A Knight To Be

fail·ure /ˈfālyər/ noun 1. The action or state of not functioning. "The point when your working muscle is fully fatigued to the extent that it can no longer complete another repetition of a movement with strict biomechanics." Or, in other words, Success . Workout highlight Fight Club... true to its name, was a fight to the finish . This workout comes early on the training plan when targets are high, and adaptation has only begun. You attack. Attack and attack. The attacks come thick and fast from a threshold level with no recovery. As with most surges on The Sufferfest workouts, cadence spikes by ~15rpm and the power by Multiplies of Agony and Pain (MAP). Each interval starts with a TT effort, ~100 rpm, then transitions into a climb with ~75 rpm. While I have no problem surging from 100 to 120 rpm regardless of power (usually), the surge from 75 to 90 is a challenge. Obviously, metabolic and muscular demands are different at these efforts and given enough of ...

Plan #2 Week 2. 10 Weeks To Go. Welcome back, weary traveler. I trust that you may have wondered about my decision about which training plan to pursue having completed a 12-week program on 12.10.2019. You may have lost sleep, bitten your fingernails, pulled hair, and felt generally anxious and edgy. That's common, expected, and you're healthy - it's ok. More realistically though (and Google Analytics doesn't lie) I, the composer of these digital scrolls, is the sole soul reading these lines anyway, so, like the rest of it, no one cares, right? But I keep at it nonetheless. Remembering Why. That's why. I had, at the time, contemplated another 12-week plan, an eSport/vRacing plan, or a Knighthood attempt. Virtual Racing, I must admit, was most tempting because keeping a tight plan prevents me from hammering away on Zwift, which I genuinely enjoy. As for the Knighthood attempt, I can always do that, and I'm quite confident I don't need five weeks to...

*CAUTION: This post may contain images of a grown man in tights practicing masochism with the aid of a bicycle. TL;DR: The Sufferfest Training Plan, 12 weeks, MAP (VO2max) focus helped me raise my MAP by 4.3% (w/kg) and my FTP by 2.5% (w/kg).  Pre-Event Checklist? Done. Event Strategy? Done. All boxes ticked; battle awaits. Today I rode my second 4DP Test: Full Frontal. The first was a little more than 12 weeks ago, and since then, my focus is Maximal Aerobic Capacity (MAP, or VO2max) with The Sufferfest Training Plan. As a reminder, this is the 12-week General Cycling Plan, Advanced Level, Indoor Only, MAP focus, with all the toppings: Strength, Yoga, and Mental Toughness. TL;DR*: NM: 987 => 994 (+7W / 0.71%) AC: 470 => 456 (-14W / -2.98%) MAP: 314 => 328 (+14W / 4.46% ) FTP: 268 => 274 (+7W / 2.24%) LTHR: 182 => 180 (-2 BPM / -1.10%) And in W/Kg terms (as I gained 1kg over these 12 weeks): NM: 14.51 => 14.62 w/kg (+0.11 w/kg / 0.76%) AC: 6....

Just came off the bike after doing " Primers ". This drill "revs up the engine," so to speak by dishing out 4x 3 minutes intervals of around FTP, then 3 low effort sprints. I vaguely remember from doing this before the previous Full Frontal 4DP Test that these efforts we a bit on the demanding side of things. Spinning 90rpm at FTP, or just above, for 3 minutes and thinking, "this isn't as easy as it should be... I need 5 minutes at almost 100 Watts more tomorrow!" I attribute this to the very light days prior: no ride yesterday (just some Yoga) and a 30min Recovery Ride the day before. So legs are a bit "rusty" to the extent that a coat of oxidization only a couple of days old can blossom. Tomorrow is going to be a blast. I went through the Mental Toughness Program pre-event work, have my TO-DO for today and tomorrow and getting things in place. For instance, making sure to supplement and eat/drink enough today, even though it's ...

6 Days to go. Last kilometer. La Flamme Rouge. I've gone under the kite, as Carlton Kirby might say. Into the final rest week of the 12-week Sufferfest Training Plan I go. As a reminder, this is the General Cycling Plan, Advanced Level, Indoor Only, VO2 focus, with all the toppings: Strength, Yoga, and Mental Toughness. At this point, it's interesting to look at the power zone durations for the span of the plan thus far: 4.3% spent in Zone 5, and another 1.6% in Zone 6 - and since there were not too many sprints in this plan, let's assume that the NM+AC work is there to support MAP development. We combine these two figures to ~6% (3.5hrs). I'm very curious to see the impact this will have on the upcoming 4DP Full Frontal Test. Meanwhile, this rest week is a blessing. I'm utterly exhausted. To illustrate a point, last night, I rode the 90min Endurance+ ride, which generally puts me in a hazy comatose state. This time it was so challenging that I ...