TMonk

Ha, I certainly have some examples of that around here! I imagine at some point my lack of endurance will catch up to me, but maybe when I eventually return to training/racing (and sleeping...), my decreased time to train will be boosted with some efficiency in time management, and dad watts!

procrit

I want to do 1-2 marathon xc races this winter just for fun, but I do plan on doing some spring races in 2024. I wonder if cutting volume back now and working on the weight loss for 3 months would be where I need to start, then after new years increase training load to improve power?

I also just had the best day on a bike since 2010 on Sunday. Set numerous PRs and top 10's on Strava even at the very end of the 3 1/2 hour ride. It was pretty unreal, haven't felt legs like that in so long.

TMonk

nice procrit, that's a good feeling to have plenty of legs left after a few hours of riding

TMonk

"Race de Watopia" stage 2, two laps on flat route. I placed 14th/36 starters in the cat A for a ~28 minute race. Hard.

As predicted, we surged up the hill coming out of the Ocean Blvd tunnel. Only, it didn't let up and remained strung for a few minutes. By 10 minutes in, it was reduced to a group of 23. 8 or 9 more broke away about 10 minutes further in, and then I sprinted reasonably well out of the group that remained.

I spent a few minutes licking my wounds at z1, then found the A pacer bot for another 10 minutes at sweet spot. Pretty productive hour on the trainer!

TMonk

I think for the next 3-6 months, I will be pretty much only riding an hour at a time, and on the trainer. My plan it to alternate between easy and hard days, with one day off per week when I'll do my strength and core routine. There may be the odd weekend day when my mom or MIL is visiting and I can be afforded a few hours outside, but that's going to be few and far between. I've got bigger fish to fry atm with the newborn at home!

himespau 

I made the mistake of going out for long rides when my youngest was just a baby and napping. Was gone longer than my wife was happy with when he woke early a couple times, and she felt like I was putting all the weight on her. Riding the trainer and being able to abort the ride when needed was something I found to be important for household harmony.

TMonk

Ya, I'm basically relegating myself to hour long rides on the trainer. I am very appreciative of that and let her know regularly, and am as supportive as possible outside of that. If I do get any long rides in during these next 6 months, cool, but if not it's nbd and it's taking a back seat in priority. Gotta build up some brownie points for subsequent seasons.

hubcyclist

it's a good approach, if you happen to follow Kolie Moore from Empirical Cycling he definitely advocates for doing volume anyway you can, even if it's split up. A couple zwift races per week and the rest endurance pace should keep you sufficiently in shape for sure

TMonk

Thanks hubcyclist, I'll make sure to check that out, and general study up on training philosophies that are catered towards time-crunched athletes.. So far (~2 weeks in), it's been three hard days per week, three easy days, and one off day with my strength routine. I have another lighter core routine that takes 15-20 min that I cram in when I can.

Next week it's back to work, which will be another adjustment for our family. My wife is OK with me continuing my current time expenditure on "self care", which is almost all training, and picking up my slack on burping/diapers at night, and obviously during the day when I'm at work. I also won't be there to take care of our meals during the day so that's something we'll have to work out. I'll be motivated to pick up as much slack as I can when I get home, so she can have a break.

TMonk

On another note, my MIL is visiting for the next 1-1.5 days. I had planned on taking this opportunity to ride for 3-3.5 hours outside, but we had a second consecutive night of cluster feeding every 90 minutes last night.... so we'll see how that goes. I don't feel too draggy now, so if I still feel good in a couple of hours after I've digested breakfast, I'll head out.

procrit

I ended up doing a 90 min z2 pre-ride before the A group Saturday hammer fest, and rode a total of 4 hours. The last 90 mins of the group ride I set a new 3 year 90' PR of 280w NP, and myself and another cat 2 blew the group apart. At the very end I ended up taking two big pulls at 450ish watts, the last one over two minutes long, which at 4 hours in was very good for me. I also had a 315-320w 10' effort that was like 350-360w over / 280-290w under, about half an hour or so before that. Sunday I did a quick 60' recovery spin, and then 90' of MTB with the family on some easy trails. Today I rode a two hour z2 with a dozen 20-30" 400-500w "sprints" at the end, and while my legs felt flat from this weekend, I was not totally trashed. Safe to say recovery has completely turned around, finally!

TMonk

nice to hear the good feeling coming back procrit. Hopefully you can stay in the groove.

TMonk

More TT bike Thursdays for me. I like to do 30' at z2 (~200w or 3.0 w/kg) and then a 15' at a moderate sweet spot (~230 or 3.5). Moderated by feel but today they were right on target, low HR too. All on the trainer of course.

I will be taking Tuesdays and Thursdays off using state PFL leave through EOY. It's nice to have our morning ritual of coffee/pastries while we listen to the news and she gives our daughter her first feed of the new day. Then, mom gets to sleep-in more and I can engage baby while she is awake by reading stories and playing her some piano. Eventually she gets fussy and wants to take a nap, so I put her down and make breakfast for me and mom.

procrit

Yes, it's definitely encouraging. I'm erring on the side of doing less than I think I can in training with the high intensity stuff, just so I don't overdo it and wind up on the struggle bus, focusing more time on zone 2. I'm responding well to that, which I think just means I'm more out of shape than I really knew, but possibly shows I have a lot of room for improvement as I am able to handle more intensity and volume. I think the jury is still out on getting my power numbers up to a level needed to compete in the 1/2's again, but it's looking much more promising.

procrit

I had a recovery week this past week, just doing some easy and short z1/2 rides. Sunday I wanted to open the legs up a little and ended up setting a handful of PRs on the MTB trails I typically ride without too much effort. It's fun to see times getting lower while efforts are seemingly getting easier. Last year I was having to save up energy and target one segment at a time, now I'm beating those times holding steady pace.

procrit

2 hour zone 2 yesterday. Today is 75’ z2 plus 2x15’ @ 95-100% ftp, which hopefully I can pull off this afternoon. I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach issues, presumably from some street tacos I ate while trick or treating with the kids, and I still feel pretty bad.

TMonk

Halloween Zwift race on Glasgow crit circuit, 4 laps in the A race. 2nd / 12. I like this course because I can be a little bit "tactical" with respect to my finishing strategy, almost as if it was a real race. And it worked for me today too:

There is little kicker about 0.6 miles from the line, with two sequential right-hand turns after, and a steep downhill drop after the first. I like to launch super hard going into the kicker, cresting it with a head full of steam and more speed/momentum. Then, I can rest for 3-4 breaths while my avatar is still going faster than the field. All it takes is a couple seconds of hesitation from behind and then I can hold it to the line. Nice.

Went back to Watopia and capped it off with another 15 minutes with the A robo pacer bot. Solid workout in a hair under 1 hour!


A brief moment of panic, on the wrong side of a split. This was the bridge. Of course we slowed down after and they rejoined...



yeah buddy

TMonk

Yesterday, weights. My only off day each week in a sea of otherwise 60-90 min trainer rides. Newborns man. Might get to sneak out for 4 hours on my birthday (the 11th), we'll see.

Today, more TT bike Thursdays, one of my easy days. 45' of z2-3 pedaling with some putzing around between my two "efforts" in the aerobars. 1 hr total.

procrit

Whatever you give up now is paid back 10x when the kids gets older. Riding with my boys is such a joy.

TheKillerPenguin

Howdy y'all!

Everyone good? I hope everyone's good.

Congrats on the kid TMonk! A different kind of n+1!

TMonk

Thanks TKP! Nice to see you around these parts; been a bit of a ghost town compared to a few years past.

How is your riding going? You finding time to train/race these days? I'm pretty much writing off 2024, but will still volunteer and do a local event or two. Once we get past this infancy, I can start training with more volume. Maybe next winter.

TheKillerPenguin

No racing this year unfortunately! It's been tough moving to a city and transitioning to office work. People say DC is great for riding but when you're coming from living in a mountain town surrounded by woods and quiet roads, and when you're used to making your own schedule, not so much. Add in a couple of injuries and what I think was Covid back in August. I'm finally settling into a training groove again though. Most of my riding gets done after dark, but it counts.

There's a former pro I know that used to ride with his baby setup in a crib next to the trainer. A bit hardcore, but could work if your kid is relatively mellow.

procrit

My 2x15 went great, managed 320w for each without a problem, could’ve done them 20’ for sure. Friday was a 90’ of MTB single track, Saturday was solid 3 hour road ride with a couple other cat 2s. That hurt a bit lol.

Today was a quick 75 min ride with a moxy monitor measuring smo2. Smo2 is really interesting, and if I’m interpreting it right, it seems like my lt1 and lt2 turn points were around 240w and somewhere north of 330w. Seems a bit high to me, as I had them around 210-220w and 300-310w respectively based on feel.

TMonk

Zwift "chase race" today. a fun format. They start the categories in reverse order with a minute or two between, so we have try and catch the B's, C's and D's. I was champing at the bit up front and pulled too hard at first; at 15 min I was at 300 w / 4.6 w/kg and it was clear I had bitten off a bit too much.

The rest hurt but we caught 'em which is cool I guess.


fun banter in the start pen, guys getting hyped


overall effort

hubcyclist

your workout from yesterday must be encouraging! perfect time to build for 2024!

as for me, I started my first week of my base cycle. 14hrs, key workouts were 3x20 and 3x25 sweet spot, and did 3x30 tempo on Saturday. this week will be 80 and 90mins tiz and eventually at the end of Dec will be 2hr tiz