procrit

That’s pretty rough, but hopefully 2024 is better! Good news is you should be extra fresh

procrit

Ended up with *only* 5 days of riding last week and my legs were feeling extra peppy today. Only did 75 mins of zone 2 to open them up a bit, but planning on a big ride tomorrow.

procrit

Big ride cancelled due to work schedule, but managed a 25 mile ride with a 20’ test. Officially +15w since my last test in November.

TMonk

Yesterday I was able to get a respectable ride in outdoors. Day off work, family in town. Went for 71 mi w 4,200' vertical in a bit under 4 hrs. Felt like my old self! I kept thinking I should cool it and my power would drop out in the final hour, but I felt fine hammering at the end and like I could have gone for 100. Nice. That's what 15 years of conditioning does for ya I guess.

TMonk

Was a bit time crunched today for my TT session in the garage, so I decided to try something interesting. I rode 1x30' with 20w power increases after each successive 7.5 min:

1: 210w (3.2 w/kg)
2: 230w
3: 250w
4: 270w (4.1) <--- this is pretty close to what I would target for an IRL 20-30k time trial

I found it somewhat engaging and interesting to watch my HR chase each power increase. I barely even looked at my avatar at all, nothing on youtube, just some music on Spotify to keep me company. Best of all, my legs felt fine during the last one. My power is 5-6% lower in the TT position vs road position.




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procrit

4+ hours today in the hills. The sort of ride that makes you remember why I love it. I really need to drive out that way more often.

procrit

2 1/2 hours yesterday put me up to 12 hours for the week, which isn't bad considering I traveled for four days, but I'm definitely feeling the lack of recovery from late nights, restaurant diet, and poor sleep in the hotel. Light training scheduled the next couple of weeks, then real training begins after new years!

TMonk

I am also feeling somewhat fatigued. Lilly had a tough night last night. Fortunately for me, I have the day off from work on leave, so I can probably still get one of my hard days in on the trainer. Otherwise I'd for sure need to skip that.

procrit

Woke up feeling great today, but tempered my enthusiasm and only hit a quick 2 hour zone 2 ride. I feel really relaxed today too, which is a good sign I'm recovering after a couple of nights rest in my own bed.

First race is in 10 weeks. It's all starting to feel very real...

TMonk

What kind of race/event?

TMonk

Volcano Circuit CCW race, mass start, 4th / 12 A's, 151 total starters. Forgot to grab the results screencap. 24ish minutes 4.2 w/kg. But a very "spiky" 4.2.

These mass start races are always nuts. The hitters make it very hard at the start for longer than usual to cull the weak. By the time we got into the volcano it was 10 at front. But we weren't super steady, would surge very hard z5/6 going into the volcano then limp around a bit. Group 2 was pretty much always 10 seconds back; surprised they didn't catch us. The final two minutes were very hard... some guys lit it up and it was a "sprint so you can be there for the actual sprint" kind of situation.

Licked my wounds for a few then found the A bot for another 10 min to cap off my hour. Had juice left so I attacked it and stayed out front.


aftermath

procrit

Two road races, Sat & Sun.

TMonk

Congrats, and good luck! Interesting courses?

procrit

3 hours zone 2 plus 2x10’ @ ftp, plus a quick 2’ strava segment full gas near the end of the ride and picked up a KOM. Feeling that ride a bit, I didn’t eat breakfast and limited my carbs a bit, which may not have been a great decision haha.

procrit

It has a pretty long hill climb every lap, and a fast (50+ mph) descent on the second half of the lap. Makes for a pretty fun race. Day 1 we ride CW, day 2 we go CCW.

procrit

Two more hours of endurance today. Trying to get in some volume before the rain hits this afternoon as the forecast shows won’t let up until monday.

Edit: Threw in a couple of 4-5’ vo2 intervals, managed some PRs with them too despite feeling yesterday’s ride in my legs. 400 watts makes you go really really fast, sure wish I could turn that into my 20’ power lol.

TMonk

TT bike Thursdays today, had to cut it slightly short so I went 1x25' at mid/high z2 (3.0), then 1x12' into low z4. Funniest thing happened, my etap battery went out midway through the first interval. So the second interval also served as high cadence drills haha. HR stayed reasonable.

TMonk

also, was on track to make a PR for my walk to work this morning (made the first of three stoplights) but then a co-worker rolled up to the highway off-ramp that I was walking across, so I jumped in. Must have looked funny to the other motorists around.

procrit

lol

procrit

3 more hours today, that makes 10 total in 4 days. I'm going to take a day off tomorrow and cross my fingers that it doesn't rain Sunday...

TMonk

Got some real low grade pain on the left patella last few hamster wheel sessions. I think all the zwift hammering contributes to that a bit, more of a fixed position, and for some reason I tend to mash a lower cadence. I seem to deal with knee issues that set me back a bit every few years.

But this is real early stage, thinking I can knock it out with the usual combo of RICE, kinesio KT tape, stretching, foam rolling and ibuprofen. We'll see. The KT tape is real miraculous stuff if there is some tightness imbalance somewhere. I have been lazy about stretching and rolling lately so this is what I get.

procrit

I suffered with knee and hip problems semi regularly, but daily foam rolling, stretching, and mobility exercises have pretty much eliminated it all. I do them at minimum once a day, before my morning ride, and usually before i go to bed as well. I feel like the 10-15 minutes it takes to do them pays huge dividends.

TMonk

Ya for sure, same. Except I start to get lazy about them and eventually end up getting hurt again . Not super worried about this one yet.

TMonk

also you do the foam rolling and stretching before the ride? I think you'd want to do those after, and the mobility before?

procrit

Usually before, sometimes both before and after. It’s not super deep stretching, and I find the foam rolling and mobility to help me warm up and get blood flowing. I can say for sure it’s made a huge impact on my joints and doesn’t seem to reduce power or hurt performance in any way.