For this afternoon’s ride I took on Emily’s Short Mix. This is the first time I’ve done a harder workout at my new FTP, so went into this one feeling a little apprehensive.
How hard would it be, compared to previous attempts?
I know Emily’s Short Mix is a series of ramps. And I know on some previous sessions that by the third block I have been absolutely slayed. Having to ride 3 minutes at threshold, and then a further 3 minutes above threshold has been extremely challenging on some previous ocassions.
However, today, coming off a rest day yesterday, I felt fairly decent.
That’s not to say the final 3 minutes at 235w was easy. It definitely felt a touch harder than previous attempts, but not as much as I expected.
There were a couple of points to take away from today’s ride:
- I think I’m going to try raising my saddle height, just a touch. I think a proper bike fit might be the best bet here, but I also feel like I’m heavily riding on my toes, and maybe I could squeeze more power out of my legs if I were using more towards the centre of my feet.
- Mentally I prepared myself for the harder blocks by thinking back to the FTP test. If I could sustain a high intensity for 20 minutes, then 3 minutes (by comparison) shouldn’t be too much of a worry.
As ever, the 30 minutes did go fairly fast.
I didn’t get a huge amount of screenshots as I was definitely head down, trying to get through this one. But really it’s only 24 minutes of work, and really it’s only 12 minutes of hard work, and it’s really only 6 minutes of really hard work.
So it’s not that bad 🙂
I’d definitely have liked to have got more time in for today’s sessions. But, when the figures are in, it’s not all that bad.
Firstly, 300+ calories is better than nothing. I almost skipped today. I’ve already done over 100km distance this week, though not all of this has been on Zwift.
I figured I might take two days rest ahead of a harder climb tomorrow.
However, I’m glad I didn’t:
As I finished the ride, pretty much bang on 4pm, I got the above email. Sad times.
I knew it was due to expire, but it must have been a 30 day hard limit, rather than a calendar month like I had figured. As such, I won’t have the software available for one last hard Sunday climb tomorrow morning.
This does, however, free me up in some interesting ways.
Firstly, I had planned to continue my Sunday climbs but this would also mean I highly likely would not make the 10,000 calorie January Zwift challenge goal. I mean, I likely would, but not exclusively on Zwift.
So, I might stick with Zwift and do harder rides on Sunday’s on Zwift during January. Maybe. Not saying that with certainty just yet.
Secondly, I had a look at tomorrow’s rides and there are a couple of good ones to consider.
There’s the 3R Tour of Fire and Ice race up the Alpe. That seems like a weekly deal, so could be a good one to hit once or twice in January.
Or there’s a gran / medio / bambino fondo ride that looks suitable. The bambino one has 52km of riding with 580m of climbing. That would put me at about 1000 calories, I think, and with 800+ people registered could be a fun event to take part in.
Thirdly, as the Tour De Zwift 2020 starts next weekend, I guess that’s going to consume my weekend rides for the next few weeks, so maybe the expiration of the Tacx software happened at a good time point overall.
Oh, and bonus fourth point, there is a bunch of new stuff to explore in RGT Cycling.
All in all, looks like January will be interesting even without the video rides.
I’m happy enough with my start to the year. I’ve definitely been over indulging in chocolate these last few days. Sooner or later it’s going to run out, and I’m OK with my weight at the moment – 11 stone 2lb seems to be roughly where it’s averaging.
Whatever I decide, at this point it definitely seems like I’ll be riding something. As long as I keep up an average of 500 calories per ride over the remaining days left in January, I should hit the 10k calorie challenge. Oh yes. Pizza socks incoming.
