mattm

So last weekend was team camp - 60 miles Friday, 122 Sat, 85 Sunday, 20 Monday - it was great up until Monday, when I got crashed the F out. On a training ride?!!

There was only 9 of us, in a paceline, me towards the back. Guy on the front somehow didn't see a softball-sized rock, someone behind him hit it while taking a drink and went down. Before I knew it guy who crashed was in the fetal position in front of me, I rammed him and went over the bars. They say it was a pretty good somersault!

Other guy who went down had a broken collarbone, I was generally ok but tore a tire and my finger hurt a little. Bikes ok. I thought my finger might have been broken, but x-rays said no. Had a brace on the finger for a few days. A little bit of bruising on the hip and some road rash on the elbow, but no major issues for me.

Been taking all week off, then today I went out just to see how it felt to spin again.

Turns out, it hurts! A lot. My left thigh (on the side) hurts A LOT every time I pedal, coming over the top of the stroke, even at 40 watts. What's weird is I didn't notice this all week..

****. First crit of the season is on Saturday. It won't last forever, but it's annoying.

aaronmcd

Oh definitely not using old FTP that would put me at solid mid tempo. Also its a new power meter I got at the end of last season so I have numerical mental adjustment to solidify still I set my "FTP" at a number higher than I really think I could do for an hour but I still get super high TSS numbers by being able to do Tempo all day long. Like my threshold dropped but my Z2 stayed the same and tempo in between is squished. Anyways, the feeling of having oxygen difficulties before musculature issues is crazy foreign, but it was very obviously near (give or take) the edge of threshold power and FELT like a vo2 issue. And it was one of those mental "revalations in training" kind of things where I suddenly realize how useful those 5 years of weekly VO2 intervals were. Like, I'm willing to listen to opinions but its more one of those "OOHHH!" moments where I realize how training works big picture a little more than I used to.

All that said, I went out today for more sweet spot. Hit 50 minutes total but this time the legs were the ones limiting the pace due to yesterday. This gave me a clue that its probably ok to focus on subthreshold for a few weeks while I get that muscular endurance up before annihilating my legs and lungs both with the shorter harder efforts. Perhaps Ill add in some VO2 midweek every other week or so starting next week.

topflightpro

Uh oh. Go get it checked out. It could be you really bruised your hip deep into the tissue, or it could be that you've torn something.

furiousferret

Ugh that sucks @mattm.

CTL from 83 to 63 during my illness (I was probably well enough last week, just didn't want to relapse). So its time to start over. I was at peak fitness, so I'm curious to see where I'm at now. Luckily I didn't gain any weight.

hubcyclist

Heck, my CTL is 66 today and I'm thrilled, I'm at my highest since Oct 2016 lol If I actually finish the plan I'm on in 3 weeks (sweet spot base 2 on trainerroad) I'll be at 75, although I'll hit 78 on 2/4, which would be my highest CTL ever.

My TSB is at -32 so I'm happy to take a rest day today

TMonk

Bummer @mattm. Hopefully you heal up soon!

My legs felt weird today during my pre-FTP test opener ride, probably due to hardly riding last week and getting into my accident on Th - still bruised.

Not sure if I should dial back my test target or not, only did it for 8' today and it was rough. On the flip side, I know my body will respond to the few efforts I did today after a week mostly off and be able to do more tomorrow, so I'm torn.

TMonk

@Ttoc6 you mentioned that you did a 6x8' at 102% workout recently. This sounds like something that I'd like to bite into and give a go this block.

What was your rest interval duration between the work intervals? Any pro tips? 6 of those sounds like quite a bit so I may be flexible and aim for 100-102% for starters.

Thanks,
Tmonk

furiousferret

4 sessions, 130 TSS.

I wanted to see where I was at so I did two all out 5 minute efforts. I had no go fast whatsoever. No power in the legs, no flow in the lungs.

Now the question is do I drop my FTP or wait a week?

Sounds like we both have some work to put in.

Ttoc6

Capture.PNG

Here is the trainerroad workout description that I followed. Key for me was keeping cadence up. Stress the aerobic system, not your muscles otherwise it might be a bit tough at the end. I bumped percentage up towards the end because I felt good.

Ttoc6

The weekend was good. Saturday was a 90minute overunder workout that I really needed to nail. Haven't done much work of that sort yet this season. Getting into at 5.30 in the morning on Saturday was difficult but we got through.

Alpine skied in the best snow of my life on Saturday all day. 12+ inches of champagne powder. Oh god my knees were sore afterwards though.

Sunday was a technique course on xc skiing. Went with a buddy that's a pro cyclocross racer. Thought I might the leg up on him since it was only his second day on skis and I was on day 4 or so. Nope. He's a ****ing natural at it. Way faster than me and just looks like he knows what he is doing. It's like fitness isn't always specific to one sport!

TMonk

Thanks man

mattm

I was afraid it was something major, it really hurt!

But I stretched it a bunch last night, and use my "roller" stick on it.

Felt great today on the rollers, so I think all is well.

All systems pro for the crit on Saturday!*

* even though my right index finger still feels kind of weird, I guess it's still healing. But it's not broken so F it. I can grip bars at least!

hubcyclist

back in action, 2hrs with 5x15 sweet spot 134tss, ctl at 68

caloso

90 minutes of sweet spottish (no PM on this bike, so going by feel).

TMonk

Bailed 10 min into my FTP test this morning. Was 5 w under target (and about on par with my last test) and really struggling so I pulled the plug.

Not sure if it was the cold (for here) weather, leftover bruising/swelling from my accident last Th, or my completely lackluster riding last week, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

I'll try again another day, or hell maybe even next block as I'm still riding a lot and not focused on intervals quite yet.

topflightpro

I'm glad to hear that.

If it starts to hurt during the race, I suggest pulling out rather than pushing through it. (I've made that mistake.)

furiousferret

30s/15s intervals, 2 sets. I've been doing these pretty solidly since November and started out at high z6 for the for few and the intervals decayed to low z5 towards the end. Now I'm pretty much high z6 throughout. Matches have always been my weakness but this seems to have helped immensely (though I really wont know until Spring when I can compare via TNW's and the Training Crit).

Anyone know how I can search for all 30 seconds laps in the last 12 weeks?

mattm

Yeah, I agree. I've already had pre-nightmares of feeling good in the race but pulling out because of a stupid finger.. but I don't want to make it worse!

Ygduf

about 20min before the race just put a tight rubber band around the base of your finger. won't feel a thing

furiousferret

Just pull to the back and have fudgy flick the other index finger so your balance and pain is equalized.

Ygduf

it's clear that people care about muscles even less than bike racing, but I could do it if he needed!

https://i.imgur.com/hVfQYHv.jpg

furiousferret

Damn I'm like the least swole Evans.

Ttoc6

I tried the new TrainerRoad FTP test (Ramp Test) and it came back that I've gained about 5% in 4 weeks. So that's pretty sweet. Then I did 90min of aerobic with a couple of seated sprints.

Ramp tests are awesome. So much less mental stress than a 20 or 8 minute test. Just different that you ride until failure. But the failure was not muscular so you just kinda stop pedalling lol.

aaronmcd

More sweet spot today. Just piling it on. Was hurting at low barely sweet spot power. Felt good yesterday and then realized legs weren't recovered yet. Turns out it takes more than a week to get the legs acclimated to lots of near threshold work. Anyway, got 35 minutes in. Short ride but I'm still at -30 so it's all good... hey hubcyclist says -32 means rest day but I've been lower than that 20 of the last 36 days (don't freak interwebs coaches, I rest weeked it up to positive before team camp - short lived rest, thus is the life it seems). Anyways, CTL is up to low/mid 70s, should be up to mid 80s in a month and ready for the more painful stuff.

On another random note - I have an old head unit that I like cuz it's simple and I know how to use it and I'm lazy. But I don't have a home computer, so I always record rides on my phone so I can upload to Strava right away. Is there such thing as as a head unit that can link to my phone via technological magic and I can upload that way? Ya know, just in case I wanna make the skinsuit plunge and have no pockets for a cell phone. I'm probably the last remaining cat 2 to race with a cell phone, hairy legs, and no eyewear.

hubcyclist

Oh neat I didn’t know they released it (just looked it up). How long did it take you to max out and what tss did you get?