@scaled Know the feeling with babies. I’ve found the 1 hour format of many of the training rides to work very well for me. Kids in bed by 8pm, dad in the garage for an hour, then about an hour with my wife after.

Also alcohol helps ;-P

He’s 9ft 3 though (hopefully )

6ft 4 and a half (the half is important) actually, and getting closer (in a good way) to 93kg.

I just concentrated on maintaining 360w up Watopia mountain. I was surprised myself that I could maintain that. Ended up with an average over the 2 hours of just over 343w according to Strava. I’ll see how this week goes, but if I feel like this morning I reckon that I could bump that figure even higher. It’s become a bit of a game now.

Another nice figure to be presented is calories burnt 2879kcal. I know it’s unlikely to be accurate, but it explains why I’m damn hungry now.

Bumping the ftp may bite me this week though with wk 4 of the ftp booster. May leave a day of rest before I tackle that one, then a week of no structure, before starting the 16wk programme for RideLondon.

Oops, went a lot faster than I intended and increased my ftp from 320 to 346. That’s not what I intended. Mind you the training must be paying off because I felt much better for longer.

Held one of the sprint jerseys for an hour too, and had a cheeky sprint off at the end to gain a few places. 23rd? out of 400 and I’m happy with that. Targeted top 60.

I do like the fondos.

Now fingers crossed for that Canyon Endurace.

Well that was not as bad as I thought.

4wk FTP Builder – Wk 3 Day 7 Max Aerobic Finale.

Felt comfortable all through the lead up to the 6 minute free ride effort, so decided to see what I could do.

Dragged 5 minute watts up from about 325 to 460 (4.89w/kg). I’ve never really targeted this before, so happy with that. Spent the last minute at over 500w. Next time I’ll pick a fairly level course, rather than the Mountain route as there were a lot of resistance variations that interrupted the effort a bit.

Upped 1s and 5s to 1239w (13.18w/kg) and 1191w (12.67w/kg) respectively.

Zwift Fondo tomorrow (Pretzel route), but may ride it a little slower than before to recover ready for next weeks efforts building to the FTP test.

Level 14 gained too.

According to Stravistics I’m back to the fitness level that I was last July.

See there are rumours that an Alpe d’Huez like route is about to be added (From Zwift facebook page). Hopefully the start of many famous routes to come (not all mountains either).

I was seeing pauses last night too, especially in London itself. Not seen that before. I’m on a 2013 13″ Macbook Pro. When/If I get the garage cleared I’ll invest in an Apple TV, a decent size TV + better fans. Looks like the cheapest way to get running reliably. Need to use the mobile app depending on number of sensors.

@scaredypants – guess I’m fairly lucky that my wife is a physio. Sports is not her speciality, but plenty of our friends are in that area.

Going to have a proper bike fit at some point, so that may help.

The two workouts I’m not looking forwards to are wk3 Day 7 Max Aerobic Finale and the wk4 FTP test itself.

Fairly sure I could raise my ftp already. I set it in the last Zwift Fondo on the mountain climb, but may just take it a bit easier this week and wait for the test.

Actually interested to see what the maximum ftp value I can attain with training. Maybe a few cycles of the 4wk booster with rest in between?

Much like mos I’m working through the 4wk ftp booster. Just finished week 3 workout 3 – Spiked tempo.

Not too stressed afterwards, but have developed knee pain just behind and to the left of my left kneecap. Will have to look at fit again. Not sure if I’m sitting too far forwards, or have an it band issue.

Also on the quest to find a (more) comfortable saddle. Currently on a Fizik Antares, but may need something a bit wider. Tried a fabric scoop, an older specialized, and most of the Selle Italia range (cutouts just gave me two pressure points instead of one).

Going to move things around for the rest of the week as I’m taking part in the Zwift Fondo on Sunday, so that I can get my name in the draw for a Canyon bike.

Have a place in RideLondon in July, so will be starting the 16wk training plan (when they put it up) on 2nd April. Should start to lose weight again during an endurance plan.

Still haven’t tried a race properly yet.

@dovebiker. Should have tried one of the big pads that are wrapped around the snowcannons/pylons. We found one that was just loose at the bottom of a slope one night (even in our drunk state we knew not to remove one that was around anything).

The acceleration was astounding, also butt clenching. I honestly didn’t know whether to be excited or terrified. The only thing that stopped us was the side of a chalet…………200 metres away. We were still accelerating. Luckily the padding prevented all injuries, so all good. It was too heavy to drag back up for another run though.

Cheers nemesis. I knew if there was a way the STW crew would know.

Rode the February Zwift Fondo around the Watopia Pretzel yesterday. Another 1300m on the way to the Tron bike.

Zwift was a bit buggy, with no names showing up for the majority of other riders on the desktop app, but ok on the mobile app. Only 10 seconds where everyone disappeared.

Think I chose a reasonable pace, as I was about out of gas by the finish after 2:24, which I was happy with. 268w average.

I’m down to a gnats whisker over 94kg from 95.5 in the last month and a half. 90kg is this years aim before the Ride London 100 in July.

Is there any way to give group ride-ons? I spend ages at the back end of events/training sessions (in the cool downs) giving them out.

I suspect that I didn’t try hard enough on the previous test, as I could walk afterwards. I do find the Epic KOM a good motivator to put out a decent effort for a prolonged amount of time.

The downhill also works quite well as mini intervals.

I also want the Tron bike, so any climbing helps. Only 43000 m to go…..

Jumped on for an hour last night, with no particular plan, or event in mind.

Ended up free riding the Mountain course, and treated it as a proper endurance + pain + FTP session.

Upshot is that I increased my FTP from 298W to 320W and almost threw up at the top of the epic KOM. I went very easy up to the radio tower.

Downhill I hit 1100W??? I thought the Tacx Vortex only worked up to 950W.

Legs are very tired this morning.

A quick update after I remembered about this thread.

The guys at Canyon.Base were great (I was served by Carina, one of the owners) and sorted me out with an Ultimate CF SL with Di2. They also sorted out my eldest with a Katusha cycling cap ( the team base themselves from the Club Robinson Hotel opposite when in Mallorca) for free, and offered a discount if I return.

I took my own shoes and they fitted spd pedals. They had other pedals.

Bike was in stunning condition and it rode like a dream. It just wanted to go faster and faster. I’m now saving.

They have a good range of bikes, but would recommend booking in advance to make sure that they have your size.

I’d definitely recommend them.

The riding was very good and the drivers were very considerate of cyclists. Only problem I found was that the routes I planned on RideWithGPS ended up on sections unpaved roads. It’s worth checking out in a bit more detail using Google streetview. The paved roads were all in very good condition.

I tried to ride up to Sant Salvador, but was stopped by a local hill climb event. Everyone was very apologetic about closing the road, but I got to have a look around some very interesting race cars.

Another ride was westward along the coast which was very scenic and visited a number of resorts/beaches I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

We’re going back to the same resort this year, so will be hiring again and will make it up to the monastery this time.

What’s the fit like on the fizik shoes? I’m broad across the balls of my foot and have a relatively narrow heel. Haven’t had a chance to try any fiziks on around York yet.

Nice times guys.
I was a bit back at 2hrs 26min, but trying to maintain a steady 260w.
HR monitor decided to stop working (original wahoo BlueHR with new batteries), and then 3km from the end I punctured. Rode the rest with the flat. No idea how I managed to flat on a turbo (not a pinch puncture from the position of the hole. Lost about 30 places due to that.
Legs were tired for all of yesterday, but really enjoyed it. Going to be back for the next 2 month’s Fondos (want a chance to win the bike).

Need to look at the training plans now to see which one is most suitable for me.

Nope, but it does jump a bit when I’m sprinting 😳
Led to the power lead falling out at one point.

@StefMcDef – from other threads the general opinion is that the 12wk builder starts easy for a few weeks and then ramps up.
Going to try this workout for myself, unless someone has better suggestions of training plans to improve hill climbing ability. Just rely on a reasonable 3.0w/kg @95.5kg at the moment, but run out of steam on RL steep climbs.
Last few rides have been on the Watopia Three Sisters course.

Wife came home with a set of scales tonight. I’m actually 8.5 kgs heavier than I thought. Xmas is obviously sitting heavy.
I have some work to do now. 😳
Does this mean i’ve been weight doping?

cheers_drive » Today I did my first real world road ride for a few months, riding for 3hrs and with wind was tougher than I remember!

You are going to need a bigger fan in the man cave

Or less sprouts…..

TdZ Stage 4 done……. and in the draw for the trainer.

That was fun until I rocked the trainer after the radio tower climb and shook the power cable out. Was in 75th at that point. After faffing to get it running again I was 150th. Grrrr! finished in 143rd (atm).
Power is now right on the C/B (edit cos brain is frazzled) threshold. There were a lot of people above 4w/kg avg in the results for C.

Next plans are Zwift Fondo next Saturday
Think I’ll follow the 12 week FTP builder workout to see how much I can increase it. Would be very happy to be mid B in 3 months.
Another option will be the Ride London Workouts if I win a place in the ballot. Never ridden over 80 miles.

Missed last night’s TdZ due to putting the youngest to bed, so went on a ride up Leith Hill (Can’t remember the name of the circuit). Set myself a reasonably high wattage (300w) to maintain. Was blowing at the end of an hour.
Hopefully the sore throat this morning won’t develop anymore as tomorrows TdZ is on the Three Sisters route of Watopia. Should be just over 2 hours of fun. I’m not a natural climber at 6′ 4″ and 90kg, but enjoy the hills in Zwift for some reason.
Once that is out of the way I will start to look at a training programme to follow to improve my RL climbing. Any suggestions?

@scaled – I maybe didn’t word that so correctly. The limiting of wattage was mainly to make sure I would finish. 280w is just shy of my ftp. Nothing to do with sandbagging, as I’m not racing. It’s the first time I’ve ridden these courses, so not sure of the correct pacing as yet and going relatively cautiously.

@jambo – I’ll have to get the hang of drafting as he was 10 minutes ahead of third. 😀

Enjoyed the TDZ today, but there were a LOT of riders.
Tried to avoid disqualification by riding at a sensible wattage (280 I think). Turned out that was higher than Saturday’s ride, but I went off too quick then and suffered later. Finished feeling relatively fresh.
Finished in 207th place in C (47:26).
May stick to the same pace for Saturday’s ride.

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

As a lowly level 7 it was nice to ride the Mayan Ruins part of the route.

I’m finding it hard to stick with a group pace, is there a knack to it? I tend to catch, overshoot, back off slightly and drop out the back again.

Enjoyed the TDZ, but found the pace brutal.
In group C at the end of lap 1 I was in 170th position, lap 2 180th, and lap 3 215th. Everyone around was over 3w/kg for most of the time. ZP has me in 86th position now???
I was blowing at the end. One guy admitted to puking at the end.
Only saw C’s.
Kept having to remind myself it wasn’t a race, just finish to qualify to be in with a chance for one of the Elite trainers.
There was some good banter afterwards too, and exchanged a couple of words with Eric Min too?
Looking forwards to next Saturday’s ride around the three sisters, even at 192cm and 90kg.
Is everyone in the STW Team?

I’m not a big whisky drinker, but Mackmyra is very nice. Not smokey, nice and mellow.

There is the larger version on the aliexpress site: Falcon 8445 pieces Just under £180.

I must admit to buying a Wall-E off there and the quality was very good. The instructions where about half size compared to Lego’s, but looked near identical otherwise.

I did come across a few comments that the Lepin items are actually produced by Lego in China, but who knows?

Look very nice. Nice looking mixer too.

Made my own this weekend from a Paul Hollywood recipe in the Christmas Bake Off book.
OMG so good. Will be making these again.
The addition of finely diced apple and tangerine zest and flesh really added to the mincemeat, and the pastry was lovely and short.

Just going off W/kg I should be a low B, but for a first race I thought I’d be conservative. Didn’t even see the Bs.

Racing is a skill you improve at with time and practicing. You’ll work out when to hold, when to pin it, when to slow and wait for bunch behind.

I would have settled for holding on relatively easily in the warm up 😀

@weeksy Ouch! And cheers for the info.

Just trying out Zwift on the trial and I am impressed so far. Will be signing up after Xmas when I am officially allowed the trainer 😆 (Tacx Vortex Smart). Means I can keep fitness levels up after changing jobs and not being able to commute on the bike at the moment.

Tried my first race last night (WBR 1 Flat Lap of London) as a C. My FTP test showed me as 294W and at 90kg I should have a w/kg of 3.2. The other Cs I was following on the warm up lap were putting out way in excess of that (3.5 – 4). Is that normal? Is the warm up lap part of the race, because it certainly felt like it?
Needless to say I was blown before the race started, so dropped out.
I’d like to get into the racing, but could do with some advice on how to start. Is it just a case of riding strictly to my own pace, or MTFU and go for it?

Decided to swap over to one of the training workouts (Wk3 FTP Builder), which went very well.

How can I find out the other STW users on Zwift? Would be nice to throw a few ride-ons to people I recognise on here. I’m P. Hunter

There is an independant MOT center on Hospital Fields Road. They don’t do any work on your car, just test.
Can recommend Simon March at Elvington or Simon’s Auto Services in Wheldrake. Used both. Good work done and reasonably priced.

Is it worth contacting the importers into the UK?
Their customer service seems to be pretty good and they are more likely to have a possible non-destructive solution.

+1 for Halo.

I had some older tops that were not pleasant for the nasal passages. Two washes later no more stink and it does not return after a ride either.
Wash all cycling stuff on delicates @ 30C.

That reminds me I need to order more.

Know it’s too late for Robbo, but I’ve used these for the last two winters:
SKS Longboard
Plenty long enough to keep feet (mostly) dry and once set up correctly don’t vibrate too much.

As above the Aldi Moon copies have worked very well for me over the last two years (daily use). Set on constant low. Plenty bright enough.
I combine with an Exposure Flare set to pulse. Doesn’t blind drivers and the pulsing action draws attention better IMO.
I also bought some 3M reflective tape from ebay for the frame and on my crank arms. Surprisingly effective.

The floorpan was based on that of the Austin Maestro, and minor components such as interior door handles were Maestro items.

I used to work for Mintex Don in the R&D department, and we had a prototype Freelander. It had the underpinnings of a freelander with a maestro van body. We did get some very funny looks when driving to the test track.

I’ve been very happy with my Ding light. Nice spread of light out front, and can light up the road below you to make you more visible.
Bought off Kickstarter, but now from here: Ding[/url]

Never used the MW stuff, but for an eVent jacket I have always used Nikwax Tx. Direct Spray On Spray On Waterproofer.
Run the washing machine through a hot cycle whilst empty to remove washing powder residue. Wash the jacket with a liquid soap, and then hang on line. Apply Proofing spray.
You can buy the proofer in 1 litre bottles which saves some pennies over time.

As with all sweaty, smelly items in our house we call in the Halo.
Use it for all bike clothing weekly, and never have smelly stuff.
Just done my helmet this week as it was getting funky, and it is now odour free. Even works on HR straps.

I’m currently following the British Cycling Improvers plan (to prepare for a 60 mile sportive).
Initially I was in two minds over how much improvement I would see, as I can ride 60 miles at a reasonable pace anyway, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
I’m only on week 6, but I can see a definite changes already.
The mid-week training sessions (that I do on the commute home) cover a variety of different types of zone training, and gradually increase in intensity up to the tapering weeks.

I’ve enjoyed the structured training aspect of the process too.

I am now more aware of things such as rest, fuelling and hydration, and finish rides not feeling anywhere as depleted as I used to.

Have a look at their plans which are free on the BC website, or to download on Training Peaks, to see if they could work for you.

+1 for the Joe Friel books.

We were lucky enough to spend 4 days in SF and the same in Yosemite. I’ve also had a few weeks in SF with work. It’s a great city, and the people are lovely.
A few more suggestions to add to those above:
SF City Segway Tour
Try the soup on a sourdough loaf from Boudin Bakery near Pier 39.
Hire bikes and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Listen to live jazz in Sausalito.
Explore Chinatown.
We stopped in the Handlery Union Square Hotel which is very central.

Yosemite is stunning and needs time to appreciate. When we were there in April Half Dome was closed, but the hike to the top of Yosemite Falls was excellent. We also saw a bear near Vernal Falls.
Try breakfast in the Majestic Lodge before setting out.
We stopped in the Redwoods in Yosemite cabins.
Enjoy