Hi guys and welcome to Week 17 of the series. After six hard weeks of Zwift Academy I took a rest week; where I reduced my weekly volume and intensity. This was a steady week of mostly zone 2 riding, to facilitate recovery and adaptations from the ZA training block. At the end of this week I did however attempt a 1 hour FTP Test. I am quite experienced with doing 20 minute FTP tests, however I have never before tackled the full hour, so thought it would be a good challenge.
Week 17: 15:33 hrs, 470.9 km, 4403m elev.
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Morning guys it’s Monday and week 17 of the series on the bik today and out on some some New Roads well new to you guys not not super new to me I’m down in Devon um staying with my grandma’s um going to be here for the next week and a
Half for leading up until Christmas actually a really nice day today obviously sun’s not out but nice and dry and roads are lovely today weather’s looking actually decent this week leading up until Christmas it’s not getting too cold when it’s getting really cold and there’s there’s ice on
The roads it’s probably not even worth it to get out on the bike but yeah weather’s looking decent so hopefully I’ll get a few rides outside rather than rather than just being stuck on the trainer the whole time but tomorrow it’s going to be pissing it down so I’ll be
On the trainer but yeah hopefully hopefully we can get out on these roads a bit moreit over 3 hours in the bank there I really do like the roads around here like um you’ll be on a road that’s nice and flat or steady steady undulations but then you’ve also got some really
Nasty Hills like you once you once you go down a hill you know you’re coming right back up and yeah it’s like a mix between stepen AG is very much those rolling roads and then in Sheffield it’s very much this up and down it’s kind of
A mixture between the two it feels like um yeah cuz I really like the rolling roads but then you need you need some good good Hills once in a while and the hill the hills around here are no joke so yeah good fun it’s Tuesday out on the bike again
Today in the proper British slop today they’re very rainy pretty miserable but yeah decided I didn’t want to go on the turbo today so getting out for another 2 and 1/2 hours just to keep the legs ticking over on the recovery week going to do a couple of Sprints today just to
Them back up sort of thing and I’m going to do an FTP test on Friday do a 20 minute 20 minute effort at the end of this recovery week aiming for around 15 hours for the week down from 18 from P 8 weeks or so been about 18 hours
A week on the bike so nice decrease to let me recover 2 hours into my ride now just doing a bit of a Recon of the the road that I’m planning to do my FTP test on on Friday um originally I was just planning on doing a 20 minute test so
Got a 10 m stretch of road that I was planning on doing that on but having to think about it there’s a I can I can just as easily do a do a 1 hour test on the same road just going up and down um two or three times and I don’t really
Get the opportunity to do that yeah Jesse Co did that today and at the end of the day the 1 hour test is going to be the most accurate representation of you FTP um obviously it’s harder mentally and physically um but even if I completely screw up the effort and end
Up doing 380 Watts then I’ve still got that range of 380 to 390 of where I think my FTP is at and when I’m doing efforts if I’m if I’m feeling good I’m going to be on the upper end of that go for 400 wats if I’m not feeling great
I’ll still be down at 380 so at the end of the day the test doesn’t matter a bit of a of a wimp if I if I decided to just do a 20 minute in terms of reproducibility when I’m back home in Sheffield I don’t really have a road I
Could do a a one hour effort on it would I’d probably have to just be doing 20 minute efforts but I don’t think I’m going to be retesting anytime soon cuz I’ll be doing SE training sessions and then I’ll be monitoring my fitness based on how I perform in those sessions and rather
Than tapering for a 20 minute or 1 hour effort I’d most likely be doing a time trial or a road race so I’m probably not going to be doing any FTP tests until until next offseason next winter so yeah it’s a good opportunity to give it a
Crack and like I said there’s nothing nothing to lose with it it doesn’t really matter if I completely blow up on the effort um so yeah just give it a give it a good 1 hour effort I reckon I think it’ll be a lot more interesting to
See where the results are obviously a aim for around 400 watts for the hour cuz I would I I would have been aiming for 421 for 20 minutes which estimates a 400 watt FTP but yeah go for the go for the full hour and see see what I’ve got
Another good 2 and a half hours in the bank there stacking up the miles even in the even on the off week morning guys it’s Wednesday and I’m back out in the slop again today now this wasn’t the plan it was actually me to be really
Nice weather today it was me to be dry I literally left the house on the four I said 0% chance of rain for the next 6 8 hours um and yeah been pissing it down the whole half an hour that I’ve been out so far absolutely drenched um but
Yeah it happens previously weather’s useless as normal um just doing 2 hours easy today then I’ll do 2 hours easy again tomorrow um and then FTP test on the Friday so yeah nice it should be nice and fresh going into it easy easy week and then a particularly easy couple
Of days going into into the the session which is going to be that 1 hour test like I’m thought about doing yesterday Rim though cleared up now but I’m still absolutely drenching coming and shik so typical typical britsh over that pretty bloody Grim that rain stopped for
About 10 minutes and then came right back again so yeah ccep also cramping up pretty badly at the end now normal Affairs pretty much morning guys it’s Thursday and I’m actually doing in a indoor ride today so I’m up in a barn we have so I’ve set up the trainer here um
It’s actually a nice day outside but it’s super windy 50 mph wind you know it’s not not very fun especially with big um big foils and I’m just wanting to do two hours easy today so yeah pretty happy to just be on the trainer so yeah
I’ve got this got this set up in the barn not a bad setup really drive train is so quiet Eerie my dad came along and open the gate for me I was very much appreciated cuz I was already sweating my balls off after 25 minutes so now super windy so
Get get a bit of a breeze coming in which is good not too bad at the end there just a nice steady two hours so that’s done then big FTP test tomorrow 1 hour test out on the road so looking forward to that like so nice and ready
For it after for basically a whole week off morning guys it’s Friday and it’s actually my birthday I’m 23 today um but yeah doing doing the plan session of the 1 hour FTP test it’s very windy so conditions aren’t great for it but yeah still still want to do it it’s all about
The power rather than even if I don’t get the segments at the end of the day just going to get out for a 40 minute warm up or so and then I’ll then I’ll uh probably take off the the jacket and get ready for the test and give it yeah give
It a good burn see what’s see what I can do for a proper 1 hour test rather than just a 20 minute nice and warm now so I’ve ditched the jacket and the gloves and yeah just head to the head to where and going start this effort from and
Yeah give it a give it a really good burn scary but yeah let’s let’s get after it aiming for 400 wats for for the whole hour so obviously lofty goal um but no reason why it’s not possible I mean I’ve had such a good blocker training and then had a proper rest week
So yeah um this is this is the one sort of time that I’m going to be really ready for this sort of effort so and like I said I’m not going to be really doing any more FTP tests it’s going to be racing all in the new year so I
Wouldn’t really have time or the necessity to to do that just finished the effort now and yeah God damn was that humbling experience um yeah very very difficult being honest is a very difficult day for it like it’s very windy um and yeah the the the road I was
Doing just 20 a 20 mph cross headwind and it felt like on the out and so there an out and back to start off with and it felt like felt like on the out and back that you had the cross headwind 90% of the time you know it didn’t didn’t feel
Like you catching the Tailwind for a break at all so yeah very difficult day for it cuz it’s hard it’s hard to to Pace it and like demotivating go so you’re pushing so hard on the pedals and you’re you’re moving nowhere I started off with good intentions as as planned
And for for 400 watts and unlike the shorter efforts it didn’t make sense to really try and hype myself up straight away because it’s such a long effort that you need to just I think I you you can’t you can’t hype yourself up and
Then be be full on for for an hour I think you need to start with that calmness and then then when it starts getting difficult halfway that’s when you you need to Hype yourself up I was pretty quickly falling off falling off the pace and wasn’t able to hold 400 so
It dropped to 380 and then the initial half an hour was very much into the headwind and I was I was just losing motivation and the power was dropping off a lot um and I was lapping I was lapping the the wo to try and distract
Me so I couldn’t see my average power anymore and yeah man managed to managed to hold on to a decent pace but yeah very much off what I was expecting but um kept going to the end finished the effort and I’m glad I did yeah very
Humbling I say um coming up with a justification after after something goes wrong but um yeah it does it doesn’t make sense that I’d be on top form for an effort like this at the moment the way I structured Swift Academy is I started with the the longest effort cuz
That’s where I knew I’d be best at and over the course of the Academy I focused more on improving the V2 Max and anerobic side of things so I’ve really been focusing on that energy system and the threshold the Aerobic System hasn’t been hasn’t been the focus I’ve just
Been trying to maintain that um and the sessions have all been focused on the the V 2 Max and the anerobic stuff and that’s where I’m fitter than ever in that in that respect Fitness is a blanket term and I’ve got specific Fitness for the higher end stuff but
Then obviously the aerobic stuff isn’t going to be as strong now I didn’t think it would be as weak it was um maybe if I did a 20 minute effort it wouldn’t have been as obvious that my aerobic engine has has fallen off slightly I might have
Been able to sort of how they say cheat your way through the test like use my use my new fast twitch fibers that I’ve got from the the anerobic side of things and get a get a bit of a force positive so yeah it was good to good to do that
Effort to show that the the threshold side of things is lacking and yeah I will be the the first block I’m going to be doing in the new year is bringing back the threshold stuff and that’s that’s definitely going to be needed because um yeah I got absolutely bank
Today so yeah just finished my cool down now and then um going out for lunch for for my birthday so yeah bloody hard work that that was awful morning guys it’s Saturday and out for for a 3 and a half hour ride to end the week here just the end of the easy
Week so it’s going to be around 15 hours for the week like I was planning hour into my ride now a lovely view here now that I’m up a hill had to had to get up a 17% gradient Hill to get here so it’s not surprising that it’s a lovely view
From up here all right day bit of rain bit of lot of wind still but hopefully hopefully the Sun comes out a little bit more and yes it’s been it’s a nice ride so far got some got arm warmers and leg warmers on for the first time I’m quite
Liking the look of it um I would I didn’t think I’d be a fan of these yellow arm warmers but I think they’re look all right um so yeah Just sh 3 hours in now it’s been it’s been all right been a pretty good ride
To be fair um been pretty Grim like a lot of it in the rain and always quite light rain like this so it’s not not too horrible but you look at the forecast you’re like oh it’s going to be absolutely fine today and no no it’s
Going to be raining for 70% of your ride yeah all good all good fun nice way to end the week getting out rather than being stuck on the train decent ride to end the week that and like I said a got around 15 hours
For the week for a for a rest week which is pretty cool really the fact that my fitness is at the stage where a rest week is around 15 hours whereas before 15 hours would have been absolutely massive week for me and now it’s just pretty common um well very very much
Comeon been averaging a lot more than that for the past 10 weeks or so decent week so happy with that even if the weather has been shite not surprising it’s winter it’s Christmas in two days