Failed another VO2 workout. Legs were toast even though I rested yesterday. I have a lot of work travel coming up and can’t bring my bike, so might focus on a 3-4 week long endurance block (hotel spin bikes and runs) and go back to General Base I / II (sweet spot and threshold) when I get back. I really dislike vo2 workouts.
Wheels seem to have come off the bus two weeks ago when I delayed a recovery week to coincide with a business trip the following week. With travel and increased stress / hours at work not sure I actually recovered.
Lismore (TH 4.5) today. Tough session with 12-minute interval sets. I was on the fence, but rated this hard as I think I could have barely survived another set.
My TR AI FTP is up 7 watts from the last time I did Lismore. NP for today’s session was up ~2.6%, while avg HR up ~0.8%.
First Indoor workout for a while and it took me ages to warm up and for the first 30mins it was a trudge. before it became an easy spin for the last 30mins so I rated it as moderate which brought down my AI FTP quite a bit to +0.4%
Mount Foraker -1. A Vo2max 5.8 workout. I was really not up for those 5 min intervals and failed them miserably marked it all out due to intensity. Can anyone explain how my vo2max PL increased to 7.7?? That seems off? I was going for setting new best at 1 and 5 min power at first interval but about 2 mins in I changed my mind
Bounty (TH 3.9) today. This was the first hard session after my AI FTP increased 1.6% from 304 to 309w. It hurt, but I ultimately rated it hard.
NP increased 3.1% and avg HR decreased 0.8% compared to the last Bounty session from MAR-2026. Efficiency increased 4% from 1.74 to 1.81. Ended up with a 10m PR.
I trusted the weather radar and hung about at work to get things finished rather than rushing back for the local chaingang. It had been bright and warm during the day at work and it was still reasonable at the station. A minute or two after going north though it greyed over and just after the station before mine (about 35mins up the line) the heavens opened and apparently it was wet most of the day. That gave me an excuse to do my scheduled VO2max workout and at some point, that had adapted to Boltinghouse. Most of the intervals are actually Anaerobic. I was quite pleased with how it went.
Wild Snow and Garraun are both VO2 Max 5.6. In the examples shown above, they each scored 5.7, with a little extra credit due to ERG fluctuations adding a few extra watts here and there.
I rode out to test a race course that I’m riding next week. Just under an hour out, three hours of hard effort and a very sluggish but tailwind assisted hour back.
Held 351w for 3hrs (117km, just under 40kph, 850m ish of climbing), coming within 3 minutes of the 2:55 record for the course, which was done in a race, with a large group. I won’t have to do anywhere near that power to hold the group next week, but it should mean I have plenty in reserve towards the end of the ride to turn the screws on the hills and break up the group. I am not a good sprinter. I don’t want a sprint.
You can see from the segment comparison that I managed to pull 1 min 20 back on the KOM after turning the corner and picking up an oblique tailwind. Lost time on the final kilometers, as obviously in previous editions of the race, the pace was pushed beyond where I was today. It was also wet today, so a roundabout just before the final straight had to be taken very slowly.
Good training though. 351w for three hours is equal best. I hadn’t really settled on how to ride it today, and after 20 minutes I just sort of settled into 355w after doing that first 20 at an average of 331w. My power delivery on flatter asphalt courses is not as good as on gravel, so there is maybe a bit more in there for gravel racing later in the season.
First ride back from two week holiday.
I didn’t have a workout scheduled today so I let TR pick one for me.
Was served King at a lower AIFTP 213 vs 249.
Normally I would take a 20 minute test or up the intensity but this time I’m going to let TR do its thing and see how these workouts feel.
Rolled Asta today and without a doubt TR pulled back too hard on the AIFTP decrease, just did an Over/under workout while watching a documentary.
Tomorrow’s ride is Lazy Mountain, 96 watts for an hour.
I’m all for letting TR do its thing but I may use workout alternates for that one.
Another VO2 strugglefest. Not quite a full on dumpster fire but cut short three of the intervals and reduced the intensity on nearly half of them. Only VO2 I’ve fully passed in a month was done outside last week. Legs seem to always be toast, even after a complete rest day. Getting old and not being able to recover as well sucks.
I wasn’t even going to do this workout because I was feeling the effects of helping my son move house yesterday.
Walked up and down the stairs 3 times. Didn’t feel soooo bad.
Decided to get on the bike and noodle. Didn’t feel soooo bad.
Decided to at least try the workout. Got half way through the first work set and thought “Lol, no. I’ll just finish this first set and that’ll do. And then I’m probably going to delete my plan and just ride for fun for the rest of 2026 because why would I want to do this?”
Got to the 4th minute of the 5 minute recovery before set 2 and thought “Well, sometimes the first set just sucks, and it’s not like I didn’t get it done, so I’ll try set 2 and see how it goes.”
And the rest was fine.
The motivation was just show myself that more often than not it really is mostly in the mind. Not always. Sometimes you’ll legit bite off more than you can chew. But often. I needed to remind myself of that.
Lazy Mountain -1 was on the calendar today and didn’t like the idea of being in such a low zone for the full hour so I picked Aurora from the Workout Alternates.
Somehow TR show this to be an easier workout, I don’t see how a think it’s an error on there part.
marked it all out due to intensity. Can anyone explain how my vo2max PL increased to 7.7?? That seems off? I was going for setting new best at 1 and 5 min power at first interval but about 2 mins in I changed my mind 
