Week 10...Kansas here we come
Week 10/12 already and Kansas is on 
Hello team and I hope training is treating you all well and we remain injury free, Last RR this weekend and hopefully we are all dialing things in and ready to go. Big shout out to Dan Gillette for assisting me with the TSS calculator and spread sheet. I know it is prob not that hard to understand but it was blowing my mind. After the FTP test last week and a little bump I am going to try a to ride at .80 % this weekend and see where that lands me for my TSS points. He made a very valid point ....he raced one year at a % and then the following year at a diff % and it was very minor but it took HAVOC on his run. Point is trust your RR and go with it come race day.
Busy week here so switiching things up a little....Did the what seemed like forever swim yesterday and then Tuesdays bike. Bike went good but wasn't prepared for how sore I was going to be after the weekends workout. Entire workout though was .93 IF and 95.9 TSS. 2x20 min intervals were .99 IF and .98 IF. Today I am going to be doing Wednesdays Run and then will only do the Endurance swim in the am before work.
Weather is looking to turn for the worse here in Iowa. More storms headed this way. Looks to be the last nice day for a few days. Might try and sneak in the RR on Friday.
Have a great week TEAM and happy TRAINING
Comments
All the same, just a quick update, and likewise I hope that everyone is finding themselves feeling strong and prepared as we dawn on these final few weeks. As for myself, I am struggling to find the same fire this season that I felt last, and often feel easily discouraged and predisposed to feeling somewhat burnt out. Yet for all of that, almost every workout I am hitting is producing better numbers than last year, perhaps save the swim. My FTP is at an all time high of about 285 watts despite not even having a great test, running is for the most part feeling about as strong as it ever has, and according to WKO, I'm quite a bit more fit than I was going into KS last year.
With that in mind, this is pretty much it for me and my KS prep. I leave on Wednesday for a 2 week trip and will have no access to a bike. Tomorrow morning I'll be doing a trainer ride, then it's pretty much wheels off the ground until race day, so no RR#2 for me, no lots of things. On the plus side, I've got a fair amount of miles in my legs this year including an 108 mile day, a few ~120mi weekends, and all and all feeling pretty good about the bike, so we'll see if my legs can't just hold onto some of that fitness for a few more weeks.
In the end, I'm going into this race quite a bit more low key than last year, so I'm not so stressed that it might not be that elusive 'perfect' race nor do I really have any lofty expectations as to results. At this point, my #1 goal is to have some fun and kind of rekindle my passion for this sport. Until then, very much looking forward to some vacation time and wishing all you guys a good conclusion to your race prep.
I have been feeling quite fatigued recently. My run has been moving very strong, but even at the beginning of all my runs I kept wondering if I would make all the intervals. (I did, so that was good). I had one bike ride earlier this week that I just had to bail (3 x 15 @ FTP). Did my best, but that was only 1 x 15, then some 85% and a few 1 minut VO2s...I just knew I couldn't get the 30 more minutes of FTP. Otherwise, though, I've made it though everything. I kept telling myself to get through to this weekend and then I'd have two weeks to absorb it and be ready to go. I hope/think that's right.
So yesterday, I didn't really know what to expect. I was pretty psyched about the RR, having dialed in my nutrition on the bike and getting out the aero stuff for the bike...but still feeling really quad-fatigued. And the weather didn't help. So here I am with my race wheel in front, my disc cover on, and my aero helmet, but also wearing this somewhat oversized floppy running jacket (because that's what was available) and hanging bunch of crap off the back of my saddle. I almost changed my middle name to Fred.
That said, the ride from a power perspective went well. The power was pretty much right on target with what I had planned. The VI was a bit high (1.05) because I did allow myself a bit of warmup and there are a couple of pretty extreme hills on my route that I can't even get up without exceeding FTP and can go down at 40 mph just sitting totally upright wearing a parachute. The speed was not where I would like it to be. It took me 2:50 to do the 56 miles. In all honesty, I have to just hope that there is a lot to be gained (lost?) by getting rid of the horrible floppy jacket and rear-mounted crap. It felt hard the last 20 minutes, but that's what it's supposed to do. And I managed to reverse split the power by 10 watts, feeling particularly strong in the 28-50 mile range.
My run got delayed by about 5 minutes, but again, it felt surprisingly strong. Don't tell RnP, but I ran the whole thing 30 s per mile faster than I was supposed to.
Anyway, I'm pretty optimistic that I will feel strong for two weeks from now. I know what my wattage target will be, and I'm being conservative. If I feel really good, I may be willing to gamble a little bit in the second half of the bike because my run is feeling good. That 1:29 half I ran a couple weeks ago was a major confidence booster that things are going ok.
But the best part of the day was takig my 10 year old twins for an hour's ride on their new road bikes late in the afternoon after the weather perked up. They had not gone for a ride that long and didn't know they could, even though it wasn't really that hard for them. I didn't tell them how long we would be gone beforehand cuz I didn't want to freak them out. :-)
Doing OK
Tried to do an FTP Test today, just to fine tune my current fitness, BUT, I started out but it was so freakin windy 30-50mph gust, It became dangerous to hold on the bike. Few times I almost felt like I was going into the ditch. I aborted the FTP and just went ABP instead. Did 1:46 at 198w(close to race day watts) BUT only average 14.5 mph.....that was incredible! Usually that would be 19 mph. Oh well.
I "think" Im fitter that last year. Did do a FTP test on my MTN bike few weeks ago at 291w so Im hopefull that will translate to my TT bike. Should. Did 2:59 last year and wont be happy with that this year.
I was good up until a few weeks ago when a bout of planta facitius attacked. I have been nursing the foot and getting PT, etc. I am now back up to 9 miles of running so I feel like the foot will preform next weekend. Unfortunately, I have missed all of the run intervals this past 6 weeks. It will be what it will be. The swim and the bike feel great: hopefully I will be OK on the run. The real test will be IMWI this fall.