @Sheck 💪🏻
I had a lacklustre Zwift race too.
I heard an interesting bit about ‘readiness to train’ as a metric on a podcast the other day. Nothing complex just ‘how much do you feel like training today, 1,2 or 3’.
Apparently it actually tracks really well with performance.
My “RtT” was definitely a 1/3 today. Fell asleep on the sofa with the heating up beforehand and could barely muster up the energy to get changed let alone race. I guess I’m still carrying residual fatigue from Dirty Reiver but went through the motions.
I also had to let the leaders go up the first climb then kept attacking group two all race with no luck and dropped out of the sprint at the end.
Maybe I should have stuck a recovery ride in but this is an important phase of my plan and there aren’t many opportunities left for adding top end. Also Friel says in build 2 it’s time to start doing fatigued efforts not just fresh ones.
Anyhow- gonna have another day off completely tomorrow, go easy on Saturday for a couple of hours and then hope the weather works out for my big mission on Sunday 😀
takes a while to get turbo legs back Sheck, the starts on zwift are harder in C than B I reckon, it's just a smash fest for the first couple of minutes, and usually above FTP if you want to stick with the front group before it settles
done a bit less so far this week, just 1hr Z2 which I increased by 5w, and 1x 7x3m Vo2 Session @ 111% of FTP, felt "comfortable", will hopefully get a couple more sessions in this week around life/hopefully an outdoor rider
I know how it feels crosshair, I was deffo a 1 yesterday, was nights Monday, had to be in uni at 1pm Tuesday (1hr away), then was back there at 9am Wednesday, did a presentation then had the boys over night, I didn't start the vo2 session until 7pm, but it was a case of suck it up and get it done because it won't do itself
Had a busy week at work but managed to use a bike every day so far - so having a rest day and a sport massage today.
Monday was an hour of sweet spot on the turbo, Tuesday was smashing the bmx around the pump track (probably about an hour of being out but 20 ish mins of flat out sprinting or pumping rollers with rest gaps in between), Wednesday was an hour of z2 /endurance on turbo and yesterday was mtb in the gopping muddy slop that’s reappeared.
Last night I was feeling a bit fatigued at the start but rode myself into it - was hilarious sliding round as I’d stuck a rekon on the back of the hardtail ready for summer - no grip anywhere at all!
Not sure of plans for the weekend - definitely an mtb ride on the full suss - possibly Forest of Dean or Cwmcarn. Although I wouldn’t mind a few hours at Windhill if I can make that work on timings / wife.
What’s the general consensus here on method of calculating FTP?
Is it better to do 75% of a ramp test value, or 95% of a 20 minute effort, or is it all unreliable compared to an actual 1 hour effort?
Whichever gives the value you want to see. Highest for telling people and lowest for training against :0)
The 1 hour one is probably the least accurate on a repeatable basis.
I've found all the automatic ones are close enough. Zwift/Garmin/TR.
I use AI on TR though.
In the past couple of years I've always used a ramp test to track FTP, but wondered if it was a little false, and any improvements have been me getting 'better' at doing the ramp test.
However I've been using intervals.icu this winter, and the estimated FTP which it generates from sessions are really close to my ramp figures.
I've been trying (and failing) to get to 300W@65kg
@benman is that not because Intervals is also ‘seeing’ your ramp tests? 🤔 😀
Jonathon Crain posted a vid this morning comparing TR AIFTP with the Zwfit ramp and found TR was a few watts on the conservative side I think.
No, intervals.icu looks at EVERY session you do (indoors or outdoors), and lets you know if your FTP has improved. A bit like zwift sometimes does.
I know, but if you don’t do any maximal efforts then it is miles out.
Its prediction for my ftp was about 270 during my base phase when I knew it was more like 320.
As much as ramp tests used to flatter me a little compared to doing a 20min ftp test or simply doing a Zwift Tempus Fugit TT with a slight negative split, ramp tests are far less fatiguing and leave you fresh for another constructive session no later than the next day.
All set for Sunday! Forecast is close enough to dry that I’m happy to go for it.
It’s not going to be the most inspirational ride at times but I’m looking forward to uploading it afterwards and (hopefully) getting a ‘this is your longest ride on Strava’ for my troubles if nothing else 😀
Well, either my power meter had a silly on my ride or I'm now an elite sprinter - seems to think I did over 1500w for 45s. Can't be sure either way so I'm leaving my family to go and live in Girona in the hopes I'll pick up a pro cycling contract. Wish me luck.
😂 I remember hitting 2000w on my Kickr snap on a Nathan Guerra Zwift live stream once.
It was in the process of losing the plot sadly and my protestations that maybe, just maybe I was having a good day were all in vain 🤣
Did an initial test, outcome is a bit below what I was hoping.
Date ....| kg | Test | Av W | FTP (W) | W/kg
28/4/23 | 93 | 20min | 296 | 281.2 | 3.02
My legs seem to almost instantly feel the burn at anything close to threshold, not sure if that is a lack of adaptation or fatigue from Wednesday's time trial. Either way, time to do a block of 5-7min intervals and under/overs and try again in a couple of weeks.
P.S. - A while ago I switched from an Xplova NOZA S trainer to a Tacx because the former was getting very hot on longer hard efforts which also seemed to make the reported power drift high as well.
281w ftp via a 20 min test is decent though. I’m finding sweet spot intervals seem to be making the most difference for me at pushing closer to threshold for longer and longer intervals. Throwing in some additional endurance / zone 2 stuff as well - it’s all I can fit into little bits of time I get.
I’m hoping within a few more months I might be creeping up near 280 watts - I reckon if I tested now I might get over the 260w mark just about on a ramp test
Either way, time to do a block of 5-7min intervals and under/overs and try again in a couple of weeks.
I kind of like over/unders.
They definitely work!
nice couple of hours outdoors again today, nice and sunny, bit windier than forecast and a couple of pints on the river, bliss, had a nibble at my current strava segment nemesis again today, missed it by 2 seconds 😂
13m 17s, 305w, 39kph, hr was through the roof though 188bpm, hr felt very high in general today,
so a standard week, Z2, Vo2 intervals, outdoors
just need to get my arse in gear and get using the weights as well
Well done DR! Good effort that.
I’ve never weight trained in my life and I can’t make my mind up on it. Obvs there’s science there but on a limited time budget I can’t help think the volume is better spent on cycling.
Well that was emotional 🤣
I can’t really call any part of it a success but all told it was a fair day out.
I’ve always admired people who ride to or from their races. It just seems like a great way to enjoy a race and still get some training out of it.
Turns out maybe Thruxton or Abingdon would be better options than Hillingdon- that’s quite a big day out 🤣
I left home at 06:45 and planned to get there at 09:45 which I did. It was 51 miles the way I went.
The masters 50+ were racing so I had time to get my number and timing chip on and then it was out to warm back up and race in the masters 40+ race.
Somehow I found myself at the front! So I nudged it on a bit and got a gap 🤣 These old duffers are slow I thought…
Until two guys whooshed past me. I jumped on their wheel for half a lap but then they sat up.
The rest of the race is a blur. It was one of the most brutal races I think I’ve ever done. Constant attacks!
About 40 mins in, things had never really let up and I was tailgunning really badly. Drifting off by 30ft on the rise and then coasting back in by the clubhouse. Not efficient. With 2 laps to go, I decided to sit up.
But that’s because I had also entered the 2,3,4 race afterwards 🤣🤣
In hindsight, I should have just played bikes properly in that race and gone home. But no.
Anyway, lining up again, the 2,3,4 field looked insane. Lots of point-hungry cat 2’s.
And it started hard. Worse than Zwift.
With smaller fields than on a Tuesday night, there was nowhere to hide. Just a long straight line of riders pinning it. I was already in trouble.
It eased slightly and I hoped for the best. But it didn’t last. I think I got to lap 2 until I was dropped. There was one female rider and a cat 4 guy who then got dropped too. So I spent 4 laps solo trying to catch up to them but it was hopeless. Working together they held me at 15seconds.
Then I got lapped by the field so I jumped on again just to make sure. Half a lap later that was all she wrote 🤣 I think I was on about 85miles at 20.1mph by now.
Ditching my number and chip and collecting my things from the locker I set off for home.
And was delighted to learn that the SE wind of early this morning was now much stronger. And in the SW 🤣 great 👏🏻 X-headwinds there and back!
I initially felt good. Even a bad race produces adrenaline and endorphins so I whizzed along with BBC workout anthems streaming into my AirPods. Life was good.
At 112 miles I finally bonked 🤣 I had been fuelling with sugar but was probably 3-400 calories behind.
Luckily a petrol station appeared and I went in and bought on instinct. My craving’s apparently were for a family bag of bacon rashers crisps, mixed olives with feta, a mid sized dairy milk and two mars milkshakes 🤣
I sat outside and was in heaven for ten minutes as I gorged myself silly. I poured one milkshake into my spare bottle and tucked the remaining crisps into my speedsuit pocket.
Then I had to face up to the worst cafe legs ever.
Finally, I crept home on 205w average for 19mph / 6h50 and small mercy- did get my ‘longest ride on Strava’ badge. 130.39 miles.
I’m clearly not quite as fit as I’d hoped when I left home after breakfast this morning but it was nice to push myself to my limits. (Dirty Reiver didn’t this year because I paced it too well).
As to whether I’d do it again 🤔
I would possibly ride there and back for one race. Or drive there and do two races.
But I’m in no mega hurry to attempt a repeat of today’s mission at round 3 next Sunday 🤣🤣🤣
(Meant to say, the 40+ race was 316w normalised for 56 minutes and I did 511w for a minute at some point 🤣)
You're a complete fruitcake 🤣🤣🤣🤣
That’s nuts - fair shout!
Top effort today crosshair (this message comes to you from under a tree somewhere in the Cotswolds)
Thanks! You’ve had a big weekend yourself 💪🏻
Blimey crosshair - I was feeling pretty beat up after an hour of over unders! Perspective!
(Meant to say, the 40+ race was 316w normalised for 56 minutes and I did 511w for a minute at some point 🤣)
that just means you did too much work 😂
good day, we've all had that petrol station bonk before ✅😎
🤣 Yes. Normally I’d agree but a quick Strava stalk showed some equally high NP’s and some way higher AP’s.
It’s weird but the masters seemed to ride the circuit differently than the 3’s. Places I could normally recover were still flat out!
my legs felt battered yesterday,
Since the end of March/beginning of April I've done the following
27/3 - 2/4 - Total - 4hr 21m - 3hr 39m Z1 + 2, 19m Z3 + 4, 26m Z5+
3/4 - 9/4 - Total - 6hr 34m - 5hr 43m Z1 + 2, 29m Z3 + 4, 34m Z5+
10/4 -16/4 - Total - 6hr 10m - 5hr 47m Z1 + 2, 1m Z3 + 4, 20m Z5+
17/4 -23/4 - Total - 9hr 34m - 6hr 1m Z1 + 2, 2h 58m Z3 + 4 1hr 24m Z5+
24/4 -30/4.- Total - 7hr 34m - 5hr 51m Z1 + 2, 55m Z3 + 4. 48m Z5+
so not particularly massive volume but I guess enough to accumulate a decent level of fatigue, intervals has my fitness at 49, fatigue as 52 so form being -3, and I'm in the "grey zone" I did want to push through until next Tuesday, probably will as I'm out on placement for 3 weeks in the land of 8-4 plus commute so who knows how much free time I'll have/motivation
signed up for the Tour of the Peaks sportive on May 21st, done it a few times over the years, although not since 2019 when I did it in 7hr 3m moving, 113 miles, 3600m climbing and a NP of 234w (on a Mason Bokeh with 47mm 650b tyres 😂), don't really do sportives, I do like long rides and the odd audax, but it's an excuse for a biggish day out and paying 30 quid normally means you don't bail on it 🥸, and I should be relatively fresh and 5-10kg less (I don't remember what I weighed in 2019)
Cool nice one DR! It’ll be good to have a goal. Look forward to hearing how you go 💪🏻 🚀 🏔️
Just had a quick look at the data from Sunday with regards to my aerobic fitness and it’s quite interesting how it aligns with what I felt.
Dirty Reiver was just 7% decoupling because I paced it so (too?) well.
Sunday to the races and back was only 0.1% at 112 miles when I stopped for emergency food. But then I was dead 🤣 By the time I got home it was 15%.
Eg the first 50 miles were 215w @135bpm. The last 30 were 158w at 143bpm!!
I wonder if I’d fuelled better or at least waited at Hillingdon long enough to eat lunch, I’d have stayed stronger for longer 🤔
That’s why it’s fun to push the limits I suppose- see what you can learn 😀
Anyway- chainy tonight. No takers on the group so far as they all rode yesterday but if someone else is going I may give it a whirl. Then I’ll probably start recovery week early 😴 🤣
I did my first Zwift race for over a year yesterday on a whim.
Big field in Crit Club and managed my primary goal of finishing with the front pack. Even managed to drift near the front in the last couple of laps on the crucial points of the Volcano lap. Unsuprisngly no sprint available. BITD I used to...
Still I think it was my 3rd best ever points score in a race which is insane for 30th place.
The monthly ZwiftHQ GC series can be quite fun, the only thing I really don't like is that your best finishing time for each weekly stage is often down to choosing the right event start time that has a decent number of similar ability riders for the reduced aero drag, rather than pure ability.
So for a competitive GC time from the four weeks, you usually want to race in the Monday 1710 running, that attracts the biggest numbers. May is much harder to predict with the three bank hols, yesterday there were several UK daytime runs of stage one (3 laps of Volcano CCW) with fairly similar numbers.
I simply pick the races with a lot of riders in it... it just makes it more fun... but Zwift racing these days is a bit rubbish compared to where it was. I can sit in a bunch on a flattish route doing 140bpm... cruising along and chilling out. But then it gets to the last 400m and everyone has 12,000w of power 😀 😀
If you try to break you need 10-15 riders otherwise the bunch eats you up in seconds.. I'm doing better uphill now and hit 300w on a 7 mins climb in France the other day... but i still can't sprint like the fast boys.
It's almost like people are not inputting the correct data weeksy😄😄😄😄
It’s almost like people are not inputting the correct data weeksy
I race at 90kg fella...
Yeah but how much do you weigh?
Yeah but how much do you weigh?
About 140kg it feels like. 😀
Zwift always surprises me in the sprints. I am a weakling rider, all things considered.
Max power is somewhere around 850w or so and current FTP somewhere around 220w.
But, I find that if I've been in a decent group for much of the race and everyone has been working hard to stay in the group, then I can have a decent stab at the final sprint.
My normal tactic is to try & start upping the pace from a few km out to keep people working & tired. You can see people trying to sit back & get a breather before the finish, so I try not to let that happen. Then depending on the gradient at the finish I start my final effort from about 300m out & try to stick it out.
What normally happens is a few people get ahead of me, but then fizzle out & I drop a few others. So, out of a group of 10 or so, I end up perhaps 3rd or so in the sprint for the group I'm in.
Obviously, that group is never at the pointy end of the field, but still - It's good fun.
Been a right slacker since the Reiver, so need to get back on it.
The Chainy group chat was quiet all day so I decided to go and bledge it round my little 17mile 'Tempo Loop'.
It's quite an interesting one as I don't warm up. Literally treat it like a Zwift race you are late for and go hard straight out the gate. Because it goes uphill initially too, it means your average speed goes to crap and then you get to spend the next few miles chasing it back up again. The first 5 minutes were 313w!
I think because I don't warm up, it is always a little disappointing on the power front. And because I know the course so well, I tend to save myself for the little hillocks (shop-ride kamikaze styleee 🤣). So if I'm cruising along at say 24mph and I feel the resistance easing on a subtle descent, I'll just ease off the power and let the speed stay there rather than killing myself to do 25 or 26. But then stand up and sprint up the next little rise.
Anyway, long story short- I PB'd it by about 35seconds at 21.5mph which was cool as I felt like I was warming into the effort rather than fatiguing. My legs were also still cooked from Sunday. I don't usually feel any kind of physical pain whilst cycling but this was definitely in that territory at times today. Power was 270w/294np for 162bpm (just into Tempo HR). My best effort last year was 21.2mph, 266w/287np at 166bpm.
The key now is to bring forward recovery week I think. It will give me a chance to catch up on stuff at work and hopefully absorb the mammoth efforts of the last ten days. I feel like I could 'finish' this week but I reckon I'm better off treading carefully rather than let those two big days go to waste.
Good effort on the "horses" segment, fair chunk quicker than my pb and I had a tail wind that day!!
I’m failing miserably on the power training front the last few days. Didn’t do any exercise really the last couple of days as family life got in the way.
Today I’ve had my daughter home ill from school whilst the wife was in the office. Just popping out on the bmx for a quick blast in the sun.
Probably get out for some mtb tomorrow night and maybe do either turbo or cycle to / from work on Thursday or Friday.
Yeah but you’re in the top ten up Severalls 😭 🤣
I was also kind of single-speeding much of that section. Just pushing the 22ish mph gear. Had I taken it on properly I reckon I could have gotten top 3 maybe- in theory 😀 (My best 8 min power of the year is 354w v 268 for that segment 🤓 )
Whilst not a full on tailwind it was more helpful than often.
Sorry to hear that Joe. It’ll still be there when you’re ready 📈📈 😀
BMXing kind of passed me by sadly and I think I’d look silly trying to get on one nowadays 👴🏻 🤣
Folks who started with it seem to develop into really strong riders though 💪🏻
Yeah but you’re in the top ten up Severalls
Yeah used to ride it a lot and sprint up it....I looked at the ride where the KOM was done. He was coming down the hill into it and turning right, did it about 6 times, that's dedication!!! Must have been hitting that sketchy gravelly corner at some pace...maybe he cleared it first!!
Wow! Yes that’s a bad bend. Double punctured there once. And there’s an ag-contractor yard at the top so a high chance of tractors 🤣