If you’re a Zwifter, which I assume you are if you are reading this, you have most likely seen the splash / loading screen that says “Easy ride today? Yeah, right”.
Well, that was my plan today.
After Tuesday’s race, and Wednesday’s workout, Thursday is supposed to be a more laid back affair.
And it usually is.
However, when heading out today I decided I’d do my usual lap down to Catforth, then turn around, head back, do a small section of the Guild Wheel, and then head home. It’s a route than I can stretch out to about 30km at a push, and it can be taken at whatever pace you like. Mostly, it’s flat.
Normally I want to get off the busiest part of the route as quickly as possible – which is unfortunate as it’s the earliest part of the ride so would better suit a warm up pace.
Once off the A-roads it’s a little drag up hill before a left turn into the start of what I consider my ‘usual loop’.
Only today, as I was approaching the left turn – a cross roads – a guy went past already on the route I was heading, and foolishly I decided to try and keep pace with him.
He was clearly stronger than I was. No surprises there. Sometimes I wonder who isn’t?
But I tried to keep up with him all the same, albeit without killing myself. What that meant was a pace that was at or around threshold. And so it began.
Even pushing at my racing pace I was slowly but surely being left behind. However as I had put in the effort, I figured why not stretch it out, do the loop in full, and use that as a sort of “half way” benchmark for Quarter 2.
It wasn’t perfect, largely because early on, before I’d committed to the push, I inhaled a fly so spent 30 seconds or so spluttering and drinking water, before cracking back on. Also at the half way point I needed to come to a halt and loop back.
But aside from that it was a full effort today.
As best I can tell, I came out at 247w average for the distance. It was rough as I didn’t properly time the ‘out’ lap, only the part after I’d turned around sadly.
247w I feel is close enough. I got a 249w FTP after my last test and I reckon my power has dropped a bit in recent weeks, so I feel like this result was there or there abouts. It’s actually a little bit better than I anticipated, truth be told.
After I’d done that effort, not only was I absolutely thrashed but I didn’t have a huge amount of riding time left. With a meeting on the next hour I had to cut my intended loop shorter than planned, and then get home in time for a shower and last night’s pizza whilst I ate with my camera off.
I guess the one other thing today is to seriously think once more about getting a GoPro or something. I had yet another incident today. At this point I’m thinking I could make a monthly compilation, YouTube it, and no doubt drive some serious traffic to this blog. Money money. It might even pay for the camera 🙂
