My hunch is that it’s better not to (frequency being one of the only 3 levers we have to fiddle with). But if you need to make it work then I’d make Sunday as hard as possible. Either by doing a long, long Z2 or by doing beefy tempo intervals on a shorter ride.

beefy tempo

Underrated music genre

Or a porn star name or maybe a rapper 🤣

Heading out for another chaingang tonight! Two weeks out from ToC I’m just looking to maximise the time I spend on the wheel. Hopefully the pace will be a little easier although I believe we are doing the same loop as Tuesday in reverse which means a chunky climb half way round.

I’d been waiting for the 2x force axs integrated since launch, but they silently doubled the price and availability has been about zero,

so weirdly I was searching for something on the new shit wiggle/crc, and they had a single 2x force quarq in stock, I guess someone didn’t get the price bump memo, so copped this for 340 quid after wiggles platinum discount

I’d have took one of the other ratios over this, but beggars cannot be choosers

retail boxed as well 😂🤷‍♂️

Ooof. That climb stung 🤣

I was fascinated with my own physiology this evening. Leaving home and riding into a headwind to meet Rich, just getting my bike to move seemed like a monumental effort. I can’t quite emphasise enough how awful I felt on the bike 🤣

Then we rode to town and I felt below par but better.

Then we started the chaingang, four of us, and I felt awful again. Like I was gonna get dropped at 250w.

And then half an hour later something finally switched on and I felt like I could smash all day long. It’s soooo weird. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Anyhow, one of the guys pushed the pace up the hills which meant I was having to do silly watts to hold on. Breathing was maxxed out and Hr was 188-190 (threshold Hr is 176 🤣) but I never felt like I needed to ease off. I could just hold it.

Then we got on to my favourite road and as soon as the torque of climbing was off of my legs, I was able to hold the same power that had just been causing me to breath out of my arse but actually recover at the same time.

I snagged a 7th on the segment for the loop, so quite pleased with that.

Hopefully get out on the gravel bike tomorrow for an easy spin and then see what’s occurring via WhatsApp for the weekend. I’d like one shorter harder ride with a group and one longer Z2 day really.

@crosshair – you’re proper smashing it at the moment! Sounds intense.

@dirtyrider – I can barely be bothered to look at wiggle / crc at the moment. Filters don’t work properly and a lot of the prices seem a lot higher than other places. Fair shout for snagging a bargain – I’m assuming £340 is pretty cheap for a power meter with rings from my recent look at power meter options (albeit not that one as I have Shimano cranks)?

I mangled my back trying to get back into deadlifts on Monday after 3 weeks of weights. Stupid – I should have gone really really light to ease back in. I’ve spasmed my lower back so I’m back on the physio exercises to stretch it out and get it moving again. Also painkillers / ibuprofen but it seems to be responding gradually. Did a 30 min sweet spot with the power turned down earlier in the week and just did a 45 min endurance / zone 2 sort of thing before work. Going to continue to do plenty of stretching and have a camping trip next week so not going to be pushing myself at all until things have calmed down. Frustrating!

On the upside I’m still about 74kgs so far – have rehydrated but haven’t banged back up to 76kgs+ so far.

Well done on the weight mate! A bit of patience and you’ll be back to it in no time 💪🏻

I wrote this years plan (although I’m not strictly following it) for Tour of Cambridgeshire so if there’s a week to smash it, it’s this one 😀
There’s been some bantz in the WhatsApp group about tapering (someone doing Ride London used it as an excuse to bail on Tuesday chaingang 🤣)so I’m hoping to get mine right. Step one is to have something to taper from. And after barely riding last week I need to really overload this week. That way when I ease off for a couple of days again next Thursday-Saturday I should get a super-compensation effect 🤞🏻

@joebristol – when they launched the new Force AXS they had this at £399 rrp, its the same as the Red version, just not machined silver, which is 750 quid, there’s been zero availability, however between launch and sometime two weeks ago, they silently increase the price on the SRAM website to £699, availability has still been about zero, so to grab this for the original price is quite a steal I guess

https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/pm-frc-kit-d2

Good to see you briefly this morning crosshair. I won the KOM up Combe and then sat up and joined the grupetto 😄😄😄

Actually I stopped at the staggered cross road after the descent to direct straggelers and we never saw you lot again!

Yeah, I buried myself trying to catch up with Andy and Michael and then they kept going!

Pretty sure we went against the spirit of gravel if not the spirit of Banjo with that move 🤣🤣

Was a nice route and stunning weather but I often found myself wishing I was on the road bike and not 47mm Pathfinders 🤣 Especially up Coombe 😮‍💨

Just reflecting further- you must have put nearly a minute into me up Coombe. So, had you not waited, the entire dynamics would have been different. That would have been way more entertaining seeing if the roluers could have reeled in the climbers 😀

Pretty sure you’d catch me!!

concluded an easy week (was probably due one) with an hour on the turbo this evening, very hot indoors, but I couldn’t get out and felt I needed to do a bit to keep the legs turning over, nice walk up Jacobs Ladder in the peaks with the boys for a couple of hours this afternoon though then a bit around Derwent for an ice cream, barely been above Z2 this week, went out Monday & Wednesday for a couple of hours each and the legs were deffo heavy from Sunday, a much needed recovery week,

Chainy tonight. Heard the epic tale of one of the guys Ride London! Sounded fun and he squeezed under 4hrs too 👏🏻
Rather puts the pressure on Tour of Cambridgeshire but my hunch is that something closer to 4.5hrs is a realistic stretch goal that doesn’t rely too much on getting in a sketchy super-swarm.

We had a dodgy wind again tonight, caught cars at two junctions and hit two sets of road work traffic lights on red. But we were still about 6 seconds faster than last week.

I felt okay, not amazing. Rich was funny- he’s been moaning about not being fit but having a functional power meter tonight meant he ripped everyone’s legs off 🤣 Which was irritating as I was next in line and there’s more draft from a gnat 🤣🤣
I managed to hold his attack up the A4 kicker and then dropped everyone early in the sprint. Thinking nobody else was trying, because they were out of sight, I sat up and so of course they all whizzed past 🤨🤣