I hit a wall, or rather the wall hit me, hard, at the end of last year. I had to back things way down. It has taken around three weeks for me to feel like I’m on the up and up again.
I’ve Ramp Tested, taken the FTP hit and I’m ready to get after it again 
Get some Kahtoola MicroSpikes, and your faceplanking thoughts will be a thing of the past 
My other half uses them for running in when conditions get icy on the pavements around here. Myself I use them for walking, hiking. You can run on ice, packed snow to wet rocks, concrete, asphalt ,wet grass and scree. They give you 100% confidence out there, just being able to walk without tensing up for me is great!
Watch out for other inferior brands that expire/wearout fast, they don’t have attention to detail like reinforced eyelets, welded chains and stainless steel components. They also do other types that may suit, exospikes, nanospikes etc. But can only recommend the ones I and my other half have used, They have been well worth the money.
Last recovery week ride so I did the one with sprints. Didn’t sleep much Tuesday night and spent most of yesterday as a high-stress ball of anxiety, and uh:
Did Antelope this morning. Sweetspot felt ridiculouly hard and I dropped the intensity after the first interval down to 95%, which put me in tempo. Even that felt tough. My heart rate continues to be on another planet than my power. Tomorrow is a long ride and I plan just to watch HR and keep it low.
How I feel about my fitness right now:
Antelope:
Good sweat.
Thanks @FatherDamo2 I’ll check them out. The nanospikes or exospikes look like a good option for me. Will definitely beat doing more ‘Bambi on ice’ impressions in future😅.
BTW best of luck with the Rocker plate build. I picked up the lifeline one from wiggle. Huge improvement for me👍.
Yesterday evening did 4x15 Min. Threshold intervals, 8 minute recovery in between.
This morning, I lifted weights, and established my approximate 1-rep max Deadlift – 385 lbs.
Darwin outside:
Yesterday not today but I have settled into what I think is a perfect mid volume plan. I am doing low volume general build, but I add to it either 1 or 2 carefully chosen zwift races. Yesterday I did the road to sky/alpe du zwift race. At my skill level that is around an hour and a half at high sweet spot/threshold. There is simply no way I could get that done mentally via TR inside even if it was 3x30. Outside, probably but not inside.
On weeks I feel fresh I add a sprint race that gives me 30-40 minutes at or above FTP. If i am beat up, i can skip it and stay at 4 workouts (plus lifting and running) for the week.
Caffeine intake? Any big changes in sleep, nutrition, workout time, etc?
Keep on pushing through
I actually started the workout feeling strong. Fed, rested, hydrated, caffeinated. I am coming off a long stretch of not working out, but man, it was just an eye opener how difficult sweet spot can be.
I’ll keep on trucking.
Failed on Leconte. Yep there’s no other word for it.
Although I’ve been doing workouts outdoors, this is actually the first time I’ve been on the trainer since christmas eve, probably no wonder I struggled.
Got midway through the third interval and my quads were just toast, HR and breathing were elevated but fine. Didn’t see any point in prolonging the agony. Somewhat oddly I got power PRs for the 18-24 minute block.
Next week is actually a recovery week.
Hoo boy. I just did Ebbets yesterday after my second ever ramp test a few days ago. I saw a big 30 watt jump in FTP. I think the first ramp test I ever did I didn’t know what I was in for, had bad pedalling and breathing techniques etc and threw in the towel too early. Half way through the first build phase I was beginning to think the workouts were too easy. I was sailing through workouts that others were always talking about failing or being super challenging.
Well I learned my lesson. Now I know what sweet spot really feels like 
. The only problem is my body was not ready for such a big jump in intensity. Hopefully I adjust to it. I didn’t even bother with the 5 second sprints in the last interval because just holding sweet spot was enough work. Furthermore, my current set up with virtual power can’t register quick jumps in power like that anyway, so I had no idea if I was actually hitting the target or not.
In the end it was still a good workout! I felt great about holding on til the end despite ditching the sprints.
Ok, been slacking on sharing my TR experience so far this year. I’m trying something new, since this season promises to offer more uncertainty with events and having a tough time with interval work lately I’m only doing z2 indoors for now. Social rides will offer no restraint and just want to have fun while I’m outdoors mainly. So, we’ll see how it goes. Need to test much sooner than later but for now I’ve gradually upped my time on the rollers to 1.5 hours. Didn’t feel too boring (thanks AACC podcast) and I can already tell doing a bit of z2 will be good for me especially for over-all health.
Good Ole’ Fletcher:
Carter +3 (hit new 20 minute and 30 minute PRs) immediately followed by Brasstown (hit new 5s PR on one of the optional sprints) 
2 more days before my long recovery week starts.
Missed my TR session yesterday because of ‘Life’, which meant double trouble today:
Followed by Red Lake+3 - really liked that the 10 second prior to each effort ramped up rather than going from zero to hero!
Just a thought - maybe hide your HR so you can’t see it until after the workout. Often, seeing my HR data will psych me out even when I’m feeling strong.
That’s a great idea. I may try that. Thanks @Scheherazade!
