I took a couple of weeks off from TR to do the Tour de Tarmac on Zwift and get in some outside, unstructured rides. Coming off of a rest week, it was time for another Ramp Test. I’m pretty happy with the 2.5% bump. That puts me at 3.6 w/kg.
Followed it up with Pettit.
Mills with a custom 15-minute warmup, slightly higher rest periods, and a little extra endurance at the end. Last two intervals were tough - longest VO2 intervals in five or six months.
Upped my FTP by 2w before the session and looking at the results of Bluebell I could have upped it by more. The positive thing about this level of FTP when I fell to 78rpm ave (probably fell lower) and then 71rpm average I was able to pedal out of the ERG spiral of death and average 96rpm on the next interval 
Chuffed with myself to get through this. Only made it halfway through last week after recovering from a cold. After switching my weekend workouts I decided to just reset the whole week.
I had to bump my long slow run from Sunday to yesterday after my nephews arrived in at the last minute. So was dreading facing this with 23km in the legs from the day before. I haven’t made it through a workout with 3 min VO2 sets in God knows how long - so, so happy. I’m seriously considering framing it.
Had a go at Antelope today, really wasn’t feeling it and considered bailing before the first interval had even begun. Decided to stick it out - really glad I did.
That’s probably the most sweet spot I’ve done in one workout this year. Also felt hard on the third interval as I realised the 245w power target was my FTP until last week when I retested so it hit me a bit psychologically. Fourth and fifth intervals felt easier (weird) and I finished feeling reasonably (for me) strong.
Im sure the name of that workout is a typo - it’s a real Bas***d 
Today’s effort: Bashful +2
. Soon after I always stop smiling.
Cadence dropped waaay down at the end but ERG has no mercy.
There’s an entire thread you might find interesting if you’re thinking longer sweet spot: Sweet Spot Progression
Also I recently finished a hard start progression that was a lot of fun.
Double run sesh today. 55 minute base with freeform pickups in the AM, followed by easy base for 60 in the PM. Legs a touch heavy from yesterday but felt solid still for the PUs. Rest day tomorrow 
So yesterday was Hunter. Should’ve been Sunday but got bogged down catching up with work. I had the place to myself last night so did it a day late.
That meant no rest day before Bluebell. Slightly poor sleep last night, so I felt a bit dead before getting on the bike. Bluebell woke me up and I feel better than before. No doubt I’ll feel bad tomorrow.
I’m planning to swap Pettit tomorrow for some rowing in a single scull. If I’m alive.
Also, now that I’m entering specialty, I’m thinking of testing myself a bit more on the weekends with some efforts to see how my fitness performs on the road. Did so on Sunday for an 8-minute rolling segment and was super pumped about the numbers in conjunction with how I felt: 259 average watts; 258 normalized watts; 174 average HR (SS HR for me); 181 max HR. I wanna rip some sprints and see if I can take some of the neighborhood KOMs now.
Bashful +1 – I failed this workout two weeks ago, and chickened out last week doing Bashful instead. Decided to revisit this workout at the beginning of my recovery week and get it off my shoulders
Welp, I completed it 
I didn’t do the usual 3% increase to hit the original target number and, in fact, had to drop it a percent or two on the final 4 intervals in the final set. But I consider it success as I barely finished the first set last time!
Getting back into the old routine. Did Goddard today and took it in my stride:
Alternating threshold intervals in the block helped to keep things interesting. This felt like threshold and it was challenging.
Power spike and then a complete resistance drop off towards the end almost cost me my two front teeth.
Lazy Mountain -2, so nice to not have any pain or be gasping for breath 
Almost got took out by a Red light jumping cyclist before I started the session. You know the type, the type with 4 wheels on the tarmac, a steering wheel, possibly a spare wheel in the back and definitely a spare wheel in the driver’s seat. As everyone knows only cyclists jump red lights 
Anyway I had Pettit in the diary but finally the wind dropped so I took it outside and TR changed it into Barronette
It’s kinda a zone 2 ride, until I got back to town when I slightly went out of zone in traffic
Did Collins - had a bit of a shock as I thought it was only an hour long then got confused when 15mins came up as the length of the first interval!
Avalanche Spire today. Upped the intensity last three sets with 5% so that @nvalphen would make it 
. Group workouts are great for powering through the workout. Time flies by and it’s a great motivation to know Ur not the only one suffering.
