Each week I try to review and reflect on my previous week on the bike. This allows me to see how my fitness and ability is progressing on a wider timescale than day to day. For previous weekly reviews please click here.
Phew. We made it. Several near misses and idiot motorists avoided this week, so it feels like a result just getting to Sunday.
Beyond that, and I won’t dwell (but will mention it again – briefly!) there were two hard efforts this week, and I think that about wraps up the prep ahead of the FTP test. But again, more on that below.
Here are this week’s rides:
- Tuesday – Hill Repeats – Oakenclough (Outdoors)
- Wednesday – Petrol’s Expensive, Let’s See How Far I Get On An Empty Tank (Outdoors)
- Friday – 2x 15’s To Set A Baseline (Indoors / Zwift)
- Saturday – Honk Honk You Ride Too Slow! (Outdoors)
- Sunday – The Law Of Attraction In Action? (Outdoors)
There were two rides of a higher / harder intensity than the others this week. These were:
- Hill repeats
- 2x 15m FTP intervals
I didn’t actually mean to do the hill repeats. As it happened, I was out on a TT loop when some van-man ruined my riding experience and I decided to detour off the busy A-roads and head onto the significantly quieter countryside lanes.
As I was so near Oakenclough I decided to head out that way and do a little climbing. All good exercise, and something I genuinely enjoy.
Because I don’t get out to Oakenclough that much, when I did get there I decided to hit the Delph Lane climb several times. It’s short, only ~3 minutes of effort, but still a Cat 4 climb.
The other hard effort was the 2x 15m intervals, and they really did bite. Funny when I speak about each of those Oakenclough efforts being only 3 minutes. Well, the last 3 minutes of that second 15m effort felt significantly longer… oh the pain.
But glad to get through both.
I think coming home and writing about these stupid car incidents is a form of catharsis. They bug me no end during the ride, but once I’m home and have dumped the contents of my brain down onto ‘paper’ / this blog, I quite quickly forget all about them and carry on with my life. So that’s a win.
Anyway, as promised I will shut up about that.
The main point of doing the 2x 15 minute FTP intervals was to get a solid baseline as to my current performance.
A question I’ve had pretty much since my last crash was whether my FTP – think it’s set at 238w – is correct?
Well, yes I did get through these efforts. And no, they were by no means too easy. Savage would be a better word.
As such I’m not expecting too much (if any) improvement this time around. I’ll be happy to hit 240w, and pretty thrilled (in a manner of speaking, because it just gets harder) if I get anything higher.
I’m going to be doing the 4DP test.
That means I’ll be tested 4 ways:
- 5 second sprint
- 5 minute effort
- 20 minute ‘traditional’ FTP ride
- 1 minute empty the tank
But the 20 minute effort is not 95%. Because by this point you’ve already killed yourself, it takes 100% of the effort… so that’s good. No need for maths during the 20 minutes to try and figure out what you’ll actually end up with. Just pedal like a nut job for the duration. What fun.
My weight’s all over the shop lately. I was a bit flabbergasted to see it drop last night to 67.1kg after a big Italian restaurant meal and beer.
Still taking these above, my average is now 68 not 67, so I have adjusted that on Zwift. I will need to update the Garmin and Wahoo before the FTP test.
But yeah, not really fussed about weight… it’s just another fancy set of graphs and pictures to put on here.
So the week ahead.
Well, it’s obvious isn’t it?
This is my last week off before I start my new job.
I want to get the FTP test done – but I need a rest day now and so Tuesday’s the big day.
After that I’ll see how I feel but I have no other big plans for the week beyond that. Just get that done, and then have fun.
And I guess, try not to get myself killed on the road. HONK HONK.