Today was, I think, the first Sweet Spot Training session I’ve done at 214w where I’ve felt fresh going into the session. Heck, it might only be the second SST session I’ve done at 214w. Anyway, whatever, I felt pretty good going into it. This is in stark contrast to the first time I did this workout at an FTP 214w, which was a couple of days after my last Alpe du Zwift climb.
The big question, therefore, was how would I cope with this session feeling fairly fresh? And the good news is the answer was: just fine.
It also helps that aside from my legs feeling decent (yesterday was an easy ride), mentally I’m in a good place. It’s taken a good few weeks – last week was shocking – and my sleep pattern still is garbage (up again at 5am), but I am, for the first time in a good long while, happy.
For today’s ride I opted for a reverse spin around Zwift’s Volcano Circuit. It’s ages since I’ve done the reverse route, and typical with Zwift, I think the reverse route is prettier / more visually interesting than the forward route. Maybe that’s because I ride the forward routes so damn much, or maybe it’s simply that there is genuinely more to see in reverse. I don’t know.
Cadence-wise, I was absolutely fine today. Sometimes I don’t even want to start spinning, let alone push above 90rpm for over 40 minutes. Not so with this session. I was happiest at 95rpm, averaged 96rpm, and aside from the last block, didn’t notice the extra watts that are now required.
My third “on” block was the smoothest SST block I think I’ve ever done. Not a single hitch up or down, and I managed to maintain a really consistent cadence throughout. Practice will eventually make perfect. And I believe efficiency is a wonderful thing.
At this point I’m quite curious as to what my true lap time would be around the Volcano Circuit, if I really went for it. I’m coming out in the high 6 minute mark when doing workouts, but as each lap is taking me ~7 minutes, that means, at most, I’m doing 5 minutes at 205w. I reckon I could sustain 230w or greater for 7 minutes, so I wonder what that would come out at it terms of lap times. I guess the only way to find out is to try.
It’s not looking too good on the climbing front this week. Provisionally I had Thursday’s ride down as a climb up the Reverse Epic KOM. However, I can’t find an easy way to get to this route without navigating using the app. That’s never particularly easy, in my previous experience. Aside from doing it the manual way, there are two routes I’ve found that go up the Reverse Epic KOM but both also go up the Radio Tower, which whilst isn’t something I’m against, it does mean you don’t actually hit the KOM arch. Quite annoying.
Being completely honest, I’m kinda glad to be done with my mid-week riding for the week. I’m looking forward to having a rest day tomorrow. I’m hoping to find a race on Saturday afternoon. If I can’t, I’m not quite sure yet what to do. Maybe there’s some big ride on Sunday that I can get involved with. I’d like to get some climbing meters done on the week as I’m still a long way away from the 1000m remaining for the Tron bike at this point.
Aside from all this, 530 calories done at dinner time. That’s a big win for me.
Lastly for today, if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this and let me know what you think:
Worth a punt? I have yet to do the Mountain Bike course on Zwift, primarily because I don’t have a suitable controller setup. Even with the Elite Sterzo you still need to mount your phone to your handlebars, and last time I did that, I blew mine up by sweating all over it. So I’m not that keen.
Still, it does look kinda fun. Can’t find it anywhere in the UK yet though.
OK, until Saturday, ride on!
