Freeride 45
Spotted a race on Zwift whilst sat on the sofa, two laps of the Champs-Elysees, something to get the blood pumping, a short race. I quickly changed, fired up PC and ended up with a 90 second warm up before the start!
Got a Zwift power verified 10th in the C’s, 25minutes at 105% of FTP followed by 25 minutes of cooling down. Pack spent second lap chasing a ‘C’ breakaway rabbit pushing well north of 4.5w/kg for last lap, who averaged 4.2w/kg for the race! Some C! Not surprisingly he got DQ…but I enjoyed the chase.
I’ve been doing more of a polarized approach to my riding for a while now, and seem to be responding well to it. Endurance rides typically end up right at the top end of Z2, but heart rate stays consistent in the Z1/Z2 ranges.
Was due for a threshold workout, and I saw that France was on in Zwift, so I figured I’d try Mont Ventoux for the first time. Warmed up for about ten minutes, then paced my way up at 335-340W, figured I’d see how long that would hold. Ended up holding that for 68 minutes to the top for an average of 335-336W, and felt like I probably could have kept going for a while longer. Haven’t done an FTP test in forever, looks like I can bump it up from the 335W I’ve had it set at for a while.
Today’s start of next 4 week block to extend TTE which was noticeable after both time off and increased intensity, but felt good to hold the power for 40 minutes.
First ‘real’ workout of my Build phase today, which also marks the end of a three week period of annual leave and additional volume / intensity where I knew I could handle additional stress.
Time for a ‘prep’ day tomorrow (core, mobility, rest)
Completed Mills +2 today, which I think is a first for me!
Question - workout description says to shoot for cadence of 100+. This was workout 2 of the day for me and cadence of 110+ then 100+ shot RPE through the roof, so I completed the intervals around 95 cadence. When comparing intervals with avg cadence of 100+ and 95, average HR is identical and the workout was completed relatively comfortably. Did I compromise the quality of my workout by going with a lower cadence?
I’m no coach but you weren’t far off at 95rpm (which is still a higher cadence) and weren’t grinding at 60rpm. Going by your earlier intervals and the ability to avoid a grind, it sounds like your cadence abilities are getting stronger another time you’ll get closer to maintaining an extra high cadence. I wouldn’t worry about it and move on to that other time.
Whiteleaf +6 today. I didn’t know if I could handle it but got it done relatively comfortably. Settling into threshold effort after hard start feels like torture though. And best part is that you have to do it 14 times
AT had adapted it upwards to -2 version due to previous good progression but I elected to substitute with an ‘alternative’ at -3 as I felt the original jump was too big.
Was tough but made it through and rated as ‘Hard’ for AT purposes.
Tagged a bit of extra L1/L2 on the end as an extended cool down. Was pleased with the weighted average power.
This was the last workout in my current block, now for the reminder of a rest week and a re-test next Tuesday.
Another Zwift ‘workout’ race, this time the Jungle circuit. Still ‘C’ Category but we started with B’s and A’s and I grabbed a First place for C’s and overall a top ten placing.
Used my weight for down hill lead in and managed to jump to front group on decent with a few max efforts. Mountain bike was chosen for advantage on dirt sections.
During race there was only one other C rider in front who was DQ’d, he averaged north of 4.0w/kg! All in all a good solid workout with a bonus of a leaderboard placing and a splash of Zwift PRs…
Today’s last 45 before bump to 1 hour felt solid once the normal discomfort settled.
No chance to actually hold 244 for an hour and sustained is a struggle mentally, but feeling the improvements helps on motivation for sure.
