Trying to get to 4w/kg

Yep will do! The 32’s are a bit of a squeeze but I have these two plus one more unused spare to wear out before I buy any more tyres 😮‍💨 🤣

@crosshair – 2x new bikes in just over a week – epic!

I could do with your 32’s as the 30’s I bought aren’t as big as I expected. I think my frame can take 45’s 🤣

Ha mint 🤣 Yes it’s amazing how the gap alters how the tyres look.

Well, one new frame and a new bike I guess 😎 🤣

I may put the 32’s on to the fulcrum wheels that arrived with the Orro and use them as my gravel-bike road set because I still have the 25mm GP5k’s from my old race bike to ‘use up’.
That was a little too much swapping around for one day though.
Trouble is, the 25’s are gonna look silly after getting used to these 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

@kryton57 That’s an interesting point about the amount of Vo2 you get vrs a race and I guess it’s why racing can still often be the best way to polish you off to a higher peak. I suppose the downside is the duration in one go? Unless there’s a handy 3min climb each lap 😀

It’s not all roses and sunshine 🤣 Had no legs today. Which was a shame on the new bike.
Couldn’t get my HR up or get much over threshold power. Vo2 breathing rate was therefore like 50w short. I still did 3 hills as it was on my route but literally survived up them.
This is week three of 3 hard build weeks so I only have to slog through to Monday then I can have a few days easy.
Bike is good. Felt fast around 20-25mph but the wind was hard to gauge today so could just have been when the wind was favourable 🤣
It kind of exactly what I expected. Chunkier and slightly blunter than my race bike but tighter and more nimble than the diverge.
Feels like an awesome century bike so I better try one on Sunday and see 😀

What’s your full race bike then – that Orro looks quite racey to me?

Sounds like you need a rest rather than a 100 mile ride…

My old Workswell R066 was my race bike. Basically a Cervello R5 copy.
I’d say it’s slightly faster steering than this and just that bit lighter. But stopping on it was always a gamble 🤣 And it flexed like mad under sprint power.

I’ll play the weekend by ear but I find it’s amazing how much I can turn around in 48hrs now.
Hot bath tonight, early to bed, fairly chill tomorrow at work, early to bed then an endurance ride Saturday and century Sunday should be doable.
Unless I’m actually ill, I need to go as it’s my last injection of volume before Dirty Reiver 😀

8×3 min on / 1 min off at 105%

why only 1 min off?

Just wondering how to structure the 2nd vo2 of the week, longer interval but reduce the number of 5x4min, 4x5min 🤷‍♂️ don’t suppose it matters, just time in zone around 20m

why only 1 min off?

Not sure, I think the sessions are getting closer to reflecting IRL racing, an MTB race will often have a short climb with a single track descent after, that maybe?

@kryton57 That’s an interesting point about the amount of Vo2 you get vs a race and I guess it’s why racing can still often be the best way to polish you off to a higher peak. I suppose the downside is the duration in one go? Unless there’s a handy 3min climb each lap

The 3rd week day session I do is a Zwift race, tonight I had 48 mins at threshold or above in a 58 minute race with the most consistent being an 8:29 climb up the Volcano, I guess thats more reflective of real life. Saturday will be 5min on at 4wkg, 5 min off x 5, with Sunday a 3hr Z2 ride.

It’s not all roses and sunshine

I am currently avidly not training in Mallorca, it is all roses and sunshine here!!

Nice one Kryton 👍🏻

@Dirtyrider the way to think about it is that if your goal is to increase (say 3 min) power then you want all the lactate cleared for the next effort. Hence making the recovery the same length (or longer) as the work. That way every peak is as crisp and as high as can be.
Once you have that Vo2 power established, you then need to improve your ability to do those efforts with blood lactate already elevated. Hence shortening the recovery period.
The HR trace for these is totally different and instead of roughly mirroring your power (with lag), it will stay higher and higher during the recovery periods and peak higher and higher during each work period.

It’s about race specificity and being able to attack one more time when everyone else is gassed (or match their attacks).

The flip side is your outright power in the last work interval may be closer to threshold than the first. Ie it’s not about time in zone but ‘time in zone whilst wanting to die’ 🤣

They’re evil and hence reserved for close to your peak 😃

I am currently avidly not training in Mallorca, it is all roses and sunshine here!!

I’ve seen the Strava evidence too 😭

I did think of you yesterday when it went from bright sun to lashing it down in 3 minutes 🤣

It’s about race specificity

That makes sense, my current block is called “Specific preparation” and the Southern XC is just 2 and a bit weeks away. I have two peaks this year, May and July.

Ah cool! That makes me think I might finally understand this stuff 🤣👍🏻 Applying it to oneself is not so easy though 🤣

I haven’t ridden for 4 weeks except for the two hire rides in Dubai. Today might be the day though, but only because I have to wait for paint to dry in the bathroom.

I’ll take it as a positive sign, that I did a night shift last night which was an MEAU bed watch job, 12hrs, same seat, no break, but no issues, which I wasn’t aware of until 1hr before so couldn’t cancel and leave them in the shit, got home at 730am, slept, had a teams meeting at midday, then went and picked the boys up took them to the climbing place, got home at 715pm, and when I usually would have just slumped on the sofa with a beer (I mean I have one now) I though, ummmm lets jump on Zwift, a Crit was the first race available, thought yer I’ll do that as I didn’t know what to do really, and you have to have some fun sometimes

and it was alright, probably get cat busted, but prior to today, I was a C, it started and I saw the B’s come out their pen just ahead, and I thought I can blow this group up in the first 30 seconds, made the bridge and dragged some with me, was Downtown Dolphin and the drag strung it out on lap 2/3, I forget, and I lost the group, only 2 hung in, one finished on 4w/kg 😂 and the other finished 30 seconds up the road, big lull in the middle down to 238w for a 2 1/2 minute lap, so on lap 11/12 I tried to blow it up again, had an aero or a van, and used it like 30 seconds before the climb, hammered it, then hammered the “climb”, really strung it out but couldn’t get the separation and gassed myself, held on to half sprint and ended up 4/5 in the group and 6th overall

however, numbers

did 278w NP with an av HR of 169bpm

in November 22 I did 228w NP with an av HR of 183bpm over a similar (shorter) length race

I’ll take that for 6 months, well 3 really, as I did nothing else until mid January 23

very happy how things are progressing

and as another positive point, bored on bed watch last night while they slept, I was idly scrolling through my phones pics, on the 26th June 2021 I had a pic at work on the scale reading 90.6kg, no idea why I took it at the time, might have been a break point i guess, I’d noticed the weight gain at the time but blamed it on anti-depressants, assuming if I stopped them it would drop back off, ignoring the eating/drinking/lack of exercise, which I did, for me for the better, my uniform work clothing hasn’t changed much, and the last pic I took was about 2 weeks ago, at 80.4kg, so 10kg off, but again, 8 of that 10kg has been since mid January probably as I logged 88kg as my weight on MFP on 26/1

Tesco sell kettlebells, recently, every time I go shopping I pick up a 6/8/10kg one, and it blows my mind

apologies for the massive reflective post,

Ye-ha! Well done @dirtyrider that’s fantastic progress! And fun to be able to spend some fitness rather than just saving it up 😃

What with the weather and the new bike, I really really really! want to ride today. The plan was to do a flattish shop-ride loop from the other week. But annoyingly one of my occasional flare ups of gout has struck! That was partly why Thursday was a flop- I just couldn’t get the power through my left ankle. I was hoping it would have subsided by today but it was just as angry this morning. May kit-up and set off and let the first hill up my road decide whether I go or not….

@dirtyrider – 10kg off is amazing work. When you pick up a 10kg weight that must really bring home how much of an achievement that is 💪👌👏

@crosshair – gout sounds annoying. Maybe make it an easy / flat zone 2 to try and not aggravate it?

I’m struggling to get out in a bike at all this long weekend with family things on. Hoping to get out for a couple of hours tomorrow – either road bike (although I need to test I’ve bled the brakes ok first – and check everything is tight from the build) or perhaps ride my hardtail from the door and make it an old school bridleway ride around Upton Cheney. If the latter it’s a waterproof sock job as one bridleway is essentially a rocky stream bed up, then down on the way back. It won’t be exciting but it has got 2 punchy climbs up lansdown hill on the edge of bath – so it’s worthwhile metres into the legs.

Ended up doing the Banjo “17mph” group today. Made a nice 50mile ride from home and back.

My ankle actually seemed to feel better the more I rode thankfully.

It was a lovely route they had picked with some really pretty roads. And a nice easy but not boring pace.
Then we hit the B4000 back to Newbury and I decided to throw in a bit of an effort and tow everyone home 🤣 I did 25mph for 20minutes into a headwind (but slightly downhill) and I tapped out 321w at tempo HR. Annoyingly that’s only 3.3w/kg 🤣

New bike was ace apart from the seat post slipping a bit. Need to have a go with some grip paste later and get it right.

@dirtyrider – 10kg off is amazing work. When you pick up a 10kg weight that must really bring home how much of an achievement that is 💪👌👏

makes it real, you think “this would be a bitch to carry up a climb” 😂

And fun to be able to spend some fitness rather than just saving it up 😃

want to use it outside!, but work and kids hols are transpiring against me 😂, need to get some longer rides in as well, as in the week if I’m not busy (rare) even if I have 6 hours between school runs for instance, I’m not doing 4/5 hours on the turbo, I have before once or twice, but I’d not make a habit of it

Well I made it out for a century on the new steed. The wind wasn’t overly helpful today, (certainly not like it was for the second half of my combined groupride/solo century the other week when I was doing 28mph down the A4 🤣)

I probably went out a little hot and didn’t really factor in my fatigue but I was pretty gutted to miss the magic 5h moving time by just 13 minutes 😭

Fitness score is up to 87 now so it’s time to enjoy recovery week with a clear conscience 🎉

@crosshair – good effort. Fitness score – is this intervals or somewhere else?

Had a quick first ride on the road today on the Dolan and other then a quick adjustment of the front mech rotation screw it went without a hitch. Rear brake lever could be a bit firmer bleed wise – but the front brake is perfect – stoppie levels of power.

Bike feels great – really stiff under power – did a good few sprints and it felt quicker than the caad up inclines. Yet it’s way more comfy at the front end over broken tarmac which is brilliant.

Got 3 uphill pbs and generally enjoyed myself on the new bike. Got to get the old frame and cranks sold as now busting for a power meter. Need to do some measuring and see if the 4iii is going to fit clearance wise between the crank and the chainstay – might be a bit tight. My cadence sensor won’t fit – although it’s a chunky Halfords one. If not it’s going to have to be a pedal power meter – probably the single sided assioma one.

Ah nice one Joe! Sounds like a great ride. Glad the bike was okay. My seatpost slipped twice more today even with carbon paste but managed to wedge some kitchen towel in to get home without more incidents 🤣

Yeah, that’s from Intervals.icu. It’s just the rolling 42 day average of your training stress score. Most of the platforms have a version 👍🏻

Why’s your seat post slipping? I’m on a carbon post in a carbon frame for the first time so wanged a load of carbon paste in and torqued it to 4nm and seems ok. It’s a bargain USE alien post (£20 USE outlet) and I’ve read the head can slip but that’s fine done up VFT so far.

Fancy hidden internal wedge that can’t apply enough pressure 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

Why do manufacturers do that daft wedge thing – just totally not needed?!

It looks cleaner I guess.
It won’t when I wedge some tape in there 🤣

Hope your tape works – seems annoying having to bodge an expensive frame just to keep the seatpost up.

The fronts of my quads hurt today – I didn’t expect that. Must have been the sprinting I did yesterday out on the bike. It was all quite unstructured just having a play on a short ride really – mostly to test out and shake down the bike.

Meant to do a ramp test tomorrow I think – although ai ftp is predicting I’ve got an ftp of 258w and I’m slightly tempted just to take that rather than do another ramp test again tbh. I normally find if I do a ramp test I can get a slightly higher ftp than ai is predicting but it’s generally not too far off ball park.

Would rather take the ai one and do a proper tr training session tomorrow with the time.

Yeah I don’t think it’s unique to them though. I’ll have a play later and try and find a neat solution.

I’d definitely take the aiFTP and train instead. (Although the ramp test plus some endurance is still a reasonable session).

Perhaps do both. I know Ed Laverack likes to say ‘training is testing, testing is training’ so maybe do 2×10 (or some other variation) at your suspected ftp and see where your HR is?

Taken the AI and it’s replaced the ramp test with a vo2 session. Not going to fit an hour in tomorrow so will take a 45 min version of it instead. Weather look crap again this week so might try and do an endurance turbo for an hour or so Wednesday night and then there’s another vo2 scheduled Thursday.

I think TR has got to a ‘build’ part of the training plan so it seems to be going bonkers with vo2 and threshold sessions for the foreseeable. Looks like August is the next sweet spot session. Hmmmn.

Think I’m going to reset a plan to do another sweet spot base low block as there’s more benefit there for me I reckon.

Reset the plan aiming at a weekend in June when I’ll probably do 3 days in a row of mtb in Wales. Thinking middle day Dyfi bike park uplift with pedalling days either side of it – but not sure what / where yet.

It’s going to be a brutal first block of sweet spot by the looks of it – I’m around ‘4’ in terms of progression so lots of long intervals that I hate. Joy! I think that’ll be more productive for me then all the vo2 that was scheduled tbh. Once I’ve got past that weekend I’m going to set training for the enduro I’m planning to do in October I reckon. Want to be really fit for that so all I have to worry about is the tech downhills – looks like the last one at Newnham Park was carnage.

Tbh mate you won’t/can’t ride 90% of the climbing at Newnham.
1-4 has a tough hill that 90% of people walked. 5 had 100% walk rate.
You could climb 1-4 if you really wanted and a few manual bikes did but there’s nothing to be gained from it. You actually miss out on certain social aspects of it as you’re not chatting to the fella you just chased down hill. You’re going a bit faster but not 2* faster uphill.

As it’s not a mash up you can only ride each stage once anyway, so finishing quicker doesn’t give any benefit

@weeksy – thanks – I’ll make sure I get some pushing uphills practice in south wales over the next few months 🤣

Views on double days? Take today, I’m at work shortly so have done 1 hour z2 – i have time probably for another 1hr after work,

Same with in the week, got they boys from tomorrow for a few, would be easier to split 2hrs, 1 early & 1 late

Yeah I think there’s good evidence saying it all helps. Probably not as good as the 1x longer ride as you have two warm ups to factor in but come the end of the week, then the cumulative time all adds up.

You could also make the evening ride HIIT, not eat many carbs afterwards, (“sleep low” as it were), then do the next AM endurance workout fasted and then eat normally. I have read about two a days being used like that to get a stronger fat burning response.

I think 2 a day is a more useful tactic for running as you can accumulate more time without smashing your body to bits in one long run.

I’ll have a play later and try and find a neat solution

I had the same with my frame (different brand, mind). Managed to get a thin strip from an old inner tube down the back, opposite the clamping force. That’s worked well

Thanks @scaredypants 👌🏻

I was feeling all reflective today so made a video talking about all the shite I spout on here 🤣

As usual the sound quality is rubbish v when I edit it (especially as I deliberately sped it up to 1.25x speed) but hopefully it explains why I’ve done what I’ve done and how I’ve done it in 2023 😀