Something a bit different this week. I’m going to be attempting the new zwift route. This is ‘The Grade’, supposedly this horrible looking climb is the best way of assessing your FPT. So we shall give it ago.
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all right I think we are I think we are live hopefully let’s um give this a refresh make sure is it working connect streaming software are we on can everyone hear me I hope so um if you can hear me please give me a thumbs up or a a comment in the chat would be very useful all right let’s let’s see what’s on the cards for today right a bit different some something a bit different today um instead of a race because I couldn’t really find anything that fun I decided to try out this new FTP test route which is the the grade I believe it’s called so I need to actually select that on here I can’t remember what route it was um it’s I think it was oh no Hill was it no that’s the one which is just the climb but I think we want the other one it’s like elevation evaluation perhaps um where is it sort by elevation that might help um I think it was around 400 here we go this one elevation evaluation so what this is is a climb and and it’s supposed to tell you your FTP so you go as fast as you can you go as fast as you can up the climb and then at the end you should get a new FTP so that’s the plan for today all right right there’s a few things I need to fiddle around with first before we begin the climb proper so first up I need to adjust my weight because I am down approximately 2 kg since the last time we were on here so let’s change that so I was 102 last time and when I weighed myself during the week I was 10 and what was I I was 100.4 I think which obviously means I need to round down to 100 so 100 kg almost into two two digits and for this one I’m going to adjust the trainer difficulty normally I have it on Max but for a proper a proper climb like this I think I need to bring that down cuz my gearing is not particularly suited for long climbs it’s all right for like a a little Punchy climb but for a long sustained one like this my my gear ratios are poor all right so let me attach all my things um power source round power Cadence round power resistance yep everything looks good and yeah I guess I guess this is it all right so I’ll do the warmup pretty I’ll do the leading pretty easily and hopefully that will be a suitable warmup for this whole thing so what are my expectations for this so last time I did an FTP test I did a 20 minute one and I did the outside that must have been around 2 months ago now and that was when I first started working with the coach which I’m working with for my Triathlon so for that one about two months ago I did what was it 270 Watts for 20 minutes so that’s the minimum really cuz if I haven’t improved from that then something’s wrong but I definitely feel like I should be able to hopefully quite easily beat that um on the week last Sunday I had my first ever Triathlon that was a Sprint Triathlon and I’ve got a video coming out on that but I haven’t had that much time this week to really edit it I tried to get it done today but I got like halfway so I be dropping that maybe tomorrow if I can find some time to do it um so yeah during that Triathlon I did a 400 meter swim that was easy enough um the bike part that took me 45 minutes to do 20 72 and2 km and I averaged 230 WTS for that and 250 WTS I think it was normalized so I was pretty happy with that that was a quite a comfortable speed I got off the bike and felt all right to be honest because once I got off the bike I did a 5k a 5K run that is in um 25 minutes so overall I felt pretty good during that the legs felt fresh and then I had a few easier days this week before getting back into it so yeah the goal for this one is minimum 270 wats average up the hill I was looking at the time time it should take it said I think it was if you can get under 19 minutes that should put you at 3 watts per kilo so 19 minutes would be quite a good goal for me did you use the watch Auto transition or was it manual yeah I use the manual ones because I’ve never used the auto transition and I don’t know if will really work some people in the comments last time said Auto transition was a bit rubbish so decided not to risk it yeah I think that makes more sense not risking it just um doing it with the button presses oh it’s hot today isn’t it England is warm it’s a good 25° here which is ridiculous for England like in the past week it’s just turned into summer properly it’s it’s absolutely beautiful I need to put these fans on it’s hot haven’t even started to climbing I’m overheating all right let’s get these fans going all right so I’m not sure how long this lead in is hopefully we’ll get there soon enough because a 19 minute effort is the goal and then I can go and have my dinner I’m actually quite hungry but obviously I don’t want to eat before riding I just popped a gel so hopefully that’ll give me enough energy for this has anyone tried this climb yet the grade Ono Hill is it Oho Hill oh hell no no ohill no it is so has anyone given this a go how how long did it take you to get up my goal is um n I’m not sure if it is 19 minutes I’m going to check let me see um the grade K’s sft all right so here it is so yeah there we go it says if you can do it in 18 minutes and 47 minutes that will be 3 wats kilogram so I don’t think I’m quite at 3 watts per kilogram cuz for Me 3 watts per per kilogram would be 300 watts so if I can get there in around 20 minutes I think will be a good goal just under 3 watts per kilogram and that would be fantastic hopefully this ride will allow me to be upgraded from category D to category C that’s the longterm goal really because I’m a bit bored of doing degrade races in zift I don’t even know why I’m bothering with this jersey it’s just going to taken off later oh welcome Eric from don’t get Dro cycling great to see you in here what’s your fastest time up the out I did it in um 66 minutes when was that that must have been almost a year ago now that was that was all right actually that was when I was like 5 kg lighter than I am now but I think I averaged like 270 Watts up there so that was a pretty good effort obviously the long-term goal is still to go under an hour but I don’t know we focus on with my focus on Triathlon at the moment I’m not sure if my cycling is going to really really get that much better hopefully the weight will still come off but yeah we’ll see you need a jersey for a couple of minutes at the start when the fan is cold well the Fan’s on at the moment and I’m still pretty hot luckily it’s only on the it’s on the lowest setting I’ll put it onto max power in a minute and then we will really get cold W so should we get some predictions what sort of time do you think I can do it in my personal goal is 20 minutes I think if everything goes right maybe I can squeeze under 19 I reckon the strategy for this is I’m going to sit on 300 watts for as long as I can and if I can hold that to the top then great if not then obviously I’m just going to fall apart at some point where is UK headband gosh AR RAR can’t ride without my headband I feel like because it’s Euro’s time I need to get an England one not a UK one even though England have been doing dire in the football haven’t we it’s actually shocking how boring the football we play is 90% of the time is just aimless 1830 to give me a challenge if I can get up in 18 I would be supremely happy and not going to lie UK should not participate since we left the Euro Zone I mean fair enough but yeah I don’t know much about that I don’t participate I just sort of ignore most of it to be honest God it’s hot right this looks like it might be nearing the start um I’m not going to lie I’m not sure I’m sufficiently warmed up for this all right is this it they need like a little countdown before going in I’ve only been riding 8 minutes oh God I can see the start right here we go fans maximum I’m not even playing any music God this is a terrible start right quick playlist um oh God all right here we go oh no not good not good okay let me find some tunes get it on the shuffle all right let’s just settle into this I need to not shift cuz every time I shift my wattage seems to drop down to zero all right settle in right all right that’s 10% done I need to just be smooth smooth here 289 w average so I really need to bring that up a bit I just want to settle in to a nice nice Cadence I should have mentioned I hurt my toe earlier and when I walk or run cuz obviously you Lean Forward on your foot that’s been really hurting me so you know getting excuses in nice and early but I don’t think that’ll really affect this cuz obviously when you’re cycling you’re under the Ballers off your feet aren’t you so no pain at the moment I’m just you know getting my excuses in for later all right 287 water just slowly dropping heart rate surprisingly low oh this music is terrible got it just got a bit steeper I can feel the difference I’m saveer oh sake I dropped my bottle those was more for squirting the water over me let’s wait for the climb is it flattening out can’t be having that let’s get on the bigger gear okay all right back up e max heart R 190 perhaps right let’s try and up it a bit halfway this is where everything should be left on the line all e am I back in hey guys not sure what went wrong with that I finished obviously I couldn’t stop to check the internet but for some reason my rout restarted or something and it was flashing with a red light on it so yeah God knows what happened there which is very annoying cuz well in the end I got a new FTP of 20 268 when I crossed the line it was 282 so yeah very weird and obviously when the internet dropped I was like trying to fiddle around see if I could get to work again but the red light on the rout just needed a it just needed resetting which is very annoying I reckon I reckon I could have got to at least 290 at the end if I wasn’t distracted by dist stupid internet but on the upside that does mean I’m going to have to do this again um could I do it tomorrow no probably not maybe next week next Friday I’ll give it another go cuz that is very annoying that in the best bit the internet decided to die oh so so annoying it’s been strange because since I moved back to England the internet has been Rock Solid for these streams so I don’t know what went on there just so annoying all right yeah so I’m going to call it a day sorry about the stream just technical issues isn’t it who is your provider well because we live in the middle of nowhere we’re not with a big one it’s uh an ISP called County Broadband which just does like little villages in the countryside it’s supposed to be fiber internet and when it works it’s really really fast but obviously sometimes it doesn’t work yeah I really don’t know what’s going on with it today it’s just up and down up and down normally it’s rock solid yeah how weird should we do a live speed test see what the internet speed is [Music] here let’s have a look this is the f content I’m sure you’re subscribed for see look at that I mean that is pretty Rock Solid internet just decided to take this moment to drop out yeah very very annoying all right anyway for those who sort of missed it um the result of this was a new FTP of 268 I feel like I could get that up a bit a bit more now that I know how long this climb is how to Pace it what to expect also I’m going to try again on a much colder day I reckon I could smash that I feel like I reckon I could average 300 watts up this climb if I past it correctly at the end I had a nice burst so I do think I had a bit more to give so next week we’re going to try this again and try to beat that FTP all right guys I will see you next week sorry again for the shocking stream quality but it is what it is all right peace out see you next time bye-bye [Music]