Then in April, I tried again, only this time I did things my own way. Just made myself get out on the bike initially.
It was insane how slow it all felt and it was tough to keep going.
However, slowly but surely the power started coming back. I started doing longer Sunday rides too. Some fasted but with a strict cap of around 60% ftp. Eventually I did a 6h fasted MTB ride! Albeit at 150w.
I even ventured out on some chaingangs and initially had to cut the corner off of the loop to ensure I didn’t get dropped 30 miles away from home
After finally working up to a 17h week as the third week of a block of double figure hour weeks, (although that did include some Z1 flipper pedalling on my kayak) I did another FTP test. This time a 2x8min version.
I’d done one the month prior and also had a few FTP notifications in Zwift races, so had been loosely tracking progress.
Anyhow- I’m now back to 307w which is great news.
July is a busy month for me so this month I have switched to lower hours but more ‘grey zone’ work- focusing on tempo and high z2. I managed 100mins straight at 250w last Saturday and 65mins at 277 up Alpe du Zwift the week before.
It’s really interesting (although expected of course) how the longer aerobic rides are translating into better endurance in all zones.
Weight wise- I hit ridiculous figures earlier this year and have worked hard to lose 1.5 stone but it’s stalled at the minute. I’m not too worried whilst I’m busy- that’s another stress to do without.
Bike wise- for nearly 3 years I’ve wanted to switch to a disc road bike. I hate riding my Carbon race bike on the road. It’s just too flighty on our crappy roads and I can’t stop a lot of the time. Especially in the wet.
Today, I had to bomb past a car dangerously after it cut me up then slammed on the brakes. I had both levers hard against the bars but we weren’t stopping.
Anyhow- then I had the idea of revisiting the gravel bike idea. I used to love my CX bike (that Weeksy eventually temporarily bought and then sold on)- apart from the weight and the lifeless frame.
But basically I decided I wanted 2x, discs, huge tyre clearance and lots of bottle bosses.
Initially it looked like I’d get Di2 in budget but there’s just none available! Or it’s 1x and I don’t want that.
So I’ve settled on a Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon which has the future shock 2 suspended stem and the cubby hole in the down tube. Downside is it’s mechanical shifting.
With an array of tyres, I’m hoping I can do everything on it from all my training rides, local soft MTB trails, my favourite Salisbury Plain gravel rides and even CX racing.
Hopefully they’ll have built it up next week.
This combined with my obsession for the gravel racing scene via a load of Youtubers meant I was looking around for U.K. gravel events to sustain my training.
I noticed Dirty Reiver had moved to September but was of course fully booked.
On the off chance, I emailed the organisers and it just so happened they were sifting through the cancellations and had a place! So we’re in!! With about 8 weeks to get used to the new bike and dial in my set up/training.
It looks pretty epic! 200km of Kielder forest gravel roads but with 12k ft of climbing!!!! And around 1000 starters.
Anyway that’s the gist of it- I’ll try and update the thread as I progress. I’m nervous now but really looking forward to it.
I rode some of the course on my road bike in May so I have a bit of an idea what the terrain is like.
Ideally I could do with 2x wheel sets to take with me and then choose the best tyres on the day. But I need to have a play with the 38mm pathfinder pros it comes with first. They may be okay.
I have one more week of tempo riding, then a recovery week, and then during August- I ought to try and go back to higher volume but with plenty of hills/intensity and a couple of mixed gravel rides a week.
But the riser bars make it tricky. 
as this time it’s given me a “Build” plan for most of August instead 
