For this morning’s ride I tackled a short and sweaty Sweet Spot Training session. It’s still not really yet sunk in that my morning routine has changed from 6:10 wake ups, to ~8am wake ups. But my sleep pattern is still pretty messed up.
After waking up at 5:25 (very typical), then snoozing till ~7.30, I decided what the heck, I could force my lazy backside out of bed, get on the bike, and do a workout before starting work for the day.
Typically when I do an SST session I tend to ride the Watopia Flat route, but led in bed, the thought of that was not making me want to get out and ride. Not that it matters, but instead today I opted for laps of the Volcano Circuit.
It’s been ages since I’ve done a weekday morning ride, and in many ways it was nice to resume. Zwift is fairly quiet at this time of day, though the ~4km Volcano Circuit loop was (and is) still fairly busy. It feels nice to get the day’s exercise done and dusted early doors, and today my options for riding later in the day were limited due to work / family commitments.
I’m wondering at this stage if an “early” FTP test is worth doing. I saw a person doing one this morning. Maybe an early morning FTP test is the way to do it. Eat that frog, and all that. Maybe not. Very sadistic to get out of bed on a gale-force laden Tuesday and put myself through that.
But the real reason I’m wondering if it’s worthwhile doing another FTP test is that simply after giving my bike a bit of maintenance, I’m noticing an uptick in apparent fitness. I think it could be worthwhile getting some revised numbers. Now, I’m not expecting miracles here, but maybe an extra 5-10w could be possible.
This ties in to my wider goal for the year of pushing towards 230w as an FTP. Simply put, the only way I’m going to reach that target is to gradually, but continually push myself out of my comfort zone. I did say that I wouldn’t do another test until I can “comfortably” ride at 206w for a solid hour, and I’m not quite there yet. What to do, what to do?
One super nice thing today was the consistency of each lap. At ~7 minutes a lap, this put me at ~1.5 (give or take) blocks per lap. And that 7 minute marker is not that far off my best ever time around the Volcano Circuit. I’m wondering now if I could beat 6:45 on a true hot lap. I saw a rider put in a 5 minute and change lap this morning… I’m a long way off that!
All in all, a great way to start the day. Getting 500 calories burned before breakfast feels like I’m doing things right. If I can continue to find the motivation, switching back to morning rides could become a thing again. That would be nice.
On an unrelated note, but something I mentioned in my weekly review this week, I’ve been unsuccessful so far in tracking down a Crit City race on any week night. The closest event I’ve found is Critty Critty Bang Bang on a Tuesday night (err…) at 18:20. That’s a bad time for me – tea time and kid time. I’m hoping something comes up on the weekend, as all the other times are in the middle of the night … and I’m simply not that keen!
