Twenty four hours after my second FTP test I was back on the bike. What was I thinking?
Well, in truth, I was thinking the same thing I’m always thinking:
It’s hard to form a habit, and very easy to break it. So, tired legs or not, Wednesday night is a workout night.
Being completely honest I wasn’t really in the mood for tonight’s ride. It’s not like I hit a new high yesterday and then immediately wanted to get back on it tonight to see how hard I could push myself.
Far from it.
My legs genuinely feel thrashed.
I didn’t feel so bad getting into my kit, but once on the bike, the motion of turning over the pedals felt harder than it ought too.
And of course, now that my FTP has risen, the workouts have gotten harder. Even the easy ones.
At first I thought I was going to maybe tackle the first block at 95rpm, and then slow it down. Maybe take blocks at alternating cadence – some high, some lower.
But for me, 95rpm on these workouts seems to be the sweet spot.
It was harder than usual to maintain that cadence today, but that’s roughly what I went for. The Strava stats at the end of this post show me as 96rpm average for the hour. I’ll take it.
Aside from feeling very tired, there wasn’t a huge lot to write home about on this one.
I managed two “things”:
- Unlock the Tempus Fugit route achievement – not my first rodeo, but the first since the new badge, it seems;
- And also hit the December 100 mile milestone. Not all in one ride, of course!
Also, as I was tired but bored during this ride, I did a little research into how to unlock the snazzy Zwift green Christmas jumper.
Want to know how? Zwift Insider has all the details.
All said, I was glad to get the hour done and dusted.
I’m fairly certain I will ride again tomorrow, and also fairly certain it will be another easy ride. Maybe a Tacx Video ride, we shall see. Definitely a flat route.
Putting down 30km takes me to 60km on the week. Happy enough with that.
485 calories… pity it wasn’t the usual 500+, but all things considered, happy enough with that.
At this point I’m honestly just looking forward to Friday as a rest day. It’s kinda staggering how much it took out of me yesterday. It really makes me wonder how the hell I managed to complete the Cormet de Roselend, given how I approached that ride.
I guess, in some ways, that proves that I am far stronger first thing in the morning.
And with that in mind, I hope to have some changes to my working setup come the new year. Fingers crossed.
One thing I’m really happy with from this ride was the average heart rate of just 120bpm.
All things considered, watching my heart rate has become a really important metric for me. I compare this as highly as average watts and cadence at this point.
I’m really pleased to see that, yes, it was a light ride, but that it my heart rate remained as low as this throughout. Very cool.
Probably another FTP builder ride for me tomorrow. I took a look at the figures for the Sweet Spot Training rides at the new FTP, courtesy of WhatsOnZwift… and crikey melt, that looks like it’s going to be a step up from what I’m used too.
It’s not easy this fitness lark, is it?
