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| PHOTO OF THE MONTH: LOOK, MA, NO HANDS! |
What I did: Four weeks of long-steady endurance rides, maxing out at four hours, 70+ miles on Saturdays, twice-weekly 45-60 minute tempo intervals and weekly big-gear rides.
Total miles: 980.4
Total hours: 56
Weight: 129.2 pounds (58 kilos)
FTP: 230 watts
FTP/weight: 4.0
CP6: 283 watts
CTL: 87.9
Thoughts from the saddle: Nearly wore myself out last month trying to stay in my zones and struggled to increase my weekly CTL. In the process, my fitness plateaued. Last week I re-adjusted my FTP from 240 to 230 watts; my zones just felt too hard. Plus I took an extra day off the past two weeks. I don't know if my PowerTap gave me an errant wattage during my last FTP test or what, but something wasn't right during the month. ... I kept my CP6 power the same, opting not to test it in May. ... Only rode twice at Markham because of the weather. We're definitely in the rainy summer pattern. Several of my road rides were in steady rain. ... Started doing a group ride on Sunday, in addition to Saturday; overall, I'm getting a lot of enjoyment and work doing them. ... I did a faster group ride on May 12. That was a mistake. I was not ready and got dropped along State Road 27, my personal graveyard. I didn't have great legs when I got up that morning and I just wasn't prepared for the surging. I demonstrated really good steady state power, though. Thinking about trying it again in June, but these fast rides might be difficult until I start doing high-intensity intervals in a couple of months. ... Entering Base 3, which means longer lactate threshold intervals. Think I'm ready for them. As I noted, my steady-state power is really good and I'm more than ready to extend my time at threshold. ... Also planning on doing a weekly off-road climbing session at Vista View Park to add a little variety to my training and get my legs prepped for ORAMM in July. ... Speaking of ORAMM, the Old Fort Chamber of Commerce, located where the race begins and ends, contacted me about getting permission to use a photo of me from the race in 2010. It's using it on the chamber website http://www.oldfort.org/ and is considering putting it on a billboard along I-40 before the race. Knew I'd be famous one day.
