“If you’re a mountain biker, do yourself a favor & do Short Power Build”, he says…
I distinctly remember @Jonathan saying this during a recent pod. And so that’s what I’m doing. I did sustained power build during the winter & that almost killed me. But this, in the second week, already has me seriously questioning life choices.
I did Joe Devel +1 last night. Looks doable, right? Lots of recovery time, right? Holy crap those intervals were hard. 15 seconds to catch my breath in between them is not enough!! I had a few backpedals which helped but a couple of times I really thought I was going to crack & throw in the towel. Inner dialog along the lines of: “Man, you’re just too old for this, you NEED to stop or you’ll do permanent damage”, “Your lungs are going to explode, get off the bike NOW!”, “That cramp in your side isn’t from breathing, your spleen has ruptured you fool, stop pedaling & call 911”, “.83IF??!?! I’m pretty sure its supposed to read 1.83IF!”
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m really looking forward to Baird +2 & those oh so generous 1 minute recoveries between work intervals on Wednesday. And this is only week 2?! I’m afraid to imagine what horror awaits me in week 6 or 7. Best not to think about that I guess, besides, based on the Joe Devel beatdown I went through last night, there’s a good chance I’ll have hung up the SPD’s in favor of shuffleboard or croquet by then anyway.
I’m starting General Build today so that meant it was time for a Ramp Test. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with ramp tests (who hasn’t? ) but I was very happy with today’s results. I survived a minute longer than previous tests and wound up with a 5% increase! I’m now sitting at 3.4 w/kg.
Spanish needle +2 - so 2 hours of 15/15.
Today I pushed through and got them all. Revenge for friday when I failed half way through.
Im pretty wrecked. Im holding 4 pounds of water from last weeks massive work load, 5 workouts and saturday and sunday I set a bunch of new power records. So I am glad to push through this today. I have 2 days of rest prior to a 170 mile ride friday. I wanted to make sure I did at least some intervals prior to the long ride.
I knew I was in for some hurt when the warm up hit 277w and I started to feel yesterday’s Hurd workout still in my legs. Also I lost the ant connection to my devices a couple of times, hence the power drops/spikes.
49 miles of zone 2 this am @20.8mph…just as breezy as yesterday but a bit warmer. Added a 2.7 mile run on the end …ooh I can run sub 7 min/miles again - yea! …don’t think I’ll be knocking out the 5:25 miles I could run for 5k when I was running seriously but its nice to do a bit of jogging for variety
Ramp Test yesterday. Broken through 230 watt FTP (3.5 w/kg) for the first time, and am super pumped. This was a 7 watt bump from the last test. Now I’m going into short power build to work on my high end as it is one of my biggest weaknesses.
Rather the Ramp Test on Monday, I manually bumped Lamarck by 3% to see how I’d get on. Got through then, and the new “FTP” worked this morning on Stromlo +3… Day of reckoning is really Monadnock +4 on Monday though…
This was a slugfest. 1st interval went super smooth. Second, not so much. FTP 6 weeks ago: 240; today’s 2nd 20 minute effort: 242. I know it’s all psychology/me psyching myself out, legs actually feel great post-workout and not beat up at all, but man that was tough. Pushed through the final interval for a solid day on the bike. Definitely on the post-ramp struggle bus ATM. Still feeling good though.
I’m trying to focus on raising the ceiling, so today’s Z2 ride was a variant of Bays +1. The endurance work was at 65% instead of 75%, but with sprints at 225% instead of 180%. It felt much less tiring despite getting stronger sprint efforts in. I managed to eek out a bit more power on the final sprint in resistance mode, so may revise up the 225% a little next time.
It’s not easy hitting upper-end sweet spot work after an uplift in FTP - it is more mental than physical stress though IMO. Remember, you earned that FTP increase and you belong here. Just say that to yourself next time you’re feeling the mental load of a workout like this!
) but I was very happy with today’s results. I survived a minute longer than previous tests and wound up with a 5% increase! I’m now sitting at 3.4 w/kg.
But it’s good eye candy though.
