rubiksoval

CTL was at 105 in June, then once I got crashed out of Nats I didn't break double digit hours again until two weeks ago. CTL just dropped and dropped for the last few months and bottomed out at 56 at the beginning of November. It's at 72 now after doing that fake Zwift volcano crit thing tonight. Ha. CTL was at 85 or so at this point last year, so not a significant difference.

About to crack 400 hours for the year, and I just hit 8000 miles. Had 495 hours last year, and 487 the year before that. Hopefully will get back up closer to 500 or a little above for 2018. I have a lot more 3 day big crit weekends planned for next season, at least one a month for 5-6 months. Need a bit deeper fitness to get through those and do well.

Taking a few days off next week, and then the Christmas break begins so I'll have two weeks off work to hopefully get in two 10-12 hour weeks. Unless a polar vortex rolls through or something.

Ttoc6

Tried a zwift race today. Ended up winning the A/B categroy even though I signed up for the B's. Did not realize the races were combined. Played out like a very selective road race. People just kept popping off and I tried a dig about 3 miles to go, came back, waited for one attack to come back later and jumped over the only hill on the flat loop to solo the last ~1.5 miles in. It was fun! And a wins a win even if it's in december on the computer in my living room.

Basically rode at my current FTP for the 45minutes that the race lasted. Heart rate only spiked high once or twice too which is really nice considering how ****ty I've felt. Time to reassess again.

Big weekend of skiing + a concert coming up. Probably just recovery rides in the morning before hitting the slopes.

mattm

two hours starting at sunset. cold and dark out.

TexMac

That's pretty good 45 mins at ftp. Zwift races seems to bring out the best or some guys hitting their all time highest power

TexMac

Last night zwift 1.5 hrs just 160-170 watts since that seems to be the sweet spot of not hurting plantar fasciitis.

gsteinb

Haven't taken a day off in like a month. Some easy rides in there, but...

A few easy days on deck, to clear fatigue from the body and then some blood work to follow up on some other tests. Where avoidable don't get old. If unavoidable avoid piling driving your head into asphalt.

It's a zen thing.

Worked hard to hit 90, and down we go...

caloso

11x up and down my local little rolling hill circuit. Why 11? Because I can't count. Math is hard.

Ttoc6

Agreed. I think last January I set an ftp upgrade during a zwift race up to the Epic KOM. Zwift racing is much more steady state than real world racing and responding to the little micro surges is hard but more like racing in a break than any sort of big pack. I think AP was 277 and NP was like 295. Those numbers are never that close together in real world racing for me. Then again, most real world races are longer than 44 minutes long.

Today I did 60 minutes easy on the trainer before quiet hours were up in my apartment. No complaints, so I'm going to keep doing it. just have to wear headphones to consume any media while I[m on the trainer since TV = loud with fan + trainer going.

Then I went up and took the first of my 3 required alpine skiing lessons to get my discounted season's pass. Very basic stuff that I faked my way through. Afterwards I met up wtih some coworkers and we ripped one real fast run back down the mountain top to bottom. Looking forward to getting up there a bunch this season. A bad snow day on the Utah mountains is the same as an average or above average day on the mountain in the PNW.

TheKillerPenguin

My legs weren't ready for Thursday so I turned it into an openers workout.

Yesterday 4x20SS with 10min z1 between. Great way to stay warm!

Gonna ride the trainer today and watch the snow fall

furiousferret

Slept 14 hours yesterday because I had to pick my wife up at the airport at 2am and work 4 hours later. Woke up in time for Raincross until I had to fix the door lock, and had a flat and no tubes. Had to use one of my latex tubes =\. Of course right after that I noticed 3 tubes in my commuter backpack....

So yeah, just went ham and skipped intervals because the headwinds were legit today. Longest ride of the year.

Moving time: 4:53:23
Distance: 80.6mi
Work: 2429kJ

I left out the elevation because it sucked. I'm avoiding hills until I'm officially not fat.

Ttoc6

Same as yeasterday. Woke up early after a weird night of sleep. Rode an hour easy. Went up to the mountain for lessons and skiing. Headed to a concert here in about an hour so I'll probably sleep in a few extra hours tomorrow and skip my morning ride in favor of more skiing. Maybe I'll ride when I get back.

mattm

4:45 solo, 200 tss.

all zone 2, except for one or two sprints. it was hard af towards the end.

but pretty proud (and surprised) that the VI (variability index) was 1.05, just about where I want it to be for this kind of workout - where the average power should land in zone2, and NP is pretty damn close, within 10 watts of each other.

TexMac

1.5 hrs 165-170 watts is all I could manage with plantar fasciitis. I could do more but then I'd get myself in trouble. Foot massage and lots of stretching and icing.

d r

First "real" ride since coming back from illness. 1h 45m, 100 TSS.

CTL went from 86 -> 70. Slowly but surely.

Ttoc6

Didn't get home from the concert until 3AM, so bailed on riding today to just ski. Off to bed. 5.30AM comes early for work on mondays..

TMonk

Looking fwd to a good week on the bike. Just came off a rest week. Here's what I've got penciled in:

M: 2 hrs z1/2 w a few "opener" type efforts on Soledad, Fiesta. 45 min commute home PM
T: 1.5 hrs surrounding FTP test, 45 min commute home PM
W: 3 hrs high z2, steady truckin'. 45 min commute home if my day isn't too long, in which case I'll uber home (seriously)
Th: off
F: 1 hr MTB action AM
S: 3-3.5 doing something surrounding a group ride
Su: 4+ hr team ride

mattm

Team ride today - 90 miles, 260 TSS.

After yesterday's solo 4-hour z2 ride, it hurt.

But it was exactly what I wanted to cap off the last on-week of Base 1, 2018!

hubcyclist

Nothing over the weekend for me, I must be one of the few people who actually have time to ride more during the week.

So my tsb goes slightly negative by the end of the week and then after the weekend goes positive, rather than going negative for a few weeks and having a recovery week. And I basically only do sweet spot endurance right now. Would anyone structure their training in any specific way if you knew you’d be off 2 or 3 days in a row all the time?

caloso

This is me during the fall due to kids soccer. The main thing is that I don’t get too concerned if my tsb goes hugely negative towards Friday. My ctl line is pretty stair-stepped but it trends up.

hubcyclist

Yeah, I need to try and squeeze volume/intensity into the week. I use trainerroad and follow the sweet spot program at the moment which is usually 60 or 90mins during the week (314 tss this last week), so by Friday I'm only at like -10 tsb and 50 ctl and then dip back into the 40s and positive tsb and kind of rinse and repeat during the week, I could probably stand to do 90-120mins during the week if I'm not doing anything on the weekends.

TheKillerPenguin

Jelly! I still have 3 weeks til Base, and the weather killed most of last week's volume.

aaronmcd

Started base FINALLY. Finally starting to get at least a little excited about riding and racing again. Man I burned out super hard after the season though.

Solo 50 miles on Saturday, mostly steady but I succumbed to a dirt trail in the middle. Flatted and had no spare. Doh! Hiked 45 minutes, then hitchhiked to the top of the hill, then got a tube off a passing cyclist, then discovered my pump was broken and got a pump from another passing cyclist. But I got on the bike again yesterday so I guess it wasn't TOO bad.

Rode with Matt and the team on Sunday. I only got 72 miles, but the same 260 TSS as an estimate. I cant even see my FTP it went so far down the drain but I'm guessing 270.

120 mile weekends are tough on 30 CTL

TMonk

Hit my targets this morning, modest as though they may have been. I'm looking fwd to my FTP test tomorrow morning, as sick as though that my sound. At this point I'm targeting 5 w off from my 2017 best, and I still have one more block of base and plenty of build to go. Let's do this!!!

furiousferret

This is my 12th week since I started training post injury. My power is not where it should be (down 15% across the board from 2015) but its also been a weird block; asthma has masked what I can do (for example my HR would be pegged while in z2 power). I also haven't got nearly enough reps in group rides (i.e. fake racing). To be fair, I wasn't at that level up til recently.

On the positive side, I'm down 24 pounds in that period, my asthma is 'fixed', hip issues are abated (with an hour a day of PT), my ftp is up 30w (though not where I want it), and I no longer expect my chain to snap when I sprint.

I should probably be more positive about my progress, but that power curve being so low is =\. Judging performance on power curves is misleading; for example someones 1 hour power is probably based off maybe 1 or 2 efforts a quarter, and I can't tell you the last time I tried a 3 minute max effort. Going off 2 twenty minute tests with asthma attacks really isn't a great indicator. My next test could be anywhere in an 80 watt range.

hubcyclist

2hrs today 127 tss, trying to just follow a trainerroad plan straight through versus just skipping the long weekend rides when I can't ride on weekends.