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On Sunday I put a comment into Training Peaks to my coach – “I fancy having a go at Alpe De Zwift tomorrow” as the next day was a free day in my plan. The reply could have gone either way – rest is needed.. or OK. The answer was much more decisive than that – “ohh good man give it a smash!”. This is why I have a man crush on him.
My best time was set in mid-2018 with what I thought was 1:10 and whilst I couldn’t conceive on going sub-hour ever I thought that 1:05 might be possible. Why was I confident?
Step back a month and I had done a FTP test which was disappointing to say the least. To say I am focused on FTP and CTL is an understatement. As I don’t really race but am data orientated there is not that much else to focus on.
Clearly no arguments with that test. It started OK, on target and went South in a steady manner. Although my FTP remained effectively the same.
Prior to the test the coach had been saying to his clients – it is only numbers, it is just showing where we are, there is no pass or fail etc etc. I thought that was all touchy/feally – until I had completed my test and then of course they were pearls of wisdom.
Last week I had done a good climb on Fulgaz and improved my FTP to my best ever and it is amazing how much confidence a change of only 7 watts can bring. I had seen a few friends do good times on AdZ and whilst I don’t use Zwift that much , the big climb is a really good, consistent metric to gauge performance.
Last time I had averaged 222w and this time, being a couple of kg lighter I wanted to avg 230w. That is me, cautious to the max.
I won’t go into the ride turn by turn but it is sufficient to say that I PB’d all the segments bar the first two and completed with an average of 242w (off a FTP of 260w).
The finishing time on Zwift was 62:11 but on Strava it was 61:57. Sub hour is on at some time in the future. I actually go by Strava as I have no record of other times directly from Zwift. If my coach reads this – note it down as an hour of sweetspot.
My takeaways. The quicker you go the shorter it is. I don’t think Isaac Newton will be turning in his grave over that novel concept. The other aspect is that you are generally going past people most of the time – I was on 3.4 w/kg for a lot of the time.
So why am I so confident I can improve further. A couple of reasons. I was always comfortable during the ride, focusing on control rather than pushing so I know I have something left. My training is going well, and I ‘know’ I can do it now whereas previously it was out of sight.
I had already started writing a blog about my coaching experiences and why I use a blog and I will continue with that as it is clearly related to this post.
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