Update: 3 Weeks...

Weight: 12-5.8. (Target 12-3.9). BMI: 24.8. Body Fat: 22.3%.
Wk5 Training: Hours: 12:43 (Target 12:00). Bike: 239.8km @ 28.0 kph.
 
Weight... Another blip. Up 0.6 lbs to 5.8.  Given that I was supposed to be losing 2 lbs, to go up is a double whammy - a 2.6 lb swing.  I was pretty disheartened this morning - after a hard week's training and the Dragon Ride yesterday to put on weight seemed crazy - but an now clinging to the principle that after a hard ride I have retained some water or somefink.  So, may revert towards 12-4 over the next day-or-so.  If that is the case then, all will be chipper.  I am knocking on the door of getting to 12 stone (76 kg) and with just 2 weeks of dieting to go... Reaching the 12st0 mark will feel like I have got to a real milestone and will be a a bit of a mental boost for the Marmotte. [Edit: Weighed in this morning (Tue 16th) at 12-3.8 Monday weigh-in was post Dragon blip]

 
Training... Interesting & mixed week, comprising commuting, FTP testing, spinning & a sportive.  Pleased with how it all went.  Last week was good for 12hrs 43 of training time, which feels plenty, and this coming week is designed to be a further build before two weeks of taper.  I am focusing my gym time on spin classes for the last few weeks as I find them a great way of getting in a 40 minute intensive cycling specific workout.

 

FTP test... Power is the new Heart Rate. Heart rate provides a good guide to intensity of training, but the current top trump of workload measurement is power (as recorded by a power meter).  Whilst I am a big fan of tempering effort in sportives by perceived effort i also like to crunch the data and am coming round to the idea of using/getting a power meter.  With that in mind I decided last week that it would be a worthwhile exercise to test my FTP (the power I could sustain for an hour).  I hope that it will give me an idea where I am with my training, help me predict what pacing strategy I should adopt at the Marmotte (based upon other riders pacing/power profiles last year) and set a benchmark to judge FTP tests in future months/seasons against.  The test was done at MM's flat using his turbo, bike & powertap with the protocol adopted was from Hunter Allen's 'Training with Power'.  This meant a 30 minutes warm up, a 5 min FTP test, 10 mins recovery, 20 mins FTP test and then recovery/warm down. Now, I have never really got on with my turbo - I don't have anywhere suitable to leave it up and find the set up process too much faff - so have spend very little time turboing, and none at any real intensity. Boy, was I in for a shock...

 

The 30 min warm up (at 130HR including a few minutes at a high cadence) was enough to work up a swat and then I was off for a 5 minute gallop. This part of the test is tough, but on the plus side pretty soon there is just three minutes to go, then two, then unleash for the final minute. 336watts. Awesome - I like to set myself arbitrary targets based upon my perception even without any real backup and was hoping to get a FTP of 300w - this felt like it might be on target.  The ten minutes recovery where exactly that, 10 minutes to get my heart rate down from 178 towards 125bpm. It was a short ten minutes.  I was off again.  I set out on this 20 minute test at just over 300w.  But the pace was too hot.  I soon new I couldn't sustain this and had to back off.  I saw my power drop to the mid 270's and my heart rate continue to creep up. This is a hellish test.  You are already feeling like there is very little left, look down and there's still 11 odd minutes to go. With 5 minutes to go my spirits lifted and I focused on eeking out a little more power, then with two minutes left I put everything in. 278watts.

 

The numbers were crunched and the FTP worked out as approx 260 watts (3.3w/kg). Not upto my arbitrary expectations, but now I have a non-arbitrary number to build upon. Target for next year of 4w/kg? This would take me from Moderate/Cat.4 to Good/Cat.3 on Coogan's Power Profile. Which could be achieved bu a mere drop in weight of 4% (78kg to 75kg) and 16 increase in w/kg to give an FTP of 300w.  Easy?

 

Dragon Ride... The Dragon is an excellent sportive with some great scenery, but best of all for those of us training for the Alps are the long climbs.  The problem with the Surrey Hills is that the climbs, whilst steep, are short (even the legendary Box Hill is just 2.4k or 7mins).  The Dragon offers a number of challenging climbs but most notably is the Bwlch (twice!) and the Rhigos which last 20-30mins and allow you to practice the mindset that is required in the alps of just keeping going despite the end being nowhere in sight!

 

This was my third year at the Dragon and this is how I have done previously:

 

2007: 193.5k.  7:18:34 (26.5kph).

266th out of 899.

2008: 175.7k.  7:11:17 (25.0kph).

678th out of 1240.

 

With this in mind, I was targetting a ride something similar to 2007.  i.e. 26.5 to 27.0 kph (6:58 to 7:06)

 

I paced the ride pretty well, taking the first section slightly conservatively and then upped the ante into the Breacon Beacons and on the way back towards Bridgend. The second (harder) climb of the Bwlch went as well as expected (after 150km) and after the decent the 25k run in to the finish was done full bore.

 

2009: 187.8k.  6:42:41 (28.0kph).

173rd out of 1544 finishers.

 

Other stats for the ride:

Elapsed Time: 6:42 (28.0 kph)

Ride Time: 6:34 (28.5 kph)

Av.HR: Av 140.  MaxHR: 165.

KCals: 5,012

 

All-in-all I am pretty delighted with the ride and the result. The average speed is a fair bit above 2007 when I was in pretty good shape (a few weeks before the Etape) and my average HR indicates that I (perhaps) could have gone a little harder still.

 

Schedule...
For the next few weeks the schedule is pretty much set.
Mon-Fri: Spin Classes
This weekend:  Iron Mountain Sportif (160k)
Next weekend: Taper / Club Run (90k)
Then: La Marmotte (174k)