Schedule week of May 8

 

This was a week of challenges met. Quite a contrast to recent weeks in which results did not meet plans. The result was nice bump in fitness and of course fatigue.

	Last week	This week
Fitness	69.6	78.3
Fatigue	57.5	108.5
Form	13.4	-22.7

The three pics above are supposed to represent swim, bike, and run. The first I took on my Wednesday morning run. The second, me sitting in that back on my Outback, was after my Tuesday afternoon swim. The third one was near the end of today's ride. It was a good, hard week.

This week culminates in a race, so some taper is in order. I have this as a "B" race so I will only do a partial taper. Even for a "B" race you want Form to be positive and I will be aiming for 4.0 on Sunday morning.

Yesterday's long run and today's bike had something in common. A mental strength challenge. The last mile of the run is uphill. Not terribly steep, but enough to make the finish harder than it needs to be. For the entire mile my mind kept insisting I had run enough, that I really ought to walk it in. Like Odysseus lashed to his ship's mast to survive the Siren's call I forced myself to ignore that voice in my head and keep running to the finish. Today I heard those Sirens again, on the second lap of Tantalus. I was tired. At times I was going so slow it was hard to keep the bike upright. But I kept going, and I am fine. Tired, yes, but fine.

About going slow on Tantalus. Today I rode Makani Kekoa, my Cervelo P3, because next Sunday is a triathlon. This bike weighs considerably more than my Merlin road bike and has a 52/36 chainring set. I use the same HED wheels on both, which has a 28 tooth cog. On the first lap I knew I was already slow on the steep section. Cadence was down around 34 RPM. On the second lap I was down to 30. Much too slow. My Merlin has a 53/39 and even so Tantalus feels much easier on it. Could be weight, could be frame geometry. Could be crank length. The P3 has 170mm cranks, the Merlin, 172.5. That is not a huge difference, but the longer crank does give more torque for a given input force. In any case, I have ordered a compact crankset for my Merlin, a 50/34. The effect of going from a 39 to a 34 -- same crank length -- should allow me to bring that cadence up significantly. If that is still not enough I will go to a larger cassette, but that will mean replacing the rear derailleur with one with a longer arm. One thing at a time.

It has been a while since I rode Tantalus so I was not sure what effort to use. My plan called for sweet spot on the climb, and back when I set up the plan that was 148-160 watts. But lately, WKO4 has dropped my modeled FTPm down to 154. I have been advised not to chase that modeled value too much, that it is better to stay with measured FTPs unless the gap becomes significant. I had my FTPs at 169, but that was set last August. The thing is, Trainingpeaks will tell you when it goes up, but not when it goes down.

After today's ride WKO4 bumped my FTPm up to 155. I think the time has come to take that as the actual value. To see the difference I took a screenshot of the Power by Zones chart for today's ride before and after resetting my power zones. With FTP at 169 I spent most of my ride in zone 2. That is not how I felt.

After resetting my power zones in Trainingpeaks to WKO4's modeled values I am shown to have spent more time in zones 3 and higher. That is a better match to how I felt.

Here are the ramp rates for this week. Like I said, got a much needed bump.

That bump in CTL has brought me back on course to my goal for Cycle to the Sun. I see a lot of hill work in the coming weeks.

One more thing. While studying the power thing I spotted a difference in weekly TSS between TP and WKO4. I have not looked into it yet.

Last week

ATP: 700 TSS
Planned: 795.6
Actual: 871.3

WKO4 932 TSS
- swim 36
- bike 267
- run 629

This Week

Week of 5/8 - Build 2 week 2
Focus: Taper/prep for Honolulu Tri

ATP: 530 TSS
Planned: 615.2

Mon
AM Run, 4mi + strides
PM Strength with Dorian

Tue (might swap order)
AM Swim, OW 1800yds
PM Bike, hill cruise intervals

Wed
AM Run, 3mi, base
PM Bike, spin class

Thu
AM Strength with Dorian
PM Yoga

Fri (work day off)

AM swim/bike/run brink
PM Packet pick-up, 3:00 - 6:00

Sat
AM Rest

Sun
Race, Honolulu Triathlon

Next race: 4 weeks until North Shore swim series #1
6 weeks until CTTS.