25 mile TT test

With a bit of additional motivation in the form of my dad sitting with me while I sat on the iMagic the decision was to do a 25 mile TT. Did a warm up for 13 minutes and then re-set the program to zero and then set off for the test. Unfortunately 11 minutes later the program stopped as I had done my TT pace at 378W for the same distance as my warm-up, so cooled down for 3 min before creating a specific program (1 segment of 25 miles) and then starting off again. Oh, well a 30 minute warm-up period should be ok...

Time : 55min 27sec

Power : 375W (376W norm)

Heart rate : 168bpm (187bpm max)

Cadence : 99prm (107 rpm max)

2-4 Weeks catch up

Managed to get out for a coule of hours tonight, before it became too dark (had not took any lights out and do not want to ride the roads round here in the dark as I'd like to see the sun again). 2 Hours 5minutes and 40.2miles later I was a bit stuffed but feeling like I'd had a good and productive ride, although looking at the data it seems like I'm about 2-4 weeks back from my peak (3 weeks ago).

NP60 was 358W (avg 335W) with an average HR of 140bpm and max 175bpm over the local area that included 300m of climbing and about 2 minutes of stops. The average speed of 20.1mph gives a fair idea of my aerodynamics on the bike, resting on the hoods. Need to work on my stability a bit when I'm resting on the tops of the bars.

With the additional weight loss the one thing, which did stand out a little, was going up the hills as it seemed a little more comfortable to get into a pace at 400W for 3-5min at a time with my HR picking up to 169bpm. Conditions were cooler (16C) and I did go out with my longs on (arm warmers in the pocket until after 90min), which probably helped more.

So, tomorrow night is hopefully an hour on the bike to the park with Luke as a recovery spin before another session on Wednesday as the build to the next race.

Back in training and it feels good

Back in training, but did not feel up to it to start off with as I was still feeling tired and unsettled. Once I was on the bike the feeling did not go until about 10 minutes in when it started to settle down and felt good, which was helped by an indication that I had not lost too much over the previous 2 weeks.
After a mixed session on the trainer I ventured out onto the road for a quick 15min blast up the road and averaged 385W, but my HR was way high, touching 184 at times before backing off a little.

I have to refine my bike position as I think that this is the key element to my next season as this is where I have not really focused as much as I should have. Reading through Obree and Hutchinsons books they both recognised that aerodynamics are the end game, which has a far higher impact that outright watts.

My goals for the rest of this year are to ride one more crit in around 4 weeks before entering winter mode and preparing for next year, which I'm going to hit full on this time, with avengance. I know now that if I carry some of what I have this year into next and train properly in the preceeding months I should be able to win the first crit.

Even with the recent weight loss I still have a bit of a gut hanging over my shorts, but it's only my spare....

Nobody has replied so far to my 2 queries in relation to the results from Milton Keynes.