4.0 by 40

[Crosshair]

I dragged Rich out for motivation but it was almost the opposite He was just tapping along in his z2 which up the hills is 3.5w/kg. So I either have to do high sweetspot power to try and keep up or stay in z2 and get dropped. So he had to keep waiting for me all the time

Went to Hungerford Hill segment to try for my 400 for 4 minute goal and made it
Just- I think it was 402w. The wind was also straight in my face so that power at my current weight was only enough for 4m44 on the actual segment- especially as I eased off a lot after 4 mins.

Quite pleased with the effort but I guess I need to set my goal a bit higher. Maybe 420w for 4 minutes or 400 for 4min30. I don’t think there’s much point trying it up Streatley Hill until I’m a bit further ahead with the weight loss.

Legs are cooked now- nice easy day tomorrow, maybe the Banjo 15mph group ride on Saturday and the 8am group ride on Sunday.
Also hit over 1200w sprinting back into town.

[Crosshair]

Banjo 15mph group ride today. It’s not great for me really- everyone smashes the hills then waits. So me trying to stay under 300w means they all have to wait and look sympathetically at me as I make the hills seem hard work

We even did the cafe stop too which I hate as I seem to need another 30mins to warm up again. Combined with a few punctures it was not what I’d have chosen for myself but I guess the flip side is getting to ride in company.
Had a few fun rotations on the front on the downhill sections.

Hopefully, I didn’t cook myself too much as provided it’s not too minging, I’d like to do the 8am tomorrow. Be a good test to see where my power lies relative to my 300w Np goal but again- it will be in company so I may not get a say over the pace/intensity.

[Crosshair]

Got to the roundabout this morning and checked my phone to see that everyone else had bailed
I found it easy to just strike out by myself though and crack on with the work. I was pleasantly surprised with my motivation!
I decided to see if I could build on last week’s Sweetspot session and maybe do an hour straight.
So I did 60mins at 280w
Annoyingly, I’d had a tailwind so far but the majority of it was blocked by hedges. And it’s uphill. So average speed was only 19.9mph.
Then I turned into the headwind After Dirty Reiver, maybe my fear of headwinds has been conquered as I just knuckled down and got on with it. After ten minutes of not looking at Power, I hit the lap button again and started the second interval. I was going to aim for 280 but it was more fun just to chase 20mph. That meant being over 300 a lot of the time so the second interval was 45 mins at 300.
Total for the ride was 284w / 296Np for 2hrs- so I’m getting close to my goal!
I just about got 20.1mph too and was very close to 2000kcals in 120mins!

Really happy with that- think I’ll have tomorrow completely off and try and absorb the effort ready for chaingang on Tuesday.

[Crosshair]

That ride on Sunday smashed the life out of me
I knew I wasn’t on top form today so bailed on the chaingang and tried 4x4 minutes at whatever power I could hold. I aimed for 400 seeing as that’s what I did the other day but it proved how tricky it was as I couldn’t get there fatigued. Let alone 4 times.
371, 370, 358 and 348 were the results.

It looks like there may be a Thursday chaingang so I’ll do a low z2 ride tomorrow then see if I’ve finally absorbed Sundays effort by Thursday

[weeksy]

You're still a nutter, you know that don't you?

[Crosshair]

Still slow…. I know that!

[Crosshair]

Still wasted today and a few bits came up at work too so a good chance to scrap calorie counting and training for a day and start again tomorrow. Consistency week to week, month to month is going to be more important than an odd cheat day/missed session.
Looks like a few folks are gonna be up for the Thursday chaingang so I’ll take a long steady warmup ride there and hope the legs turn up.

[Crosshair]

The Newbury Velo chaingang ran this evening. As I didn’t ride yesterday, I knew my legs would be like coffins! So I went for a long warm up ride. Too long- I realised I was running out of time So Shefford-Newbury was spent in Sweetspot power zone trying to actually make the ride.

Luckily I was bang on time. Without the fast lads from last week, I thought it would be easier but it was the opposite! I didn’t feel I could skip pulls this week so my power was quite frankly insane. 340w average but 370w NP for 1h1m
I spent 20 minutes of that above 400w!

The reality of gravel v road bike is kicking in- because we’re up over 23,24,25mph a lot on the flats- the aero penalties of exposed cables, wide tyres, shallow rims, a huge downtube and a much higher position all work together to make it a tough ask.
But… my fitness is holding up.

Depending on how you measure it, my ftp from tonight is at least 340 (the straight power for the hour). Maybe 350 (95% of my best 20min effort of the ride). Or as high as 370! (Coggan says NP for 1h is a proxy for ftp). Either way plenty brutal enough and a good sign.

3h20 and 56miles made for a good session.

[weeksy]

That's big numbers boy

[Crosshair]

It is but it also shows why competitive cycling is about efficiency not power. A bit like how for ages, my most powerful race at Hillingdon was the first one when I got dropped 4 times

Because I don’t really have any competing goals- I’m not too worried and being inefficient has the added bonus of burning more kcals

[Crosshair]

Was a bit low on hours this week and it was meant to be recovery next week so I popped out for a century earlier. Garmin went flat at 63 miles but managed to get the rest without power data on my phone and stitch the two together.
I reckon it was about 200w /220np for 6hrs and 17.1mph.

Got to eat all the food in the house now to get recovered for tomorrow

[weeksy]

Was a bit low on hours this week and it was meant to be recovery next week so I popped out for a century earlier. Garmin went flat at 63 miles but managed to get the rest without power data on my phone and stitch the two together.
I reckon it was about 200w /220np for 6hrs and 17.1mph.

Got to eat all the food in the house now to get recovered for tomorrow

You get more mental

[crust]

Was a bit low on hours this week and it was meant to be recovery next week so I popped out for a century earlier. Garmin went flat at 63 miles but managed to get the rest without power data on my phone and stitch the two together.
I reckon it was about 200w /220np for 6hrs and 17.1mph.

Got to eat all the food in the house now to get recovered for tomorrow

As you do, just pop out and knock 100 miles @ 17.1mph

Mad numbers

[Crosshair]

It was fairly flat to be fair. Only two ‘climbs’.

It’s not really anything I hadn’t been doing already power wise but I just looked slower than I was on either gravel or gravel tyres

[Crosshair]

Looks like the 8am is on for the morning with two or three of us-
but I have zero expectations. I’m still -1000kcals on the day but don’t feel hungry
I might try some cereals in a bit and then get to bed.

I’m already dreaming about turning for home at Marlborough with relief tomorrow

[Crosshair]

Whoop Made it round. It wasn’t pretty though. I was fine up to around threshold but had no kick for the hills. There were four of us out.
We committed to the full loop though and got round at 20.9mph (21.5mph for the others) Power was 248/289 and interestingly, Rich averaged exactly the same (which in theory we should if we do equal amounts of work.
236miles for the week in 13h30 so around 17.5mph.

Looking forward to recovery week now and it hopefully ties in well with work.

[Crosshair]

Off yesterday and correspondingly felt like crap all day
Arguably, active recovery would have been better but stewing in my own tiredness was all I could manage. Ate a lot too.

Headed out on the mtb this evening for an hour as easy as I could. Literally 111w / 7mph. Did a bit of chainsawing this morning too.

Sadly it meant I missed another fun chaingang! The guys did another 24mph/30 mile monster. But I need to remember my goal is to keep building/not losing power until next year so there is no rush

Probably have tomorrow off, ride easy mtb again Thursday, Friday off, Saturday openers back on the gravel bike and then Sunday.….

I’m not sure
I ought to do some kind of power test on fresh legs but can’t decide what. If the weather is okay- I might try to do 300w for 2h15 solid round the 8am loop as per my ‘process goals’.

[Crosshair]

Easy MTB spin again today. 1h15 or so at 140w/110bpm.

No idea whether it’s all in my head or to do with the lack of endorphins but I felt like crap again yesterday and today.
Then on the bike felt great and my mood picked straight up.

Either way- hopefully I’m making more gainz than losses

Might ride easy tomorrow but definitely try and do some efforts on Saturday and then probably the 8am ride on Sunday.

[Crosshair]

After selling my kayak this week (and talking myself out of putting a deposit on a Tenere 700 ), it was inevitable my bike would suck up the cash!
Just ordered a set of Prime 50mm aero road wheels and rotors. I already have the cassette, so I can have a road and gravel set up ready to switch at a moments notice.
Also decided to try a quadlock phone case too so it’s easier to switch between podcasts, music, back up strava and maps on my longer rides.

[Crosshair]

Work dragged on late today so no time for openers sadly. I’ll still do the 8am tomorrow but with no expectation of any kind of power numbers.
I wasn’t going to risk fitting the new wheels so late in the day but the tyre swapped over without me even losing the sealant

I may swap back to the Shimano rotors depending on what these Prime ones are like.
Once the others are set up, I’ll now be able to switch wheels in a few moments.