Hermes

Velo Sports Center is Siberian pine wood and slippery. Normally, the pole lane is for fast efforts and the relief line for slower riding. In my case, I timed the effort and speed such that the blue band was perfect and no one else was on the track.

TMonk

I wasn't exactly bursting at the seems with enthusiasm when I entered my first segment, so I didn't force the issue too much. Felt better on the second longer one that was only slightly over threshold. Capped it off with 16 min of A-bot group, felt well enough to attack it and stay out there solo for a bit. I feel like my legs are almost back, and that the power is in there. Maybe with better "constitution" I'll perform more in line with what I feel like I can do. Next time!


295w, 4.5



323w, 4.9

Enthalpic

My partner and I just had a funny chat about what a "morning constitutional" meant. She used the term meaning morning exercise, but I said it means taking a big **** in the morning. Both are commonly used so we agreed that the term should probably not be used in formal settings, or at all.

"This project is like a morning constitutional for our company." Some in the meeting might think healthy exercise, the rest will imagine a load of crap.

TMonk

Ha, I was using the term "constitution" loosely, hence my use of the quotes. Now that you mention it, I do recall that being used in reference to bowel movements, rather than general well-being. I can assure you that things were all good, as far as the former is concerned

Hermes

Two Zwift pacer rides - 35' and then a harder one for 40'. I rode at the front most of the time. Then I went to the gym for an active stretching session and shoulder workout.

Hermes

Furthermore, at VSC and other tracks that have 45 degree banking, when a rider is in the pole lane going around a turn, he is perpendicular to the track. A rider on the blue band is more vertical. So it is possible for the rider in the pole lane to hit a rider on the blue band. So if one is doing a fast effort in the pole lane and there is a rider coming off the track and exiting on the blue band, the rider in the pole lane must pass higher in the pole lane.

So it is a bad idea and annoying for others on the track doing efforts for riders to cruise on the blue band.

At VSC, beginner riders a taught to use the following minimum speed rules for riding on the track to ensure that they do not slip and slide off the track.. Pole lane 18 mph, relief line 20 mph, balustrade 22 mph.

Can those number be reduced? Absolutely, as sprinters routinely seem go very slow on the track. What they do is keep power on the rear wheel and they do not allow the bike to point down track. If they go down track, they dive. Beginners do not have this awareness or feel for going slow on the track. Therefore, the simplest idea for them is to go fast and the higher they go on the track the faster the speed.

TMonk

Body weight is back up a couple lbs, but for all the right reasons. I resumed strength work last week and I already feel a little more muscular and swollen. Things are happening in there, legs core and upper.

TMonk

TdZ Stage 5, UCI course Innsbruck, 1st / 120. I think you gave me good luck genejockey! Man, that was the most fun I've had in a Zwift event in a long time. Having a ~20 min climb in the first half made things quite dynamic and tactical.

I went into the climb in 15th position, first main group, two already up the road. I stayed near the front and tightened the screws halfway up and culled it down to 3 of us.

Back onto the flats, we caught up to the front of the race before the "Leg Snapper", 0.3 mi 7% climb. I squeezed out some watts and no one responded, and somehow I had the legs to crush 500w over the whole thing (7.5, ~45 seconds). I went into pursuit mode after that and the remaining riders seemed content to ride at low watts and sprint it out for second. Hell yeah.


Top of the big climb of the day



Leg Snapper segment is circled

procrit

I keep finding small holes in my recovery strategies, and trying new things to plug them. I'm already maxing out my sleep, having consistent carbs in the diet really helped, reducing/removing vegetable oils also helped a lot (the exact reason I'm not totally sure of, but inflammation has been greatly reduced), but I've recently found that there's some nuance with magnesium. For whatever reason, magnesium supplementation appears to reduce muscle pain / cramps, and keep RPE vs power more consistent. Initially I started adding it in to improve sleep quality, but a side effect has been less muscle aches and less days where my legs feel worse than I think they should, and my ability to train consistently is definitely higher with magnesium supplementation. To experiment, I started taking magnesium in the mornings so as not to affect sleep as much (I'm not even sure if it really does) and I still seemingly have the same results. I've been trying it off and on for a couple of months and I just made the connection this past week.

Anyway, 12 days till race day, and my W/KG is higher than it's ever been since 2010. Let's go!

Hermes

Congrats TMonk #zwiftking

TMonk

Go get em procrit, make sure to share your results. I don't think we have a 2024 Race Results thread yet.... maybe I can start it! Usually I get the first post with my club's first TT in the series, but I will miss it this year.

procrit

I'm going to do my best! My new teammates are heavy hitters, so I expect I'll be working for them, but if my legs show up on race day who knows!

Enthalpic

Increase magnesium supplementation slowly. Take too much and it will give you the runs.

Some of your improved recovery could be due to higher testosterone levels.

"Our results show that supplementation with magnesium increases free and total testosterone values in sedentary and in athletes. The increases are higher in those who exercise than in sedentary individuals."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20352370/

Spesh

The slow rides are faster and the fast riders are "funner". I think it's working.

procrit

Nice find. I'm now taking anywhere from 150-300mg, so below the RDA max. I tried 500-600mg a couple of times but had to back down a little for reasons you mentioned.

procrit

3x15' @ 320-340w over a 2 hour workout, and felt like I had another 1 or 2 left in me. My legs actually felt a little weak to be honest, but I was able to repeat those efforts without any issues. At this point I know I've done all the prep I can do, all that's left is to recover and show up with legs that are working as good as possible.

Hermes

Tuesday - 2 sets of 30"on 1' off 8 reps per set on Zwift.
Wednesday - shoulder PT
Thursday - strength training and 2 sets of 30"on 1' off 8 reps per set on Zwift.

ridethecliche

Did my second ramp test today and came in at 230 for 70% of my last minute power. Going to be traveling a lot, mostly to snowboard, over the next few month and a half so hoping for some baby gains during this time.

I'd love to be at like 250 and a lower weight my mid April or so.


​​​​

TMonk

how old are you kid(s)? are you still going to race local events for fun?

I have a 5 month old at home, so my typical week is about 6-7 hours. I do seem to be able to get in a long ride a couple of times per month. My wife and I want another one, so I imagine I that I have a few year or more before I am training systematically. Master's 45+ here I come!

TMonk

Looks like things are looking up for my legs! MIL visiting all week, which is awesome for me and Liz since we got more time to ourselves. So I'll most likely be able to get a couple of long rides in . Nice.

procrit

Saturday 2 1/2 hours of MTB with lots of shorter punchy efforts, picked up some PR's and a top 10 along the way.
Sunday 3 hours on the road with 2x45' @ tempo, plus another 90 mins of MTB with the kids

Taking today off to recover, and an easy spin tomorrow. Then repeating last week with some 15' threshold intervals on Wed, with an endurance ride Thursday. Friday is a travel day to the race!

I also seemingly avoided a stomach virus that took my wife down all weekend. Yikes.

procrit

I ended up traveling the last two days and I decided to go with 8' intervals vs 15' due to having a little fatigue from all the driving and flying and didn't create any issues with recovery. Legs did actually feel really good, making power felt somewhat effortless, and overall I think my legs are as ready as they can be. Now one last ride to not screw up tomorrow!

Spesh

We have a 2 1/2 year old. My plan was to do some small local stuff this summer. Turns out we're having twins. I'm moving to Knoxville. No idea what I'll do, but I'll keep getting faster.

procrit

This past weekend was really tough... Day 1 I started near the back and was going to feel out the first 5-10 miles but a break formed within 500m from the start and surprisingly stayed away. I had a couple teammates in the break, and I certainly didn't have the legs to bridge, so I spent the race covering attacks by other teams. Finished in the 15-20 man chase group, which I was happy with. Just under 300w NP, which was harder than I expected, and well above what I thought I could do. Day 2 was even harder. The first 8' of the race I did just over 400w NP, which put me on my limit right out of the gate. We dropped about 1/2 of the field in that time frame. About 30 mins in I tried to solo bridge to a small break that formed while I was trying to recover from the first sets of climbs, and I got stuck in no mans land with legs that were deep into the red. This proved to be a disaster as the next set of climbs came up too quick to get myself composed. That said I grinded as hard as I could and I nearly made it until a late attack came near the top and I couldn't hang on. I actually set a new FTP and 5' power, significantly higher than anything I had done in training, but it didn't matter. As hard as I've trained the last 6 months, it was simply not enough to match guys that have been racing and training consistently for years...

Next race coming up in 5 days, three days of racing... just going to focus on recovering today and getting in some efforts Tues/Wed and resting again Thursday. Let's go!

Hermes

procrit Solid performance. That is why we race.