Anyone fancy joining up with Zwift “build me up”, to start 7th Feb…?

Who’s planning on making tonight’s ride? Only 2 of us at the moment… 😬

yeah..really sorry about that… Want me to make it so you can see other zwifters?

Hang ten is actually a pretty cool workout… not as hard as others – but you really feel the last few reps!

DrP

Yeah may as well! I’ll be there, need an hour to keep the legs spinning over.

Yeah, if I don’t do it at that time then I won’t!

Cheers Simon, that wasn’t hard but certainly wasn’t easy!

Been really struggling to get the motivation, it coincided with I finishing dry Jan :-/ A couple of mid week drinks and an evening session on the turbo at full tilt is a non-starter.

After a monster hangover from a wedding a week ago this was meant to be my renaissance week. Best laid plans for getting in some ‘catchup’ sessions. Dragged myself into the garage on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed Hang Ten, thought this is it, I’ll aim for 4 or five of these this week. Tuesday feel like sh1t, turns out I have the bloody ‘Rona!

Dived back in tonight after a few weeks off riding in the real world on mountain, road, e and a bit of commuting too. Thought I’d be flying back on Zwift tonight.

Week 5, #8. Didn’t find the last couple of efforts easy at all.

Bricolage done. Last rep at FTP was hard.

Treating myself to a dirty dominoes now

Did most of ‘Cucumber’ tonight – found it ok, but was getting pain in my knee so stopped early. Knee still a bit sore a few hours later – hope it’s ok tomorrow!

Feels like I’m struggling to maintain the level of training required at the moment, but still keen to do what I can. Will aim to try some (gentle?) pedal drills tomorrow.

Nick… my criticism of this programme is that it pretty unrealistic to be able to fit 5 workouts in in a week, tbh….
Well, for me, what with a job and kids etc!

I’m gonna try an hour one tonight, maybe circus…

DrP

Yeah that’s one thing about this plan, you need to be able to take a good few hours a week aside which is a struggle unless you’re single, no kids, work from home… 🤨😁

My new shoes and pedals to (hopefully solve my foot pain) are on their way but probably not here until Wednesday, so I’ll probably do one of the hour sessions tonight, mind you neither of them look ‘fun’ 🤣

My left knee is still sore today so tonight I might try the pedal drills from last week (that I didn’t do) and see how it goes.

ta11pau1..
Looking at things, I wonder if the “melange”, although 90 minutes, is actually less intense and may be better for your feet?
It’s got a TSS of 87 (for 90 min) compared to Malevolant, which has a TSS of 79 for 60 min!

DrP

I’ll have a look, it seems that 1.5hr sessions are the worst, but even hour sessions it can start getting painful by the end, those 60rpm bits in hang ten seemed to trigger it, basically anything that’s high power, or low cadence, or mid power for a long time – or even long sessions.

Really hoping the shoes and pedals fix it, honestly it’s the feet more than anything that’s causing me to not fully complete some longer workouts.

Malevolent done. That is downright nasty!!

Used my winter spd boots which are a wider fit and are a few years old so well worn in. Good news, not anywhere near the same discomfort as my other shoes, and this was a HARD hour session. Could feel it slightly at 15 mins but it wasn’t affecting my performance.

Which is a good job as that is seriously tough. 180bpm peak which I’ve never seen on zwift until now.

My feet were probably overheating at the end too, felt very strange being in just bib shorts and winter goretex boots… 🤣🤣

Nice..I bailed on anything tonight… too worn out, and rode for an hour this am into a headwind to get home, so just rested!

DrP

Could feel it slightly at 15 mins but it wasn’t affecting my performance.

That was meant to be 15 min to go, not 15 mins in. Stupid edit function!

Pedals drills last night and Hang Ten tonight (still playing catch-up!). Knee was a bit sore, but manageable, so I’ll count that as progress!

Anyone around this afternoon for Melange???
Probably about 1400…?

If not, I’ll ping a group workout for Saturday am…

How about….
Malevolent… 0830..Saturday?

DrP

Can’t make either of them, enjoy Malevolent though, it’s fun! 🤣🤣

New shoes/pedals being delivered this morning so I’ll probably do Melange this evening after a quick spin to make sure they’re set up correctly.

New disco slippers and pedals delivered, they’re very nice!

Massively wide in the toe box and ball of the foot, glad I went up half a euro size as they fit well.

Melange (+ a bit for making sure I was set up right, 50k and 1hr 40m total) tonight.

I’ll get circus done tomorrow night, rest Friday then the hell that is going to be Mosaic on Saturday… 😐

Nice disco slippers!
How did you find melange?I like it… not much downtime though!

Just in the warmup for Circus….
Hope my turbo responds fast enough!

Legs feel good today as I did lots of foam rolling after the session yesterday – I think that’s key to recovery, and something I’ve been skipping.

DrP

Melange was good, I think it’s meant to be the ‘easy’ ride after mosaic…

I did notice the middle 2 min OU’s @ 100% FTP were remarkably ‘easy’… It’s almost like the training plan is working 🤣

I’m still not sure how I’m going to manage 285w for 20 mins to see a 10% increase in my FTP though!

Shoes were good, still a little bit of discomfort, but then I expect some aches after 90 mins sat on the trainer, whether that’s arse, legs, feet, all of the above… 🤣

Much better than before though, crucially my feet aren’t the reason I’m struggling with long worksouts. I might invest in a couple more fans too, still on the single vacmaster…

My replacement trainer has been delivered so hopefully this weekend I can get back on it and do some sessions to catch up. Hopefully I haven’t lost too much momentum and fitness int eh two weeks I’ve been off-plan, have managed two IRL rides though so hopefully that will help.

I reckon for the next few sessions, drop your ftp percentage by 5-10% to let you warm back up into the programme…

I’m just in the cooldown of Circus…
F me that was tough….
This type of session is my weakness… I can ride at and around ftp pretty well,but intervals at 160- 200% FTP are just too much of a ramp up for me!
625 watt intervals at 70kg is just too hard!
I managed the first interval at 100% then promptly dropped to 90% halfway through set 2!

DrP

Yeah you’re coming back in just as things are getting serious @reluctantjumper

@DrP – whats your fan set up now, do you have the Honeywell fans aimed at your feet or is that all vacmasters?

I think a Honeywell aimed at my head/upper body, then my vacmaster as a general front air is fine, but I think something aimed at my feet would really help too, another Honeywell maybe.

I’ve a vacmaster on the worktop, aimed at the head/neck area..
A vacmaster on the floor tilted so the air is at about 30 degrees… this blows over my legs…

Then an 18″ spinny fan BEHIND me, blowing at the back of my legs…

All controlled by smart plugs.

I still get hot!

I wish I got the set of 3 vacmasters, tbh.
Such good fans!

DrP

Could have timed it better I must admit! Plan is to do some of the easier sessions I’ve missed to ease myself back into it then see how I’m doing from there. Hopefully I should be back up to speed in a week or so.

Just about to start ‘Circus’, I normally quite enjoy these types of workout… Ask me again in an hour 🥵😬🤣

No. Just… No. There are no words. 1 or 2 more reps at the end and I would have seen the curry I had for dinner again.

Had to have 5 minutes lie down on the floor after that.

Yup…tis a real leg burner….!
I had to stand for a few of them!

Well done though dude. Proper strong finish there!

DrP

Edit…For some reason, my phone auto entered “xxx love you” 😄😄😅😅🤣🤣🤣

DrP

X

Hahaha, steady on there!! 🤣

My feet would have been in agony last week doing that workout, didn’t get much discomfort at all. I’m going to get some cleat shims to help further as well.

One plus side of doing 490w for 15s is that the segments at 295w felt positively easy! 🤣

Malevolent done..

Oof…1 hour at 252 watts average… those final 120%FTP surges really pushed me!

But… felt good after!

Anyone else done it?

DrP

Malevolent was nasty, nearly as bad as circus! Just mosaic for me to complete later today, I’ll get one of the longer watopia routes ticked off on it.

Mosaic done, I am toast.

That’s a long and hard workout, averaging 80% FTP including the warm ups/breaks for nearly 2 hours is tough!

Brill work!
I’m going to fit in an older 90 minute one tomorrow am…
Possibly HWBTWTDWH or another….
Can’t spare 2 hours…

DrP

Next week looks… Fun. 😬

Some choice words from whatsonzwift.com

Baffling Beau – The workout is almost bafflingly challenging at times

Exemplar – One of the most challenging workouts in the plan

Exigent – One of the hardest workouts in this plan

I really like the fact you can NOW do OLDER workouts, from a few weeks back…
I didn’t have enough time for a 2 hour one today, but did HWBTWTDWH..
FUnnily, as it’s a few weeks old and we’ve really come on, it felt pretty easy to do..
Still 90 min at 230W average….
Shows how the programme really builds us up!

It was good to do a workout from the plan, albeit out of order, but STILL felt like I was doing good!

OK….so next week looks (again) tough!

Who fancies Baffeling beau monday at 1830?
60 min of group pain…feels like ages since we’ve done a group workout!!!

DrP

EDIT – invite sent out…New York for tomorrow’s pain train!