12-minute intervals the day after bumping my FTP up to 223 from 213? Ughhh this isn’t going to be pretty. Plan builder loves me and my first week in the new plan is all 12 minute sweet spots or over/unders!
Had to reduce my 5% in the second set.
What’s wrong with using actual performance (292W and 296 NP)? The whole point of ramp/8-min/20-min protocols is that they are easier than doing an actual long effort at or around lactate steady state.
I don’t think I want to go the whole way to 292w as its probably affected by air cooling and momentum but I think I going to up my FTP something between my best and worst last four 20mins tests (FTP 250-270w) and perhaps if my upping the fan numbers theory is right maybe up it further 
Had a bit of an epic failure today going into week 5 of Rolling Road Race plan and I just figured out why (at least one reason). Had Rosennock, Vo2 max 6.2 on the calendar. I had been fine with weeks 1-3, had a nice recovery week, and ready to hit the last couple weeks before my A race. No problem today right? Well. This is partly (mostly) my fault, but also a little a Plan Builder/Updated plans issue.
With the new plans out, I decided to update my calendar during the rest week, which looking back, I probably should have just waited until after my A race. But the podcast kept talking them up so I updated to the new plan. At the same time, I went through my calendar to update my races coming up so my plan would be set for the year. Got everything set and ready to go.
Back to today. Hopped on the bike and, perhaps stupidly, pulled up Train Now to see what it recommended. I don’t know why I do this and not sure if I’m alone, but I’m curious what Train Now will recommend and usually check it just to see, even if I stay with the planned workout most of the time. Anyways, today Train Now had workouts Like Taylor -2, Ohio, Cadillac; all VO2 max with levels around 3. I thought it was a little odd since the Rolling Road Race plan had a VO2 max 6.2 workout today and another 6.2 this week, but Train Now was recommending 3s? Maybe a bug? I disregarded it and started my planned Rosennock, Vo2 max 6.2. Holy crap. I died. Struggled through the entire first interval and quit after, finishing up with some zone 2.
So what happened? How did I fail so bad? I went back to the RRR plan to see the workouts and immediately found my answer. No ramp test. When I updated to the new plans, a ramp test was added as Plan Builder always starts with. It was after the rest week and I just assumed it was a part of the RRR plan because just about every block has a ramp test after every recovery week. Nope. So I got an 11W bump in my FTP from 309 to 320. So now that 6.2 VO2 max workout, which is based off the 309, is just about impossible. And why Train Now was recommending the level 3 workouts.
Now, with this in mind. Should I lower my FTP back to 309 to finish out the RRR plan until my A race? Or keep the FTP and just lower the intensity of each workout? I’m not sure how to proceed. I’ll have a recovery week and Ramp Test after the A race, so lowering it now would be fixed anyway after the race.
Beech, outside. The power curve looks like a white noise generator, but somehow the average is on the button for the main block. Got rained on, solid in the end. Still a lot of fun. Got my Edge 520 display set just right - time remaining in interval, interval target power, interval average power, and 3s power. Still not so good at maintaining steady power as the road undulates, but improving. It sure makes a morning workout fly by.
First outside workout with a power meter, and it’s sort of generally recognizable as over/unders, right? RIGHT?!
(Also those aren’t power dropouts, that’s where I mostly coasted down the hill in the recoveries, don’t @ me)
With a little practice you can make those two minute overs and unders a little cleaner. Did you find flat ground to do those on?
lol flat ground, you’re hilarious
BUT SERIOUSLY, I was on portions of this, which seems to be The Interval Hill for this area. I saw a lot of other fellow interval-doers, including what looked like a whole team of possibly teenagers?
I was scratching my head at the lack of elevation data!
Yeah for some reason my Garmin Fenix 5 doesn’t push elevation data to TR? I don’t have an explanation, seems weird. I get it in Garmin and in Strava. 
Headed outside this morning to tap out Townsend. The profile looks nothing like that is should, struggling to keep in z2 for the whole ride with the terrain I had available, but never mind, it was sunny and I got to ride outside. All good. Back to some sweet spot on the trainer tomorrow morning.
Yes I’d have a really hard time holding steady power for over/unders on that variable gradient! Some people can do it, not me without more practice on those variable pitch climbs! Indoors on the trainer with PowerMatch on wheel-off Kickr I typically see 10-15W standard deviation (WKO) and smooth power. On a consistent grade or flat ground I typically see 15-25W standard deviation because of a few short <30 sec undulations and spikes, however I can cherry pick 3-5 minute sections on TR power graphs and you can’t tell the difference between the trainer and outdoors.
Trainer was sluggish today, first 20 min / 24 repeats kept the pace high, but power didn’t match the target. The second block i slowed the pace a little in the off parts from 105 rpm to 95 rpm, to spin up in the on parts. Seemed to work a little better, still didn’t feel as hard as it should. Sometimes the Powermatch 2.0 is struggling with the Tacx Flux 2
After yesterday days disappointing Ramp which is 60w below my 57 minute TT (for 90% tempo HR so arguably the difference could be more, the Strava estimate is an 80w difference 
). I decided to look at my indoor set up and orded a 4x 5m extension lead so I could add my small fans. It was the wrong type workout tonight to say for certain but it felt a lot better, although I may move one too my left as bizarrely it’s my left face cheek that overheats
In the morning: Shuksan + 1 hour of Taku
In the afternoon: finally a sunny day without rain (probably in over a month!), so enjoying a nice spin in the sun and some family time with my mother 
I’d say it was a good day
Grassy Ridge -3
3x9x30/30. I get out of sync with the repeats once in a while (there’s a few distractions such as potholes, stop signs and such), but this feels easier to do outside than long steady repeats. Loved it. I’m probably late in “discovering” outside workouts, but they really are a nice feature of TR.