Trying to get to 4w/kg

3 1/4  hours in the sun this evening, 105km @ 187w (32.8km/h av) too hot for anything but cruising 😎

thanks to Start Fitness for getting my order out the door and into my hands yesterday, (ordered 11:30pm Friday and Delivered 11am Monday 😎), fitted before I went to work last night, so I was ready to go this evening after Uni,

dropped to about 75psi, as per Silca’s site thing, they initially felt really sluggish, the first 5km felt really weird, I’m not one that can feel the difference between stuff much, but they deffo felt different, don’t know if it was just them scrubbing in, or the hot roads, that disappeared soon enough thought and they  feel alright

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Nice! They look smart 😎

Chaingang organisation went awry this evening so it turned out folks were going after all but I’d already had a change of heart by then.

Did 120mins at the ‘talk test’ (241w) instead and I reckon I’ve lost 10-15w since I’ve stopped base training.

Was a fun ride though. Takes so much concentration to maintain steady power at everything from 4-42mph that time flies by.

Nice! They look smart 😎

that’s worth 5w isn’t it 😂

I reckon I’m down a bit as well, but I’m not training for anything, I’m just enjoying being fit, but it’s to be expected, in winter the turbo is ruthlessly efficient, take today, while I only had 9 minutes of coasting according to intervals (it’s really flat here, I only did 318m of climbing in 105km), I still managed a whole hour under 159w (Z1), wouldn’t happen on the turbo, but I’m also not doing 3hrs indoor when it’s 25 degrees, the sky is blue and the beer is cold at the pub stop

in years gone by, I’d have smashed this 3hrs, hours in tempo and threshold & above and got home wrecked, for the strava and kudos, however, I could do the same ride again tomorrow no issue, could I smash it again tomorrow? probably not,

quite happy to maintain how I am through summer & autumn, and try and build it over winter

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (we’ll ignore the is he isn’t he issue, and of course the show tech) gives a good interview after breaking the 2 mile WR saying

“One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people do is they go too hard in training, and that’s basically because of their mentality.”

Good training advice from Jakob Ingebrigtsen in his chat with @RUN_DMC_88 of @CitiusMag

"One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people do is they go too hard in training, and that's basically because of their mentality. They don't believe in themselves." pic.twitter.com/3k2Oe5csVC

— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) June 10, 2023

So true 🙌

I managed just 1.7% coasting (2 mins 😎) tonight.

Time to celebrate a small victory this morning 🎉

I had hypothesised that I needed to ride less to lose weight 🤪

Counter intuitive but moving a big lump around requires a lot of fuel. Daily riding meant I could never afford to be in a deficit or I’d lose my motivation to ride. And be less likely to hit the power numbers on hard days.

Now, the Trainerroad marketing department (💩) would have you believe that just fuelling the work (and dousing yourself in carbs at every opportunity) means your body will find its optimum composition.

I had already fallen out with that idea, (and half the cyclists in America on their forum 🤣) last year when ‘fuelling the work’ saw me get TEN POUNDS heavier. Switching back to un-fuelled endurance riding meant I reversed that over a few months but then plateaued.

I made an active decision this year to not diet, just eat to hunger, and ride a lot. But with way less carbs than last year. And it turns out my body was then almost perfect at self-regulation.
I have been 15st01 most of the time I’ve jumped on a scale since Jan 01st and occasionally as high as 15st04 when carb loading. But not 1lb lighter.

So since Tour of Cambridgeshire, I’ve started another ‘weight loss’ campaign. But I figured it would help to ride less.

My logic is, even Z2 rides burn a lot of carbs. The top of my Z2 is 240w at the minute so you’re roughly looking at 450kcal of carbs an hour give or take.
With daily riding, I couldn’t afford to let that replenish slowly. And as it’s an imprecise science (it’s way too easy to either add back too much fat or too many carbs)- hunger would keep me at the top side of comfy.

By having a day off between every ride, I can replenish my glycogen gradually over the course of 5 or 6 meals. No extra eating necessary.

And whether by accident or design, it is working!!

I dropped below 15stone for the first time since November ‘22 this morning, having weighed in at 15st03 the morning after ToC.

But even better, I feel in control and motivated to continue with it.

I also have more energy to do other stuff by not riding so much. (The shed and Zwift/dining room are immaculate 🤣🤣 )

Sounds good – sometimes you just have to experiment and see what works. Balancing calories in with exercise out is a tricky thing I find. I still calorie count on Lose It and I’m pretty much at the weight I think is realistic to maintain for me at 75kgs. I have to be I’ll / too strict to get any lower.

That said I haven’t done much weight training since my back spasm (or anything other than low zone 2 turbo) so when I finally get it right and get going again it’ll be interesting to see what happens to my weight.

Got another sports massage today – although I’d say I had a bit of a breakthrough a few days ago after getting a lacrosse ball to target the very tight muscles with. Between that and a foam roller (plus physio stretches) it’s eased up a bit. Thinking I might ride my hardtail to work and back tomorrow and see how that goes. Dyfi off piste / Dyfi bike park / Shropshire hills is the following weekend so I’d I can’t ride to work then there’s no hope of making that!

So, I’ve never done an FTP or anything like that, but my weighted average power over 3-4 hours of riding is a measured (GRX 4III or Easton Cinch power meter) 245W over that period or 225 as the average.  I can happily maintain 300W on a 10min climb, but that’s really the only other measure I have.  I weigh 70.5kg, so assuming that weighted average is the number to use, I’m at 3.5W/kg currently, right?  or 3.2 using the average.  Is there any way to tell what the likely number is for ? or is it just impossible to tell without a test?

It’s just about finding clues that point you in the right direction.

My hunch is that you’d be at 300w given the 10min power you mention and the fact that 225w (likely your Zone 2) is 75% of 300.

NP for a 1 hour race like effort is a good predictor too.

If you can do 4 reps up a 10 min climb at 300 then I’d go with that 😎

@crosshair, great news if it’s proper recent weight loss, but in this heatwave I’d be a bit wary of the weight loss being dehydration. I weighed myself earlier and it was the first time in over a week I’ve been under 92Kg, having put on ~12Kg over the last eight months. I then used our scales’ mode that estimates water and fat % and these were 55.9 and 13 respectively (back in 2017 I was under 10% fat on same scales and weighing ~73Kg)…

My norm is ~57% water, so being 91.4Kg was highly likely due to dehydration, I’m now drinking glasses of High5 “electrolyte squash.”

@Daffy it depends on what you want to call your FTP, 95% of 20mins, a one hour effort etc.

Happily doing 300W for 10mins doesn’t suggest you are leaving everything on the climb and at ~70Kg, I’m enviable of your W/Kg! But taking one of my rides last year, including my best outdoor 10mins that was up a climb that took just over 9mins, I was at my limit on each of those three climbs https://www.strava.com/activities/6871399099/overview

Nah I don’t think so. Am peeing clear and drinking more than usual. I’ve probably lost some retained water by cutting out a fair bit of salt though- water that came in handy deep into a long group ride the other day for example but I’ll just pay closer attention to drinking lots whilst I’m ‘cutting’ 😀

What is a realistic goal for your weight @crosshair? Interested as I am the same weight, so if you crack the code pls share tips.

Don’t tend to worry about weight TTing as it’s not that important, but was thinking about it last night doing our fastest local ten course. One of these down 1.5 times but up 1 time courses on a DC. Raged the down leg, hit 43mph max, then turned back up – ever seen an 18 wheeler going up Shap summit on the M6? Yeah that. Did a mid 21 in the end which I was happy with, but it’s sort of a missed opportunity in some ways.

I have been 13.5 stone in the past but I’d be happy at 14. No idea if I’ll get close this time around mind you 😀

another hot evening, but I’ve lacked any intensity so decided to have a ride where I just continually pushed on but paced, so I didn’t die 😂, was 85km to the pub, then 20km home, 242w average for 2h 17m to the pub, only ride I can find with a better number for the time was in 2014 when I had one of the early Stages units 👀 at 247w for the same time

Ye-ha that’s a nice spin 💪🏻 Well done! 🍺 🚴🏻

@Daffy – it depends on what you want to know your FTP for. If you want to set some training zones so you can do intervals then either a test or one of the AI based analysis tools is probably a good idea. If it’s just a benchmark for your own curiosity then your assumptions seem ok so you may well be in the right ballaprk.

100 miler today, pan flat, 308m of elevation, ticked round in 4hr 50m (solo, moving), was fine for 3hrs, then stopped to grab a drink at a petrol station, and whatever suncream I’d grabbed melted with the heat and sweat and not moving about 5km further on and I couldn’t see shite all, stop rub eyes, blink, glasses on, off, on, rub eyes, 20km later I stopped in a village with a chippy and grabbed a bottle of water to try and flush my eyes 👀😂, didn’t really work  🙄, Av 201w, NP 202w, cruising

Nice! Well done mate 👍🏻

I went out for the first time since Sunday and didn’t feel too bad. Gonna try and make sure I get 3x rides in a week to maintain some of what I have whilst I’m concentrating on other things for a bit.

I’ve been pretty consistent over the last 3 weeks, 7hr 46m over 2 days, 7h 42m over 3 days, 7hr 52m over 4 days, just making it fit really, was good to get. out for a long one yesterday, as it’s been a busy week, with next week looking equally busy,

holy hell it’s hot indoors, spitty spotty rain on the way home from uni, was there all day yesterday, then nights last night, so when I got in at 5, I thought I’ll do an hour on zwift (justify this months sub cost 😂) and have a crack up the Epic KOM after Fridays long ride, get some different stimulus in the legs

far too hot, it didn’t even feel warm, driving home I almost put the heating on in the car even though it said 18.5, but I guess thats fatigue & 3 hours sleep for you, anyway, had a crack but I knew 4/5 minutes, even with the Wahoo fan on full, in I couldn’t do 23 minutes to try and beat my PR, I was BOILING, so decided I’d pull the plug at 10 minutes and pressed on,

ended up with a 2023 10 minute PR, 325w, HR only hit 184bpm,  some history 10m history (indoor all on the same Tacx Neo, had it since 2017)

2023  – 325w

2022 – 283w

2021 –  301w

2020 – 331w (during a ramp test)

2019 – 319w (same first 10m of the Epic KOM)

2018 – 336w (first 10m of the Alpe on Zwift)

2017 – 298w

weighed in pre and was 77.3kg on the scales in indoor kit, weight seems to have plateaued but been eating out a lot and enjoying *plenty* of beers in the sun/gigs/lazy evenings,  but still moving in an upwards direction even if I feel like I’ve treaded water for a couple of months,

Nice work on the weight loss!

I think I’m finally pulling through my back spasm dramas – stretching daily and using my sit / stand desk standing up most of the time at the moment. Off any pain killers now.

Managed a 3 day biking weekend – first day was loosely following the Climach X route but hitting all the off piste downhill sections / day 2 was a full day uplift at Dyfi bike park / day 3 was a horrible xc slog around Long Mynd with DH casing tyres on and hot and humid weather. Was swearing quite a lot about my mate’s route plan on that one.

Just gone out for a quick blast on the road bike to see how fit I feel sprinting and see what’s what with the power metre. Did a bit of bimbling along just enjoying feeling not broken – then hill sprints whenever I found one. Managed a max power of 1003w so that’s quite exciting.

Done a couple of commutes today – randomly intervals.icu popped up and said my ftp is 193w based on doing 16mins at 203 watts. I could do a fair chunk higher than that for 16 mins I’d have thought – I did some bits of my ride at a higher intensity than others.

Im assuming it’s because I’m now riding with a power meter that it’s suddenly interested in my rides…

Yeah I guess it’s just pulling data to populate your power curve 👍🏻

My weight loss is slow but definite. Hit the lowest weight since 2019 by dropping another pound last week to 14st12.
Quite funny that it took buying a motorbike to actually start to lose weight 🤣 And why I think e-bikes could actually be a better way for some folk to lose weight than a regular bike!

I had enough time to make the group ride today but chose to come home from my early morning hour at work and go back to bed instead. Then chose some non-urgent work over riding this afternoon and then watching TV over riding this evening 🤣

It’s a part of my personality that I’ve grown to accept that I’m either all or nothing with things. My brain seems to be intensely stubborn and there is no forcing its hand once motivation is lost. I wasn’t procrastinating today- I just knew it was hopeless to even put my kit on.

I’ve also realised that maybe hobbies are a healthy outlet for that trait and that, if getting obsessed/bored with things (that ultimately don’t matter) on a two year cycle means I can maintain a long term commitment to my job and a lifelong commitment to my wife, then it’s no bad thing.

That said- I don’t think cycling is completely gone this time. It’ll come back once I crest a couple of steep peaks at work in the next ten days or so and have the mental energy to choose a new goal to plan towards.

You were smashing out the cycling – maybe it just got very intense and you’ve mentally drained yourself a bit. Few weeks off might do you the world of good.

I think I’m mostly through my back spasm now – still get a bit tight certain days but just stretching and stretching it – and if needed adding heat with a belt thing / taking ibuprofen.

Considering starting a new turbo training plan soon with a ramp test to start etc. slightly got my thoughts on an enduro race in Devon in October if there are still places available next time I get paid.

Felt like I was at least smashing my mate on every downhill we did so perhaps I wouldn’t be propping up the entire field!

did the dads race at sports day yesterday, who knew a full gas 80m? could wreck your legs so much 😂🙄 – think it’s more muscle strain than muscle fatigue, hopefully they loosen off for tomorrow, got time for a decent ride, but jesus it’s going to be windy

That’s the way it goes 🤣 When I’m ‘on’ it seems stupid to me that anyone would prioritise doing anything different. When I lose that interest though, I can’t make myself do it for love nor money. I think I have room mentally for Family, job and one hobby in that order.

Ah nice one, that’s an event a good distance away time wise to aim for I reckon 👍🏻

When you guys are doing indoor rides, how long are you spending on them?

As long as my planned session is 🤣👍🏻
Have done a few Zwift centuries.

So do you stick to planned zwift sessions that are part of a training plan rather than “free rides” on zwift?

Riding without taking any carbs is working for weight loss. But I’m knackered and can’t ride fast so I think it’s terrible for training.

@catdras I usually just free ride on there or join a group of the correct pace that I’m after 👌🏻

@molgrips 👍🏻 I think that’s why I find it so hard to lose weight and train. I can’t get ‘past’ the carbs to lose any fat.
I think the best way to possibly try if you want to do it is the Durianrider style ‘high carbs, low fat’ diet. His favourite saying is ‘the fat you eat is the fat you wear’ which is kind of true I guess as it’s actually quite hard work for your body to turn excess carbs into fat.

My wife definitely fits that diet. She alternates cereals, toast and sweets but never fatty stuff and is about 2% body fat 🤣

I’ve been eating plenty of high GI carbs compared to what I was doing, but almost no carbs whilst riding. It may be that more riding carbs would help me ride harder and expend more energy, not sure. My average exertion on the bike is pretty low.

It is much easier to do it this way round than to eat low carbs off the bike and carbs on it.

My scales think I have lost 0.5kg of muscle, but I don’t believe that for a minute as it’s numbers simply don’t add up. It thinks I have lost 0.3% body fat or about 300g, but I’m 4kg down so over 3kg is unaccounted for!

But I’m knackered and can’t ride fast so I think it’s terrible for training.

depends what your doing, 2/3 hours of Z2 – you don’t really need anything, on the turbo, unless your jumping on first thing pre-breakfast, just eat something normal, you certainly don’t need 80+ grams of carbs an hour, outdoors Z2, probably don’t need much if your stopping at a cafe,  most of my weight loss I reckon has been from knocking on the head too many turbo carbs (and doing a bit of calorie counting, and of course actually moving my arse this year) even intervals, you’re only doing 20-25 mins max in an hour  session, I used to

the roadman podcast with Alan Murchison is a good watch (I think it might be longer on Apple Podcasts)

this short is good

full episode here

anyway, squeezed a weeks worth of riding into one day, 237km, 7h 46m moving, Av 175w, so flat just 668m of climbing but the wind today has been a ****, I went west & north for the first 4 hours, never seemed to get any prolonged tailwind

Big day 💪🏻 Nice work 😎

depends what your doing

General MTBing. Slower than usual as I can’t hit threshold HR.

Big day 💪🏻 Nice work 😎

smaller than planned, but still a good day, I got up when my alarm went of, had look out the window and it was already proper blowy, thought nah, todays not the day, got back into bed, it’s either hotter than hell or windy, I know sometimes you have to do the ride you want and not everything is perfect, but you also have to enjoy it, albeit a slight Type 2 fun

Tried a faster commute last week , the time was 49mins for 27km, so 33kph, the average power was 269W, the weighted average was 292W. I wasn’t flat out for this, so there’s still a bit of give, but it also wasn’t an hour, so there’s likely some take, too.

At the lower end, that puts me at 3.78, at the higher ~4.1.  The truth is probably much close to the lower end.

I’ll try another one in the coming weeks.

Monster ride above – 237km!

I just went local for a hardtail blast about – found I’ve still got some sprint / speed stood up pedalling – just need to get some more endurance back after my injury break.

Think I’m going to schedule another TR plan – starting with a ramp test tonight after work.

the time was 49mins for 27km, so 33kph

That’s quick – is it flat? I once had a commute of similar length, and my record was the same 33kph.  That was absolutely pancake flat except for a small hill at the end. To get that time I had to catch every light and junction and be sustaining around 42kph o the flat!

If I wanted to start to measure watts, what’s (ho ho) the cheapest entry point? Going on a mountain bike.