I rode 14.5 hrs this week! Did 3.5hrs 200tss outside on Friday and did the same route today with the same time tss. While I’d like to do 15 this week to wrap up this block, I doubt that’ll happen but we’ll see!

It's been a minute, but I've finally gotten around to benchmark my fitness from getting back on the bike (from nothing) in about seven years. At quick overview:

• Left the sport in Cat 3 purgatory around 2015 (28 y/o). I had the points for 3>2...not mentally/personally invested in the training load needed to be competitive after that jump at the time.
• Literally got back on the bike in October 2021 with a coach that has been a longtime friend – basically learning how to walk again...baseline FTP was 203w (80 kg) from a ~340w FTP (@72kg) in 2015 :injured:
• Average 10-12 hours/week (TSS avg 540/week) - lots of base: primary goal was to focus on mass start events on the velodrome (i.e., Rock Hill)...looks like I need to travel out of state to get some USAC events in since Rock Hill is a bust as of now (I'm in Charlotte, NC)
• Current FTP - ~ 315w (@73 kg; 1.83m tall): I lost ~18 lbs since getting back into training...my nutrition needs work.
• To be honest...I don't even care about FTP in the context of racing. I am traditionally a crit guy and will be focusing on that discipline/track events. I've never been a TT person, and my sprint is meh...passable. The life of an "all-arounder." Most of my training now focuses on top-end power (30s, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min power intervals) with Z2 work in the gaps.
• Tuesday night worlds started up last week (essentially P1/2/3 crit with ~50 people): top 10 first week; making moves and working in the break the second week while being in it for the sprint at the end...this is more than I can ask for.
• First race(s) back is (of course) a P1/2/3 crit this weekend (Hincapie Spring Series) so we will see how this fitness really translates. I'm solo, so hiding and placing well amongst Cat 3s is the goal. No expectations from me in what will be a talented field.

Anyway, I hope this information serves to motivate anyone who is a similar situation to get back on the bike. After seven years off, it took five months of work to get "close" to old fitness (albeit a different power profile).

ATP/PC and anaerobic threshold work at San Diego Velodrome 4 x 100 meter jumps (2 seated and 2 standing) and 4x flying 500 meter efforts in 92,94,96,96 gear inches. Great day and we had the track to ourselves. Getting ready for a track week at VSC.

In the old days, we would take a car and rev it up to “blow” the carbon out. My first 500 blew a lot of crappola out of my engine.

did a crit thing today, practice crit series. I opted to do the C race, which is 4/5, since I'm rusty and didn't want to mix up with the 3's. The race started with some neutral laps, and then when the action started I almost got crashed by someone early on lol Nothing much to report, at one point I bridged up to a couple of guys who had created some separation in hopes of being in a break, I got to the front and I'm not even sure if they stayed with me. I was swarmed a lap later. Not even sure how I ultimately finished, I believe closer to the front than the back. Had an NP of 280 for the whole thing (0.95 IF), for the non-neutral portion of 20mins my NP was 302 so solid effort

We’re in Corvallis on a college campus tour. Both kids were accepted here, and it looks like a great fit for my son. Not sure about my daughter.

Anyway. Ran 3-ish miles today while my son did his sprint workout. Didn’t bring my good running shoes so I had to run in my Sambas. Probably going to be sore tomorrow.

If anyone else here raced the Hincapie P1/2/3 crit in Rock Hill, SC this past Saturday...I'm starting a support group for the emotional damage that it most likely caused for the majority of the group.

It's been a LOOONG time since I've posted here. But after meeting up with TMonk a couple weeks ago for dinner and a beer, he inspired me to get back to it. Taken up skimo and trailing running in the past couple years which has done incredible things for my aerobic ability. Barely ridden bikes, but I got out for a longer one with some old teammates on Saturday given the nice weather in Utah. I was able to hold in the pace line and take my pulls, but nothing longer than a couple minutes. 82 mile in 3.5 hours on mostly flat ground

Sunday I went out to the (running) track and put on spikes for the first time in a while. 8x400 on an average of 73 seconds per lap. Surprised myself tbh. Played tennis against a wall for a bit too.

It was a hard weekend for almost everyone. Even though the conditions didn't seem to be too terrible, many of the races were raced so hard that everyone was on their hands and knees. I was surprised to see so many masters riders willing to double up this weekend.

I don't want to derail this thread too much, and probably should've put this into the race stories section, but it was indeed one hell of a season opener. With regard to conditions...the wind was pretty significant on Saturday. Anyway, back on topic to training...my bruised ego has me reaching for answers with regard to my training. Jumping back into big P1/2/3 fields after 7 years of not racing is a fairly big task and I probably shouldn't be has hard on myself as I am. Probably just need more time...

First club TT last night. I start early and do a repeat of the course and end at the same time as the others. The stereotypical d-bag car yell at the u-turn about owning my lane, despite me going the bloody speed limit UP the damn hill. I swear people breed selfish a-holes in this country. If I'm going the speed limit up a freaking hill, eff off.

Otherwise, it's a hair over 30min to do the two laps. 275w AP excluding the minute of time the power meter decided to act like a POS and not read after the one u-turn. I swear I may dump this one and go with the Speedplays and move those between bikes. That's annoying AF.

Other than being really cold on the way there and back, a good evening.

Track week with coach at Velo Sports Center in the bag. 60k of motor paced efforts in pace line on pursuit bike in the aerobars. It is great to be back training with focus.

My first race of the season is Saturday, and it is looking like 50ish degrees and rain. May DNS if the weather forecast stays this way - it just sounds unpleasant. Of course if I do no show I will tell my team that my handling skills are still very Zwifty and I do not want to be a menace. ;)

CTL is bouncing between 85-90 and workouts are going quite well overall.

started next phase of training today, race prep, did 3x12 over unders outside today, wasn't too bad. I did get a flat at the end (I drove out to the loop and was riding back to my car) and didn't have my saddle bag with me (forgot to put it back on after sunday's race), fortunately the workout was done lol

Some out/back "moving" speeds and powers from my last TT bike ride. I selected the road sections that aren't chip seal. The chip seal or crap road segment was a big hit to speed. Disc, 9+ front, tt helmet, no skinsuit just road jersey kit.

243w, 26.25mph
246w, 27.05mph
228w, 25mph

I think some of that may have been the lopsided benefit of a disc wheel in a cross wind hurting and helping on out/back.

But yeah, I'm pretty happy with that and the prior CdA data I saw at the last test session. I'm going to do a 10mi test with the aerometer on the bike and if the watts, speed, CdA measure pleases me enough I may leave it as-is for the rest of the season then get back at the testing after TT season.

Was scheduled to do 6x5’ at 108% but just didn’t have it. Got 3 good ones, failed the 4th. Tried to rally on the 5th but got only halfway and had to call it. I’m blaming the heat: it was 88F and I’m just not acclimated yet.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1dcbf50fd.jpeg

Jumps and 3x flying 100 meters at SDV 96 gear inches 20’ RBI. Average temperature at the track - 102 degrees.

First Zwift workout with the track bike with the aerobars setup. Owwwie. The stupid seatpost isn't a flip flop one, so the setback is way way behind 5cm making it worse hip angle than the actual TT bike.

I somehow managed most of the threshold workout combo of workouts on there I do at a 290w ftp on the road bike. Just so. Which is good, but work to do still to creep up to a "true" TT bike ftp that's a good bit higher than last year.

For the duathlon I think the 5km mile splits I'll target are 07:15 as I did a 07:30 time split 10k run at lunch this week. Just watch the weather. Then target 260 to 270w for the 40k bike. Watching the heart rate to see how it reacts. Sadly, but in a good way, I felt I could have run off the bike after that TT bike Zwift workout today that was balls tough.

did 12hrs this past week, it was the first week of the block, did over-unders Tuesday, some over threshold stuff Thurs (solid for 2 of 3, struggled with 3rd due to heating up) and Sat did 2x30ish at 90% outdoors (really 37mins and 29mins due to doing these on a segment). capped it off with 3hrs z2 yesterday. It's been that typical new england highly breezy spring so I'm not really feeling particularly fast, but the fitness is great. gotta make this week quality, we're traveling to the in-laws in the midwest on friday and will spend next week on a stages spin bike at a gym, so not super conducive environment to do super hard intervals, but we'll do our best!

Carson track workout today and Fiesta TT on Sunday. First race since the pandemic.

TMonk wktmeow Are you racing?

Hermes yes! Signed up for M35+. The elite field (P1-3) is gonna be freakin' stacked... we have my TTT team captain (Kevin Festini, 40k ITT record holder), a pro (Sam Boardman), and Alex Gustin, 14th in Junior Worlds last year. Look out for some blistering times in the 24-25 min range on the 20k.

Fun track workout at VSC on Thursday. I did some motor work on the pursuit bike and then reconfigured the bike for sprints and did two flying team sprint efforts with two other racers. I rode the second position that means my total distance was 500 meters and my sprint was 250 meters. On the second team sprint, my speed at the exchange at 500 meters was 34 mph @ 124 rpm and 620 watts. Fancy wheels and aero everything and in my best tested ERO position. I have done 36 mph in the 500 meters in the past. I plan on improving my start and exit speed over past years.

Spring refuses to remain sprung. high 40's low 50's yesterday with rain. I did 3hrs and went as hard as I needed to to avoid hypothermia. Burnthesheep would be proud of my stay warm watts. Bigly east coast watts. Great big beautiful watts. Believe me, folks.

Today I was going to ride 4hrs to cap off the block, but it started sleeting 10 minutes into the ride and I don't need that kind of evil. So I turned around and took a rest day. Tomorrow looks less depressing so I'll ride longer.

I haven’t ridden in two days, which of course means the past 20 odd weeks have been for naught. Visiting in laws this week and gym is closed today, unfortunately bringing my CX bike would have been $300, kind of steep for not even a whole week

Slayed it on my VO2s this morning. I knew from the first one that I had the legs for it, TSB highly positive too as I'm coming off a rest week. Thing is, I had a few to drink and less sleep than ideal last night, easter celebration with extended /fam. Fortunately, the head and the heart responded well enough and my legs were able to do their thing. Felt the best on interval 4 (of 5).

I don't get this. I took M and T off last week since I thought it was a good idea. Granted it was an easy week, but still.

Personally, I don't think a few CTL points in either direction is a huge deal. I live at 90 + or - 5 when I'm training, November (ish) till mid Summer.

lol oops, that was meant to be sarcastic! Im on another server a lot and we joke about adaptations being completely ruined by inane things like having to stop during a workout to go to the bathroom and other dumb stuff. I do get antsy taking more than a day off, but that’s just the restless part of me.

I am currently on a stages spin bike getting 2.5hrs z2 on what is generally an off day

oh gotcha hah

Lunch running threshold work in the taper week for the duathlon. These "super shoe" things still feel like cheating. First workout like that in these and was doing easily 20sec/mi to 30sec/mi faster than I normally ever would have run those sets in my old affordable generic trainers.

I'm going to buy the non-carbon soled version for longer run workouts and use these just for the shorter faster stuff.

After the du will toss some volume, then intensity at bike-only for the TT race stuff.

Pretty quiet here…training is repetitive without much new and interesting variations.

It is always rewarding to see other racers in person. TMonk looks like he is in great shape and has the results to back it up. My coached training group at Velo Sports Center in Carson are just killing it. And this group races everything - road, track, mountain and etc. It is a blast training with highly motivated athletes. How does one not improve?

Tuesday was a track workout at VSC and yesterday was tempo and 1 minute intervals at Fiesta on TT bike. Pretty chainless day.

Wow. 30 seconds per mile is huge. I would have loved to have the super shoes when I was racing 10K. How does one not wear those shoes and be competitive?