3 × 30 @ 90% FTP.
Just (just!) a 2 × 45 and a 1 × 90 next week to finish the block.
#DieselMode
6 Likes
Ee-youch! 
I’ve only done 3×30’ once, about 18 months ago, it was Three Fools -1, & I was pretty done afterwards. Well done!
2 Likes
was cool
Holy crap. I don’t know if I could finish 3x30min @90%.
3 Likes
I never understood that saying. Awake every few hours because your legs are cramping?
1 Like
A tough day in the saddle today, test riding a gravel race course ahead of the race (Grenna Gravel) next month.
It’s a segments race, most of which are uphill. 148km of beautiful gravel on the eastern shore of Lake Vättern (Sweden’s second largest lake).
I got round today 2.6kph and 28 minutes faster than last year, holding the same average speed as the winner last year. A 45w increase in actual power (not NP) for just 1bpm extra. Average power was 347w NP.
Set a 5 minute power pb of 516w up one of the hills too, but my legs weren’t really fresh as I was out KOM hunting yesterday, and did three climbs at 1.5-3.5 minutes at between 530 and 540w.
All in all, very happy with how things are going at the moment. Included is a photo of me from last year’s event.
8 Likes
Looks beautiful. 
I have fond memories of a family trip in the 1970s with my parents to the West shore of lake Vattern near Tidaholm. We drove across the UK to Felixstowe in my Dad’s VW bus and took the car ferry to Gothenburg to drive to the lake.
I looked into recreating the road trip for myself as an adult, but the car ferries no longer run. 
the drive via the channel tunnel or car ferry to Holland and up via Denmark is just too far.
One day I’ll get over there somehow and get some cycling in around the lake. 
2 Likes
After thirteen weeks of Z2 + strength + runs, plus one week recovering from a 
(bleddy nephews! 
), I kick off TB2 with Pine Mountain.
After three months of only doing Z2 in workouts, all my PLs besides Z2 have atrophied, & according to AI so has my FTP. Will be interesting to see how SS goes on Wednesday.
5 Likes
It’s a lovely area. I have done Vätternrundan each year since moving here, and will embark on my third outing this year. But joining a proper team with the aim of a sub 8hr ride (315km).
If you’re ever looking for ideas for a Swedish holiday, get in touch. We have lots of UK tourists here - the drive isn’t too bad (we do it every year) and flying is simple too.
3 Likes
Whilst you machines are off doing your 3×20s & 3×30s, after three rounds of Traditional Base 1 MV + strength training to get me through summer, I’m finally getting back into real intervals. (I think Pine Mountain on Monday didn’t really count.) TB2 had prescribed Goddard today, but I swapped it out for Tray Mountain -1, to complete the experiment: to see if the study covered in AACC podcast 503 applied to me, if doing strict Z2 + strength training in the offseason was enough to maintain or improve short-duration power PRs. November & December weren’t intentionally an off-season, but those months had become one: I was “just riding” a lot, & doing intervals once a fortnight just for maintenance, & not particularly enjoying the experience nor feeling fulfilled by them. I’d also slacked off in the gym.
I’d been ignoring AI-FTP since the start of the year to keep the absolute watts the same, so gingerly pressed the button last week: FTP had dropped (as expected), so in order to chase about the same watts today I boosted the workout intensity. PLs had also dropped right back as a result of doing nothing but Z2 for the last quarter. I thought, if someone looked at the PLs out of context, they’d see me doing a breakthrough workout, boosted to 105%, & probably think I’d lost my mind. 
Well, I performed better today, for lower RPE, than I did on December 30 before doing all this Z2.
Before & after:
(It’s the bottom three intervals. The reason one says 13:22 is because the app lost connection with all sensors for 1½ minutes before I noticed: I was watching the head unit.)
Regarding the RPE score on the first one, TR lumps stress & motivation together in the one survey response, but shows it as stress. I was definitely unmotivated that day. By contrast, today was much anticipated & I was absolutely chomping at the bit to give this one a floggin’. I got through at least.
Cadence was a bit healthier today, out of necessity. Whenever cadence dropped below about 90rpm it felt like I was bogging down so I had to keep spinning. Couldn’t rely on grinding it out. (Like someone had switched my V8 out for a rotary.) I’d put it down to all the Z2 training, & I’ve had this happen before.
There were confounding factors for & against (most significantly that it was about 6°C cooler today than on Dec 30). I’d say my consistency for the first two blocks was very good (my calendar looked very colorful 
), but life & a cyclone got in the way during the third block, so I may have left some gains on the table. And Tray Mountain -1 certainly wasn’t an exhaustive test, but the result itself is positive. I’d say that with the combination of Z2 + strength I’d at least maintained what I was capable of beforehand. So would I recommend the protocol? Yes absolutely, if one needs a break from the three-weeks-on,-one-week-off cycle of interval training, enjoys proper Z2, & has the time to train: a few extra hours per week on top of what cycling is happening already, & at least two hours for the strength training. In the very least, I’d call it an effective damage control.
4 Likes
Nice work 
great to see good progress being made 
My commute with heavy laptop was slow at first, until I realised I forgot to connect my head unit to the radar then I decided to go left at traffic signals (the US equivalent of going right at signals) which took me to a local village. Then I realised I might catch their chain gang start so I went faster again. Lol, there’s often 3 or 4 groups of 10or more out but there was only 1 rider tonight. He was eager for me to drop my laptop off and join him but I politely insisted I had a session to do and it would take too long. Anyway it set me up well for it. It was only a 30min session but pretty high intensity.
I found out why he was the only rider as it apparently turned torrential again not that I knew as I was too busy 
4 Likes
Ah, were you using the PC app to record this on an outdoor ride too? Headphones to hear the tones?
An Indoor ride on resistance mode. The Suito is often too aggressive and flaky on ERG, particularly on short sprints so I switch it off for them. Touch wood, I never get injured in resistance mode, but I can get a niggly left knee for a few days after an ERG session too and I wanted to avoid that.
2 Likes
I’ve got my workouts set up as Mon (Z3), Wed (SS), Thu (Z3), Sat (Z2), so that every second Saturday I can sub out the endurance ride for an audax.
Monday I’d missed the longer tempo intervals, so Tuesday evening I loaded up Wednesday’s sweetspot: “Hanging”.
Given I was capable of 3×15’ last week, I filled in some recoveries by continuing at SS. Initially I was a little worried about the sprints but they didn’t give me much trouble. Power profile was a bit rough for my liking. I’m blaming it on increased cognitive load: it was after sunset & I needed to concentrate more than usual on avoiding hazards on the track.
This morning (Thursday) was the planned Eyre +2, which I did as part of a commute. I used the cycleway for the first work period, reached the track in the workout’s 33rd minute (midway through the first long interval with the dropout & spike). After that I’d have needed to go on road with loads of traffic lights so I instead decided to finish out the intervals on the track. As with last week I cut 10 minutes from the recovery but tacked it on the end where I was on road.
Found it hard, yes perhaps cutting the recovery contributed to that, but I think more likely is the 50km sightseeing tour with two reasonable hills that I took a friend on yesterday. Plus going through the process of moving out of & cleaning a house.
Interesting that for both of these workouts I’ve been favoring higher cadence. Some triple-figure interval averages. It seems beneficial. I think I’ll push that out for as long as I can.
2 Likes
Guara
Ompf! Did that on a yellow day on the heels of a sweet spot workout. I don’t normally stack workouts back to back but needed to this week. Glad it’s done.
5 Likes
I’m driving with the family from Sweden to the UK, and we stopped over two nights in my mum’s hometown. Obviously have the bike with me, so did a quick 100km in the Teutoburger Forest. Some nice hills and beautiful vistas.
I managed a modest PB on the 5 minute effort (523w up from 516w), which I’m fairly pleased with as I drove 11hrs yesterday, and today’s ride was early morning. I’m never strong in the early morning.
I’ve got a V02 max orientated training plan for the next two weeks in the UK, and hoping to get 540-550w on the 5 minute by the end of it. The gravel race I have on the 10th of May is V02 max heavy, as it’s timed segments. It’s hard to find steep enough hills that last 5 minutes in our part of Sweden, so this is a good opportunity to max the envelope.
5 Likes