The Tuesday Thrashing

Seems like Tuesday is a day that Ben likes to try to kill his athletes. I've sort of stumbled my way into their sessions the last 2 weeks, and today could be considered one of the hardest efforts I've put out in a long time. Not that top end power numbers were that big, but there was just a lot of total work done today. It was a 2 hour session with a 90min main set that looked like this...

All those spikes were heavy gear efforts where the CT was set to give us 4% grade and we just stayed in a big gear and grinded it out as strong as we could. The longer 7min pieces (at the end of each round) were done at a higher cadence. I've done this set before on the road but had never attempted to go through it twice. I had to laugh a bit though- my normalized power for the middle 90min was 205w. My tested FTP (3 weeks ago) was 206w. I think by definition of FTP (and an IF above 1!) it's fair to say that based on today's ride, my FTP has gone up!

I don't think I'll bother to actually re-test it anytime soon. I don't get totally wrapped up in FTP numbers. But with the way some of these CT sessions are done, it's important to have it fairly close so when it's giving you a goal % that you're in the ballpark and consequently doing the right work.

My plan was to run OTB but, um, I was thrashed (that session was a lot harder than I was planning!) so I thought it better to come home and work for a few hours and run later. I did get out the door for a 6 mile progression run before I had to go get Moana. I ran from home so it was hilly. Neg split avg 9:27 first 3 miles (avg HR143) then avg 8:53 coming home (avg HR 153) and that felt solid. I really had to hold myself back in the beginning b/c my inclination was to hammer it out.

At some point I'm going to need to take a recovery day, but it doesn't feel like I need one quite yet. Maybe I'll take one on Thursday? When I'm on a roll like this I find it hard to pull back the reigns on myself. This is where an experienced coach would come in handy. It can be hard to be objective with yourself.