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Ramp test done.
🤢🥵
I'm confident I gave that 100%, I could barely turn the pedals over at 75w afterwards even with a 2 minute break! Those 2-3 minutes of hurt are the worst ever!
I’m ramping up this week before starting 6 weeks of dirt destroyer, current FTP is set at 222 but I think it’s a bit low so I’ll do a ramp test at the end of this week, I think I’ll be about 240w ish.
New FTP: 247w. Max HR, 191bpm. That puts me, at my current weight of 74.7kg, at 3.31w/kg. Back on the road to where I was last September, at my peak of 279w and 73kg (3.82w/kg). Here's my FTP and weight over the entire time I've been training, since Sept 2021:
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I reckon 6 weeks of dirt destroyer will set me up nicely, hopefully back up to 260w or so.
Good work - most recent ramp tests I’ve had slightly wobbly legs when I’ve finished!
Although on the most recent ones I had a 5 min breather and then did a 30 min easy endurance turbo session to chill out
You’re nearly bang on the same w/kg as me right now - although this is my peak ftp output so far. Would love to get near 270-280 for the summer but it might be too much of an ask vs the time I’ve got for training.
Yeah I'm happy with that considering I've not been doing any proper structured training recently, just increasing my hours on the bike slightly from pretty much nothing. In the past 3 weeks I've done a 2hr night MTB ride, and 4 zwift 40m-1hr workouts. So with 6 weeks of 3-4x workouts per week I should hopefully be back up close to where I was at the end of last year.
finished the last 3 week block with 2hrs at zone 2 and then the remainder of Quatch Quest up the alpe on Zwift, took it steady for the last hour, for a total of 9 hours for the week, legs feel ready for an easier week, will probably drop to half volume and reduce the intensity a touch to lower Z2, catch up with some life stuff during the day as to fit in 9 hours has been tough (kids, masters, life)
don't really have an end goal or race I'm working to (maybe I should, don't feel like 300w or 4w/kg is really a goal, just an arbitrary figure I might not actually reach, older etc), so just going to do what I've been doing for the next block, hoping the weather improves enough to mix in some decent outdoor rides, don't know if to pencil in some actual structured Vo2 sessions yet, as the couple of zwift races and hills I've done sit in the threshold range and of the 60 hours I've done this year, 52hrs are Z2 and I've only got 54 minutes in Z5
I did a big mtb ride today at Risca - about 30km and just over 1400m of climbing - proper broken now. It was riding the rough / steep off piste so even the downs were hard work.
Quite pleased with my fitness to get through that without cramp etc - still riding fast on the last downhill back to the car park.
Probably need a few days off legs now to recover. Might just take the dog on an extended walk tomorrow to loosen up and that’s about it.
First workout of dirt destroyer tonight, 'back to basics'.
Oh, 65rpm intervals, how I've missed thee. 🤣
Interestingly I did this same workout in Dec 2021, with an FTP of 212 and my heart rate was 158 AVG/186 max. Today at 247 FTP my HR was 148 AVG/178 max.
I had a chill 1 hour endurance TR ride yesterday to spin my legs out without too much tss. Felt ok and my body feels back to normal after Sunday’s battering at Risca. On Monday I just felt totally exhausted full body so did nothing at all.
Back on a 45 min sweet spot workout this morning before work - 4 x 7 mins intervals between 88-94% ftp. Meant to be an hour version but not feeling it today.
No big ride planned this weekend due to Mother’s Day stuff seemingly absorbing the whole weekend annoyingly. Might try and pop out for a quick 1-1.5 blast on the road bike from the front door.
On Monday I just felt totally exhausted full body so did nothing at all.
TBH, i've always found that's the best time to get the legs spun out.
Just an hour of "level zero".
Always found (for me) that it meant i could do a session the following day (even a hard session) and staves off DOMS quite effectively.
Well done Joe, I’m awful at feeling bad for not doing what I had planned but consistency is key so at least you moved the needle 😀
Recovery days are a juggling act that’s for sure. If I’ve had a complete day off then I know that the following day is going to likely feel awful but I can still hit the numbers good and strong.
I need to basically do the 60 min recovery ride I should have done the day before, first, to feel in-sync again 🤣
That said, the science on recovery rides is patchy so I’d rather have at least two complete days off the bike each week.
If anyone has read about that Nils Van de Poel speed skater dude and his cycling training plan, they’ll know that he liked to actually take his two recovery days off together (the whole weekend as he was pro so could train five days in the week). And he’d even have an easy day Monday too if he felt he wasn’t recovered enough.
Bizarre week for me, after several issues with Sundays XC race I rested for 2 days then started last night with Zwift race coming 26th in the front pack of 200 over 40 mins averaging 3.5wkg despite a lot of coasting in the group, and was pleased with my short power to stay in on climbs at >5wkg. I’ve set several 12 month best - although not lifetime best - power records recently.
With wheels to rebuild and the travel from London I’m pretty sure I’m going to default the Cannock Chase race on Sunday (it may be postponed anyway) and defer to a long Zwift race such as the Chasing Tour 70km at the weekend instead. Followed by a steady MTB on Sunday to settle in those wheels.
Then, back to proper training next Tuesday.
When I say I did nothing on Monday I did walk the dog for 45 mins to stretch my legs a bit - but I couldn’t have got on a bike - I was just broken in terms of feeling exhausted.
Tuesday I weight trained chest and tri’s and that’s still hurting today as I did more weight for each exercise than recently. Going along quite nicely with that at the moment.
Tomorrow will be either a weights or swim day I think. If weights it’ll be deadlift / wide grip pull ups / dumbell rows / flute bridges / bicep 21’s with dumbbells I reckon.
TrainerRoad seems to be wanting to ramp up volume of vo2 stuff over the next month but I feel like I’d still like to do some more base - so I think I might switch some sessions for sweet spot ones a bit ad hoc.
@kryton57 - you sound on another level to me power / ftp / training seriousness wise. What was up with the xc race?
you sound on another level to me power / ftp / training seriousness wise. What was up with the xc race?
Well I am coached an committed to 9-12 training a week for Racing. :). 4wKG is more of an incidental thing for me but I though posting what we do for training to maximise power & fitness here would be of help.
The Race; to cut a long story short I think I had over expectations, would haver finish 28th of 40 Grand Vets if my free hub hadn't exploded 500m from the finish. I needed to remember that I've had a 3yr absence to the format, it was regional A, a lot of the riders would have raced over winter & this was my first, and there were 14 GV's & Vets behind my finishing time. After the race I just thought I was shit 😀
Well I am coached an committed to 9-12 training a week for Racing. :). 4wKG is more of an incidental thing for me but I though posting what we do for training to maximise power & fitness here would be of help.
Yes all this stuff / thoughts / advice are useful 100%! Good dedication there - I could only dream of having 9-12 hours to myself - let alone for biking.
It sounds like you’re being a bit harsh on yourself and the freehub disaster is so random.
I keep wondering about trying a low level enduro race but doubt I’d finish very high. No way I’d enter an xc race 🤣
XC is really accommodating with the cats Joe and are kind of weight/power to weight and skill dependant rather than power. I used to race way better at a lower w/kg and lower weight than I do know at 1.5 stone heavier.
And the big range of categories mean you can find close racing at any level.
And it's (kind of) fun 🤣
I’m not sure racing xc on a coil spring / Lyrik Transition Sentinel would be amazing - it’s probably 10lbs heavier at least than any decent xc bikes 🤣
I guess I could race on my Marino hardtail as that’s only 30lbs give or take.
But no - just not going to happen!
aaaaaand i'm sick during my rest week, typical 😂 kids have been riddled and it finally caught up with me, have done 2x 1hr 20m low zone 2 sessions this week, Monday and Wednesday, cancelled todays, I dare say I won't be feeling up to it tomorrow, had planned 4hrs this week, not a massive issue in the grand scheme of things
Always the same on recovery week 😔 And if you don’t get sick then you feel like it anyway 🤧 🤣
I’m on mine this week too. I’ve had a Baldrick style cunning plan for tomorrow and am going to do the slow group ride on my MTB 💡
If I do it on my road bike I’ll be in Z1 but on the MTB it should be Z2.
The medium group aren’t going out long enough and the fast group will be too hard for recovery week.
But the 70mile slow group ride should give me a lovely aerobic boost before I go into Build 1 😀
If anyone has read about that Nils Van de Poel speed skater dude and his cycling training plan, they’ll know that he liked to actually take his two recovery days off together (the whole weekend as he was pro so could train five days in the week). And he’d even have an easy day Monday too if he felt he wasn’t recovered enough.
TBH, comparing yourself to a pro is a pointless exercise, you don't have the time, genetics, coaching and so on to even make it remotely relevant.
And FWIW, Nils VdPs dad lives about a 10 minute drive from me... So i'm well aware of him 😉
Hey that’s cool 😀
Actually that’s less true than you might think though because stress is stress is stress.
Recovery takes on even a greater importance for working amateurs as it’s easy to think low training volume means you can handle more bike stress. Whereas a busy family and work life means you may be under greater total stress than Nils and his bonkers bike workouts.
The interesting part for me was that he wasn’t afraid to clump 2-3 recovery days together. That’s pretty much unheard of in most cycle training literature where two days a week but evenly spaced is the norm (and even those may include active recovery).
Yes 👍🏻
This is quite good to pass the time on the turbo 😀
Quick road loop from the front door this morning. Not sure if I’m carrying a bit of fatigue from last weekend’s big effort. Was fine spinning along the Bristol/bath cycle path, but lansdown lane was more
Brutal than I remember - got my 2nd best ever time up it - but 52 seconds off my pb last May. Although that was a beautiful sunny day in just bibs and short sleeves jersey etc - whereas this was in a big commuter style coat and I got soaked with rain.
Feeling tired this evening - having a total rest day tomorrow I think.
Well done Joe, I heard something about the rule of thirds on a podcast the other day. Training should feel good 1/3 of the time, meh 1/3 of the time and rubbish 1/3 of the time.
Otherwise you’re likely over or under stressing yourself if you always feel good or always feel bad.
My cunning plan backfired. I had awful heartburn last night and barely slept. Then breakfast set it off again but it was bearable on the bike.
So I set off with the 15mph group on my mtb as planned. And then it rained. And never stopped for the entire 4h45 I was riding!
They stopped at a garden centre earlier than planned so I carried on alone.
But the tiny sip of squash from my bottle I had made my tummy bad again so I ended up riding 70 miles in the pouring rain on nothing but breakfast with no AirPods and no conversation. Needless to say I’ve been fairly drained since I arrived home 🤣
I’ve been slowly sipping water all day to try and rehydrate and had a couple of rounds of toast but I’m certainly not going to ride tomorrow now.
That sounds brutal! Fair shout for grinding through that in the rain, with no company, under fuelled with stomach ache as well 🤮
At least mine I was fuelled ok / comfy / had music with headphones etc. The rain battered down and soaked my feet right at the start of the ride (but not through my top as the coat stayed waterproof) but then it went weirdly warm.
I think I could do with investing in some new coats for biking at some point - want one of those thin emergency style Castili ones that packs down small and I think a Gore Paclite Gtx as a more streamlined road waterproof.
My new bike frame has now arrived and I’m going to get that swapped over during the next few weeks so that’ll be more comfortable with my lower back for distance and is very purple.
Yeah, I was dressed for showers not torrential, continuous rain I must admit! I rarely get dehydrated but even with the rainwater I was inevitably drinking, it's taken until Sunday evening to get re-hydrated. And I'm better and appeared to have avoided catching anything else.
In hindsight it was such a flawed idea- especially for recovery week. Lesson learned.
Gearing myself up for Tuesday now as I have decided to start a Threshold block. 4x10 coming up but I have no idea what my Threshold actually is 🤣 Just have to make an educated guess for number 1 and then adjust from there for the second third and fourth.
Sounds like a big ride for a recovery week. Mine sounds more appropriate - 1 hour endurance turbo / 45 min sweet spot turbo / 1.5 hour road spin with just one big hill.
Found when I’ve got back that one of my gp4000’s has started to delaminate on one side I think - got a long loop of rubber hanging off it. Have been happy with gp4000s (25c clincher) which I think are nearer to a 28c size. Looking at gp5000 clinchers in 30c (as the new frame is technically a gravel one which I’m building up for road so has loads of tyre clearance) but struggling to get my head round £100 for a pair of road tyres - albeit with free tubes.
Did a Zwift 1:50 race yesterday over Big Foot Hills 67km with instructions to push for breaks as “intervals”. Even with all the coasting and riding in groups I ended up at 3.2wkg, but very tired, then went out MTBing today in the slop for a 90 mins “push”.
Start again with a Zwift race Wednesday, 3 x 20’s sweet spot on Thursday, 12 x 1 min max on Saturday and 3hr Z2 on Sunday. A 7hr week to start the next block.
Awesome well done Kryton 💪🏻 I love that your coach uses Zwift races to simulate hard group rides and C races. It’s such a great motivator for going harder than you can in intervals alone.
Gp5k’s are worth it though Joe 🤩 I love my 32’s and 25’s tubeless on my gravel and race bikes respectively.
Although I call it recovery ‘week’ it’s actually just a few days. If I go easy for all 7 I lose too much fitness. Last recovery week, I did group rides on the Saturday and Sunday for 9h00 total whereas this time I’ve done nothing over Z2 and only 7h30 so I should be freshened up nicely for Tuesday.
If I’d not been ill and actually drunk the fluids and sugar I had with me as well as doing the proper coffee stop (I left them to it as couldn’t face watching them eat cake 🤣) it would have been a perfect easy spin with high Z1 HR, low Z2 power.
Feeling great now I’ve got my appetite back and slowly emptied the cupboards all day 🤣🤣
It’s such a great motivator for going harder than you can in intervals alone.
Yes and seems to be working - although I haven't reached my 2021 best I'm getting "gold" in my power achievements (e.g. 1m wkg, 2m wkg) on a week on week basis. Saturdays race I recorded a 60m PB of 266w which is a true hour at 3.6wkg for me.
Wow that’s brilliant mate well done 👍🏻
I’m tempted to try a sports dietician 🤔 I just can’t find a way to lose weight anymore. Eating to hunger means my weight stays literally within 1/2 a lb week to week. (Has been consistent since Jan). Eating to a deficit that worked in my early 30’s means I just get hangry and lose performance on the bike (although worked for -10lb when I was just doing easy z2 before Xmas).
I’m really really pleased with my power (which is why I only talk in straight watts 😉🤣 ) but if I could get down even into the 80’s I’d be half handy. (Even my 291np for two hours is only 3.0w/kg 🥴🤣)
85kg/340w would be my best shot at 4w/kg but that’s most likely a pipe dream.
291np for two hours is only 3.0w/kg
Would be about 4.1 for me!! MY FTP is about 280 on a very good day.
I would expect you need need to abandon training for a while to focus on weight which given you are turning the wick up to harder efforts right now is going to be tough...sounds like a job for next winter to me..
Banjo gravel ride next Sat if the weather cheers up?
Oooo that’s a nice idea although I’m adding intensity now, so was going to go for a smash up with the 19’s. Stay in touch and I’ll see what’s occurring 😀
(I don’t have a gravel bike either as the diverge BB threads have smoothed off so it’s in for a warranty replacement frame!)
I’m hoping I’ll naturally get a kg or two drop off as is gets warmer but I’d love for someone to tell me what three meals a day to eat that are going to tidy up my diet and still give me the big fuel supply I need.
I’m guessing cheese, jam and crisp sandwiches aren’t it 🧐 🤣🤣
Looking at gp5000 clinchers in 30c (as the new frame is technically a gravel one which I’m building up for road so has loads of tyre clearance) but struggling to get my head round £100 for a pair of road tyres – albeit with free tubes.
I only buy GP4000s or now 5000s as I trust them. Cost is immaterial, it's not pleasant on the wallet when you put a hole in one too soon, with how I expect them to perform into downhill corners. Running 32 TLR(?) on my summer road bike and the level of grip is phenomenal cornering. I think they are "slower" on a ride but I've no plan to put smaller ones on ever.
Since I last posted about not overdoing it I've basically been ill since I did that "one more ride" mind it was such a good ride. Took basically the week off after to recover and not been able to do anything properly hard since then. Some sort of cold/virus that's just lingering along making me feel just rubbish enough.
Cold sounds horrible - since Covid I’d swear there are more of these things around that linger for ages before suddenly going.
I’ve stumped up for a pair of gp5000s in 30c. Hoping for the next few weeks they fit in my caad12 disc frame but they might not. I need to switch all the stuff across from the caad to the Dolan GXC frame that’s arrived but I’m not relishing the task.
Want to protection tape a few bits first, then cut the carbon steerer down a bit so I can get it all together and then trim more at a later date.
Di2 internal might be fun - looking at the plastic adapter where cables go into the frame it’s drilled for one big brake hose and then to act as a stop for outer with only bare cable continuing through. Will need to drill one of those out to fit di2 cable through.
I’ve got 2 x hope RX4+ caliper to fit onto Shimano hoses / stis and then bleed 🫣
Got to change the rear axle and both wheels worth of end caps on my hunt wheels. Di2 internal battery to fit in a new seat post (can’t remember if I’ve bought the right size wedge thing or not yet.
New tyres onto wheels.
Press fit bb to fit with new Ultegra cranks.
Think those are the main awkward bits.
On the weight loss thing using the ‘lose it’ app has worked well for me. Although at the moment I’m probably allowing myself too many calories so my weight has stagnated between 76.5-77kgs broadly. If I ease off on weight training and cake I could probably get that down to 75kgs but I’m enjoying both of those things at the moment 🍰
I’m tempted to try a sports dietician 🤔 I just can’t find a way to lose weight anymore.
I did a sports science undergrad degree from 2019-2022 and I'm 2/3 of the way through year 1 of 2 of a MSc Dietetics course, with an eye on registering with SENR post graduation, and I think the problem is you could ask 100 dietitians that question and you'd get 100 different answers
increase protein intake
vary the stimulus
calorie deficit
🤷♂️
I’m tempted to try a month of Fascat just so I can download their ‘win in the kitchen’ diet plan.
What I really want is to tell someone my training plan, my likes and dislikes, give them a goal weight (and date) and for them to tell me exactly what to eat 🤣
Bonus if they can cook it and send it to me to heat up 🤣
cancelled todays, I dare say I won’t be feeling up to it tomorrow, had planned 4hrs this week, not a massive issue in the grand scheme of things
deffo wasn't up to it, binned off Fridays session, cancelled my Friday night shift, spent the entirety of Saturday watching MSR and sleeping, went for a light walk with the kids yesterday, early night, did an early shift today, longer walk with the kids after school, and felt a lot better, Garmin said my RHR was back to normal after a couple of days being elevated, so took that as a sign to get back on, 1hr Z2 @ 185w, bit of drift during, but it was very warm in my room this evening, will leave any intensity until later in the week, still hoping to get 7/8hrs in this week, probably won't get chance to get outdoors though,
and if they weighed it out and worked out the calories and macros, even better, but then what life is that 🤷♂️
take today, I tracked my breakfast, and lunch, because it was off the shelf cereals, milk, bread, meat, tuna, easy, but then at tea, I've batched cooked some spag Bol, nights at the weekend, so portioned some up, fed the kids and myself, some more spare, then had a slither of homemade cheesecake short of absolutely obsessing weighing everything and breaking it down in excel then how the hell do you know if your in a deficit
and that in effect is one of the cruxs with tracking apps, because unless you are ultra dedicated and build the recipes you eat, it forces you down the line of eating stuff that has a barcode, for convenience, which isn't always the best option
Ooof. I lost 10 points off of my fitness score over recovery week (which I guess is the point 🤣) and my legs were definitely aware of it.
I literally haven’t done any threshold work since 31/03/22 either so today’s 4x10 set were going to be interesting if nothing else.
The first one was okay- 333w, but from there they faded in turn until the last one was just 291! Which is bonkers given that if I stay aerobic, I can get within 20w of that for 2h30 🤣
It was fun riding fast at times though. One interval was nicely timed downwind and subtly downhill to give me 9min15 / 4.2 miles at 27.1mph 😎
Let’s hope my body remembers how to go hard and adapts quickly soon 🤞🏻🤞🏻
@crosswind - was this outdoors intervals rather then turbo then?
Where are these fitness points you talking - Strava or intervals.icu or something?
I’m not warning to intervals - it seems a bit ad-hoc when and what it pulls through from Garmin Connect. Think I’m just going to let TR adaptive training rey to manage training tss etc.
Plugged through a 2.4 level V02 session yesterday - only 45 mins long as I didn’t have time for an hour but it was a slightly higher rated session than the hour suggests (both classed as productive). Wasn’t too bad.
I think the sweet spot scheduled for tomorrow or Thursday will be harder - called half dome with some 8 minute sweet spot intervals.
Outdoors mate yes.
“Fitness” is just your rolling 42 day average of your training load. And your “fatigue” score is your rolling 7 day average. “Form” is the first minus the second.
Strava, Training Peaks, Trainerroad, Intervals.icu and other apps all give similar but not identical numbers characterising your “fitness score”.