Alas, some technical issues today. Worked those out post ride, but it meant I wasn’t able to establish a reliable connection on the Zwift app to get consistent screenshots. The reasoning for this is that I had network issues on Friday and having reset one of the WiFi extenders, it had split the network – and I was flip flopping between two. Zwift Companion App requires that you are on the same WiFi network, or it kinda fails… so yeah, reasoning understood, but not till post ride.
The big question today was: how would I get on in a workout at 255w FTP ?
I have my doubts about that figure. But I was still interested to know what a workout feels like at a higher pace. Perhaps a better test would have been an SST session, for which I could do an actual like for like. However, I wanted to ensure I saw out the Norseman series before the end of the year.
Actually the thought of a hard workout was quite off putting, truth be told. So much so that I spent a good hour or so prepping for an outdoor ride. This included swapping the tyre on my rear wheel back to one of my old / original tyres, giving me chance to put my tyre bead jack to good use. It’s been sat in the box since I bought it back in February, and I have to say it worked amazingly well. Definitely going to be taking that with me on all future outdoor rides.
After all the prep – including dressing for an outdoor ride and getting the back wheel on – the weather outside was enough to put me off. Raining and windy enough to be bending the trees, I thought better of it.
After all that I found myself on the turbo, warm if not willing.
The reason I picked the Norseman ride over the SST session today was all down to the warm up. With an 8 minute ramp I could surely find enough within me, within that time, to get myself motivated for whatever was to come.
And so off I went. Picking the Out and Back Again route, largely because it’s been a long while since I’ve done the Volcano climb. Not that it’s a true representation when doing an ERG workout, but I also fancied a change of scenary.
I’d be lying if I said I have found the Norseman series to be overly taxing. The workouts have been decent for sure, but I haven’t come off any of them feeling like I’d absolutely smashed myself. After the first 8 minute effort today, I was thinking that might change today.
Fortunately there’s a 2 minute breather between each block and, crucially, the length of each interval reduces as the ride goes on. I think if this was reversed, with the work getting longer each interval, I’d have found this one even tougher. Mentally though, just knowing each block would be harder but shorter was somehow helpful.
As ever with these things, I tried to use each 2 minute recovery block to get my heart rate back below 140bpm. By and large I think I did OK with this today. Even so, you can see from the chart that each interval was more and more intense.
The hardest intervals were the two just before the final effort.
Somehow dropping from 355w to 230w had felt significantly easier than you might expect. Dropping from 110rpm to 95rpm played a large part in that, I’m sure.
But dropping from 355w to 255w, then to 270w… that was much tougher.
I have a few states I find myself in. There’s “the horse”, where I’m breathing hard and making loud splashing types sounds – like a horse with a wet mouth. That’s when I know I’m working.
And then there’s “Popeye”, which is where I’m really struggling and making those ‘ag-ag-ag’ noises that any fan of the vintage cartoons will know and love. Sadly I lack the spinach eating powers of the old sailor.
The final intervals was, of course, taxing. More so at this increased wattage for sure. If I’d have been at my old FTP I’d have been hitting 250w here, rather than the demanded 280w. So yeah, big difference.
It’s no bad thing. I need to keep pushing myself and I’ve been aware for a while that my workouts have started to feel a little routine. If I want to progress than I need to up my game.
I stand by my statement that 255w is above where I’m at. I reckon if I did the 4DP test I’d be struggling to break 240w over the four efforts. I’d be super chuffed with 245w FTP.
But, working at this intensity should… I think… force me to improve. So yeah. Still want to see if I die on the SST effort, but for now I’m keeping it here just to see how I get on.
Overall though, really enjoyed the Norseman series. There are some bugs in there on the dialog, but the workouts are good. I’d definitely look to repeat them again. But there’s so many others to try that, for now, I’m going to move.
Hopefully I can get outdoors tomorrow. I’d really love to get in an outdoor ride before NYE, just for variety. But I don’t fancy going out for a soaking just because.
