Tonight I opted for another bout of Sweet Spot Training (Short). I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again:
This is a solid, sweaty workout.
A great way to put in 50 minutes on the bike.
I wasn’t really in the mood for getting on the bike tonight. Even with last night’s recovery ride, the thought of having to do a proper workout wasn’t that appealing.
Still, I got on, and did the session. That’s the main thing.
Once on, things weren’t so bad. The hardest part is getting on. After that it’s just about seeing it through.
There was a big race on Watopia tonight. I’m not quite sure what race that was, but at several points, big packs of riders came flooding past me.
I found the first block, both the 190w and 175w efforts to be the hardest.
This was largely due to struggling to find a rhythm. I was over 100rpm for a good long while. That’s a recipe for quickly tiring myself out.
As things went on I settled down around 95rpm.
The nice thing about the Sweet Spot Training is the time generally goes by fairly quickly.
There’s the harder blocks and then the easier blocks.
At 5 minutes each, they are long enough to kill chunks of the workout, and short enough to not feel too punishing.
I definitely feel the practice of recovering around 175w has been hugely beneficial to my riding overall.
I’ve used the same mindset I use during these workouts when on longer climbs. Again, huge wins here.
When the four blocks and the cool down were complete, I had about 28.5km on the clock.
I decided, heck, why not see it through to a nice round 30km.
And around this point I was just coming up to that little climb out of the under-the-sea tunnels.
Hastily deciding to drop gears and put in a max effort sprint, I pulled from almost a standstill to 850+w.
I think that’s a new personal best for me.
However, Zwift’s post-ride stats seemed to think otherwise.
I got an unlock for hitting over 800w, so I’m guessing this is the first time I must have done this?
Checking the screenshot from yesterday’s end of ride results show my previous high was 775w, so no idea why Zwift shows what it does:
It’s pretty crazy to think I put out 800+w tonight after a full workout.
A few months back I remember wondering how on Earth anyone might be capable of this. I remember hitting 600w for the first time and thinking I’d never be able to push harder than that.
Then 700w came along. And now 800w.
Overall happy to get another 30km on the board, another 55 minutes on the weekly riding goal, and over 500 calories burned.
Feels like a decent hour.
Not quite sure yet what to ride tomorrow night. Probably another workout of some sort. Maybe a custom workout.
My average heart rate for this ride comes in at 150bpm.
Last time I did SST I mentioned I’d like to see this below 146bpm (my previous ride) on the next attempt. I’m wondering if my max effort sprint buggered that right up. Silly me.
