Zwift – 10-12wk FTP Builder Week 7 Day 4

Due to some real life stuff I wasn’t sure how much time I would get on the bike today.

Last night I’d seen a 100km Zwift UK Sportive event that took my fancy. After doing a bit of mental arithmetic, I figured I’d be somewhere between 3-4 hours in finishing 100km, and the event started at 10am.

As it happened, I got woken rudely (not by the dustman, but by my kids) at 7.15, so was up bright and breezy. Wanting to get my day’s workout out of the way, I decided not to wait around for 2.5 hours, and instead do a little DIY. Besides, chances were I wouldn’t have had 4 hours to spare if push came to shove.

Starting out on Watopia (the other active map was London), I opted for the Tempus Fugit route.

This is / was the same route I would have been riding had I attended the sportive. My theory was that if I wanted too, I could continue on to the 100km distance by latching on to others doing the route.

That said, I wasn’t sure if they would be doing the event on a ‘closed circuit’ – like what happens when racing. Honestly, I’m still not sure.

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As I’d wanted to continue on with the FTP Builder program earlier this week, but having seen the scheduled workout was 1.5 hours in length, I had to push that back to e.g. a weekend where I’d have more time.

As such, today was the perfect day to tackle the FTP Builder Week 7 Day 4 workout.

Essential this was a ramped up warm up, followed by:

• 2x 12 minute @ 160w with 2x 8 minute @ 100w recovery
• 4x 5 minute @ 190w with 4x 2 minute @ 100w recovery

For those paying close attention, the second set of intervals was 1 minute up on the previous week’s workout.

I missed the screenshot a few times, but there were some very large blobs on the map at various points.

Considering how quiet it had been around 8.30am when I set off, by 9am the map was alive with riders. Ride on, my fellow Sunday morning sufferers.

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Speaking of ride ons, for whatever reason, Zwift glitched out on me during my ride today.

I got no ride ons. Sad panda.

Only, I apparently did get 30+ ride ons when the ride was over and I looked at the app. The end of ride screenshots below show that I received none … very strange.

Probably the most fun I had on this workout was on the first of the 4 repeats at 190w.

I managed to sit with a little pack, which made the time fly by.

Unfortunately the other 3 repeats were by and large solo efforts. Riding with other is simply more fun. And with that in mind, I think next Sunday I’d opt for a true group ride.

Pushing through the 4 intervals at 190w wasn’t as hard as I was expecting.

I mean, I was still very sweaty, and they weren’t easy – particularly the final two – but they weren’t killing me.

This gives me some increased degree of hope towards keeping up at least 190w in my next FTP test. As crazy as it sounds, I do like this workout structure. Being pushed to ride harder at the end with short rests between the blocks really feels like I’m having to work, and given the distance into the workout, I feel far more looser and ready than say, an Emily’s Short Mix.

One thing that has started to happen since the recent patch is the abundance of drops / unlocks.

On this ride I got both a Zwift Academy 2019 Tri Cycling Cap (more on this in a mo), and also a Wahoo cap.

On the Tri front, this is because I joined the Moma (?) Triathalon event, not really reading before hand that running was involved. I won’t be running. Not now. Not ever. Not even if I’m late for a bus.

Still, I’ll take the free cap.

As I finished up the workout I was just shy of 50km.

Given that I’ve had 3 rest days this week, I wasn’t feeling content enough to drop off before I hit the nice round five oh, so I put in a little push at the end to take me up to 50km.

After this I ended up doing a little unintended ramp up, as I thought I was about to hit 3,000,000 drops. However, my eyes deceived me, instead I was only about to hit 2,300,000. Whoops.

On the drops note, it only occurred to me today that these are drops of sweat. And the drop shop is therefore a sweat shop. Nice.

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In truth I couldn’t be bothered pushing on for 100km.

I did have to be off the bike – that’s true. But I would have had the time – just – to do the full 4 hours (had it come to that).

Instead, I dropped out at 55km.

Maybe next time.

Ok, question time:

Is Tempus Fugit the most boring route on Zwift?

I’m getting to the point where I really think I need to do another FTP test.

At this point I think I’ve increased in strength, if only just.

This said, I am honestly really concerned about doing another one of those tests. They are ridiculous. Last time was not pretty, and was honestly – in hindsight – really risky.

My options are to either wait till everyone is out of the house, so as not to be extremely shouty with my poor, unsuspecting family. Or, give them a heads up to keep out of the bike room whilst I’m doing it. You try telling a 3 year old to keep out of some place, and they will be in said place within 5 minutes, going “dad, dad, DAD, dad, DAD, DaD, dAd, daaaaaad” until I explode like Mount Vesuvius.

Still, probably better than having a heart attack on the grass outside, all alone…

One thing I am pleased about during this workout was keeping my cadence high – 90rpm+ – during each interval. I really feel I have improved here as of late.

All in all, no regrets at not hitting the 100km on this ride. 55km is good enough for me, for today.

Now, off to the real world for a barrel of fun.