It Feels Like I'm Improving...

So I went with stage 7 of the Tour de Zwift Ride tonight, the short 25k version in the jungle. I took it easy on the first lap but found myself churning out higher power on the climb second time round. So much so I was almost back to the kind of power of I was putting out eighteen months ago - that led to a gain of over 100 places as the riders around me ate my dust. Definitely heading back in the right direction...

Niggle Feels Better

Pretty good pootle on the treadmill today. Not the quickest but quickest of late at least and the ache behind my knee seems to have gone. I felt it half way through yesterday's ride and during Thursday's jog, sufficiently bad that I only did the warm up. Today's effort was much better. 

Bit of a Niggle

So I'm continuing on alternating days of running and riding although I have picked up a bit of a niggle. A dull pain behind the knee. It came on during Saturdays session of increasing pace 500m efforts. I probably should have cut it short but I wanted to complete the session and get my legs moving faster than they have of late. It didn't feel too bad but I took a rest day Sunday.

I managed an easy jog yesterday and a longer ride today at medium effort - apart from the climbing finish. The ache behind the knee is still there but not too bad. Maybe another rest day tomorrow to let it settle but we'll see.

And That's Another FTP...

But not a surprise this time. As me and the other four hundred riders sat in the pens, awaiting the start, I decided I was going to go for it. There was no soft start this time, I went at it from the gun. Despite falling back a little in the first half of the ride I was still much higher in the field than I've been of late. I'm not going to lie, it was hard work keeping the power up - and my legs knew it. I began to struggle on the box hill climb, the power slipping a little before redoubling my effort but once over the top it was, quite literally, all downhill - well almost....

Cue another 5 points on the FTP. Feels good.

Solid Ride

On Zwift in the 4th stage of the Tour de Zwift. Must admit I wasn't feeling it and set off slowly, just going through the motions. Not sure when the power crept up as I wasn't really concentrating but after a bit I found I was working quite hard. From there I started to chase.

On the main climb, towards the end, with the power as high as it's been of late, I was really puffing. Over the top, on the descent to the finish I kept the power on and was rewarded, at the finish, with a surprise FTP increase of 10 points. The second increase in 16 days, this one much larger than the first. Happy with that on a day when lethargy almost got me...

Decent Weeks Training

I've completed a good mix of training this week, split fifty fifty running and riding. I'm trying to alternate run and ride days not to mention putting a bit more focus on actually putting some effort into the riding - which I've been guilty of pootling. Last couple of rides have been good hard efforts. Forgot how good it feels to have really put some effort in - I won today's sprint for 611th place... 

Finally...

My FTP is back on the way up.... Not by much, mind, but every little counts so I'm glad I didn't bottle it. I wasn't far away from that though, as the sofa was alluringly comfy after a day sat at the desk. In the end I dragged myself free after twenty minutes relaxing with the Neighbours.

I opted for a 17k flat time trial and went at it workman like. I was focused on keeping as even a power throughout and despite a couple of moments of doubt, managed to keep it going all the way. So far so good on the new year's training, two runs, two rides - which, coincidently, is definitely not in any way a resolution.

Not Quite A Month Since the Last Exercise Post

I have been training but just in a somewhat uninspired fashion. It's all been very steady but I'm not settings any of those new year resolution bollocks. Just going to try and keep plugging away. Little by little and hopefully by the time we're back to some sort of normality I'll be ready to climb a hill - albeit slowly.

First Race For A While...

A Zwift one of course - have you seen the weather? A 17.5km flat. It was a mixed category race, so I was towards the back obviously. Riding at a steady power, in a small group of two or three. As we edged around the course we collected in a few riders to find ourselves in a group of eight with 5k to go. I decided to have a go for a break rather than wait on a sprint. With 2.5km, on a short incline, I went for it. A couple came with me. I kept the hammer down. My heart rate was up at 171-172 and I dropped them on the next little bump, continuing to keep the power going. It was like a 4min time trial effort on the edge. The group never fell totally by the wayside, so I had to keep the effort going all the way to the line. Haven't worked that hard for a while...

Out for a MapRun

or MapWalk in my case. With the forecast looking decent for today, I decided yesterday night to have a go at the Ruspidge green course today. I did look at the blue course which I loaded up on the phone but decided the green would be better - except I forgot to load it. So today, after I started, I suddenly realised I hadn't loaded the green and still had the blue map loaded. I was following the green with my compass so that wasn't going to do me much good. Luckily, I didn't get far before I remembered and second lucky, I was in a good reception area, so I was able to abort, go back to the start, download the green map instead.

With that almost cockup avoided I headed out and slowly, very slowly and made my way around the course. It was muddy and slippery in places, rough in others but I just wanted a day out so I took my time and pootled along. It was nice to be out there.

Decent Week's Training

 Tonight was my fifth structured workout in a week. One was on the bike and one was a shorter one but overall it's been a good week's training. Tonight's was a good burn and to begin with I thought it would fatigue me but after the first couple of intervals things stabilised and I was good to the finish ('cause I eat's my spinach). Probably a rest day tomorrow or a bike session.

Hilarious Cockup

So I liked the look of the Zwift Tri-Academy workout number three. Billed as being Long Course Race Simulation, it was meant to be a fifty minute session, consisting of three sets of differing duration sections, starting short and fast and reducing the pace while increasing the duration without any break - until the end of the rep. Each set was meant to be an effort of ten minutes.

As it turned out the programmers of Zwift had programmed it in a factor of ten on the lean side. The ten minute effort became a sixty second not a lot of effort and the whole things was over in 5 minutes - including the warm up and cool down. Wasn't a total waste though as laughing is supposed to be good for you and I couldn't stop laughing for the entire session - yes, the full 5 minutes. It just tickled me - but then I am a bit weird... After that I restarted things for a ramped 2 miler as my heart was no longer in it. Hopefully they will sort out the mistake as I still fancy doing the session.

Good Workout Today

Zwift Academy workout number four. It was a bit of replication of workout number three but had two ladders rather than two, with sections starting a minute less duration but building to the same top pace. That meant more actual effort time overall and it was definitely slightly harder to keep with it but far from impossible, so I might go again with a bit higher effort percentage. Yesterday I ran an easier session of gentler intervals, Tomorrow? We'll see...

A Lighter Week

but finished with a couple of harder efforts. Yesterday I completed workout number 3 of the run academy. It was a session of decreasing duration with increasing pace from 6 minutes down to 1 minute. It was about right. The middle efforts were the toughest. Today I rode one of the academy group rides and despite setting off easy it all got a bit competitive on the climb first time round (two laps). From there the pace was definitely higher, with everyone seeming to want to break off the front. No one did until the climb section for the second time where it all broke apart. I got dropped early on but got a second wind and came back past most of those who'd got away. Good solid, above normal effort  workout in the end.