Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[HLaB]

A recovery workout, Colosseum -3 was in my plan tonight.


Its brought my form back to +4, so hopefully I'm ready to go for tomorrow's Z2 Bookended Under Over Session.

 

[Norry1]

I'm on a recovery DeLoad Week. I am trying to stick rigidly to the plan, which is hard for me as I don't like backing off.

 

[HLaB]

Third supposedly 'Achievable' (below PL) workout selected by AI in a row but it felt right. I think I actually hit 1 more bpm on tonight’s bookended under/ over session than I did during my VO2max session on Tuesday, not quite as often though judging by the 0.77 IF.

 

[HLaB]

Last Tuesday I had a bad reaction to lunch and skipped my workout and with the weather cancelling my weekend group rides and that weekend looking the same I lost all motivation for my remaining workouts and watched European Football instead. Luckily my Saturday group ride got rescheduled for the Sunday. There was only 4 of us out but I like the group and that gave me more motivation for this weeks Z1/2 sessions. Taking advantage of the mild and dry weather today I took the workout (Jumba Kanga recovery workout with an IF of 0.58) out down the Holme Road, across to the old A1, before going back up it to London Road and back home. Every overtake I got was very good and all but ne crossed the centre line completely to make sure they gave me a wide berth. A good sign that my back lights were good and I got plenty of good interactions coming towards me and to the side of me (from side roads and regular roundabouts). Annoyingly I have to cross a motorway roundabout with an excellent view of the slip road off the A1(M). Its a good job the visibility is good, as I could see 3 drivers coming at speed with no intention of stopping, especially the sheep of a driver at the rear. If I'd kept on at the recovery pace I been under the first one wheels I was running out of slow down space by the third but had positioned my self to the outside of the circulating lane. That's when my HR left Z1 and I decided to keep it up for a bit so I could up the pace to get off the roundabout before a 4th driver came. Apart from that though it was a good session.

 

[HLaB]

The same as the last three weekends its forecast to be wet, after a nice work week. Fortunately, I was working at home today and was able to escape for some Vitamin D 🌞

Bald -1 was originally in my plan but I used alternates to shorten it from 60minutes to 45minutes. I still tend to ride 60mins but that gives me time to get to and get the workout done on roads which are more conducive to workouts, whilst not exceeding my lunch hour too much. The alternates function gave me Neige. Ive not got a PM meter on my commuter/winter bike but I’ve ordered Favero RS2’s on a Black Friday deal so it may have in future on days like today 😀

Down the London Road cyclepath to Yaxley (where I started the workout). The workout went down Holme Road (to Holme funny enough) before doing a loop on the broken road around old Connington Airfield (now Peterborough Business Airport, a big name for what is a little private airfield). Before heading up the Old A1 to Norman Cross to finish. I was then able to take the cycle way all the way home and stay in the recovery HR zone. There was a gap up by Yaxley which meant you had to go on the busy and fast A15 (not ideal for staying in zone, but they’re building new houses with a good quality cycle path through it. Its not exactly direct so most of the traffic goes straight to Yaxley but it suits for a chilled-out cooldown 🙃

 

[HLaB]

Tonight was the last workout in my recovery week and I did it on the static fork onimum rollers. I usually have a snack before a workout and 🍽 after so I maximise the time to wind down before bed but with it being a recovery I chose to do it the other way round.

After which TrainerRoad AI thinks my FTP now is 258w (4.15w/kg).

 

[HLaB]

I probably shouldn’t have done that, Ive got a bit of tendinitis on the tendon that connect the back of the knee to the big toe via the inside of the ankle, but I picked up a new pair of Favero Assimoa Pro RS 2’s on a manufacturer Black Friday and they came today. They were working well with TR but it looks like I’ll have to dual record to get balance stats.

 

[HLaB]

First proper workout with the double sided Favero Assimoa Pro RS 2 (an Anaerobic workout) and like yesterdays endurance ride it felt a lot smoother on power than the single sided meter resulting in less biting ERG. I normally favour resistance mode but after the VO2max warm up and first two intervals I switched ERG on.

 

[HLaB]

After last night’s Anaerobic session feeling smooth, tonight’s Endurance session felt rough. I don’t know if I had my shoes too tight, they were red raw when I went in the shower.



That poor performance actually increased my Guesstimated (Garmin Estimated) VO2max, showing how poor an estimated metric it is.



I think intervals is more right, my fitness has plummeted.


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[Norry1]

Interesting that your fitness (CTL) has reduced but your FTP has increased.

 

[HLaB]

Interesting that your fitness (CTL) has reduced but your FTP has increased.

Is it clever than Strava's fitness graph (probably is), Strava seems to go on amount of riding you are doing, even if you're getting worn out your getting fitter 🤔

I don't know if its related but last year I refused to accept AIFTPD increase less than 5w, and it always was less, so FTP never changed. In the summer I decided to accept it and its started bumping me up 2-3 watts at a time every AI detection.

 

[HLaB]

Im experimenting again with ERG as it seems to be smoother with a double sided power meter. Other than it not providing enough resistance in recoveries, it seemed to go ok. Its seems easier to spin out of the spiral of death before it fataly grabs you, or resist it towards the end of a longer interval. Tonight’s workout was a VO2max session, despite Garmin thinking it was anaerobic.

I'm still favouring my left pedal but tonight post workout it feels the best it's been in a while. Perhaps the orthopaedic insoles are working. I seem to have irritated the tendon that attaches the back of the knee to the big toe, via the inside of the ankle and instep. Or given that it's got better after workouts perhaps its the arthritis I got warned about during chemo 6 years ago. As a result Ive poor blood flow beneath the shins and a workout seems to get blood flowing.