Testing, testing

It is almost that time again. This weekend marks the annual Tundra Time Trial. 10 miles of snot spitting fun. Hopefully the weather will hold off because I am really excited.

Right now, I am feeling REALLY good about my cycling. My goal was to not experience a measurable decrease in my FTP. In all honesty, I did anticipate a bit of a drop. Nothing more than a 3-5% decrease. But it seems that things are going in the opposite direction.

My offseason has had a slight focus on the bike. My workouts are definitely bike heavy right now. When I tested back in December, I was moderately pleased with the FTP results. However, I was less than thrilled with the V02 results. Enter more intervals.

For the past few weeks, most of my trainer rides were short on volume and duration while HIGH on intensity. Does of 30 second intervals at 15-20% above FTP. Several 5-10 minute sets at 90-95% of FTP.

What I am most thrilled about is that I have been hitting my workouts with a high degree of precision. On Sunday, I completed what I feel was like one of the harder workouts I have ever done. 6 x 4 minutes @ FTP with only 60 seconds of rest. Vomit. I took the bike off the trainer and went to Columns to ensure that the trainer work was translating to the road. I was dead on. I finished with workout with a 24 minute average of 101% of FTP. Better yet, I felt like I was holding back a bit.

On Saturday, I get to put it to the test. 10 miles of crushing my FTP. Hopefully, the results will show yet another uptick. Now, if warm weather would show up and let me begin testing this power over longer distances, I would be thrilled.