Me again. Into the final few workouts of the the “work” for SusPB on the “old” plan.
Kicked off the morning with Stromlo +4 - well fuelled and rested so this felt manageable. Based of this workout I am hopeful I will of raised my FTP circa 5w or so during this build phase which will be an excellent outcome if that turns out to be the case when I do my next ramp test.
Not sure if completely finished with riding for today yet…I fancy a Zwift race. Make your hard days hard eh!
This I think is the benefit of Workout Levels. A couple of months ago I tested at 310. Was completing workouts okay, but then had some health issues, a week at the beach, and when I came back was at my absolute limit trying to hang onto 310. These levels allow you to continue to progress without HAVING to increase your FTP. I took an intentional step back, started crushing workouts. Started feeling better, and this is proof. Best performance on this workout ever. I can not only focus on FTP gains, but can focus on progression within my FTP and that almost sounds more appealing.
Various
After Saturdays hike in the mountains, first part 1.8km long but up nearly 700m… 44% gradient… That was good workout for the thighs! Ended up doing 11km, most of it in horizontal rain and howling wind with maximum 50m visibility, hands felt the pain of the cold, other half suffered with cold legs etc… but it cleared up for last couple of hours, was like a different day! We all enjoyed it by the end once we dried out and warmed up!
Could hardly walk Sunday but managed to get on the bike Monday for some VO2, which I cut short, thighs were screaming, did some more warming up, put a final effort in around the volcano and got some season PRs
Skipped the next days Pettit session and last night I was time constrained for my Lamarck session. Vet appointment for our new family member so did the best I could with 40 minutes, skip the rests and a small warm down.
Got a rest tonight and might be ready for Leconte on Friday!
That sounds brutal to me!!! Nice work!!!
True. LOL. But I still like the names. Kind of tricks me into thinking I am not just gearing up to just methodically pound out intervals in my hallway.
Supposed to be finishing SSBMV2, but running is taking over. And - I’m getting into the swing of TR outside workouts, lots of fun (and tweaking). Grassy Ridge -3 this morning, suggested by TrainNow - 3x9x30s at 110% (was much higher than that in real life). Screwed up on my head unit between the 2nd and 3rd set, dropped it. Oops. Still not well set up data screen wise (Edge 520, so no nice workout graph), getting there (this was very useful, mostly on where to find the power target field). It’s somehow so much easier to do those VO2Max intervals outside… will need to try my nemesis, Spencer +2.
AT wanted me to do Vennacher -2, but it’s lagging a bit behind my current threshold progression level, and I had some extra time today. And I like the Z2 sandwich.
@FatherDamo2 , how did you skip the rest intervals so cleanly, and at threshold? It looks like you never even broke cadence.
The real question is: “what workout didn’t I do today?”
The answer to that question would be Carpathian Peak +1.
I had a really weird day today—didn’t feel quite right, and knew I had to pull the plug early when my heart rate shot up to 198 BPM before the end of the first interval. I’d usually expect a heart rate of 170-180 BPM for a workout like this, but clearly my body wasn’t having it…
I ended up going for an easy 10K run later in the day, and again had a very similar outcome—heart rate was hovering around 165-175 BPM at a pace that would usually result in 140-150 BPM.
This throws a bit of a wrench into my progress with Sustained Power Build (MV)… let’s hope that it was just a bad day and that I can recover quickly. 
Pierce -4
Crits have started up again here in California. I have the fitness but forgot how to suffer, so I’m throwing these VO2 over/unders in the mix.
For the last few months up until now, all of my workouts have been Z2 or anaerobic. This is my first workout in the Z4/Z5 range at my current FTP. I’ve been using Z6 workouts to try to lift up my fitness across the board, and so far it’s been working.
I guess I’m getting good at it now after many years…I do have Zwift on at same time so TR is in it’s small GUI layout above Zwift. My MS Surface is on the bench in front of me and leaning forward I can operate track pad with little effect on my performance. I use Zwift Smart Steering to so always thinking about my line, moving through riders on a corner, avoiding sticky drafts etc regardless of my current effort, so the mental effort to do the above while at threshold means the brain moves away from steering to mouse positioning!
I find it’s a case of maximising TR with some 20 seconds of the interval left, then pause the workout at 5 seconds to go, this makes the resistance stay the same whilst I manoeuvre the mouse over the line and place it over the next interval. It’s done whilst viewing it on the 32inch screen on the wall so I get a pretty good guess at getting it in the right place for starting the next interval… then I resume workout and minimise TR and place it back at the top of the screen above my Zwift.
Rounding out my TR week with a nice endurance session. Off to see my sister this weekend and the only riding I’ll be doing is with my eight year old nephew to the ice cream shop 
Thanks!
Feeling stronger than in my SusPB phase . Strength training + SSB gives me the best results and makes me feel strongest on the bike !
The Tickr. THE TICKR.
I like having these chill sweet-spot-adjacent sessions in the new plans replace the old sweet-spot-until-death-or-muscles approach in the old plans. Gives me a little more confidence that I can manage the actual build.
Pettit
Palisade was scheduled for today but I got home late last night and was going to have a third night of less than six hours of sleep, and I had an early morning teleconference so I decided to try Train Now to pick a shorter threshold workout. The default warm up was too short with only 9 minutes before the first threshold effort. After the next sprint I opted for Pettit instead, albeit with increased intensity and one sweet spot interval. I have rescheduled Palisade for tomorrow (its normal place on the calendar per the plan anyway).
Leconte
Well I’ll take 5 out of 6 intervals done with the way my legs are feeling, still have that mountain in them, my weight hasn’t come down yet. (find after a hard mountain hike I gain about 2kgs…side effect of DOMS for me?)
I just managed to spin it up in that last minutes rest before final interval… but less than 20 seconds in the left calf was cramping, legs empty, cadence had been plummeting before then, knew I was beat. Maybe I should have fuelled for this, but happy overall.
Will try and get a long steady ride in at the weekend and my recovery week starts. I’m away, no bike so it’ll end up being a rest week, so don’t expect much with Ramp on return, hopefully I’ll stay around the same level.
McAdie yesterday.
Originally scheduled for Thursday, but pushed it out. I was a bit apprehensive doing this after blowing doing Shortoff +1 up on Wednesday. Actually went fine - back on track. Needed the day of recovery it seems.
