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My hunch is that it’s better not to (frequency being one of the only 3 levers we have to fiddle with). But if you need to make it work then I’d make Sunday as hard as possible. Either by doing a long, long Z2 or by doing beefy tempo intervals on a shorter ride.
beefy tempo
Underrated music genre
Or a porn star name or maybe a rapper 🤣
Heading out for another chaingang tonight! Two weeks out from ToC I’m just looking to maximise the time I spend on the wheel. Hopefully the pace will be a little easier although I believe we are doing the same loop as Tuesday in reverse which means a chunky climb half way round.
I’d been waiting for the 2x force axs integrated since launch, but they silently doubled the price and availability has been about zero,
so weirdly I was searching for something on the new shit wiggle/crc, and they had a single 2x force quarq in stock, I guess someone didn't get the price bump memo, so copped this for 340 quid after wiggles platinum discount
I'd have took one of the other ratios over this, but beggars cannot be choosers
retail boxed as well 😂🤷♂️
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Ooof. That climb stung 🤣
I was fascinated with my own physiology this evening. Leaving home and riding into a headwind to meet Rich, just getting my bike to move seemed like a monumental effort. I can’t quite emphasise enough how awful I felt on the bike 🤣
Then we rode to town and I felt below par but better.
Then we started the chaingang, four of us, and I felt awful again. Like I was gonna get dropped at 250w.
And then half an hour later something finally switched on and I felt like I could smash all day long. It’s soooo weird. 🤷🏻♂️
Anyhow, one of the guys pushed the pace up the hills which meant I was having to do silly watts to hold on. Breathing was maxxed out and Hr was 188-190 (threshold Hr is 176 🤣) but I never felt like I needed to ease off. I could just hold it.
Then we got on to my favourite road and as soon as the torque of climbing was off of my legs, I was able to hold the same power that had just been causing me to breath out of my arse but actually recover at the same time.
I snagged a 7th on the segment for the loop, so quite pleased with that.
Hopefully get out on the gravel bike tomorrow for an easy spin and then see what’s occurring via WhatsApp for the weekend. I’d like one shorter harder ride with a group and one longer Z2 day really.
@crosshair - you’re proper smashing it at the moment! Sounds intense.
@dirtyrider - I can barely be bothered to look at wiggle / crc at the moment. Filters don’t work properly and a lot of the prices seem a lot higher than other places. Fair shout for snagging a bargain - I’m assuming £340 is pretty cheap for a power meter with rings from my recent look at power meter options (albeit not that one as I have Shimano cranks)?
I mangled my back trying to get back into deadlifts on Monday after 3 weeks of weights. Stupid - I should have gone really really light to ease back in. I’ve spasmed my lower back so I’m back on the physio exercises to stretch it out and get it moving again. Also painkillers / ibuprofen but it seems to be responding gradually. Did a 30 min sweet spot with the power turned down earlier in the week and just did a 45 min endurance / zone 2 sort of thing before work. Going to continue to do plenty of stretching and have a camping trip next week so not going to be pushing myself at all until things have calmed down. Frustrating!
On the upside I’m still about 74kgs so far - have rehydrated but haven’t banged back up to 76kgs+ so far.
Well done on the weight mate! A bit of patience and you’ll be back to it in no time 💪🏻
I wrote this years plan (although I’m not strictly following it) for Tour of Cambridgeshire so if there’s a week to smash it, it’s this one 😀
There’s been some bantz in the WhatsApp group about tapering (someone doing Ride London used it as an excuse to bail on Tuesday chaingang 🤣)so I’m hoping to get mine right. Step one is to have something to taper from. And after barely riding last week I need to really overload this week. That way when I ease off for a couple of days again next Thursday-Saturday I should get a super-compensation effect 🤞🏻
@joebristol - when they launched the new Force AXS they had this at £399 rrp, its the same as the Red version, just not machined silver, which is 750 quid, there's been zero availability, however between launch and sometime two weeks ago, they silently increase the price on the SRAM website to £699, availability has still been about zero, so to grab this for the original price is quite a steal I guess
https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/pm-frc-kit-d2
Good to see you briefly this morning crosshair. I won the KOM up Combe and then sat up and joined the grupetto 😄😄😄
Actually I stopped at the staggered cross road after the descent to direct straggelers and we never saw you lot again!
Yeah, I buried myself trying to catch up with Andy and Michael and then they kept going!
Pretty sure we went against the spirit of gravel if not the spirit of Banjo with that move 🤣🤣
Was a nice route and stunning weather but I often found myself wishing I was on the road bike and not 47mm Pathfinders 🤣 Especially up Coombe 😮💨
Just reflecting further- you must have put nearly a minute into me up Coombe. So, had you not waited, the entire dynamics would have been different. That would have been way more entertaining seeing if the roluers could have reeled in the climbers 😀
Pretty sure you'd catch me!!
concluded an easy week (was probably due one) with an hour on the turbo this evening, very hot indoors, but I couldn't get out and felt I needed to do a bit to keep the legs turning over, nice walk up Jacobs Ladder in the peaks with the boys for a couple of hours this afternoon though then a bit around Derwent for an ice cream, barely been above Z2 this week, went out Monday & Wednesday for a couple of hours each and the legs were deffo heavy from Sunday, a much needed recovery week,
Chainy tonight. Heard the epic tale of one of the guys Ride London! Sounded fun and he squeezed under 4hrs too 👏🏻
Rather puts the pressure on Tour of Cambridgeshire but my hunch is that something closer to 4.5hrs is a realistic stretch goal that doesn’t rely too much on getting in a sketchy super-swarm.
We had a dodgy wind again tonight, caught cars at two junctions and hit two sets of road work traffic lights on red. But we were still about 6 seconds faster than last week.
I felt okay, not amazing. Rich was funny- he’s been moaning about not being fit but having a functional power meter tonight meant he ripped everyone’s legs off 🤣 Which was irritating as I was next in line and there’s more draft from a gnat 🤣🤣
I managed to hold his attack up the A4 kicker and then dropped everyone early in the sprint. Thinking nobody else was trying, because they were out of sight, I sat up and so of course they all whizzed past 🤨🤣
Funny old week this week. Work pressure still dragging on and haven’t felt like riding much. Which is odd as I’m meant to be peaking 🤣
Hayfever is kicking in too.
I noticed my front wheel bearing was wobbly on Tuesday so I ordered ten from Amazon and fitted those last night. My makeshift press wasn’t man enough so I whacked one in with a socket in the end 🤣 The Prime disc wheelset is so much chunkier than the rim version!
Then I decided the rear needed doing too (it did because it was worse 🤣) but that was much quicker.
The pawls were gunged up again too so re-greased those to save an embarrassing DNF on Sunday.
I’ve had a rear puncture on my GP5000 for a while but it sealed itself and holds enough pressure for a couple of rides at a time so I used the time to swap that out for a new one too with plenty of new sealant. (That’s my last 700x32mm from stock. Need to decide whether to swap to 30 or 28 next as the bike is technically designed for 28’s. Although the 32’s are great!).
A new Rocket Ron arrived as well so that got fitted to the mtb as it was sat there still flat and neglected from the puncture I had at Dirty Reiver. Depending on work, I may do a local mtb race on the 17th so needed it ready just in case.
Hopefully get out this afternoon for some kind of taper spin and bike check. Then I can wash it and get the di2 charged ready to rock! Working tomorrow so need to be ready by the end of today really.
I'm ill 😷 of have been, but I've had to do mandatory training or I would have lost my contract, so Tuesday/Wednesday was restraint training, hardly hard work, but lots of huffing and puffing from other shows you how unfit a lot of the general population is 😂 plus it's half term, so the option of laying in bed and hiding hasn't been an option 🙄, done 2hrs at Z2 this week on the turbo, just to turn the legs over, and even then I was in second minds with that, kids back at school next week with some decent weather on the horizon, and I have Thursday/Friday free, so hopefully get some good hours in next week and chalk this week off, trying to remember that we won't be back at square one 🤣
Can you validly claim a week off sick as a recovery week?
Depending on work, I may do a local mtb race on the 17th so needed it ready just in case.
? What's this? Southern XC?
Will have to look at diary, but potentially yes.
I haven’t done Uptonogood since I lived in Cholsey… quite fancied it this year after 5 years living in the Quantocks I figured the climbs might feel somehow easier? Needed it to be the weekend afterwards though, can’t make 17th. Was always quite chilled with some decent music on hay bales afterwards too
4h32 for ToC. Should have taken more water/less mix as got a little dehydrated and nearly cramped.
Some crafty folks started the Sportive from the Fondo pens which is genius in hindsight as the front of the Fondo’s was +3mph!!
However I think I was top 5 of the guys who started in the proper sportive pen 🤣
Some of the numbers were insane. One of my goals for the year was 300 watts NP for 2 hours. I got dropped after pacing myself up one of the early climbs and then was left chasing the group Rich was in. Eventually I made it after 40mins or so but my AP was 303w! Anyhow, 2hrs in my NP was 310w 🎉
With his 52cm frame and light, small and aero body- Rich can do so much less power for the same speed. It’s truly staggering. At one point I shouted at him to slow down because the air was coming off his helmet and hitting me in the face. He was doing 260w I was doing 300 in his draft 🤣🤣
I’ve heard the rumours about sportives but Strewth- the riding was horrendous. So choppy and inconsistent. With even and careful pulls, we’d have easily gone 1mph faster as a bunch.
As it was, after a while, only Rich, myself and about three others were pulling with dozens in our draft.
I’m basically Remco with that position 😎 🤣
good numbers, great effort getting back on as well!! strong sock game (assuming that's you on the front) guy behind could learn some lessons
right positional wise, got a question, any biometric people here?
I finally got round to chopping my steerer after I guess 3 years 🙄😂, took out two of the integrated spacers (10mm total), now on the turbo the last couple of sessions my seat has felt low (I don't think it's slipped) and my left quad a bit clicky if I could describe it, and if I'm honest the Z2 sessions have felt hard work, and I could put my hand on the muscle, and there was an obvious "click" during the pedal stroke, so I drew a line with a sharpie and raised it a touch, I guess 10/12mm, and it deffo feels higher than it was, and has been for some time, has dropping the stem altered my hip angle and meant I need to raise the saddle? strange one, as I guess if I could get away with raising the saddle, it was a touch low anyway 🤷♂️
You’d think raising the saddle after lowering the stem would mean closing the hip angle even more?
I have had a saddle slip very gradually on the turbo before and then felt like a new man when I realise and raise it back up an inch 🤣🤣
Nice job @crosshair. Have had the same experience as you in sportives where it's really hard to get a rhythm - in the end I just gave up and started doing them with my wife and just enjoying the scenery instead.
I had a training plan ready to start this week to give me a focus through the summer but I've just deleted it. Going to have quite a lot of family stuff on over the summer so need to keep a lot in the tank for that. I'll still aim for 3 rides and 1 run per week (or more if I can) but not having any other targets takes a bit of pressure off. The aim for my rides will be to have fun so I'll still grab the odd workout from TR's TrainNow function when the mood takes me and I'll also hopefully figure out which local clubs fit my schedule.
Interested to hear how you're getting on now @joebristol - did you keep some strength after your illness?
@stevious - having a shocker at the moment- thanks for asking. Weight stayed down and felt ok on the bike for a couple of rides but when I went to get back into a bit of deadlifting I’ve spasmed my lower back muscles on my left hand side - it’s a weak spot from previous injuries. So now I’m doing all thenohysik stretching from last year to try and get it all happy again. At the moment doing my shoes up hurts 🤯
Got on the turbo for 45 mins last night on an easy zone 2 workout where I didn’t top 160 watts and that felt ok. So I’m just going to do strengthening and stretching for core and back + zone 2 turbo for the next week or 2 and see how that goes.
Booked to ride a part day off piste around Dyfi area 23rd June, the Dyfi bike park 24th June then some kind of ride on the 25th in Shropshire. So need to get into some kind of pain free / stable shape for that.
Would have thought raising the seat would open the hip angle, particularly if it gives more pelvis rotation.
Your optimal saddle height for an hour of power is going to be different to that which you want to ride for hours outside. But no one's got time to be faffing with the seat post every time they sit on the bike.
If you want to get into it then testing at incremental heights is likely the best way - start too low then raise it by 10 then 5 mm progressively. You'll instinctively know when you've gone past the right height.
@joebristol - Been through a sciatica flare-up recently myself so hope the back sorts itself out. Mine was OK on the bike, actually felt like it was good for it, but off the bike was a total different story. Annoyed with myself as the back's been solid for a good while but I had some warning pains that I ignored. Paused the deadlifts lol - I only do RDLs at lightweight, but figure they can wait until things calm down.
Yeah I’d built up deadlifts after my back flare up last year - not lifting heavy - just to keep things strong in my core. Should have flipped some plates off after 2-3 weeks off ill, but I didn’t. Stupid - kicking myself now.
sods law, out for a decent ride today suns out, had 4 hours ish, grabbed a route from strava, said about a section being "offroad" had a look at the pics, old railway line, looked a bit gravely, thought it's be fine, it wasn't stick of doom the size of a 5p diameter through through the tyre, used a tenner to boot it, literally couldn't have been further away from home when it happened, gingerly made my way back home, changing the route planned, and it gave out 20km from home and an lift had to be called 🙄 tyre now in the bin
did do 300w for 11 minutes on a segment attempt early into the ride, a smidge under 8hrs for the week, not much room to add to that over the weekend, deffo felt better last 3/4 days, illness lifted
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Crosshair you going to Henley tomorrow or do you fancy a 70km plus gravel ride?
@anagallis_arvensis I do fancy the gravel ride, it looks a nice route but have committed to Henley with Rich tomorrow sorry.
Need to get the mtb out for a few days and see if I wanna give the ruts a go for UptoNoGood 👍🏻
(I hate ruts! And watching a rider wipe out at last years event after overtaking me reinforced my skepticism 🤣)
******
I’ve had a week off this week and after 2yrs of solid, consistent “training”, I finally feel it’s time to ease off.
I’m kind of stuck with great fitness in a fat, always-hungry person’s body 🤣
Even though training creates extra calorie allowance, it also seems to come with exponential hunger that I can’t control.
So I’ll still ride, maybe less, sometimes as much, maybe more- but with ‘move more eat less’ as the goal rather than ‘maximise your training potential’.
I had thought about trying the British Gravel Championships again in September but I’ll need to be seeing promising (weight and power) numbers in August to want to commit I reckon.
Might get a motorbike and an inflatable stand up paddle board for a kind of tame midlife crisis 🤣
No worries.
@crosshair that's life sometimes
so new tyres on order, now I've always ran my tyres even tubeless compatible ones with latex tubes, are the road tubeless any good these days (new Vittoria Pro jobs) or shall I stick to what I know?
Even though training creates extra calorie allowance, it also seems to come with exponential hunger that I can’t control.
Same. I find recovery drinks help, as does not getting too carb-depleted during the ride.
Yeah I find even if I fuel with 100g/Hr I just get bloated and then still hungry 🤣
Was a fun ride to VeloLife this morning but I was totally over cycling when we hit the hills on the way back 🤣
Considering I haven’t ridden all week I went okay but I’ve realised I’m rubbish at everything I’ve tried in the past year. CX, Crits, Brass Monkeys, Gravel at Dirty Reiver, British Gravel Championships, Tour of Cambridgeshire etc have all just left me frustrated despite being enjoyable in the moment occasionally 🤣
Should have come gravel noodling with me!! That would have got your mojo back!! I did think that the route out to velo life looked as dull as hell 😄😄😄
CX, Crits, Brass Monkeys, Gravel at Dirty Reiver, British Gravel Championships, Tour of Cambridgeshire etc
Going to have to take up time trialling now 😄😄😄😄😄😰😰😰😰
3 1/4 hours in the sun this evening, 105km @ 187w (32.8km/h av) too hot for anything but cruising 😎
thanks to Start Fitness for getting my order out the door and into my hands yesterday, (ordered 11:30pm Friday and Delivered 11am Monday 😎), fitted before I went to work last night, so I was ready to go this evening after Uni,
dropped to about 75psi, as per Silca's site thing, they initially felt really sluggish, the first 5km felt really weird, I'm not one that can feel the difference between stuff much, but they deffo felt different, don't know if it was just them scrubbing in, or the hot roads, that disappeared soon enough thought and they feel alright
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Nice! They look smart 😎
Chaingang organisation went awry this evening so it turned out folks were going after all but I’d already had a change of heart by then.
Did 120mins at the ‘talk test’ (241w) instead and I reckon I’ve lost 10-15w since I’ve stopped base training.
Was a fun ride though. Takes so much concentration to maintain steady power at everything from 4-42mph that time flies by.
Nice! They look smart 😎
that's worth 5w isn't it 😂
I reckon I'm down a bit as well, but I'm not training for anything, I'm just enjoying being fit, but it's to be expected, in winter the turbo is ruthlessly efficient, take today, while I only had 9 minutes of coasting according to intervals (it's really flat here, I only did 318m of climbing in 105km), I still managed a whole hour under 159w (Z1), wouldn't happen on the turbo, but I'm also not doing 3hrs indoor when it's 25 degrees, the sky is blue and the beer is cold at the pub stop
in years gone by, I'd have smashed this 3hrs, hours in tempo and threshold & above and got home wrecked, for the strava and kudos, however, I could do the same ride again tomorrow no issue, could I smash it again tomorrow? probably not,
quite happy to maintain how I am through summer & autumn, and try and build it over winter
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (we'll ignore the is he isn't he issue, and of course the show tech) gives a good interview after breaking the 2 mile WR saying
"One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people do is they go too hard in training, and that's basically because of their mentality."
https://twitter.com/Cathal_Dennehy/status/1667477386512723968?s=20
So true 🙌
I managed just 1.7% coasting (2 mins 😎) tonight.
Time to celebrate a small victory this morning 🎉
I had hypothesised that I needed to ride less to lose weight 🤪
Counter intuitive but moving a big lump around requires a lot of fuel. Daily riding meant I could never afford to be in a deficit or I’d lose my motivation to ride. And be less likely to hit the power numbers on hard days.
Now, the Trainerroad marketing department (💩) would have you believe that just fuelling the work (and dousing yourself in carbs at every opportunity) means your body will find its optimum composition.
I had already fallen out with that idea, (and half the cyclists in America on their forum 🤣) last year when ‘fuelling the work’ saw me get TEN POUNDS heavier. Switching back to un-fuelled endurance riding meant I reversed that over a few months but then plateaued.
I made an active decision this year to not diet, just eat to hunger, and ride a lot. But with way less carbs than last year. And it turns out my body was then almost perfect at self-regulation.
I have been 15st01 most of the time I’ve jumped on a scale since Jan 01st and occasionally as high as 15st04 when carb loading. But not 1lb lighter.
So since Tour of Cambridgeshire, I’ve started another ‘weight loss’ campaign. But I figured it would help to ride less.
My logic is, even Z2 rides burn a lot of carbs. The top of my Z2 is 240w at the minute so you’re roughly looking at 450kcal of carbs an hour give or take.
With daily riding, I couldn’t afford to let that replenish slowly. And as it’s an imprecise science (it’s way too easy to either add back too much fat or too many carbs)- hunger would keep me at the top side of comfy.
By having a day off between every ride, I can replenish my glycogen gradually over the course of 5 or 6 meals. No extra eating necessary.
And whether by accident or design, it is working!!
I dropped below 15stone for the first time since November ‘22 this morning, having weighed in at 15st03 the morning after ToC.
But even better, I feel in control and motivated to continue with it.
I also have more energy to do other stuff by not riding so much. (The shed and Zwift/dining room are immaculate 🤣🤣 )
Sounds good - sometimes you just have to experiment and see what works. Balancing calories in with exercise out is a tricky thing I find. I still calorie count on Lose It and I’m pretty much at the weight I think is realistic to maintain for me at 75kgs. I have to be I’ll / too strict to get any lower.
That said I haven’t done much weight training since my back spasm (or anything other than low zone 2 turbo) so when I finally get it right and get going again it’ll be interesting to see what happens to my weight.
Got another sports massage today - although I’d say I had a bit of a breakthrough a few days ago after getting a lacrosse ball to target the very tight muscles with. Between that and a foam roller (plus physio stretches) it’s eased up a bit. Thinking I might ride my hardtail to work and back tomorrow and see how that goes. Dyfi off piste / Dyfi bike park / Shropshire hills is the following weekend so I’d I can’t ride to work then there’s no hope of making that!
So, I've never done an FTP or anything like that, but my weighted average power over 3-4 hours of riding is a measured (GRX 4III or Easton Cinch power meter) 245W over that period or 225 as the average. I can happily maintain 300W on a 10min climb, but that's really the only other measure I have. I weigh 70.5kg, so assuming that weighted average is the number to use, I'm at 3.5W/kg currently, right? or 3.2 using the average. Is there any way to tell what the likely number is for ? or is it just impossible to tell without a test?
It’s just about finding clues that point you in the right direction.
My hunch is that you’d be at 300w given the 10min power you mention and the fact that 225w (likely your Zone 2) is 75% of 300.
NP for a 1 hour race like effort is a good predictor too.
If you can do 4 reps up a 10 min climb at 300 then I’d go with that 😎
@crosshair, great news if it's proper recent weight loss, but in this heatwave I'd be a bit wary of the weight loss being dehydration. I weighed myself earlier and it was the first time in over a week I've been under 92Kg, having put on ~12Kg over the last eight months. I then used our scales' mode that estimates water and fat % and these were 55.9 and 13 respectively (back in 2017 I was under 10% fat on same scales and weighing ~73Kg)...
My norm is ~57% water, so being 91.4Kg was highly likely due to dehydration, I'm now drinking glasses of High5 "electrolyte squash."
@Daffy it depends on what you want to call your FTP, 95% of 20mins, a one hour effort etc.
Happily doing 300W for 10mins doesn't suggest you are leaving everything on the climb and at ~70Kg, I'm enviable of your W/Kg! But taking one of my rides last year, including my best outdoor 10mins that was up a climb that took just over 9mins, I was at my limit on each of those three climbs https://www.strava.com/activities/6871399099/overview
Nah I don’t think so. Am peeing clear and drinking more than usual. I’ve probably lost some retained water by cutting out a fair bit of salt though- water that came in handy deep into a long group ride the other day for example but I’ll just pay closer attention to drinking lots whilst I’m ‘cutting’ 😀
What is a realistic goal for your weight @crosshair? Interested as I am the same weight, so if you crack the code pls share tips.
Don't tend to worry about weight TTing as it's not that important, but was thinking about it last night doing our fastest local ten course. One of these down 1.5 times but up 1 time courses on a DC. Raged the down leg, hit 43mph max, then turned back up - ever seen an 18 wheeler going up Shap summit on the M6? Yeah that. Did a mid 21 in the end which I was happy with, but it's sort of a missed opportunity in some ways.
I have been 13.5 stone in the past but I’d be happy at 14. No idea if I’ll get close this time around mind you 😀
another hot evening, but I've lacked any intensity so decided to have a ride where I just continually pushed on but paced, so I didn't die 😂, was 85km to the pub, then 20km home, 242w average for 2h 17m to the pub, only ride I can find with a better number for the time was in 2014 when I had one of the early Stages units 👀 at 247w for the same time
Ye-ha that’s a nice spin 💪🏻 Well done! 🍺 🚴🏻
@Daffy - it depends on what you want to know your FTP for. If you want to set some training zones so you can do intervals then either a test or one of the AI based analysis tools is probably a good idea. If it's just a benchmark for your own curiosity then your assumptions seem ok so you may well be in the right ballaprk.
100 miler today, pan flat, 308m of elevation, ticked round in 4hr 50m (solo, moving), was fine for 3hrs, then stopped to grab a drink at a petrol station, and whatever suncream I'd grabbed melted with the heat and sweat and not moving about 5km further on and I couldn't see shite all, stop rub eyes, blink, glasses on, off, on, rub eyes, 20km later I stopped in a village with a chippy and grabbed a bottle of water to try and flush my eyes 👀😂, didn't really work 🙄, Av 201w, NP 202w, cruising
Nice! Well done mate 👍🏻
I went out for the first time since Sunday and didn’t feel too bad. Gonna try and make sure I get 3x rides in a week to maintain some of what I have whilst I’m concentrating on other things for a bit.
I've been pretty consistent over the last 3 weeks, 7hr 46m over 2 days, 7h 42m over 3 days, 7hr 52m over 4 days, just making it fit really, was good to get. out for a long one yesterday, as it's been a busy week, with next week looking equally busy,
holy hell it's hot indoors, spitty spotty rain on the way home from uni, was there all day yesterday, then nights last night, so when I got in at 5, I thought I'll do an hour on zwift (justify this months sub cost 😂) and have a crack up the Epic KOM after Fridays long ride, get some different stimulus in the legs
far too hot, it didn't even feel warm, driving home I almost put the heating on in the car even though it said 18.5, but I guess thats fatigue & 3 hours sleep for you, anyway, had a crack but I knew 4/5 minutes, even with the Wahoo fan on full, in I couldn't do 23 minutes to try and beat my PR, I was BOILING, so decided I'd pull the plug at 10 minutes and pressed on,
ended up with a 2023 10 minute PR, 325w, HR only hit 184bpm, some history 10m history (indoor all on the same Tacx Neo, had it since 2017)
2023 - 325w
2022 - 283w
2021 - 301w
2020 - 331w (during a ramp test)
2019 - 319w (same first 10m of the Epic KOM)
2018 - 336w (first 10m of the Alpe on Zwift)
2017 - 298w
weighed in pre and was 77.3kg on the scales in indoor kit, weight seems to have plateaued but been eating out a lot and enjoying *plenty* of beers in the sun/gigs/lazy evenings, but still moving in an upwards direction even if I feel like I've treaded water for a couple of months,
Nice work on the weight loss!
I think I’m finally pulling through my back spasm dramas - stretching daily and using my sit / stand desk standing up most of the time at the moment. Off any pain killers now.
Managed a 3 day biking weekend - first day was loosely following the Climach X route but hitting all the off piste downhill sections / day 2 was a full day uplift at Dyfi bike park / day 3 was a horrible xc slog around Long Mynd with DH casing tyres on and hot and humid weather. Was swearing quite a lot about my mate’s route plan on that one.
Just gone out for a quick blast on the road bike to see how fit I feel sprinting and see what’s what with the power metre. Did a bit of bimbling along just enjoying feeling not broken - then hill sprints whenever I found one. Managed a max power of 1003w so that’s quite exciting.
Done a couple of commutes today - randomly intervals.icu popped up and said my ftp is 193w based on doing 16mins at 203 watts. I could do a fair chunk higher than that for 16 mins I’d have thought - I did some bits of my ride at a higher intensity than others.
Im assuming it’s because I’m now riding with a power meter that it’s suddenly interested in my rides…
Yeah I guess it’s just pulling data to populate your power curve 👍🏻
My weight loss is slow but definite. Hit the lowest weight since 2019 by dropping another pound last week to 14st12.
Quite funny that it took buying a motorbike to actually start to lose weight 🤣 And why I think e-bikes could actually be a better way for some folk to lose weight than a regular bike!
I had enough time to make the group ride today but chose to come home from my early morning hour at work and go back to bed instead. Then chose some non-urgent work over riding this afternoon and then watching TV over riding this evening 🤣
It’s a part of my personality that I’ve grown to accept that I’m either all or nothing with things. My brain seems to be intensely stubborn and there is no forcing its hand once motivation is lost. I wasn’t procrastinating today- I just knew it was hopeless to even put my kit on.
I’ve also realised that maybe hobbies are a healthy outlet for that trait and that, if getting obsessed/bored with things (that ultimately don’t matter) on a two year cycle means I can maintain a long term commitment to my job and a lifelong commitment to my wife, then it’s no bad thing.
That said- I don’t think cycling is completely gone this time. It’ll come back once I crest a couple of steep peaks at work in the next ten days or so and have the mental energy to choose a new goal to plan towards.
You were smashing out the cycling - maybe it just got very intense and you’ve mentally drained yourself a bit. Few weeks off might do you the world of good.
I think I’m mostly through my back spasm now - still get a bit tight certain days but just stretching and stretching it - and if needed adding heat with a belt thing / taking ibuprofen.
Considering starting a new turbo training plan soon with a ramp test to start etc. slightly got my thoughts on an enduro race in Devon in October if there are still places available next time I get paid.
Felt like I was at least smashing my mate on every downhill we did so perhaps I wouldn’t be propping up the entire field!
did the dads race at sports day yesterday, who knew a full gas 80m? could wreck your legs so much 😂🙄 - think it's more muscle strain than muscle fatigue, hopefully they loosen off for tomorrow, got time for a decent ride, but jesus it's going to be windy
That’s the way it goes 🤣 When I’m ‘on’ it seems stupid to me that anyone would prioritise doing anything different. When I lose that interest though, I can’t make myself do it for love nor money. I think I have room mentally for Family, job and one hobby in that order.
Ah nice one, that’s an event a good distance away time wise to aim for I reckon 👍🏻
When you guys are doing indoor rides, how long are you spending on them?
As long as my planned session is 🤣👍🏻
Have done a few Zwift centuries.
So do you stick to planned zwift sessions that are part of a training plan rather than "free rides" on zwift?
Riding without taking any carbs is working for weight loss. But I'm knackered and can't ride fast so I think it's terrible for training.
@catdras I usually just free ride on there or join a group of the correct pace that I’m after 👌🏻
@molgrips 👍🏻 I think that’s why I find it so hard to lose weight and train. I can’t get ‘past’ the carbs to lose any fat.
I think the best way to possibly try if you want to do it is the Durianrider style ‘high carbs, low fat’ diet. His favourite saying is ‘the fat you eat is the fat you wear’ which is kind of true I guess as it’s actually quite hard work for your body to turn excess carbs into fat.
My wife definitely fits that diet. She alternates cereals, toast and sweets but never fatty stuff and is about 2% body fat 🤣
I've been eating plenty of high GI carbs compared to what I was doing, but almost no carbs whilst riding. It may be that more riding carbs would help me ride harder and expend more energy, not sure. My average exertion on the bike is pretty low.
It is much easier to do it this way round than to eat low carbs off the bike and carbs on it.
My scales think I have lost 0.5kg of muscle, but I don't believe that for a minute as it's numbers simply don't add up. It thinks I have lost 0.3% body fat or about 300g, but I'm 4kg down so over 3kg is unaccounted for!
But I’m knackered and can’t ride fast so I think it’s terrible for training.
depends what your doing, 2/3 hours of Z2 - you don't really need anything, on the turbo, unless your jumping on first thing pre-breakfast, just eat something normal, you certainly don't need 80+ grams of carbs an hour, outdoors Z2, probably don't need much if your stopping at a cafe, most of my weight loss I reckon has been from knocking on the head too many turbo carbs (and doing a bit of calorie counting, and of course actually moving my arse this year) even intervals, you're only doing 20-25 mins max in an hour session, I used to
the roadman podcast with Alan Murchison is a good watch (I think it might be longer on Apple Podcasts)
this short is good
https://youtube.com/shorts/sGqRccH5-Ds?feature=share
full episode here
anyway, squeezed a weeks worth of riding into one day, 237km, 7h 46m moving, Av 175w, so flat just 668m of climbing but the wind today has been a ****, I went west & north for the first 4 hours, never seemed to get any prolonged tailwind
Big day 💪🏻 Nice work 😎
depends what your doing
General MTBing. Slower than usual as I can't hit threshold HR.
Big day 💪🏻 Nice work 😎
smaller than planned, but still a good day, I got up when my alarm went of, had look out the window and it was already proper blowy, thought nah, todays not the day, got back into bed, it's either hotter than hell or windy, I know sometimes you have to do the ride you want and not everything is perfect, but you also have to enjoy it, albeit a slight Type 2 fun
Tried a faster commute last week , the time was 49mins for 27km, so 33kph, the average power was 269W, the weighted average was 292W. I wasn't flat out for this, so there's still a bit of give, but it also wasn't an hour, so there's likely some take, too.
At the lower end, that puts me at 3.78, at the higher ~4.1. The truth is probably much close to the lower end.
I'll try another one in the coming weeks.
Monster ride above - 237km!
I just went local for a hardtail blast about - found I’ve still got some sprint / speed stood up pedalling - just need to get some more endurance back after my injury break.
Think I’m going to schedule another TR plan - starting with a ramp test tonight after work.
the time was 49mins for 27km, so 33kph
That's quick - is it flat? I once had a commute of similar length, and my record was the same 33kph. That was absolutely pancake flat except for a small hill at the end. To get that time I had to catch every light and junction and be sustaining around 42kph o the flat!
If I wanted to start to measure watts, what's (ho ho) the cheapest entry point? Going on a mountain bike.