40 Goals

When I say All-Time, its all-time power data that I could lay my hands on. I lost a fair bit when my laptop died earlier this year. I haven't done a proper FTP test yet, but all the data points at about 230w maybe at a stretch 250. I've set it to 230 in WKO for now. I have edited out all the duff data where the powertap needed resetting to zero.

From 0 to 45 CTL over the last 45 days. Two prolonged periods of rest and just about ready to start winter training!

Off out later for 3hrs in ... the Sunshine, yay! It's absolutely gorgeous here today and after a good nights rest (I went ot bed at 8.30 and slept through till 7!) I'm ready for the hills. I went for a recovery ride yesterday of just under 2hrs at low hr and low power, jut ticking over really. I felt fine when I got back and pottered around, watched TV etc. By 8pm I was absolutely knackered. Oh well. I'm out with Andrew F on today's ride and I know he'll try to rip my legs off ... at least in the opening couple of hours anyway. Funny how he calms down towards the end ;-)

Having collected a month's worth of data (albeit some of the earlier files are skewed upwards) I can now see that my FTP is around 230-250w. This is from looking at the "drop off" on my power profile over the last 7 days (to avoid bad data) and the power I have tended to maintain at around my LTHR which I believe to be between 156 and 160 right now. I will schedule a proper test in the middle of the next off-week (currently doing 3 on and 1 off training over a 4 week cycle). Anyhoo, the point of this post is that now I have a good idea about my FTP, and have pretty much finished my pre-prep phase (i.e. get of the sofa phase). I can start to put some thought into my workouts. My short term and only goal right now is to finish the ToSH. To do this I need good climbing ability (read CP20) and endurance. To achieve this we're talking L2/L3 and some SST. Given the weather and the prospect of doing 5 hrs at L2 on the turbo I'm going to concentrate on SST during the wee...

It has been so frustrating. I got to 88.4kg weeks ago, but alas it was all dehydration and I went back to hovering between low 89 and almost 90kg for the last 4-6 weeks.  Now, I know I'm losing weight, my trousers don't fit, I  look thinner etc but the scales just sat at 89kg like they were glued there. I know, I know, body fat, muscle is heavier etc etc. But finally seeing the number go down on the scales to 88.1kg, I wanted to dance around the room. Maybe I should be happy I'm putting on so much muscle? Maybe my slow weight gain in November was nothing of the sort - piling on the pounds whilst losing muscles ? Anyway, lighter and happy. I did the ToSH yesterday, well the first 78km. Got past Tanhurst Lane and realised that I was not going to make it up White Downs (18% for about 600m). I was spent but happy. And a TSS of 257.9 in the bag (NP 214w for 3:30). I'm in no hurry, but my CTL has gone from 0 (!!) to 34 in a month. It's all good. Oh, and we're in for a...

I got fitted last year and worked on my posture on the bike quite hard. After spending some time off the bike and coming back I have developed some bad habits. No.1 is a tendency to sit too far forward. On a ride yesterday, for no reason at all, I sat back in the saddle and wow!! what a difference - more power less hurt. I guess it's a bit like golf - you should continually check posture and alignment to make sure you're setup to succeed not fail. Ho hum. The weather is forecasted sunny tomorrow and I've decided to have a go at the ToSH, the full thing. See if I'm near the 04:20:00 pb or the 06:30:00 pw(orst). I'll be posting the results here - my guess is I'll be around the 05:30:00 mark. 110km 2000m of climbing, max gradient 21%.

If you need further proof ...

Yep. Summer (what Summer?) died at 10.30am this morning. This is global warming baby. A quick search on google for 'August', 'weather' and 'since records began' reveals that 2004, 2007 and now 2008 have been the wettest, coldest and least sunny Augusts since records began in 1914. With a trend like that you can safely say that a UK summer is now something we will only read about in the history books. Spring is next on the hit list. If you like heat and sun but don't like rain then go live in Australia. Time to get some shares in RacerMate , Tacx , Saris and Kurt Kinetic .