Woot woot! Email from trainingpeaks ... less than 10 watts below my best (set last summer) and it is only February. I'm happy with that test.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f8e74fc8bf.png

It is pretty standard for my power to bounce up and down a ton when I'm trying to target a number (especially near threshold). Maybe not an 80W spread, but certainly 50W or 60W. People have told me I'll get better at holding a steady target power, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe its just that my best days are 'felt like ass' days to you (not to mention the substantial difference between your ftp and mine) :). Nice job hitting your power target even when you felt off.

Gaining FTP in February in Oregon is not an easy task! Grats!

Legs pretty torqued today during my easy 1 hr commute to work on the MTB, but felt a lot better and loosened up by the end. I'll spin them out a little more on my commute home soon.

Off yesterday, then the previous 4 days was Valley of the Sun (report to come) and then a 5 hr z2+ ride on President's Day. Not the optimal way to spend my time after a three day stage race, but I'm busy next weekend after Saturday morning and I had the day off, so it worked with my schedule.

Tomorrow I'll likely do my kitchen-sink 2 hr road ride with a 15' at SST, 10' just over threshold, then 3' VO2 up Linda Vista road. Easy MTB again on Friday, then a group ride on Saturday to cap off the week at like ~15 hr or so. Easy next week. Got some more P/1/2 racing coming up in early March that I'll be excited about. Between the 1's and 2's on SDBC we should be able to mix it up in SoCal and hopefully throw a spoke in LA Legion's wheels (not literally).

4x10 SS with jumps last night.

I scoped the climb on Strava and my past results implied it'd be perfect for 10-min intervals at the wattage I'd be doing. It showed that I hit bang-on 10 mins at 340W, so 315W with jumps should stick me right there. What I didn't take into account was my weight loss... What was a ~10-min climb is now a 9:15 climb at lower wattage. The first few intervals had me crest the climb and start flying down the backside, pull the rip cord, do a u-turn, and bang it back up to the top in order to get my 5-minute "rest" period descending in between SS.

This was also my first time running the workout off of my Garmin. I wish it had the ability to pause the workout without pausing the entire ride (I couldn't find a way). I hadn't reached the base of the climb before the SS intervals started, so the first interval was done going DOWN the climb I had picked out to do the reps. Sitting bolt upright at 38mph doing 315W is an odd feeling.

Close to 5,000 kj's over the 3 day weekend, just finally recovered from it today. Easy day today, then on Friday and Saturday it'll be 2 more 1500 kj efforts, then off to Europe for a week.

2 hrs this morning with 2x20's on Fiesta by feel, ended up at 92% and 98%... yeah my legs are a bit fatigued. HR pretty low on the first one, just hurt.

It's the lady's bday weekend and the weather is calling for rain on Saturday. I've already agreed to taking Sunday off, looks like Sat. may be a shorter trainer spin before hitting this rest week, we'll see. MTB tomorrow.

Legs have felt like trash this week. Tried some ftp work on Tuesday but bailed halfway through the 2nd interval. Havent really done much of anything otherwise. Supposed to be close to 50 both days this weekend so I will try to get outside

Random sweet spotting last night on a short ride. Got about 30 minutes of SS wattage in, then went for a 1-minute KOM for giggles at the end of the ride. 1 hour 8 mins, NP of 301W for the ride. KOM at the end was 753W for exactly 1 minute at an unsavory cadence (85rpm).

Off day today, then preride a race course on Saturday.

A single minute can matter a lot in workouts. I cut the rest duration on last week's "attack" pursuit style intervals down from 5min between each to 3min and 4min today with no break into sets. All 4 reps back to back.

That **** hurt. I feel though it's a pretty realistic thing to have to dig and then ease into something that still hurts a good bit.

That first and second rep, it was awesome to see the HR peak after the 400w for a minute and actually go down while holding the 300w. Then taper back up. It held more on the last two sets obviously. Less rest.

Oh, and screw having to cough up or gag up phlegm or whatever during that kind of workout.

Prettay prettay prettay good.

Yeah, have to agree with that one.

Laying in bed waiting for a sleep aid to kick in.

The race at the end of this month was canceled due to lack of entrants (what would have thought), so I decided to get some volume in on a route I mapped out last season. About 4 miles of it was closed to cars because they tore the road down to gravel for a repave. About a mile of it was covered in visqueen (thick black plastic tarping to prevent water damage), which was weird as hell to ride on. Pushed a bit in the last three hours because I knew I’d be racing the sunset at the end.

Length: 124.3 miles
Elev: 9551’
Time: 6:53:24
NP: 236W
TSS: 355
Kcal: 5314
Avg spd: 18.0 mph


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...650013217.jpeg

Cypress Excellent ride. That is a really good average solo speed for 124 miles with 9551 feet of climbing.

oof, checked my PMC, last Sunday CTL was 81 TSB -9, today CTL 68 TSB 35. Came back from our trip on Thursday and was supposed to pick up my son from my parents' house Friday but we all ended up staying the weekend, so lost 2, and probably with today 3, days of riding. Not sure exactly where to go with training, I finished base phase but I probably won't have fun going right into high power build stuff, not at 100% anyway.

5.5 fat burn stuff Friday, 4 yesterday with 4x23 tempo, 5:10 today fat burn stuff. Today was my first outdoor ride since sometime in early December I think? It was quite nice to take in scenery.

Gonna rest up and begin the usual vo2/race specific stuff next weekend.

Rain on Saturday and a 2.5 hour endurance ride on Sunday featuring team time trial with long pulls. Next week is supposed to be warm with temps in the high 70s.

1.5 hours Saturday, 2 hours yesterday. Felt good.

Cypress That ride would serve as a sleep aid for me, as in I'd sleep for a week. Really high average speed for that ride.

Work has been all-consuming lately, and I literally had not ridden my bike for the last 2 weeks other than a couple of commutes. (And one of those was on a Jump bike) But we passed a milestone on Friday and I was actually able to ride on both Saturday and Sunday. No intervals, no structure. Just riding around, enjoying the fresh air. I forget sometimes how nice it is just to go for a ride, so that was a nice reminder.

Tried for new 8min PR. Failed. It's an erg bike. I made the mistake of going out of saddle at around 5min in and it ups the resistance to match the cadence to hold the power. But, when starting to spin again it doesn't let off very quick and you're left with a mammoth effort to get it spinning again after already dying for 5min. It made me spin over 400w for a few seconds before it "let off" and that was too much. That put a fork in it. Also, going up a full 30w in one bit was a bit adventurous. Maybe 10 or 15w more and I'd have made it.

I will do it this year though. 8min at 350w. Sometime.

Sold my ERG, Fluid 2 for everything now. Much prefer it...can output whatever the body will allow.

I use a fluid at home. This is in the gym at work. They have some stationary Cycleops Pro 400 bikes with Powertap hub based power meters on them. My "control" of it is essentially a +/- button on the display. Some folks have added gears to these and hacked them so Zwift can control the resistance........but I ain't got time for that.

At home, yeah, fluid all the way (until budget will allow for a smart trainer, then just do a test in Zwift).

First anaerobic workout of the season is tonight. I'm actually nervous, as I have no clue how it'll go.

3 intervals of:

30 seconds @ 720W
4 mins @ 405W
30 seconds @ 720W
5 mins of 205W between intervals

If I don't check back in, just know I died doing what I love.

That's a substantial watt sandwich. That is a tasty burger.