I’m going to have to try really hard not to make any meat-based puns today.
Zwift’s workout of the week is actually a group ride, as far as I know. However you are able to do them Ham Solo. OK, that was truly terrible, I’ll see myself out.
I’ve been reading a book lately called That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix. One of the repeated things through is the concept of The S**t Sandwich (TSS, but not that kind). Hey, this blog is family friendly, so I have censored the swears.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but thing about TSS during this ride. Particularly during the warm up / opening lines of text that pass by the screen.
See, this ride is structured in such a way that there’s an SST block at the start and end – they form the bread.
And then there’s three sets of 30s on 30s off, whereby ‘we’ do 5x 30s @ 305w / 130% FTP, followed by 30s recovery at 115w / 50% of FTP.
Burying the bad news between two easier blocks, so to speak.
I should also say that whilst I’ve enjoyed the Netflix book, I read it off the back of finishing Hatching Twitter, which is another insider story on a Silicon Valley unicorn you may have heard of. Truth be told, the Twitter book is a better read – from my point of view. Yet I vastly prefer Netflix over Twitter… what the hell does any of this have to do with cycling though, right?
Nothing. But if you’re looking for book recommendations, there’s two for you 🙂
Right, so as much as the on-screen text brought me up to speed, I still found myself wondering if the “bread” had started during the initial 30/30s. Turns out: no. They were just an appetiser. I don’t know who has an appetiser before they eat a sandwich, but that’s what happens in Zwift, apparently.
The hardest part of that first bit of bread was the cadence target.
Given the choice, when on the turbo I will comfortably sit at 95rpm in ERG mode.
If I have to go lower, I find I really have to work for it. It takes a lot of concentration not to just revert back to the rhythm that’s become ingrained in my legs. However, it’s probably a good thing to do that lower cadence work as it’s rare for me to sit at 95rpm outdoors, or in any kind of real free ride.
The trickier portions of this were the 110rpm blocks, and that was for the same reason I complained about yesterday.
With so much float in my cleats, I find myself almost slipping, or feeling like I might loose my footing (I know I won’t, but it’s how it feels) when working hard.
Definitely need to change my cleats.
The ‘ham’ part of the sandwich was tiring, no question.
Having to jump to 110rpm and hit 305w every thirty seconds definitely got the heart going.
Actually I didn’t mind this. Having work to do every thirty seconds really made the middle of this workout pass by quickly.
There was a two minute breather between sets which disappeared alarmingly quickly, but it definitely helped in getting the heart rate back down to ‘normal’ levels.
What I will say is that initial jump on the very first interval – from 115w at 85rpm up to 305w at 110rpm – was dangerous.
I don’t know who thought that through honestly, but spiking like that hurt my knees. It caught me off guard as well. Silly.
Equally silly, I feel is dropping from a high cadence / high wattage to a considerably lower cadence / wattage. There’s so much risk involved there, I don’t know why they can’t do a smoother transition.
The hardest part, for me, was the final over / under block.
That final piece of bread.
Or more specifically, the final final part. That very last block. That one really seemed to take its toll on me. I was glad the workout was over for sure.
Dropping to just a 2 minute cool down felt odd, but I was happy it was time to relax. Work done.
Have to say, I’m not sure about all this “we” talk (see the last screenshot above). I feel like I did all the work there 😀
Still, I feel like this was a useful session. It was a fast hour, which is always a good thing. And a decent calorie burn.
Overall then, a good one today.
Aside from the weird transitions I thought this one was one I’d do again. Next time I’d know, and be ready for the spikes and the dips.
The last two rides have been quite ‘spikey’. I’m looking forwards to doing something a little more consistent in my next couple of rides. I feel like I need these types of exercises but they are never going to be my strong points.
