Athlete Blogs
June 7th, 2009A totally uncharacteristic ride for me
This weekend was all about volume for me - volume of FTP work and overall training volume. I have a few races coming up that are longer, and I wanted to make sure I could at least make it to the finish. They are not #1 priorities, but I want to at least have a shot at finishing, so this weekend I broke out the longer ride.Yesterday was great, solid time at FTP. What I call "real" endurance for sure.
Today I had a different plan. I needed to make sure I could ride the bike, have my butt in the saddle, for 4 hrs. I'm a firm believer that endurance isn't about doing long easy rides but having the highest FTP possible. I reaffirmed that today. it has been 11 months since I rode close to 4 hrs. 99% of my rides are less than 2 hrs.
Today I wasn't sure what to expect, the "plan" was to simply ride 4 hrs, without any pre-planned wattage or KJ goals. Plus I wasn't totally sure how I'd feel after the essentially TT effort yesterday. Well, like most great rides start out, I felt good out of the driveway and up the very short hill out of my neighborhood. I usually know how the ride will go by how my legs feel up that hill that comprises the first 60 seconds of every single ride.
Started out conservative, just "riding", 1/2 expecting to totally fall apart after 2 hrs...just in case, the route I chose was 3 laps of about 1:20 that gave me an easy "out" if I needed it. I felt better and better as the ride went on, and kept upping the average watts and KJ as I went. During hrs 3 to 4, I was really driving the pace, totally empying the tank. ended up averaging 21.1 mph, over 900KJ/hr, 255w. I was really pleased considering what I had done in the past on 4 hr rides, mostly less than 250w average, and rides like this are something I rarely if every do. So this totally confirms what I have known for a long time. Endurance is ALL about raising FTP. Sure, you have to be able to sit on the bike, focus for 4 hrs or longer, but doing long easy rides all the time is not the true path to peak performance.
Next weekend we have two 80 mile road races, then tour of washington county - a super fun stage race being done on time this year. With time bonsus - even for the TT! As you could imagine I'm licking my chops to get into that 20km tt (I won the p12 stage race last year). Then taper it up, drive on out to KY and get down to business.
Cheers,
pete
