Zwift Racing Du Style

This week started if with a bang by mixing up a session of Zwift racing, hill reps running off the bike and strength work. That was quite an intense session. Then on Tuesday I did another Zwift race, planning to keep the power down to a manageable level so I didn’t kill myself. I sort of managed that but probably still went too hard. Wednesday was another tough day as I had a Duathlon simulation planned. I warmed up in Watopia. Then ran for 45 min as 10 min warm up, 30 min increase pace every 5 min, then 5 min easy. I timed that run to get back into Zwift where I’d entered the Bologna short TT. It worked well and I had about 2 min to wait before I was off. The legs were tired - very tired! I struggled quite a bit and the course didn’t help as although short, the final 4K is steep climbing. With fresh legs I would attack the climb but I was hanging on. After that it was the final leg of the Duathlon simulation which was a short 15 min increase pace run again. A great session but hard. Tired now. Back to work

Timed 5K - Run Fitness Assessed

This week I really tried to recover better and make the key sessions count. The important session this week was a timed 5K run, which would provide some sort of idea as to my run fitness. The consistent track sessions stopped early March due to the lockdown. So my hopes of building some sped into spring have kind of taken a wrong turn! I used the Whammy Parkrun course for the 5K but amended the route slightly to try and get the flattest route possible! The out and back course is pretty flat anyway but it does have a 600m drag to the turn point. Anyway, although nit totally fresh for this effort I was feeling ok. I had a bit of a blip half way and then picked up the pace towards the end. This made me think I should have pushed harder through the middle part. But a finish time of 18:20 is as fast as I’ve ran for the last 4 years. So I can’t complain. This week I received my NB Fuelcell trainers. Although I didn’t use these for my timed 5k (it was raining!), I did use them for my second run that day. The day’s train I was a broken Duathlon. So later, after the 5K timed, I did a Zwift race followed by a tempo 3k in the NB. Great feelings in these shoes and I’m eager to try them again in a fast paced run. I’ve put some Hickies laces in them for fast transitions. I’ll need to play around with lace positioning but they seem slick to get on as this set up. I really enjoyed the split Duathlon day but it was quite hard on the legs. I had an easy day on Friday, just a recovery spin. Then I ran for 90 min to a 65% HR. This felt ok but again, tired legs. To finish the week I completed the Zwift Week 8 session 4 set - and then carried on to complete 70k in 2:04 bagging the Big Foothills route badge. So extra XP pints means I’m closing in Level 21. Now for a few recovery days.

Sunny Spring

It’s now official; this spring is the sunniest ever in the UK. This fact was not lost on me as I reflected on the fact that since mid-March I’d only ridden once outside! So I zipped out again yesterday for a relaxed spin to grab some vitamin D before the weather breaks - which it now has!

This ride was also the first outing for my Boardman that I had purchased 2nd hand early April from an NTC member. What a great ride this bike is. I really enjoyed riding this bike. It’s very responsive and stable on descents. Very pleased. And the ride in the sun was great too. Shame it’s wet and significantly cooler today.

Now and Then - 38 Years Ago!

Wow! I clocked a fb post the other day that showed a photo from 1981/2 of a bunch of guys from Harborough AC - my old athletics club from my pre-RAF days. I am front eight. I haven’t really changed. Can you tell the difference? I know that I was significantly faster back then! With a 10k pb at 32:23 and 3000m on the track in 8:51, I’d settle for anywhere within a few mins of those times now!

Key Sessions - First Outdoor Ride in 2 Months

I have found myself fighting to be fresh and always being tired when training. This surely cannot be good and I need to accept that at the ripe old age of 55 I cannot recover as quickly as I used to. I am sure if I read Blog posts from 10 years ago I will have said the same! My brain simply wants my body to do things that it is incapable of doing! So I have tried to simplify my training. I have 2 Key sessions - both bike/run sessions - that form the basis of training build up to September. The idea is that I hit these session fresh (relatively fresh) to expend a decent effort. The first Key Session is a short high intensity Bike/Run and the second Key Session is a longer Bike/Run Endurance Threshold session. Between these Key sessions I need to tick over very easy and include the long run session - but at a very easy HR controlled effort. Today I did the Key Session 2 Endurance Threshold. This session is one that I have used before and it is very productive and a decent confidence boost. Both the Bike and Run are completed as descending (time) efforts with 2 Min spin/jog RI. Whilst the time descends for each effort: 8 min, 6 min, 4 min, 2 min, the pace increases. So 8 min is slightly slower than race pace, 6 min at race pace, 4 min slightly faster than race pace, 2 min hard. Today I rode outdoors for the first time since mid-March and I completed the sets twice through for 38k total. I rode my Singlespeed, which provides a spot on TT position for me.

Next week I will add the next rep and so on, building to complete 3 times through the full sets. Run today felt hard as I think I was a bit too tired starting the session than I would have liked. But I completed 10k total n 45 min ending with the second 6 min race pace effort. So next time, I will aim to add the nest effort at 4 min slightly above race pace. Still no news about the London Duathlon but I will be disappointed if the event is cancelled. Oh well, so many people have had their season ruined, I can't complain if my main goal is also cancelled. With my training re-focus, I fell quite motivated. I think I am in decent shape and can build further up to September. I have also ordered some new trainers - speedy ones! New Balance Fuelcell Rebel:

In Zwift news, I am now at Level 20 and enjoying the experience even more! My Key Session 2 Bike will be a Zwift race or TT. The weather at the moment in the UK is really good and this makes me yearn for Annecy Mountains. This time last year I was preparing to leave for a week in paradise. Oh well, maybe next year. . . . .

Zwift Takes Over!

It is now 2 months since I started to use Zwift with a new Smart Trainer. There is now doubt that my cycling fitness has improved significantly. I did the last 10 mile TT in the NTC serial and bagged a fastest time of 23:07. On the same course a month ago I clocked 23:58. So that is a massive improvement. The training quality is certainly there; so is the accumulated volume each week. But I am fighting fatigue. So I need to be careful! I completed my first Zwift Road Race in the Tour for All Stage 5; this was very enjoyable but sooooo hard! The start was full-on and with 300+ Watts showing for the first few minutes, I knew I would blow if this output continued. But the Zwift race norm is that the bunch goes mad and whoever is left after the first 10 mins or so makes the segregation to compete for places. It actually took about 20 mins before the bunch settled into an easier pace - but only easier by a smidgin! I foolishly thought that I would be in with a shout of maintaining my place in the front bunch. But I missed a split after 35 mins and a front bunch got away. There way no way I was going to chase as I was pretty much on the limit just to stay in the bunch I was amongst. The finish was 4k climbing up Keith Hill. So I went as hard as I could. A 20th place finish was great for me in the Cat A race. But I went very deep! To add to the Zwift experience, I needed to record my HR. Some races require riders to record HR to verify performance. As my Garmin HR monitor was not playing (it had never been used since getting my Garmin 910 in 2015) I grabbed a CooSpoo HR monitor. This device has been excellent so far. For the first time in a zillion years I am training HR! I tried my first run to HR today; a long as easy as possible run. With a max HR of 181 (from my Zwift race), I wanted to keep HR 60% - 70% of max. My run max HR is likely to be higher than my bike max HR, but I am not in the mood to run a HR max test! The run actually felt much easier by doing this. I do get hung up on the run pace normally. So this HR thing is a good focus for me for the next few months.

Race Season is Here. . But not Really 🥺🥴

Yes we are approaching mid-May and the race season would normally be cranking up now. Of course everything is not normal. In fact the latest news is stating that we will never be back to normal - we will be creating a new normal 😮. What does this mean for racing and sports events in general? The answer is still ‘nobody knows’. The cycling Grand Tours seem to be clinging to life, with plans to hold all 3 tours between end of August and November. I’m nit sure this will be possible but it would be good to see some racing within the new normal. I am also clinging on to participating in a race this year - just one will do me! The London Duathlon is one of the few events not yet cancelled. If it is cancelled I think my morale will take a hit. I’m in ok shape now and feel that I can target this race to do well. In fact, this lockdown has actually really helped my training. I am getting far more training completed and getting better recovery. Add to this the addition of my smart turbo trainer that allows me to link to Zwift and training is the most productive and consistent that it’s been since leaving the RAF. The virtual TT series continues and I’ve had another FTP increase to 265W I’m continuing with the 12 week ftp build routine and really enjoying it. My problem now is to stop over training!

I’m running ok too and ran a 19:20 5k off the bike TT this week - though it hurt! Now I’m focusing on building run volume and strength for a couple of months. I’ll aim to throw in the odd short effort run but endurance is king until July. Onwards and upwards.