FTP and cycle racing.

dahat

Had an FTP for early today and for the first time i was able to pace and finsih it correctly. I sometimes take a mini 10 sec break but not this time, well chuffed.

Cadence stayed 90rpm give or take throughout with the normal fluctuations in power, result was a 22 watt increase after 6 weeks of Traineroad Low Volume 1 + a 3hr z2/z3 club with higher zones for the last hour which gives me a total of 7-8hrs per week training time.

Miklos

Fair play dahat, that's what you want to see. I'm staring down the barrel of an FTP test for the start of Sweet Spot Base II and I just can't face it at the moment.

dahat

Miklos wrote: »

Fair play dahat, that's what you want to see. I'm staring down the barrel of an FTP test for the start of Sweet Spot Base II and I just can't face it at the moment.

I did mine at 6am, just accept the hurt and get it done!!!!

Macy0161

Mine for Sweet Spot II is falling due the 26th! No glycogen depletion anyway...

Craig06

I’m gonna do a lactate test this time in January as I’m at the end of an anaerobic strength block of work. Can’t be arsed with the 20 minute test and would like something more accurate

JimmiesRustled

Craig06 wrote: »

I’m gonna do a lactate test this time in January as I’m at the end of an anaerobic strength block of work. Can’t be arsed with the 20 minute test and would like something more accurate

Found the lactate test a whole lot worse than a standard 20 minute FTP test. I guess it depends on who you're getting to test you but I got blood drawn from the tip of my index finger at 3 minute intervals. It was pretty painful and enough to disrupt my concentration.

Whyner

dahat wrote: »

Had an FTP for early today and for the first time i was able to pace and finsih it correctly. I sometimes take a mini 10 sec break but not this time, well chuffed.

Cadence stayed 90rpm give or take throughout with the normal fluctuations in power, result was a 22 watt increase after 6 weeks of Traineroad Low Volume 1 + a 3hr z2/z3 club with higher zones for the last hour which gives me a total of 7-8hrs per week training time.

Well done, sounds like you nailed it. Great to see such an improvement following the hard work

sullzz

dahat wrote: »

Had an FTP for early today and for the first time i was able to pace and finsih it correctly. I sometimes take a mini 10 sec break but not this time, well chuffed.

Cadence stayed 90rpm give or take throughout with the normal fluctuations in power, result was a 22 watt increase after 6 weeks of Traineroad Low Volume 1 + a 3hr z2/z3 club with higher zones for the last hour which gives me a total of 7-8hrs per week training time.

And there was you talking about retiring once you got up to A3 .
Youll be whipping the juniors up the climbs .
Well done man these are the paybacks you want to see from putting in the efforts .

dahat

sullzz wrote: »

And there was you talking about retiring once you got up to A3 .
Youll be whipping the juniors up the climbs .
Well done man these are the paybacks you want to see from putting in the efforts .

I reckon im still a bit off my racing ftp but as I've said before it's watts/kg is my problem.

I'll give the local races a lash and see how I get on but it's unlikely I'll be travelling as much as last season.

sullzz

dahat wrote: »

I reckon im still a bit off my racing ftp but as I've said before it's watts/kg is my problem.

I'll give the local races a lash and see how I get on but it's unlikely I'll be travelling as much as last season.

You need to target Shannonside , you bossed that race this year

dahat

sullzz wrote: »

You need to target Shannonside , you bossed that race this year

That was won by a junior last year afaik, mass Sprint then for minor placings. Hopefully this year's juniors aren't as good but maybe that's hoping against hope.

It's a smashing uncomplicated course and one I loved, pity there was no video of the finish.

sullzz

dahat wrote: »

That was won by a junior last year afaik, mass Sprint then for minor placings. Hopefully this year's juniors aren't as good but maybe that's hoping against hope.

It's a smashing uncomplicated course and one I loved, pity there was no video of the finish.

Thankfully there wasnt , id say i was pulling horrendous faces

dahat

sullzz wrote: »

Thankfully there wasnt , id say i was pulling horrendous faces

Defo one for you to go back to next year, think I'll chance the SERC race also as A3 it may suit me better than most places even if it is boring as hell.

sullzz

dahat wrote: »

Defo one for you to go back to next year, think I'll chance the SERC race also as A3 it may suit me better than most places even if it is boring as hell.

To be honest next year will be a different year for me than this year , i learned a lot in the earlier races this year , any points i got came in the later races , like the serc gp and the wexford 2day .

JimmiesRustled

dahat wrote: »

That was won by a junior last year afaik, mass Sprint then for minor placings. Hopefully this year's juniors aren't as good but maybe that's hoping against hope.

It's a smashing uncomplicated course and one I loved, pity there was no video of the finish.

Yeah there were 2 lads up the road in the A3 race. I rode off the front on the climb. 2 juniors bridged to me. Aaron Doherty was one of them. Unbelievable power. I must've been sitting around 4.3-4.5w/kg in terms of ftp and got destroyed by him. Goes to show it doesn't really mean a whole lot. 5-10 minute power is key from my experience. That and repeatability.

Same thing happened in the laragh classic. Luke Smith and a few others just rode away from everyone. Caught some of the A1/A2 riders in doing so.

sullzz

JimmiesRustled wrote: »

Yeah there were 2 lads up the road in the A3 race. I rode off the front on the climb. 2 juniors bridged to me. Aaron Doherty was one of them. Unbelievable power. I must've been sitting around 4.3-4.5w/kg in terms of ftp and got destroyed by him. Goes to show it doesn't really mean a whole lot. 5-10 minute power is key from my experience. That and repeatability.

Same thing happened in the laragh classic. Luke Smith and a few others just rode away from everyone. Caught some of the A1/A2 riders in doing so.

Well look at the names you just threw out

dahat

JimmiesRustled wrote: »

Yeah there were 2 lads up the road in the A3 race. I rode off the front on the climb. 2 juniors bridged to me. Aaron Doherty was one of them. Unbelievable power. I must've been sitting around 4.3-4.5w/kg in terms of ftp and got destroyed by him. Goes to show it doesn't really mean a whole lot. 5-10 minute power is key from my experience. That and repeatability.

Same thing happened in the laragh classic. Luke Smith and a few others just rode away from everyone. Caught some of the A1/A2 riders in doing so.

You nearly retired me with that post!

It just shows the massive gap between A4 and A3.

dahat

sullzz wrote: »

To be honest next year will be a different year for me than this year , i learned a lot in the earlier races this year , any points i got came in the later races , like the serc gp and the wexford 2day .

Wexford 2 day is a good opportunity for a decent A4 to get points to upgrade.

RobFowl

dahat wrote: »

Wexford 2 day is a good opportunity for a decent A4 to get points to upgrade.

TBF any A4 race is a good opportunity for a decent A4 to get points to upgrade

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Wexford 2 day is a good opportunity for a decent A4 to get points to upgrade.

RobFowl wrote: »

TBF any A4 race is a good opportunity for a decent A4 to get points to upgrade

The Wexford 2 day is a good opportunity to have your soul ripped from your body and grated in front of your eyes into tiny pieces on the backroads of Ireland, never to be seen again.

JimmiesRustled

CramCycle wrote: »

The Wexford 2 day is a good opportunity to have your soul ripped from your body and grated in front of your eyes into tiny pieces on the backroads of Ireland, never to be seen again.

It seemed to be going well for yourself from what I heard until you came down. Having read through some of your thread on the training forum, if you were more consistent in training you'd have no issues holding your own in A3 and getting up to A2. Easier said than done with a family and a full time job.

albert kidd

dahat wrote: »

You nearly retired me with that post!

It just shows the massive gap between A4 and A3.

the juniors make the racing..take the juniors out and theres not a whole lot of difference between a3/a4 riders/races..if lads cant find a way to score in races against them and are looking or targeting races for points when the juniors arent around are fooling themselves if they are looking to progress.

Irish Raven

albert kidd wrote:

the juniors make the racing..take the juniors out and theres not a whole lot of difference between a3/a4 riders/races..if lads cant find a way to score in races against them and are looking or targeting races for points when the juniors arent around are fooling themselves if they are looking to progress.

true that....cant understand how a4s target flat races because they reckon they cant "climb"....theres no alps in Ireland....and they are kidding themselves by getting upgraded!!

harringtonp

albert kidd wrote: »

the juniors make the racing..take the juniors out and theres not a whole lot of difference between a3/a4 riders/races..if lads cant find a way to score in races against them and are looking or targeting races for points when the juniors arent around are fooling themselves if they are looking to progress.

Guys happily fool themselves when there aren't many juniors around and they can score points. Very few of them though are under any illusion

sullzz

FTP test was due today , was off the bike a few days over the Xmas sick , although got out the last few days for a bit of training and a couple of turbo sessions also .
Felt ok for the test today and due to the high winds i decided to do it on the turbo , i usually do it outside .
Set up the turbo and fan and stuck on some tunes , the warm up went grand , the test began and i struggled to get the wattage up , 10 or 11 mins into the test i began to feel dizzy and sick and like i was overheating but had a fan on and windows open .
Test abandoned.
Im possibly still getting over the illness but had felt fine the last few days on the road .

dahat

That winter cold/virus is very nasty, I felt awful on the bike Sunday but A1 Tuesday so maybe another 3/4 days then retest?

sullzz

dahat wrote: »

That winter cold/virus is very nasty, I felt awful on the bike Sunday but A1 Tuesday so maybe another 3/4 days then retest?

Ive never felt as bad on the bike , yep plan on retesting on sunday .

dahat

Question for lads A3 racing, is it fun if you aren't in at the business end of the race?

I'm stepping up from A4 where I felt I was in with a chance in 90% of my races but A3 racing has the ****e scared out of me as what little I know of it from talking to lads last year.
I'm likely to race at 3.5 watts/kg or a little higher maybe, although I have a pretty high ftp it's pointless at my weight.

It's losing the fun aspect of racing that has more feeling a little aphrehensive.

Raymzor

dahat wrote: »

Question for lads A3 racing, is it fun if you aren't in at the business end of the race?

I'm stepping up from A4 where I felt I was in with a chance in 90% of my races but A3 racing has the ****e scared out of me as what little I know of it from talking to lads last year.
I'm likely to race at 3.5 watts/kg or a little higher maybe, although I have a pretty high ftp it's pointless at my weight.

It's losing the fun aspect of racing that has more feeling a little aphrehensive.

I think you need to get racing to find out. Pick races that suit you. I think you’ll find it fine which will build you up. I was in the same boat as you at the start of 2017 and found my first few races manageable despite having the same apprehensions-I got injured in April. I’m sure you have trained a bit more to deal with slight step up. If you skip too many races at the start of the year others may have progressed ahead of you so don’t wait too long to get started!

dahat

Raymzor wrote: »

I think you need to get racing to find out. Pick races that suit you. I think you’ll find it fine which will build you up. I was in the same boat as you at the start of 2017 and found my first few races manageable despite having the same apprehensions-I got injured in April. I’m sure you have trained a bit more to deal with slight step up. If you skip too many races at the start of the year others may have progressed ahead of you so don’t wait too long to get started!

I plan on starting early March same as last year so hopefully I'll race into what form I'm capable of by May. I'll race all the local ones I'm familiar with.
I'm currently training around 8hrs using Trainerroad and a club so hopefully that's enough as I can't really allocate much more time at this stage.