A little update. I haven't been following a training plan and I never bothered getting an FTP test. Getting my ass handed to me week after week on the Tuesday night rides started having as much of a mental toll as a physical one. The problem is I am getting stronger but everyone else on that ride is, too, so it's hard to appreciate my gains. I kept expecting the ride to get easier since I had been training but it never happened. The rides are always hard and are not getting easier. They've also been more exclusive since it's rained almost every Tuesday keeping the less strong fairweather riders away (I don't mind riding in the rain).
On Saturday I participated in a very challenging century (110 miles, 13,000+ feet of climbing) but it had 6 feed stations (snacks, water) which was amaaazing. I rode with random people closer to my level (I didn't ride with any of the Tuesday night riders, several of whom were there and posted much more impressive times than me), but I enjoyed myself and didn't even look at the distance on my bike computer the whole day (except once at mile 27, the first aid station). Riding with random people made the ride much more enjoyable. The few times I rode alone were the toughest. I lucked out on this ride on two fronts: one, I got a great sleep the night before, because I didn't bother setting my alarm (I had a later start than originally planned because morning was cold), and two, it was a relatively cold day, so I didn't bake in the sun. My legs felt amazing. Even with I was suffering up a 20% grade at 34rpm I had the mental fortitude to push on.
Despite the fatigue (I had a 448 TSScore on Saturday), I hit 1000+ watts at the end of the Tuesday night ride yesterday (I think that was the first time I hit 1000 watts this year, though the ride was slow on the flats) and also had some nice PRs on climbs (it used to be if I cracked the top 50 on a big climb that was really good; yesterday I got 25th on a 1.4 mile climb (5.8%) (and one of our strong riders got the KOM).
Anyway, Saturday's ride was a huge mental boost for me and I feel like I'm in a great mental state to start a new training block after sort of just doing maintenance / recovery volume the last 7 weeks. And I learned a lot in that prevailing time, but Saturday's ride went sooooo well, that I'm already biting at the bit to do another such ride. It feels good to be able to tackle big rides like this and actually enjoy them. Still don't have an idea of what kind of training plan I want to do. It's tempting to get a coach, but I can't really justify spending money on one.
Oh, I also did a road race on July 10th. A 43 mile cat 5 race. It went relatively well and some of the strong TNRers were there. I placed last of that bunch of course, but I had fun working together with other stragglers from the front group of the race. I ended up in 23rd out of like 47. It felt like a tough field for a cat 5, though.
I made a little recap video of the big Saturday ride: