Week Ending May 6th in Review (Recovery 1)

Although the Providence half-marathon was the plan for Sunday, my team of consultants: Ratt (PT) and Matt decided that we’d cap the running at 1-hour for the week.  This being the case, we’ve taken the opportunity to cut back on volume for the week.  However, this did not derail an absolute beast out on the trainer Wednesday morning.  The goal was 3x16min 90% FTP intervals.  Since I’ve turned in some big big numbers for the long weekend rides (like 94% IF for 4+ hours) the new, estimated, outdoor FTP is in the 275W range.  That being said, the goal for the 3x16 minutes intervals (big Varsity set) was between 238W (indoor #) and 247 (outdoor #).  I was feeling good, so guess I blew them both out.  First interval at a solid 244W with the following 2 sets right in the 251W range.  Felt phenomenal and strong.  Notice the text book curves:

Everything worked out in this one.  Cadence is right where I want it.  Power exceeds the targets and the HR follows the expected trajectory.  Lots of good Zone 4 work (48 minutes).  Very happy with this performance.  

The weekend shapes up nicely with a shortened ride at much lower power ranges, followed by another 0:45-1:00 run on Sunday, keeping everything moving forward.  The easy ride on Saturday was too easy.  I wanted to beast out a 5-minute best effort.  I set that up at 30’ into the ride and ripped down a 344W 5-minute.  That’s over 4.0 W/kg.  Happy with this.  Quick brick to finish with and that felt really good.

This week, we got the ZEO sleep manager to start tracking the patterns and learning about enhancing that element of the restorative and performance processes.  This week was the first week that I have begun feeling ‘better than average’ in the injury department.  So very pleased with this progress.  Patience has been a necessary evil for me in getting the ankle back up and running, no pun intended!