Week 5 – A differentiator week

This week is the last of this first block and definitely the toughest. There are a couple of really solid sessions before we roll into an easier week or recovery, adaptation and reloading for another FTP test.

Again Monday was about rest and recovery. Two solid rides in the last two days and the recovery was a welcome relief. I’m feeling pretty tired to be honest but really looking forward to the week ahead.

Tuesday is one of the two days this week I flagged for this week as key sessions. I always worry about tough sessions the day after a rest day. You just don’t know what your legs are going to deliver. Today’s session was 15 x 90s at 120% FTP, with 1min recovery between them, broken into sets of five. The legs were definitely not fully recovered, but still capable of controlling the reps.

The first set of five, had me thinking, lets just get through the second set. 5 mins recovery and I covered the second set better than the first, but I was still worried about the third set. Each interval was digging me a deeper hole, but I managed to scrape through, before following up with 15 mins of 70% FTP (while your legs are juiced up). Pretty satisfied.

Wednesday I’ve woken up a little worse for wear. Sometimes when you are a bit run down the body doesn’t enjoy the extra load of training and subsequently your immune system says “STUFF THIS – YOU HAD BETTER PULL UP!” andlets in an infection. Well for me I had come up with a Sinus infection and forced a day off. Today was only recovery and so low impact on the week, however I may try and pick up again later in the week.

Thursday still sick. I have a bit of a rule of thumb when it comes to training while sick. If it is above the shoulders ie. nose or throat, yeah go and train but monitor the effort and don’t go too deep. If its below the shoulders, do not even bother because it will only set you back. Kept on top of it, but breathing hard. Mine was above so it was all guns loaded.

Today would have been the commencement of our Italy Tour with the magical Sella Ronda loop. Today’s substitute session was 5 Sweetspot sets (dialled down marginally), each of which was 7 minutes long. While breathing through my nose was hampered and yeah its hard to blow your nose when your face is sweaty, but we got through easily. Not really on the same level really. Look at the views.

Come Friday I was feeling a little better, but still a long way from fully fit. This was the second session of the week that I wanted to focus on this week. It was slaughter on the bike. The session was two 10min Threshold over/unders, with 1min recover, in a superset. There were three of these supersets planned. By the end of the first 10mins I was looking for an escape hatch. I knew this would not end strong, but I got through the end of that superset.

I actually managed to survive a second superset of 10+10mins, but the first quarter of the next superset would tell another picture. After the 5 min recovery between supersets, my HR had not come down that much and so I was burning matches I didn’t yet own. I crashed epically after 3 mins in the first set of 10mins. I recharged though and hit the second 10min a little harder and managed to get 5 mins down. To be honest I was pretty stoked, cos I had nothing more to give.

I am really enjoying our CCW Saturday Zwift Shop Rides. Even on these tired legs. We get a good bunch together, with some taking in the Banter cave on Discord, which is a bit of a good laugh. We kept the bunch together pretty well. A shout out to Shelly for attending and completing her first shopride. Just enough effort.

Sunday I was planning to ride MTB, but I decided to ride the Aspero in the Dandenongs on some gravel roads. The morning was magnificent. The roads and gravel were wet, but that only added to the fun. A bit of an effort on Basin-Olinda Rd, but most of the ride was easy days as we lead into recovery week.

Really looking forward to recovery week now.