Failed my FTP test!
I ended last week feeling very fatigued from my last training block, so I decided to err on the side of recovery and take it easy Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday did an hour of Z2 and some fast pedal drills, Thursday off, and then Friday I was planning on doing a core workout and some Z2 to get blood moving in the legs. Except Friday's workout never happened.
So this morning I got on the trainer with my legs feeling pretty stiff, whatever, did a nice long warmup, then a 5 minute all-out effort. I might have gone a bit too "all-out" - felt strong for the first 1:30, set a new 5 min personal best (4.85 W/kg), but by the end I could taste blood in my throat and I was on the edge of exercise-induced asthma. Took a recovery, tried to do a 20 min TT, could not make it past 3 minutes. Spun easy for another 10 minutes, tried again, no dice.
I was debating trying the Friel protocol (30 min TT, counting avg watts from final 20 min) this evening or tomorrow morning to test my FTP, but looking over my ride files, I also think I would do fine using 250 watts as my FTP and setting my interval intensities that way. If the intervals feel too easy, bump up my FTP a bit, if too hard, bump down.
FTP test a failure, but at the same time, the overall story is that I am still responding well to training, and my FTP is ~35 watts up from last season and approaching 4 W/kg, my VO2 max is approaching 5 W/kg.
Next week base 3 begins - subthreshold and threshold workouts begin next week! And a month after, into build, where I add VO2 work in the mix. Fun, in the "hurting in my basement" sense of the term.