The month of November has generally gone well. My hip complains a fair bit and is sore on and off. Mobility is restricted but I think it is slowly improving. The hip is not constraining my cycle training which is good news and I was easily able to do a 6 mile coastal walk a couple of weeks ago whilst on holiday in Cornwall.
I decided not to take my bike to Cornwall, which was a hard decision to make, because I wanted to give my cycling muscles a break following a pretty quick ramp up in the previous fortnight.
Here are the targets I set myself in my last Blog entry when my FTP was 194W:
FTP up to at least 200W, preferably 210W
Weight below 80kg
Weekly TSS at 420
Be in Cat C
In reverse order, I was forcibly promoted to Cat C on 19th November after winning a Cat D race that day.
My Weekly TSS since getting back from my hols is tracking at 449 which would give me a CTL of 64 if I maintain it. I can’t see my CTL at the moment as I discontinued Premium on TrainingPeaks. Strava Fitness and Freshness gives similar (but different) numbers but I’d estimate I am around 34 (I reckon I was around 25 at the start of the month.)
My weight is just under 80kg but not dropping as quickly as I’d hoped which is bad news with Christmas around the corner.
Zwift has assigned me an FTP of 215W at present but I think it is a touch higher. As FTP is an “output” measure, it is asking for trouble setting targets as I can’t control what my FTP is whereas I can control what TSS (for example) I do in a particular time period.
So the plan is pretty much more of the same for the next month. I’m overdoing Zwift racing at present but resisting the temptation to race every day. The other days are mainly Zone 2. I’m not doing any structure or intervals other than those that occur naturally in the races. I’ll probably move to them once I get closer to my previous levels.
Targets for the end of December are:
FTP up to 230W
Weight below 79kg
Weekly TSS at 476
Consistently finish in top half of Cat C Races
On a less happy note, I mentioned Dr. Louis Passfield last month and was shocked to see that he passed away unexpectedly just after I posted the last blog. So sad, he seemed like a very nice guy.