Head back in the game

So far this year,  I’ve been training fairly consistently. A mix of Zwift, TrainerRoad sessions on the turbo and some social longer rides with Simon, in the Surrey hills. The big thing I’ve been noticing is my need to spend more time recovering from sessions. There are times when I just don’t know how my legs are going to react. Take this morning, for example. I was meant to do a 5x7 minute TR interval session at 105%ftp, which at the moment would make each interval around 300 watts. A hard session, but nothing to get my knickers in a twist about. As it was, I barely made it through the warm up and bailed almost immediately in the first interval. I just didn’t have it in my legs, and even the gentle spin on Zwift that I did instead, was quite hard even though I was spinning at watts that had me barely breathing. 

These days happen, and happen more frequently than they used to, but it’s making me question whether lots of structure in my training is worth it? I’m starting to think it’s best that I just hop on my bike and see how I am, before deciding whether it is a day for a hard session or not. It can be demoralising to have a session planned and then not be able to get anywhere near accomplishing it.  

Along with this, one of the other tweaks that I have made to my training is that I am doing less intensity and more steady, easy riding. This is again to increase volume without wiping me out all the time. Quite a bit of this has been on Zwift where I have been riding steady for around 90 minutes, burning fat and trying to get my weight back to around 70kgs. I’ve made good progress so far, coming down from 74kgs to 71, so I must be doing something right.  

I’m also tinkering with my kit. I’ve bought a new Giro Aerohead helmet and some new bars to get my front end into a faster position and I’ve started the process of trying to get myself comfortable and familiar with this. In my first outing of the year on the TT  bike it felt faster but only time will tell. 

All of this is to actually do some time trialling and I’ve entered a few events. There’s a couple of Sporting TTs coming up but the biggie will be the Breckland 12 hour in August. It would be good to add on some miles to my 246 mile ride a few years ago. 

3 (hundred) is the magic number

After 13 weeks of lockdown, I’ve reached my goal.  Last night I did my latest TrainerRoad ramp test, and for the first time ever, I got over the 300 watt barrier for my ftp; the first time in nearly 5 years. It’s no surprise that the two key elements to achieving this was consistency and rest. Really, quite simple. 

I am extremely pleased but now the proof of the pudding will be to actually pin a number on and race. Hopefully soon. 

Lockdown life

First time to Ditchling, in a loooong time!

Everything and everyone, is in this strange limbo hinterland; not quite work; not quite holiday; not quite quarantine. I should be slap-bang in the middle of Ironman training and climbing the periodisation hill towards glory in Copenhagen. But I’m not and while I’m well and truly over the disappointment of not going to Copenhagen, trying to remain focussed with any type of training has been hard, as one by one, the likelihood of any events happening this season becomes evermore remote. My hope was that I might be able to get in a 50 mile, 100 mile or 12 hour time trial in before the end of the season as tting seemed the most likely type of event that could be socially distanced, but even that now seems unlikely, as bit by bit, events get pushed back.  


So, we’re all base training for next year. I have a feeling that a lot of amateur athletes are going to be breaking all sorts of PB’s next year, with an 18 month base phase laid down. Slowly and surely, MAMILs and MAWILs all over the globe are developing enormous engines ready to race. Hopefully, I will be one of them.


I have gone back to focussing solely on TrainerRoad. While Zwift was fun and engaging for a month or so, I was caught between two stools, where my volume had gone up but I wasn’t able to make the quality sessions count. As a result, my last FTP test saw me drop a few watts, which indicated that I was overreaching. So, back to 4 rides a week, three on the turbo following the TR Sweetspot base plan and a long ride at the weekend for a bit of aerobic base and catching up with friends. That has been the best thing over the last few weeks. I’d been a few medium-long rides solo, but with the government allowing small groups to meet up, I was able to ride with Simon and Dale again, for a long Sunday ride.

This was a great tonic and my work over the last few months was evident; for once, towing Simon around a long ride to Ditchling and then hanging onto Dale’s wheel for 50 odd miles, last Sunday, with him pumping out silly big watts while I hunkered down and hung on tight. Just getting some proper, long miles in the bank, while the sun was shining, and catching up with mates, made a massive difference to my mood. There’s only so many Zoom quizzes that you can do with friends and family, before the novelty starts to wear off.

Living in the Borough of Kingston, which is one of the mini-Holland areas, we’ve seen a very big bump in bicycle use during the lockdown. We managed to get a second  hand bike for Mrs W, and spent a lovely couple of hours, heading towards Bushy Park, now closed to traffic and hitting a few other cycle paths. In really big news, Mrs W cycled to the shops for the first time today, which is pretty cool. Maybe, some things are changing for the better.

What are you training for?

1 outdoor ride in a month

My daily exercise has consisted of a family walk and a visit to the #palaceofpower, for a Trainerroad or Zwift session. I’ve quite a few club mates and friends who are out doing 50 odd miles on the bike, but that’s just not for me. Some of them don’t have a turbo and are living on their own, so I fully understand getting out for a ride for their own sanity and well being, but I’ve got a turbo and I don’t need to be outside on a bike, so I’m happy to do all my riding on a turbo. The one exception was a gentle 40 minute spin with little wheezy, her first ride on a road bike. I think we saw a handful of cars, the whole ride. It was actually quite lovely.

But knowing that I’m going to be spending a lot more time on the turbo, I’ve had a massive clear up and clear out and tried to make my setup much more user friendly. The palace is in fact, our garden shed, admittedly, a relatively spacious one, but a shed, nonetheless. It’s very damp and cold in the winter and very hot and airless in the summer, and with the weather turning as we hit this Easter weekend, I needed to set about making it as comfortable and ergonomic as possible.

So, after clearing a lot of space, I’ve now set things up so that my iPad is easier to see.  I bought a fan from Amazon, which has a remote control so I can set it just so, depending on how much power I’m kicking out. The low setting is fine for when I’m noodling along,  high for the VO2 max interval efforts. My head is pretty close so I’ve got a really good airflow over my body, and as I’ve now placed my turbo by the windows, I can have them open too, so that I have a good airflow going through the space.  I’ve screwed a bottle cage to the wall, so that I can get my fluids a lot more easily and bought a 4 way extension lead which also has 4 USB ports, so I can keep my iPad and phone charged up as well as charging Garmins and lights too. I even bought myself a proper riser block for the front wheel, having finally got rid of the 2015 edition Next catalogue, high over the years has got lower and lower as pages got torn off.

It’s sooooo much better with this setup and just means I’m hopping onto my bike and not having to set things up to get going. It goes without saying that within 30 minutes of me completing this, on my next ride, my turbo broke and got a puncture! The knob that pushes the roller against the tyre sheared off in my hand; I’ve ordered a new one and I can just about get it to work until it arrives next week. Vexing though!
As of writing, I’ve ridden over 200 miles on the turbo, this week.  Most of that has been while chatting to club mates, but I did give my first Zwift race a go. I started at the back and decided to hop my way through the field and see how far up I could get. I ended up 27/125, so pretty chuffed and ended up pushing some quite large watts for almost an hour. I’m really noticing the effect of having a fan, as my rpe is so much lower for the given watts.

A couple of weeks ago, I ended up deleting all of my planned races from my Training Peaks account. The homepage then went from telling me that Ironman Copenhagen would be in 16 weeks to ‘What are you training for?’ That question can be answered in two different ways, so now I’ve had some thinking time, I can now answer them.

What are you training for?
I’m training to stay fit; keep my weight in check; catch up with friends through Zwift and Strava; build my ftp; keep my immune system strong. For the foreseeable future, this is the most important ‘What am I training for?’ Just keeping a sense of balance and purpose while we go through these crazy times.

What are you training for?
Next year is the London-Edinburgh-London audax and I’ve wanted to do this for a while. It’s every 4 years, so it doesn’t come around too often. It’s next July, so will fit in with the school holidays and work. Being a member of Audax Uk, I should get a guaranteed entry, but if for some reason, I can’t , then there is also the London-Lands End-London audax, which would be a great substitute.
As this will mean preparing for going long, I’m also going to focus on 100 mile time trials, and see if I can go under 4 hours. Tbh, this is a massive stretch target. My 50m pb (1hr57), set a few years ago would suggest that it’s possible, but possible and probable are two very different things. I just don’t think I’m going to have the time or space to do a long course triathlon next year; I think I would just be spreading myself too thin, and with the 100m TT target, there will be a number of opportunities in the course of the season to have a go, so I won’t be putting all my eggs in one basket.

2020, from a racing point of view, now seems a complete write-off, but I can use this time wisely to have a stonking 2021.

The results are in

Nom nom nom.

No running again this week, with a beautifully formed bruise on the top of my foot where it looks like I've strained a tendon or some such. I've progressed from hobbling in pain to being able to walk normally, which I suppose is an improvement, but I'm still waitnig to hear back from a physio to see if there is anything else I can do, although I think some carefully placed plasazote under the balls of my feet will be in order to get my foot in the correct shape.

While that's been going on I have used this week to do an ftp test on Trainerroad and a critical swim speed test in the pool. Both results were really encouraging. On the turbo I was able to push out 275W ftp, which is a power pb, just. Bearing in mind that I had been ill the proceeding 2 weeks and that I had not done any focussed and consistent turbo work this was pretty good. I was expecting a 10-15watt loss, so this bodes well for the rest of the winter. In the pool I absolutely rinsed myself over the 400 and 200 metre tts. I completed the 400 in 7:09 and the 200 was in 3:31, which gives a CSS value of 1:49/100m. This might be a little low as I was holding 1:45s in my 100 repeat sets last week, and probably indicates that I need more endurance as I progress over the next few months.

Other than that it was 3 turbo sessions, finishing off with an hour yesterday afternoon. All good, except it left me in pieces for today's ride out with Simon; 3 hours of barely being able to turn the cranks whenever the road even slightly went uphill. It was pretty rugged, but the rain held off and there was the best cheese on toast in the world, so it wasn't all bad. The next couple of weeks are going to be really hard to fit sessions in, as work and home is particularly busy this month, but hey, no one said it would be easy.

Double whammy

If you regularly use a turbo, you’ll understand. 

It’s been a quiet week. Only 4.30hrs of anything that would constitute training. I have not run all week, with my foot gradually getting better as the week has gone on.  Unfortunately as the week went on I was also feeling more and more ropey until a full on cold developed yesterday. To be honest, I’m not surprised as work has been mental and my sleep has been really poor. Luckily I only have another week to get through until a two week break, so while this week has been very quiet and next week will probably be similar, as it’s my first cold in a very long time I’m not too down about it. I might as well get my autumn injury and illness out of the way in one hit.

So what did I accomplish? I’m starting to get back into the groove on the turbo. The TrainerRoad sessions are usually hard and take a lot of mental strength to get through, and often, even to start. It’s about getting the right mindset to walk into the wattage cottage when my bed is often a much more attractive option. As I’ve felt ropey, the three sessions this week have been gentle, aerobic ones at 65% ftp, but staying on the tt bars, catching up on a few podcasts. Depending on how this cold develops, next week will probably be much the same. Full on VO2 max sets or threshold work would be counterproductive and will have to wait for another week. There’s no rush.

I swam on Tuesday night and it felt like I was swimming in jam. I guess this was the first indication that I was not feeling right but at the time it just felt really hard going even though I was only doing short 50m and 100m drills. Hopefully I can get another 2 swims in this week, but only if I have a miraculous recovery, which with my past history of colds is highly unlikely. In the meantime I have had to make do with watching the coverage from Kona over the weekend. It’s helped to keep my mojo up while real life has got in the way.

40 weeks to go.

My ego's writing cheques.......

my body can't cash.

Possibly the greatest line from Top Gun, and very pertinent to this post. Last post I was crowing about my very healthy increase to 263 watts from my last ftp test; a personal best. This has proved to be a false positive. I did a couple of TrainerRoad sessions and it was impossible for me to attain the numbers needed in each set. I would get a couple of reps in and my legs would be absolutely shot, with no way back to complete each session. When I took the test I had to use a higher than normal gear as the other gears were slipping so I was working on a much lower cadence. Somehow, this has given me a false result and I have had to suffer the ignominy of lowering my ftp. The good news is though, not by much; down to 256 watts and this has made all the difference.

So on Saturday, I'm trying something new.  I'm heading off to Ardingly to do a 4th category training session so that I can take part in the Surrey League Road Racing events.  To be honest, I'm actually pretty nervous. I have managed to get to 47 years of age without breaking any bones (despite coming off a motorbike (twice) and falling out the sky in a hang glider) I have therefore led a fairly charmed life. However, it seems that putting 30 or so MAMILS in very close proximity to each other, all thinking they might be the next Cav, could well end up in shattered carbon, aluminium and bones. Because of this, the Surrey League, very wisely, introduced compulsory training, which all riders have to attend. It basically ensures that all riders understand basic group riding skills so that they can be as safe as possible and it also covers racing techniques. My hope is that even if I don't race it will improve my personal skills when Group riding. Simon and I are riding down, doing the session then riding back. It could be a very long day in the saddle.

Pleasantly surprised

Despite the January and back to work blues, this is usually an exciting time of the year as I'm formulating the racing season to come and starting to get into some more meaty training.  I have some very good news. Yesterday I did another ftp test after completing the latest Trainerroad sweet spot base training block.  My last test was a little disappointing with a very modest 4 watt increase, and it was partly due to this that I decided to complete two base blocks.  I really went for it and I was a blubbering mess at the end. So my ftp result was 263 watts; a new power pb and some 30+ watts more than this time last year. This is a significant improvement and I'm thrilled that I have this power base to work from. That said, I also weighed myself on January 1st and that's an all time high too. 77kgs, which is the heaviest I have been in a very long time. So the plan is to get this down to 70kg by June and that should see my power/weight ratio get within striking reach of the magical 4w/kg.

I've started entering a few events, most notably the Gill Jessop Sporting 14 time trial organised by the Kingston Wheelers. It's in February so it's always a cold one but it's a good, no nonsense season opener, with excellent cake. (Although that's currently banned from my diet). I have also entered the National 12 hour TT on the same course as my failed 12 hour last year. The aim here is to hit 240 miles minimum and if Simon and Dale enter, which they probably will, and the day is a good one, I am sure we will have a crack at the Phoenix 12hr team record.

However, for the next month it's all about the turbo, with a long ride at the weekend.  I've got an ftp value to improve on.

Winter.

I'm trying to get some serious turbo action at the moment. I spent a bit of time looking back at my TrainerRoad history and the obvious thing is that if I maintain 250/300 TSS consistently, then my ftp takes a nice lurch upwards. With the weather being cold and icy it's making it easier to focus on my turbo work.  I want to try to get my ftp up and over 260 watts by the time we get to May, as that should set me up for some good performances. The Kingston Wheelers have their Audax series which will be my aerobic events to focus on next season. At the moment, it's turbo and coffee drinking at the weekend.

I've also treated my self to a Garmin 800 to help me plan and discover some new routes in the Surrey Hills and beyond. Looking forward to it.

Big week

The last month has just been about establishing a regular routine again with my training, which has been 2 or 3 Trainerroad sessions in the week with a long ride at the weekend. Last week I was on half term break so I was able to get a pretty big week in, with 250 miles ridden, including a long 90 miles on the first Monday, taking in some new lanes up and over the North Downs. I had not realised just how steep a few of these climbs would be. I based my ride around the Battle of Britain, taking in a Hurricane crash site, the White Hart Pub where Biggin Hill pilots would have a few beers in the evening, followed by skirting around the old aerodromes at Biggin Hill and Kenley. It was a slow, relaxed ride and I was out most of the day before it started to rain in the last hour.

Crash site and memorial of Sgt. Fenemore's Hurricane in South Godstone

Memorial at Kenley Aerodrome

RAF graves in St Luke's Church, Whyteleafe

Next week is the Ballbuster duathlon. A classic event in the multisport calendar that I have never done. I'm going to register and start the run but I have absolutely no idea if my foot is going to last and it might be a very early dnf for me. If nothing else, I will get a new hoodie out of it.

Back on the horse

The last few weeks have just been about getting back on the titanium horse.  Lots of short commuting, doing my best to avoid the numptys driving while on their phones, with the odd longer 20 mile ride home as a special treat on a Friday night. Also getting back into regular Trainerroad sessions and I have gone back to the Sweetspot base plan, but this time I am doing the low volume plan.  This means three interval sessions per week but I will bulk that out with a longer weekend ride and the longer commutes already mentioned for the recovery and endurance rides.

I am meant to be doing the Ballbuster next month, but this is looking very doubtful. My left foot is still very achy at times, despite stretching and manipulation. I think another 2-3 weeks off and then I might give a gentle run a go. In the meantime: bike!

It wouldn't be triathlon training....

without an injury.

I tweaked my left Achilles last Sunday (not an official physiotherapy term, but one that we can all relate to and understand) last Sunday when I ran with Simon and Dale. It was fine at the time but was quite sore afterwards. The route we ran was considerably hillier than I have been used to recently and the additional stress ended up with the tweak. I left it a couple of days and it seemed fine so I ran home from work on Wednesday. It's a fairly flat 7 miles and with hindsight I should have taken the shorter route to test it out, but the need to get some run volume has been playing on my mind so I went for the longer option. With a couple of miles to go it was quite sore and I plodded on, again ignoring common sense and not walking. It's now settled down to a very mild ache and I have started to do my heel drops and calf stretching which I should have started weeks ago. I have been a good boy and been doing some core work though; the dirty dog, scorpion twist and plank are all back in my regular vernacular.

Cycling is going well with another couple of TR sessions in the week, a recovery 20 miles on Friday followed by 85 miles yesterday, riding out to Windsor and back with a bit of a loop around Surrey, avoiding the hills bar the climb up to Newlands. That's three 80+ mile rides this month so I think my aerobic endurance is hopefully growing along with my ftp. All this has been on the road bike so I am going to start to practice my pacing and nutrition on the TT bike over the coming weeks, starting with a 50m tt next weekend, if I make the start sheet.

I'm 12 weeks out from the Outlaw, so as long as I can get running again soon then I should still be on track. But, as usual, it's probably going to be a bit of a close run thing.

off my feet

So two weeks of solid bike work and quite chuffed that I have not missed any Trainerroad sessions since the first week, which has panned out as three turbo sessions with a long road ride each Saturday morning. Last week was my longest ride in about a year, covering a shade over 60 miles going out to Windsor and then finishing off with a little lap around home. Yesterday I was joined by Simon again and I found it pretty hard going as it was my fifth ride in five days, with the proceeding two being quite long sweetspot turbo sessions which left me feeling pretty battered. I have one more big bike week this week which I am hoping to finish off with a long tt ride on Saturday.

Running has been a bit of a false dawn. I was looking forward to the Hampton Court Half this morning until my foot flared up on Friday evening. It was ok on the bike but quite painful to walk on so there was no way I was going to run 13 miles on it, so today was a rest day. Once it clears up in a couple of days I need to get back on my feet and start to integrate some weekly running properly. I also need to enter a couple of races and see where I stand.

Mr Consistent

So four weeks into my trainerroad plan and I've only dropped one session; result! This was in the first week before I committed to getting up early and getting my sessions done. It's getting easier to get up at 5am and do my turbo sessions, in fact it's now not a factor at all. Everyone wins as I'm not stressing about getting them done late at night after a full day's work and usually some work in the evening too and being a parent. But I'm trying to ensure that I get my long weekend ride in too, as that's where last season didn't work out and I think that the trainerroad sessions in the week with a long road ride at the weekend will hopefully be the magic bullet that will see my cycling improve from last season.

I do get asked quite a bit how I can do two plus hours on the turbo and I think the attached photograph probably explains how. While I miss riding outdoors, punctures and rubbish weather is something I don't miss at all. I went out with Simon to Windsor last week and repeated it yesterday and suffering four punctures in two rides is frustrating in the extreme. The facial mudpack is my own doing however. Sitting on Simon's wheel for 40 miles of a 46 mile ride, without either of us having mudguards is not wise and I didn't realise quite how bad it was. The Windsor route was very much like riding a turbo with it being so flat that one had to pedal all the time with no increased effort up hills and no coasting downhill. The route took us out through Walton, Staines, Shepperton etc; all places that while being local to me I had not seen since the 2012 DW and in particular, the bridges took me back to those early morning hours, sat in a kayak while crying in a pool of my own wee. Happy times!

Running is ticking over. This week has been a rest week on Trainerroad, so I took the decision to only do one short run too. With two weeks until the Hampton Court Half I'm going to get a bigger volume week in this week then bimble my way through the race and see where I am. I did a hilly 9 miler last weekend which went well, and by that I mean I was not injured at the end of it. As far as running goes, that's the most important thing; pace and volume are not important, I just don't want to get injured so soon into my tri plan.

Mojo Rising

I've finally got back onto the Trainerroad horse properly and it feels good. Despite being very hacked off with the amount of time I spent off training owing to the virus and resulting cough that I had, it's had the effect of giving my mojo a much needed boost. The plan is to be even more consistent than I was last year. Despite following three TR plans from November 2015 through to June 2016 and training much more consistently on a bike than I ever had before, I was still losing at least a session per week, most weeks. So I really want to not have so many missed workouts and the way I am going to do that is to get my sessions done early. Sometimes I was not starting my workouts until 10:30 at night, which just left me very tired the next day. So I have been getting up at 5am and getting them done before work. I have to admit it was a struggle for the first week but my body clock has adjusted now and it's getting easier every time. The main disadvantage is that it just takes a while to get my heart rate up, despite a good warm up; I am literally rolling out of bed and onto the turbo, so my power output seems a little bit down at the moment, but I also think that might be to do with just getting used to the intensity of turbo sessions again.

So, be more consistent. That means that I need to get that little blue line on the TSS graph above a lot flatter and consistently above 300. I think if I can do that, by August I should be flying. My ego is taking a bit of a battering on my 2 mile cycle into work though. There are always two blokes who come past me while I am spinning lightly on very battered legs while I mumble to myself about already having done a 90 minute session. I'll wait until July and then release the full force of my new found ftp on them. that'll learn them.

Trainerroad plans and the BBAR

Unfortunately the whole month of December has turned out to be a washout for training. As I type this I am coughing my lungs up and have a very bunged up chest. Wheezy by name - wheezy by nature. I thought that I had got over it on Monday and was feeling pretty good so I headed out for a gentle 4 mile run around my standard circuit at comfortable 8 minute miling but almost as soon as I got back I realised that was a mistake. I was then in bed for almost 20 hours feeling thoroughly miserable about it all, the only good thing being that at least I was not at work. So I think December has seen me run twice and do two turbo sessions. Talk about going out with a whimper!

So thoughts naturally turn to next year and the Outlaw. I spent this week flicking through the Trainer road plans and have decided how to attack it. I'm doing the full 12 week Triathlon Base Plan, followed by the 8 week full triathlon build and speciality plans. 28 weeks in total which will start on the week January 9th. So that gives me a couple more weeks to get this bug out of my system and be fit and healthy to start the plan in good shape, although I am sure that both my ftp and weight will be taking a dent. In terms of running I have entered the Hampton Court half Marathon in February which should give me a starting point for some useful run training.

For the rest of the season, I intend to do less tting, with the aim of using races as stepping stones towards to Outlaw and beyond. I intend to focus more on the longer tts with a view to getting a BBAR certificate, which didn't happen this year. I learnt that aerobic fitness over 25 miles simply doesn't translate over 50 and 100 if I have not done the long distance training too. As I am going to have to do that anyway in preparation for the Outlaw, the goals of a decent Outlaw and a BBAR certificate align quite nicely.

In the meantime, I'm off to drink a lemsip.

We go again

It was exactly  this time last year that I started to focus on being a better cyclist by focussing on turbo sessions and using trainerroad. Then, My first ftp test was 205 watts. Last night I tested myself again before starting on the sweetspot base programs and I have a ftp of 256 watts. This was really pleasing and quite a surprise as I have spent the month kicking back and not done any turbo work at all. Somehow my ftp has jumped from 233 to this new figure and I think there are a few things at play here.

 Firstly, temperature. All summer I have been slogging away in the shed when it has been at least 20 degree outside and I have not used any form of artificial cooling whereas last night it was barely above zero. It seems that I was dropping more watts than I thought in an effort to keep cool. I thought it might be a few but am surprised that it was almost 20. Secondly, freshness. My one criticism with Trainerroad programs is that they are quite intense and can leave my legs feeling dead when I need to do another tough session. I think the month's break while doing a little bit of exercise to tick over has actually left me feeling a lot fresher. Lastly, I am more practised at taking and pacing an ftp test which leads to a more accurate result. Anyway, it's all good and great for me to start the base phase with a pretty healthy ftp number.

I became a parkrun tourist for the first time last weekend. We had a weekend break in Weymouth so I decided to go along to the the Parkrun there in Lodmoor Country Park. I managed to squeak into the top 10 with a 19:16 but the weekend before I had achieved a Parkrun PB at Bushy Park and got under 19 for the first time with 18:55. Over the next few months I am going to tick over and try to incorporate some intervals and see if I can get down to a low 18, before starting to build a bit more endurance and try to remain injury free.

I'm still reeling a little bit from entering the Outlaw but I am excited about the challenge. I am going to race a bit less next year, particularly tting, but will focus on key events over the year to build towards the Outlaw triathlon at the end of July. I still feel there's a lot I can do to bring down my 10 and 25 times while my 50 and 100m tt times are still there for the taking and with another winter of focussed work I knw that I can have another good season.

Driven to distraction

Last Sunday was the SCCU SPOCO 25m tt. Four laps on a lumpyish, bumpy and gravelly course, so not particularly fast. I think only one rider went under the hour, with Dale coming very close and getting second place. It was a small field that started but I came 12th, and helped KPRC to a second placed team prize. I won a bottle of wine.

I managed to have another consistent week, mainly on the turbo with a long ride yesterday around the hills. My ftp continues to gradually creep up and on Saturday I had a really good session of 4x10 minutes at ftp. I had ridden this same session just ten days before and I had another 5 watt increase, but this time I stayed aero for the whole session. In the last two weeks I have also started doing to odd session before work, getting up at 5:15am, doing my hour on the turbo, then getting ready. I am not really a morning person so doing a hard session that early in the morning seemed like a bad idea, but it has been manageable and means I am not doing these sessions so late at night. I am also doing these sessions in a fasted state which should help with fat burning, so the theory goes. I have switched to the Trainerroad Low Volume 40km TT plan, which only specifies 3 sessions per week. Basically, one VO2 max session, one sweetspot and one endurance session. The plan is to get these ones done then anything else on top is a bonus, like a longer commute ride home or a long weekend ride.

I think another week or so and I'll test my ftp again. I am gradually closing in on 250 watts and I should invest the same effort in dropping some kilograms but I am finding it hard to do. I seem to be resolutely stuck at 72kgs, but to be honest, this is just a hobby and I like eating, so I am not going to worry about it too much.

My main distraction at the moment is my inability to find the reason for a constant creaking on my Van Nic. New bottom bracket, tightened chainring bolts, checked pedals, sprocket and jockey wheels. It is driving me nuts. Sometimes it is there; sometimes not. I am starting to lose the will to live.

A lightbulb moment

I did my fourth 20 minute ftp test yesterday as I had felt that some of the Trainerroad sessions were getting easier, which meant that somewhere, my aerobic fitness was improving. It had been the best part of two months since my last test owing to having serious manflu ( a mild cold) when I should have conducted the last one. This one was slightly different on a couple of counts. Firstly, I did the test in my rather cold shed, the thinking being that I would not get so hot as I normally do in my well-insulated kitchen and therefore this might help me push out a couple more watts. I also spend more time upright, rather than down on my aerobars, which is how I had conducted the test before. After listening to the Trainerroad podcast, they advocated that you simply have to try to get as many watts out as possible and if that means being in a more 'road' position instead of a tt one, then that should be the way to go.

The test this time felt much harder, I guess because I am starting to bump against my limiters a little bit, and I had a definite fade in the middle part of the test,  but the result was good. 240 watts, compared to my last test at 230. That's not too bad at all and I can now power a pretty standard domestic lightbulb for an hour (in theory anyway). Along the way, I also improved on my best power averages for 2,3,5,10 and 15 minutes.

So using some back of the envelope mathematics I have done approximately 70 Trainerroad sessions and increased my ftp by 35 watts. So every session is helping me to add 0.5 watts to my ftp. OK, I know it's not as simple as that and that there or other factors in play, but the numbers  work quite nicely and at least for the time being it is pretty motivating to still see the numbers creeping up. 250 watts plus is an obvious target now and my watts/kg is now up to 3.33. This weekend sees me start my first 25m tt of the season. Not a fast course but I am hopeful that with some ok conditions, I should be very near the mark I set last year.

My usual Easter......

spent watching the DW tracker, following a couple of crews with personnel that I either know or have followed via blogs or the DW facebook page. As I write, there is a crew who have paddled the heaviest plastic tub down the course and they are currently holed up at Teddington waiting for the second tide; they have been going for over 30 hours already and will have another 2-3 hours paddling once they get back into the water. I have serious respect for that kind of endurance and downright dogged perseverance. It almost makes me want to do it again. I was in the pub with friends last night and text Jamie to have our usual 'Let's do it next year' conversation. Hmm. We'll see.

Trainerroad continues to be going well. A bit of a quieter week this week after a heavy week and the SCCU SPOCO last week. I am coming to the end of the build plan, so I intend to do another FTP test on Tuesday, followed by the start of the 40km TT plan the week after that. Slightly less volume but I think a lot more hurty. Can't wait.