Goals Galore, v2.008 - Page 9

I guess I have to call it a season and give time for a break, even with some dissappointment not reaching my goals. I had it very, very good until August. FTP came up from ~270 at end of March (that was after a 6-7 weeks complete break) to 340w.
I felt that only sky is the limit. But then I hit influenza or some infection. Got better in a week only to get the next hit after a couple of weeks. And again and again. Finally got to doctor last week and should get the results of blood screening and ECG tomorrow.

The dissappointment is not the actual result but the feeling that I know for sure that I could have reached my FTP and 5MMP goals if I had stayed healthy.

I didn't do a test because I was waiting until I am good for 360 that never came but based on 20 MMP 365w, best L4 interval (40 min) 345w, best ~1 hour NP 357w, I'd say it was 340w

Didn't test either because that was supposed to happen after FTP test. Best 5 min was 408 w. That was the last interval in 5x5 series so with my somewhat good anaerobic contribution I believe I would have broken 420w fresh.

Summer weight was hovering 90-91kg. Now I've got couple of kilos more because I have been trying to eat more to fight the infection.

Well, no gain, no pain, or how did it go .

Others:
5 Sec - 1576 w
1 MMP - 812 w

1 MMP I tested only twice and didn't do any formal training for it so that should have quite a big improvement potential even it is already high comparing to other figures.

__________________
"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

OK, so let's see....

FTP now 240 watts and climbing.
MAP last tested at 355 watts
Body mass 91kg (-7.7%)
Placed 3rd in local D grade crit today
Have been riding the track, will see about racing but need club racing to begin so I can get an appropriate grade to race.

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To follow up:
I did not run a good run at my first Ironman event but that had more to do with an asthmatic-like condition that I seem to experience during extremely taxing endurance events than in being upprepared on the bike. I did manage to raise my FTP. I'm not sure by how much because I'm not sure I was ever able to accurately measure my FTP in the first place. I do think that I had underestimated my FTP in the first place as it must have been higher than 240. In any case, whatever it was in the first place, I estimate I raised it by around 25-30 watts which was my goal. The improvement this gave me on the bike was phenomenal. The bike had already been my strongest leg in a triathlon but this year, instead of merely making up the time I lost on the swim to my training partners, I was able to gain anywhere from 10 minutes for an Olympic distance triathlon to 35 minutes for a Half Ironman distance triathlon over them and still have enough gas in the tank for a good run. At the Ironman race in France, I had a 5:53 bike leg which put me about half an hour or more ahead of my friends and still felt pretty good during the run until the asthmatic sysptoms kicked in. So, all in all, I feel like I met, exceeded even, the spirit of my goal thanks pretty much to a steady diet of 20-30 minute intervals on the trainer during the winter months and SST once I got out on the road. So thanks guys, this forum was very useful for that advice.
-richard

1. Sort of
2. Sort of
3. Fail
4. Fail (366)
5. Major Fail (4.18) but then on 3.51 pace on indoor track at Nationals???

__________________
Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

Problems with the lap counter maybe. It happens.

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Nah, concerted effort from a crap regionals on slow outdoor track where power lifted about 50watts, weight dropped 5kg and motivation was high plus ILT is indoor board and faster than Dunc Gray (up to 5sec faster per km than Denton Park).

__________________
Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

Quote:
Originally Posted by rmur17

• Train consistently and stay healthy {no real issues this year. Grade: A}
• Keep the weight down over the winter {not bad in winter but I did balloon up over 90kg at one point. Grade: B}
• Functional Threshold Power (FTP): 420W (5.0 w/kg)

• 
  {Peaked at 415W a couple of times. Very close: A}
• Addtional targets: 430x30, 440x20, 470x10}
  {Bests were 424x26, 420x33, 430x20, 463x10. Close: A-}
  5-min max. power (5MMP): 500W (6.0 w/kg)
  {hit 500W ergo seated for 4:45 this fall. Close: A-}
• MAP (25W/min ramp rate): 550-560W (6.5 w/kg)
  {not formally tested but FTP/MAP ratio suggests 550 was in hand most of the season}
  
• PB on local TT short and long courses: (21k/46k)
  {in Sept came within 15sec, 4sec and 2sec of 21k PB. Close: A-}
• Local big Sept. stage race: Podium overall and win TT stage.
  {Won all three stages and overall. A++}
• Canadian Nationals: Podium in the M40-49 ITT
  {Could not make it there this year. Not graded}
• Help local U23 rider win the Natz TT (4th, only 16 sec from 1st last year)
  {5th this year though he was stuck on using a certain bike and components and all I could really do was ensure he was UCI legal. Not graded}

Items 3 and 4 would be +20W to 2007 bests and all-time PB's (age 44).

update: overall A- I'd say. Could do a bit better!

The main 'other' thing I did this year was to join the local cycling club exec. and help promote/push a series of TTs and HCs running until the end of September. We had fifteen events on the calendar and successfully completed eleven. The others were lost nearly all due to unforeseen road construction on our main short TT course. I was probably most happy about how the series ran this year .

Next year: danged good question right now. I don't want to think too far ahead: five-six months of nearly total indoor cycling without burnout is a goal in itself!

__________________
rmur

Update:

FTP >= 225W:
Still currently set at 240W. Last sets of indoor 2x20's @ 245-250W, hard but not complete ball tearers.

MAP >= 315W
Not re-tested as yet (last test 355W)

Body mass -5%:
89.5kg (-9%)

Finish a D-grade Crit
Have done couple of crits and earned prize money both times so next time I'll bump up a grade.

Track riding / racing
Did some local track racing last week (C-grade) and got through OK, even placing in some events. Expect to do a bit more racing over the season.

Also did my first group ride out on the Sydney roads weekend before last (the infamous Coluzzi bunch).

So all up, I have well and truly thumped early expectations. Perhaps goals were a bit low to start with but very hard to know when at the start of the year I could barely walk, had to be re-admitted to hospital because my back muscles siezed - not strong enough to hold my own body up, I needed to learn to walk on new prosthetic and getting on a bike seemed a long way away.

Amazing what a little bit of training can do.

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