Tour of Cambridgeshire

[Crosshair]

I bailed on the solo century in favour of a group ride medley today. 6miles easy into town with Rich, then 63miles at a fairly fruity 20.3mph with the group. I purposefully did quite a lot of work And there was a few really good fun moments. Then 6 miles back home with Rich but I carried on for another 25 miles.
This rounded the ride up to 5h27, 100.2 miles, 18.4mph and about 3800kj's. Not a bad day out.

Nobody seems to be group riding tomorrow so I reckon a lay-in and an easy spin later in the day is in order.

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Easy spin on Sunday was ruined by some Ebike hooligans down the road Goading me in to racing

Carried on after a cuppa at Weeksy Towers to do 3hrs on the mtb.

Now it’s recovery week Had Monday and Wednesday off and then did about 90 mins easy on Tuesday and Thursday.

Probably won’t ride today but then tomorrow I’m going to do the Banjo coffee ride. 53miles at chill pace with a stop.

I haven’t FTP tested for 2 months so I may or may not bother doing an all out 20min effort at some point tomorrow. Haven’t done a full gas 20 min effort for about 5 years so the thought isn’t that appealing I have no idea where to pace
Boxing Day ftp would have meant targeting 320w but upscaling my Z2 means I should be aiming for more like 360!!! That’s scary

Then Sunday I’ll try and badger everyone into riding easy on the 8am

[Crosshair]

Well, the badgering didn't work. Some 'hitters' were out, including a guy who I've not met before, an insanely quick triathlete.
The result was actually quite funny but it didn't feel like it at the time.
I was pacing the hills. Not slowly slowly but keeping it under 300w (which to be fair is quite a low climbing speed for everyone who's not obese ). But then I was maintaining high 200's on the flat. At which point they's eased off and I would immediately end up on the front.
Now, I had no problem with this but they took it as a bit of an insult I think. One guy said to Rich "Ugh, you can't expect to do a zone ride on a group ride". And fair enough- that's true. But neither is it fair to agree to ride with someone and then drop them on all the hills.
I was probably over-dressed too and riding the heavy gravel bike with about 4 spare inner tubes and stuff so I was compounding the issue.

Finally the elastic broke up a steep kicker and it took me about 3 miles to 'chase' back on at the next crossroads. Then they dropped me again near Swindon but I just put my head down and rode Sweetspot pace until I caught them once more at the next village.
Once more, I just rode past and trusted they would catch back on and when they did- the pace had gone full chaingang! Like, 28.5mph for 9 miles brand of crazy.
But of course, this suits me so I just did my turns and played nicely until the new Triathlete came on the front and threw down some insane power for about 40 seconds. Well, there's only one answer to that- I did an even bigger pull and split half the group off the back
I bet they wished they'd played nicely earlier.
Anyway, we regrouped and the pace stayed high but interestingly, the guy most vocal about my wanting to pace- was totally off the back by then end. I had to wait for him to get back on.
All good fun and games

[weeksy]

Well, the badgering didn't work. Some 'hitters' were out, including a guy who I've not met before, an insanely quick triathlete.
The result was actually quite funny but it didn't feel like it at the time.
I was pacing the hills. Not slowly slowly but keeping it under 300w (which to be fair is quite a low climbing speed for everyone who's not obese ). But then I was maintaining high 200's on the flat. At which point they's eased off and I would immediately end up on the front.
Now, I had no problem with this but they took it as a bit of an insult I think. One guy said to Rich "Ugh, you can't expect to do a zone ride on a group ride". And fair enough- that's true. But neither is it fair to agree to ride with someone and then drop them on all the hills.
I was probably over-dressed too and riding the heavy gravel bike with about 4 spare inner tubes and stuff so I was compounding the issue.

Finally the elastic broke up a steep kicker and it took me about 3 miles to 'chase' back on at the next crossroads. Then they dropped me again near Swindon but I just put my head down and rode Sweetspot pace until I caught them once more at the next village.
Once more, I just rode past and trusted they would catch back on and when they did- the pace had gone full chaingang! Like, 28.5mph for 9 miles brand of crazy.
But of course, this suits me so I just did my turns and played nicely until the new Triathlete came on the front and threw down some insane power for about 40 seconds. Well, there's only one answer to that- I did an even bigger pull and split half the group off the back
I bet they wished they'd played nicely earlier.
Anyway, we regrouped and the pace stayed high but interestingly, the guy most vocal about my wanting to pace- was totally off the back by then end. I had to wait for him to get back on.
All good fun and games

in some world i'd like to be able to ride like that... but it sounds like very very hard work.

It also sounds a bit shit dealing with other people in roadie world.. A lot of your threads i end up thinking how many arseholes you seem to ride with

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So not being remotely childish or passive-aggressive, I decided to do my tempo ride on Tuesday on the same course. And I think it proved the point nicely.
I did 267w for 2h44 mins at 20.4mph average or 20.8mph for the actual work part (150mins).

But I was about 7 minutes faster around the loop we did on Sunday! All without touching my higher zones.

The group ride :


The tempo solo session:

[weeksy]

Hmmmm but what does that mean longer term if you're going to do events ? The training load was similar as was the intensity, how was the HR ? And what does this mean for your end goals ?

[Crosshair]

in some world i'd like to be able to ride like that... but it sounds like very very hard work.

It also sounds a bit shit dealing with other people in roadie world.. A lot of your threads i end up thinking how many arseholes you seem to ride with

Lol! It's not as bad as it sounds- it's just because it's too informal. There's barely even a plan on WhatsApp most week- it's like a Zwift Pace partner ride. You just join it and hope for the best

I had no planned workout that day so I was happy to be a bit flexible but getting bonkers in February just seems like a recipe for burnout!

[Crosshair]

Hmmmm but what does that mean longer term if you're going to do events ? The training load was similar as was the intensity, how was the HR ? And what does this mean for your end goals ?

The correct intensity at the correct time Daniel-son

The idea of steady state work is to give your body a really clear message about the adaptations you want. If your body looked at graph one after a ride, which adaptations would it need to make to ensure you survive the next 'encounter with a lion' or whatever it thinks happened?

Whereas my workout was ultra clear- we need a huge aerobic diesel to outrun this particular predator

Later on, you add the intensity on but that only takes 12-16 weeks

[Crosshair]

What's also interesting is the post-ride fatigue. All that high intensity on Sunday drained me right out. Whereas I could have done 3hrs at z2 when I got back on Tuesday. For consistency, that's what you want. Just enough work to cause stress but not so much you can't train again 2 days later.
(Although technically I suppose Tuesday was two days after Sunday but you get the idea)

[weeksy]

What's also interesting is the post-ride fatigue. All that high intensity on Sunday drained me right out. Whereas I could have done 3hrs at z2 when I got back on Tuesday. For consistency, that's what you want. Just enough work to cause stress but not so much you can't train again 2 days later.
(Although technically I suppose Tuesday was two days after Sunday but you get the idea)

IT all sounds good/great, but the problem comes if you get to the stage where you need to unleash 'more' and whether your body gives you that.. But i guess if you're training for the longer rides then you don't actually need the higher intensity stuff mostly.

[Crosshair]

So, what’s happening now is less Zone 2 and a bit more intensity each week.
For the past two months, Thursday has been Z2. This week it was form sprints (sprints but holding a bit back on power by doing them on slight downhills). And soon it will become vo2 max or threshold intervals.

I’ve done those Sunday rides since about 2017 and they have always wiped me out but now I feel like I could do several a week!
It’s crazy how well this winter of disciplined endurance riding is making me feel.

[Crosshair]

In Tour of Cambridgeshire news itself though- they’ve emailed and said the event is now 66miles instead of 100!
“Cus equality!”
I’m sorry, but equality is letting the burds ride 100 miles too, not shortening the men’s race/Fondo!!

Which changes things a bit as it’s going to be a 2h40 effort instead of a 4h one!!!

It’s quite aligned with my training plan though as hopefully I’ll be kicking on towards “300w for 2h” by then

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Had a really nice group ride today. Started with the expectation of joining the 15’s for a long one. But the fast lads were riding the same route initially. So I decided to loiter at the back of their ride for a tow and then double back for the long route gang when the two courses diverged.

But as it was, another chap had the same idea. So we carried on along the long route together. 3 others had since decided to do the same and caught us up.

So then we were 5-up for the rest of the entire route. After feeling awful all week with a bad toe and nausea from the pain, I was pleasantly surprised with my legs. The route helped as it was only 3000’ climbing in 73 miles.

We ended up at 18.7mph including the dawdle to town and power was 227w/265np for 4 hours.

This is where genuinely lifting your actual Z2 (as opposed to raising your ftp and imagining your lower zones have scaled concurrently) pays off because as long as the hard efforts even out to Z2, you can still cope with the workload.

Now to eat and recover for the 8am smashfest tomorrow

[Crosshair]

Crap week this week. Motivation was lacking with the weather. For Tuesday Tempo, I swapped to just entering 3 zwift races on the trot 2.5 races later, I’d hit 276w for 120mins (was aiming for 280) but because it wasn’t steady-state (291np), it dug me quite a big hole for the rest of the week.
Wednesday was endurance but got fed up after an hour.
Thursday was meant to be form sprints but I was in danger of bailing altogether so jumped into yet another Zwift race
Friday was off.


Then today I went Crit racing at Abingdon.
Long story short, I barely missed the break at around 30mins so just finished in the pack. Tried hard at 3 to go but couldn’t get away.

I was feeling bad for not being able to follow the break until I checked strava. The winner did 400w for 27minutes

[weeksy]

Awesome job. If you'd mentioned it we may have come to watch

[Crosshair]

It was fairly dull to be fair I had a work meeting beforehand so didn’t know if I’d make it or not

[Crosshair]

Finished Base 3
Did the 8am group ride today and then carried on for my fastest ever century. 19.2mph 5h11.

It included noodling to town with Rich so I reckon I could have matched that solo today too. The wind was also very helpful!

[Crosshair]

Interesting group ride today. First there was a crash. And (no joke) it was the Triathlete! Luckily he was fine with just some road rash and a bruised thumb and his old S-Works was good to carry on too! He made it round the rest of the 65 miles as strong as ever! Fair play but it shook me up a bit as it was only luck (and spidey sense maybe?) that I had left a huge gap behind him into the wet, muddy, off-camber bend.

From my perspective it was tough. Adding intensity to my week on both Tuesday and Thursday meant this was pushing the limit of what I know I can cope with. And of course, the dent on my mojo meant I didn't manage to maintain the volume I've been doing.

What I'm trying to accomplish now though is to learn to ride at other people's pace again. It's all very well going out and doing long, solo tempo rides that I'm proud of, or highly structured interval sets where I can see the intensity coming, and know exactly where it's going to end.

What today was about was throwing myself into the blender! The weather, the route, the road surface and of course the relative strengths of my ride buddies all meant that I couldn't always ease off when *I* wanted to (or I'd get dropped). I still did get dropped. A lot. There's no way around it at my weight but by the end of the next descent I could usually get back on again, or some helpful traffic lights would come to my aid.

I did have a goal power in mind. I looked at my power from a recent group ride I was pleased with- and my 3hr power was 236w and 264np so all I wanted to do was beat one of those. Preferably the latter. As it was, today came in at 231w and 273np but for 15 minutes longer so not a bad guess, especially as it was on a different power meter too.

There were a few times when my AP for the ride was dropping into the 220's so I'd hit the front and crank things up. Then the others would pop out of my draft, blitz the next climb and I'd be left dangling off the back. Then when they were coasting, I'd have to carry on down the other side in the 300's to close the gap again and pretty soon my little turn on the front had escalated into ten minutes at threshold

The finale was the A4. And the tailwind meant I got a nice PB. 8 miles at 28mph is pretty fun. It finishes with the ski slope (a 20s climb) and I managed to hold second wheel up there and then get a gap on the flat at the top with another guy. The traffic into town was way too busy for many games but I got such a good gap over the last flyover, that with clear roads I could have 'won' for sure. Which is a nonsense of course as had it been a road race, I'd have been dropped numerous times and been unable to be present to even contest the finale but did give a little glimmer of hope about my legs.

It's stupid to read too much into any one session- training is about consistency and a good body of work. Today was exactly that. Another solid entry in the diary with nothing remarkable to celebrate but a step in the right direction towards Tour of Cambridgeshire nonetheless.

[Crosshair]

Nice vo2 session today. 4x4min at 400w. Did them on hills around Pangbourne. Annoyingly they didn’t quite match up with any segments so no pb’s

I was so chuffed I’ve bought a new bike

[weeksy]

Woah there. Spill