Out and Back Again – FTP Builder Week 5 Day 4

Last night I had done a bit of damage, with two beers and two glasses of wine, I probably wiped out two of the past workouts in four glasses.

But aside from that, I just wasn’t hugely in the mood to get on the bike today. Having looked at the workout on What’s On Zwift ahead of time, I saw I was in for a long session.

Zwift’s FTP Builder Week 5 Day 4 was a full 1.5 hour with varying intensity, and some longer intervals than I have done previously.

I remember a few weeks back wanting a harder workout. Today I got a taste of what still lays ahead, and those easy blue days seemed long ago.

There was nothing overly difficult about this workout. It was taxing, and the initial section featured a little ramp up, then dropped back into harder intensity for longer than I was used too. But I managed fine.

Towards the end of the first 12 minute block the mistake I was making was spinning too fast.

It’s all a learning exercise for me. I found a cadence of about 90 rpm was much more suitable, but I didn’t gain this understanding until much later on in the workout.

As such, I felt my legs were thrashing somewhat, and that made for choppy progress.

I’d opted for Zwift’s Out and Back Again course for this workout. I kinda wanted to hit up Titans Grove again, but would rather ride that again as a free ride. From what I saw, it was very busy.

It’s such a killer to feel like I’m already quite settled into a workout, then to look up and see over an hour remaining on the clock.

The next few weeks ahead seem to get even harder, at least for the next 2 weeks, then a respite week, and then it ramps up again.

I know I need to be pushing harder to make the gains to try and break 200w, so I’m happy that things are getting more intense. But having had 5 hours 30 on the bike this week, it’s a bit of a shock as my previous averages have been more like 3 hours 30.

After the initial set of intervals I was more than ready for 8 minutes at 100w. These are the kind of workouts I can get on board with.

This soon passed by though, and I was on with the next interval. During this time I reached the Volcano, where a climb awaited.

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I’m not sure what was happening on Zwift’s servers around the Volcano, but plenty of people were reporting glitches and bugs all over the show. I noticed the scenery dropping in and out of view at random, and several times I got overtaken by invisible riders.

All problems seemed localized around the Volcano.

Again, towards the end of the second 12 minute effort I’d found myself spinning too quickly, and the final two minutes were hard to push through.

At this point my arse was killing me. I tried several times to get out of the saddle and let the blood flow, but trying to keep 100w with no resistance, out of the saddle… messy.

Towards the top of the Volcano KOM I hit upon the next section of the workout.

5x 2 minutes at 185w, with 3 minutes at 100w in between.

The first of these was a mess. Again, spinning far too fast.

On the second block I tried something different. Rather than spin at 95-105rpm, I’d try to stay around 90rpm.

The resistance would feel greater, but I figured this might work out better for me. And it definitely did. I absolutely don’t have cadence down pat just yet, but as above, it’s all a learning process.

The fourth and fifth blocks were tough going.

With my arse killing me, I was just happy to see the final block through. And then… 8 minutes of cool down. By the time the clock hit zero I was definitely more than ready to be off the bike.

There’s no doubt that this was a great workout. I got some good distance, burned off a decent amount of calories, and feel like I made some progress around keeping to a set wattage for longer periods of time.

Tomorrow’s workout is optional, as best I am aware. I will be doing it, but maybe not tomorrow…

My schedule for the week ahead is full on. New job. No idea on how that will play out. Not going to have very much time. And don’t want to start the week thrashed.

Fortunately tomorrow’s workout is a light ride. Lots of blue and I think only 45 minutes in duration.

One thing that has narked me a bit is Zwift’s insistance that I haven’t yet met my riding distance goal for the week. Training Peaks is telling me I’m at 148km, but Zwift still thinks I’m around 90km. So many bugs.

I’m considering installing VirtuGo and having a crack at that for a change.

Not saying I’m dropping Zwift, but maybe a little variety would be a good thing?