4.0 by 40

[Crosshair]

Back on the 3x10’s tonight. Using my confidence from the 1x1’s, I set them at 325w and just about got all 3! ERG mode ruined the first one by refusing to give me 325 at my preferred 80rpm! It kept going up to 330/340 so after five minutes I had to ease off for ten seconds and switch it to slope mode.
Still, they were 317, 328 and 326 respectively.

Then the KISS race was just about to start so I jumped into that for 30mins. It was some long ass hilly route that started up reverse Titans Grove then headed off to the jungle.

I held the group until about 500m to go up Titans and then popped. Recovering over the top, it took me miles to catch the next guy! Why he didn’t ease up I don’t know. Anyway, that was quite fun and took some hard Vo2 efforts to eventually get over to him.

Up the reverse epic KOM towards the jungle, I sat on him to begin with but you could tell he was zzzz. He’d stopped rabbiting on about monster munch for a start
As we approached the steepest part before the bridge, I upped the power once more and tried to keep the highest possible power that would get me to the crest before the jungle descent without blowing up. And this got me over 30s on him

That ended up being 301w np for 30 mins including the coasting descents so a really solid 90mins of work!!

[Crosshair]

Still no idea on the efficacy of doing those 1 minute Threshold intervals last week. But the fact I then went on to have a cracking Chaingang and a good 3x10 session means they probably didn’t do any harm.

So I decided to knock the power back from the 323 they ended up being last weekend to 300 but shoot for more and with less recoveries.

In the end I did 100! 80 x 1 minute with 30s easy in between and the last 20 separated with a minute easy.

Pleased with that, although another 20 would have given me a version of the “2 hours at 300w!” I’m still hoping to hit one day

Tomorrow I just need a couple of hours easy to round off the week. Hopefully finishing up with more than 560 TSS again to push for that 80 per day average!

[Crosshair]

Went out yesterday and was recovering for the first hour. The legs started to come round but I didn’t want to risk not being fresh for Tuesday’s (chaingang/Thruxton/Zwift) session. So I did something else that there isn’t really much popular support for and did another two hours at recovery pace. 105bpm average

In theory, for us average Joe’s- a recovery ride should be capped at an hour. After that, there isn’t much of a training effect (unless you ride like 48h solid at that pace ) so you are in effect adding fatigue for no reward.

But to me- that was kind of the point and actually more in line with ‘make your easy days easy- hard days hard!’.

So I did another 2 hours podcast listening and bumped all my numbers up for the week to 12hours, 575 TSS and 195.5 miles (doh!).

I have talked about it before but I think I must use a lot of carbs even in mid to low Z2. And as a result, I hate these easy rides more than going a bit harder (which I couldn’t do anyway as legs were toast).
So hopefully it stimulated a bit of fat burning too.

I’ve planned out another ‘build’ week this week based around going hard Tuesday/ Thursday and Saturday and filled in with Z1 or 2.

Hopefully get to 13h and 600TSS. Because I’ll then need a recovery week, I don’t think I can get my rolling 42 day average up to 80 by Gravel Champs but I’ll definitely track it anyway and judge my performance against the number to see if it was even that useful.

[weeksy]

Nice work boy

[Crosshair]

Went the long way to the chaingang this evening. Rode the gravel bike too. That meant I got dropped on the ski slope on the A4 but still clung on to 23.5mph for the chaingang itself.
67 miles and 3000kcal a fair session for a school night

[Crosshair]

Ugggh. After feeling really pleased with Tuesday- I paid for it today. I should have gone out for my intervals as planned but there was a couple of nasty showers showing on the satellite (should have known better than trust the met office ) so I did them indoors on Zwift and got insanely hot.
The first one was 15 mins at 319w and then I died after 5 mins in the second. I never even started the third. I did try a race that was starting at that moment just in case but legs said Nope!

Ah well- it’s the third week of 3 hard build weeks so if I can get at least one more good ride in before Monday and top up with easy endurance, I’ll be happy going into recovery week.

[Crosshair]

I kept trying to force my legs into action

Saturday I went out and just tried to hold 300 for as long as possible. Ideally I’d have made it to 2h but that was pure fantasy. I decided to rest for a minute at 15 minutes and aim for 6-8 x 15. Bearing in mind I had failed Thursdays work- this was pretty hard on myself I suppose. Anyhow, the second 15mins were again 307w.
The third interval was 300+ for about 5 minutes and that was my lot- the average ended up about 270. From there, they kept gradually fading down but I still did 6x15 at tempo power.

With just one day left until recovery week, I attempted a zwift race today just to make sure for a third day that my legs are done for And sure enough- I could only manage 30mins at 250w average (in a 1h race).

I’ll see how the week goes but I will take the recovery seriously (if I’d felt good, I was going to keep the TSS going). So roughly half volume and little intensity.

That then only gives me one week to train hard and one week to taper!

[Crosshair]

Recovery week done! But poorly

I did 3 z2 rides on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to keep the legs ticking over. Then yesterday I fancied pushing myself so tried to hold tempo for 2h30. I made it, and got the gravel bike to Wallingford and back at 19.4mph. But the legs definitely weren’t ‘wow’.
Looking at the training numbers on Intervals.icu, my fitness score actually stayed the same for the week! (It should have dropped) but my fatigue score actually increased

So now we are two weeks out, I need to go a bit careful. I think this week will need to be either really hard and short or really easy and short. Just stay sharp but not try to ‘add’ any more fatigue. Then next week I can hopefully freshen up.

[weeksy]

How's the weight looking ? Have you devised a 'plan' for the event ? Going to try and hold the bunch early doors ?

[Crosshair]

Still exactly the same. 15-15st04 depending on hydration.

That’s about all I can do- hold the lead bunch until I can’t.

The numbers are staggering from last year. The 34-39 winner did 356w on his mtb. But the first lap was 381w!!!!! For like 40 minutes.

Considering he averaged 20.6mph on gravel and I couldn’t break 20 on the road (at tempo admittedly) yesterday shows that hiding in whatever bunch forms is my only hope.

I’d love it to be the day I finally crack 300w for 120 mins but I can’t say that felt any closer to achievable yesterday

Interestingly, it feels like it was strength letting me down rather than aerobic fitness. I just literally don’t have the legs I had before I broke them I guess. (Not that I ever did 300w for 120min then either ).

After this, I’m going to stop ‘training’ and start ‘exercising’ for three months to try and lose weight for next season.
So perhaps I’ll try some weight training as it is part of most peoples cycling routine these days. (It was always a chapter in Joe Friels book but I chose to ignore it ).

[Timmy]

300w for 2 hours would need an FTP of around 350 I'm guessing. What's your diet like? With all your riding, you should be like a racing snake unless you're 6ft 6 or something

[Crosshair]

Yeah that sounds about right. My 2h pb for the year is 285, back when my CTL was in the 80’s and eFTP was in the 340’s. So I think my chances of getting there are slim now. I may be able to hit 300np in a race though.
I’m fairly confident saying my ftp is 325 at the minute.

Diet isn’t the worst, plenty of veg and fruit but plenty of everything else too I felt light the other day, got in the scales and had gone up 4lb!!

It’s bonkers- if I don’t count every calorie, the harder I train, the heavier I get! Im averaging 10h a week for 2022 but haven’t lost even a lb for months. But if I restrict at even -500kcal then my training suffers.

That’s why I’m going to spend the rest of the year trying to lose weight at any cost. I’ll still ride, probably lots of steady Z1/2 and still do a zwift race or two. Maybe some over-geared “strength” work. But I’ll try and add more walking and maybe even weights.
And the overarching goal each day and each week will be maintaining that sort of deficit. If I could drop a stone in 12 weeks then I’d be happy taking that into 2023.

[Crosshair]

Even after a decade of titting about trying to get ready for various events, it’s still not easy balancing life stress and cycling to try and prepare for something!

I’m feeling very unconfident this week as I try and eek out one last peak from the year!

The goal was a couple of hard vo2 sessions to just put the icing on the cake and the Zwift race I did on Tuesday was exactly that. 16 lovely crisp intervals as I went up the hill each lap.

I thought I could even do a 3 day block, so I was going to do a short race yesterday too.

Interestingly though, I think the hard tempo session on Sunday was still in my legs! That ride was basically an ERG session outdoors- non stop peddling! Added to the unusual high intensity stress on Tuesday, I was wiped out yesterday so didn’t even ride at all.

Today, the legs weren’t back but some motivation was so I did 70 mins of racing in 2 races. There were a few good vo2 efforts but HR was suppressed and I had zero kick.

I don’t think I’ll risk tempo this weekend now, maybe do one day easy and one day z2.

[Crosshair]

I did my usual “Tempo Loop” yesterday which is my go-to when I’m lacking motivation. I even hopped on the road bike as I couldn’t be bothered to change my power meter over

I didn’t even warm up, just sat on 300 out the gate zwift race style. It’s quite a good course as after 2 miles up the hill by home, my average speed is 13mph so I can then chase it back up all along the top road.

I can’t say I felt amazing. The road bike, turbo bike and gravel bike all have different geo so it takes a few miles to really get the hang of firing your muscles in the right order.
Anyway, I managed a PB at 21.1mph which I guess is something Just need to do that…. on gravel….. for 3x as long next weekend

Just put the gravel tyres back on the gravel bike so off to bed them in at Z2 in a bit.

[weeksy]

I think you've done all you can, other than dropped weight. The last week I'd work on whatever works best for resting and getting strong legs.

[Crosshair]

Nice spin out with Weeksy and Rich today. Weeksy created a cracking loop of gravel for us.

Thought I broke a rear mech cable at one point but luckily it had just slipped.

A few little blips of power but generally nice easy talking pace for 2h30.

Was back on the Pathfinder Pro 42’s and probably could have aired down a little as 35psi was still rough

Even the thought of trying to average 20mph on gravel next week just makes me realise how far away I am in every respect from the top boys. But it’s nice to dream

[weeksy]

Gravel loops I can provide all day. I reckon I could put 7-8 hour ride it with barely touching roads

[Crosshair]

Feeling a bit meh today so decide to go racing

Probably not the right idea 48h before an A race but I needed to do something productive.

So I headed to Swindon for some floodlit cyclocross!

There is literally nothing positive, upbeat or encouraging to say- CX is a unique discipline in that it has a kind of minimum power/w_kg element to it but is also 99.9% skill.

I also found out the difference between a CX bike and a gravel bike- geo and ground clearance. It was so hard to get it to turn in and the instant I applied power whilst still leant over, I’d get a pedal strike!

Once I relaxed and stopped worrying about racing and just looked at it as a bonding session with my bike, I had a blast! Like XC, with a laps based course, it’s fun just trying to carry more momentum here and there and trying to tidy up your lines and go faster for free.
Power numbers are always bonkers low from CX because of all the coasting. Especially with the pedal strike issue.
HR is usually flat out max but even that was low today as I was trying hard to be smooth.


The course had one technical drop and steep climb but I cleared them each lap which was nice.

Hopefully I haven’t inflicted any damage to myself- the worst injury was the blisters from trying to fit the CX tyres to my spare rims

[weeksy]

You complete nutter!

[Crosshair]

British Gravel Champs.

Well, the season couldn't have ended on a damper squib than that! I lined up feeling rearing to go and full of carbs. Legs felt good.
It was a proper Zwift start but annoyingly auto-pause/start cut off the best bit! Sadly, I got out gunned across the grass field anyway- and was already 2/3 of the way back as we bundled into the woods. Then we climbed the only small rise on the course and 500,600,700 watts was only enough to hold the wheel. With HR hitting 190, I couldn't go any harder and after just ten minutes, the lead group were turning a corner some 15 seconds ahead.
The rest of the lap was a rolling repeat of: going hard to hold a wheel, then losing them again- usually in some technical sandy bit.
I hit a deep hole at one point trying to draft which knocked about 5psi out of my tyre! But not enough to cause an issue.

Hitting the start/finish field, I held 400w all round the barrier sections in my best aero pose but things weren't going well.
A black guy I had been drafting lost it here- nearly wiping out on a tree.

Gradually, the lead groups from the older age categories started filtering past. And each time, I would try momentarily to hold their wheel but failed mostly.

Out of interest, the fastest 8 riders by average lap in our masters race were all 45-49 riders! Then the next 8 were 40-44. Only then do any 35-39 riders appear! Some of this will be the start order giving them more draft but still- it gives me ten years to train

I was following a few riders at the end of this lap and then lost them in some sand. Accelerating flat out to try and get back on, one of them wiped out about 200y ahead of me at speed! At this point, I bugged out of the race mentally- literally lost all interest.

My second goal was to try and finally average 300w NP for two hours and I felt sure I must be close. A quick flick through the Garmin revealed a shock- my power, average power and NP were all in the high 190's / low 200's! At 170 odd bpm heart rate!!
This was clearly wrong.
The straight average was 199 which, on the road solo- gets me 17.5mph. Yet here, on gravel/grass/sand, with only a little (poor) drafting and a 15mph headwind for sections- I was doing 18mph!! A look at Strava later confirms it- people with similar lap speed with Power Meters were around the 260 mark. (I was anticipating 270 and 300np)

So that was it. Any interest I had in carrying on, drained away. So as I crossed the line for the 3rd time, I pulled over and went home!

I have no idea what was wrong- there's no obvious sign of dropouts and checking the GoPro footage- it was right at least some of the time. But for others, it was showing 30w whilst my cadence barely changed. Most odd.

It was still good fun for a bit. Almost exactly what I expected. I lost the most time in the technical sections because, without having pre-ridden it, there was no way to daft without taking massive risks! Some of the ruts were safe at the edges but bordered a 3ft deep trench. If the guy in front makes a mistake, you could easily fly into one. So I would back off and then leave myself an impossible gap to close.


SO... is it worth coming back?
Maybe... Even for this, I need to be a lot lot lighter. The accelerations hit harder, the technical sections are more fatiguing and the rolling resistance on the soft terrain is greater so I don't think its worth it at >90kg if not >85.

As we whistle on towards my 4.0 by 40 goal deadline (End of Jan), it's time to refocus on the weight aspect anyhow- as I have been plateaued since May.
I had big ideas about what this would look like (less riding, no structured riding, lots more walking and trying some weight lifting), but I have to be honest- I''m not sure I'll get anywhere near the calorie deficit without riding, and I find everything else boring- so I will likely carry on quite similarly but just run a good calorie deficit.