4.0 by 40

[weeksy]

Awww man, not quite the ending we hoped for. But an adventure all the same.

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Haven’t updated for ages as haven’t felt anything other than “worse” since the BGC

I have though been working on weight loss so still riding but treating it as my ‘training’ off season.
I’ve been doing plenty of Z2 rides. Steady loops, backing off the climbs and pedalling as much as possible on the downhills and almost unfuelled. (Whereas before I’d have still drank 90+ g of
sugar an hour).

Down 6lb so far so am pleased it’s working but I feel awful on the bike It’s like riding through treacle.

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Better week so far this week. Body is definitely adapting to my not pouring in stupid amounts of sugar all ride every ride

2h easy Z2 Monday,
3h high Z2 Tuesday,
2h easy Z2 Wednesday
3h high Z2 Today.

All fulled with squash only.

Now got a couple of days off with work but hopefully top of the week with a couple of hours on Sunday.

It seemed crazy not to make the most of the great weather outside but I’m not sure I can keep up the volume if I have to go in again
All my Zwift mojo is AWOL at the minute.

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Did 3h on Zwift today. Despite having a top on and only drinking around 500ml of water (with salt), I only saw around 2% decoupling at 190w! Partly, that's because I was riding a bit easy (it was high Z1 HR) but it was only really for calories so I wasn't too worried. I wanted to have some motivation left for tomorrow as well.

I finally dropped 2 more stubborn lb's after a little plateau and they have stayed off for a day or two so that's 8lb so far. If I can keep that kind of rate going for November and December- I'll be well pleased.

For January, I'll have a bit of a dilemma now. Either stop dieting, add some FTP building high intensity and go for the "4.0 by 40" goal at the end of the month, or start base training for next year (I'm thinking about targeting Tour of Cambridgeshire in June) which would mean I could carry on with weight loss too for another potentially 2 months. I don't actually know my FTP right now so I'm not sure if I can get there on weight loss alone

[weeksy]

What's decoupling?

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Basically, ignoring a small warm up and cool down, you measure your HR v power for the first half of the ride and compare it to the second half.

So the longer you go at a given power, the harder the effort would get and the more your HR would go up even though the watts aren’t changing.

Anything under 5% is good for that particular duration/power combo.

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I don’t do it manually, intervals.icu website calculates it


It’s actually pretty interesting. Fast twitch muscle fibres need twice the oxygen than slow twitch ones do. So as you go longer, your slow twitch fibres get fatigued, more fast twitch get recruited to help and so o2 demand goes up, thus HR goes up to keep them supplied!


Dirty Reiver was 17.7% decoupling after 10.5hrs averaging 175w.

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In practical terms for training- you can pick a distance and Z2 wattage and measure the decoupling to see if your Z2 training is working.

Start of October, 3h at 225w was 6% decoupling, now 3h at 225w is about 0.6%. So it helps you see the gainz.

I know I need to either add watts or time now to keep stressing my slow twitch fibres. If I stayed at 3h/225w I’d plateau.

[weeksy]

In practical terms for training- you can pick a distance and Z2 wattage and measure the decoupling to see if your Z2 training is working.

Start of October, 3h at 225w was 6% decoupling, now 3h at 225w is about 0.6%. So it helps you see the gainz.

I know I need to either add watts or time now to keep stressing my slow twitch fibres. If I stayed at 3h/225w I’d plateau.

I wish I could plateau at that

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What’s your ftp?

[weeksy]

What’s your ftp?

At the moment, about 56

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Zwift saying about 260. Nice steady rides at 195w would see you ‘reet in a few weeks

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Still making progress at the minute which feels good to say after the 6 month spell of slipping backwards.

Weight is finally under 15stone again for the first time since early June

I’m enjoying the consistency of the Z2 work.
The rides are pretty mentally challenging as when you seek to keep your power as consistent as possible, everything else has to change much more to compensate. It requires almost continuous gear changes and of course, speed changes on the hills. A Z2 ride means I’m just as often riding at 2mph as I am trying my hardest to keep in touch with the pedals at 35mph on the descents.
Fun though and I’m getting better at it.

I did jump into a Zwfit race on Tuesday as felt the urge for some intensity and it was incredible how good the legs felt. Only the extreme top end was lacking. 4-500w surges were a piece of cake and my HR was up and down super fast which is the benefit of being fresh I guess.
Tried to get in every break but in the end it came down to a sprint and I got 4th in B.
Power though was 296w/322 np at just 161bpm which is really encouraging. That’s barely out of Z2 HR!

That’s another advantage of Z2 training. It raises your floor much closer to your FTP ceiling as it was. Which for general riding is probably way more useful too.

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Another couple of nice base rides over the weekend. Saturday was 2h20 at 241w! And then today was 2h20 at 218w and a cruise home.
Riding afternoon Saturday and early Sunday without breakfast meant that today was more of a challenge! But once I had convinced my riding buddies to stay in Z2, it was actually all good. They both have huge engines so we Z2'd a 38 mile training loop at 20mph still!

Depending on weather, I'm hoping to enter Brass Monkeys at the end of the month. I don't mind mud but don't want to freeze to death and risk a cold. I'll enter the 4h cat and treat it as a skills session and endurance ride combined

[weeksy]

Which course is that?

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Porridgepot Hill for rd 1 I believe

[weeksy]

Porridgepot Hill for rd 1 I believe

Hmmm not sure if I ever rode that one.

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No I can’t remember which is which

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Still half thinking I might possibly maybe go to Brass Monkeys on Sunday

Did a bit more intensity today just in case. Started with a ZZRC (“we pace not race” ) group ride at low z2.

Then I jumped into a short sharp 3R race. 8 minutes odd at 325w
Then it was good timing for a 26mile sand and sequoia race so I jumped into that. Average power was just 243w which is insane as that’s well within Z2 scope now Of course it was more stochastic with loads of time up the climb spend above 400w.

What is really noticeable is how good the base miles make you feel during high intensity! You expect to feel ready to back off but you can just keep pushing. Partly though freshness and partly because your mitochondria can handle more lactate I presume.

Either way- I felt good

I need to try and actually setup/ride my mtb too but this week is getting busy.

[weeksy]

That's a lot of riding/racing!