I got the Prudential Ride100 official start information magazine this morning. It referred to an email they had sent with my start details late June. I never received that email so called the helpline – lie a lot of other people I think since it was busy for the first hour I was trying. When I did get through I was on hold for 25 minutes before I got to speak to someone.
Turns out they sent the email out again about 5 minutes before I spoke to the person and my start time is Blue B at 6:06 – a pretty early start time. I’ve decided to do the park and ride to the start – I’ve got a spot at Surrey Quays shopping centre about 6 miles from the start and 5 from the finish.
Got back from the US this morning. I’ve not really done much cardio activity for the last 10 days so figured a good way to stay awake was a quick FTP test! Average power for the 20 minutes was 304W, the first time I’ve been over 300W for 20 minutes. That translates into an FTP of 289W, up from my previous test at 274W.
Well, I’ve got to the end of the 10 week training plan. The last week I’ve had to adapt a little due to travel commitments. When I get back home I’ll do another FTP test to see where I’ve got to.
I’ll then have 4 weeks to go to the Ride 100 so I’ll have to put a plan together to at least maintain my form.
Today I needed to do a 2.5 hour rolling ride. Since this is the end of week 9 and I’m pulling some of my week 10 sessions forward due to travel next week, I decided to ride the 3 hills of the Ride 100 just to get a sense for how things will be.
I covered just over 66 km of the 160km of the full course at an average speed of 29.2 kmh. If I manage the same speed on the day, then I will need to average 34.8kmh for the other 94km in order to meet my 5 hour goal.
Several things give me confidence that I can meet the goal:
- I am a lot less rested than I will be on the day – I’ve had three pretty heavy sessions over the last few days.
- The rest of the course is a lot flatter
- I am hoping that I can work with some other riders
- The adrenaline of the event will help me go faster
This is a light week after the last 3 week period. Today’s session was a 30 minute “time trial” on the turbo trainer – The Long Scream Sufferfest video. Training Peaks tells me that my 20 minute best average power during the session was 289 Watts – the last 20 minutes not surprisingly. Based on that, my FTP is now up to 274 Watts.
The calculation for FTP is 95% of the best average 20 minute power.
I decided to get a VIRB camera to use on the bike to capture what’s going on. I decided on the VIRB because it integrates pretty well with the Edge 1000 I already have.
I chose the VIRB Basic version since I already have a lot of the data captured by the Edge 1000. Once I’ve got use to it, I’ll upload some videos and add links to them.
This is the first light week after the first 3 week period. Today’s session was a 30 minute “time trial” on the turbo trainer – The Long Scream Sufferfest video. Training Peaks tells me that my 20 minute best average power during the session was 277 Watts – the last 20 minutes not surprisingly. Based on that, my FTP is now up to 263 Watts.
The calculation for FTP is 95% of the best average 20 minute power.
I thought it would be useful to list the aids I use for training. You can find the detail on my training aids page which I will keep updated.
It’s time to start training again! Last year the Ride100 was really the Ride86 due to Hurricane Bertha arriving on the morning of the ride bringing biblical weather (rain and winds) and resulting in the loop down to Leith Hill and back being removed as well as Box Hill being bypassed.
With 14 weeks to go until the event, I will start with the Sufferfest 10 week intermediate training plan. Last year I used the Sufferfest Novice 10 week training plan.
Based on an FTP test a couple of weeks ago, my starting FTP is 257. I’m hoping to get that up to around 285 by the time I start the Ride100.
Today was my first time on rollers. I was pretty concerned about whether I would be able to balance and ride without falling off. I set the rollers up in a doorway in the house so I wouldn’t actually fall too far.
I was surprised at how straightforward it ended up being. At first, I was looking down at the front wheel – a big mistake. I then remembered the advice to look ahead and all of a sudden, things became easier. It’s also important to keep riding at a decent cadence, for me at least 90, and with a reasonable amount of power.
Riding on the rollers definitely makes a difference to the smoothness of your cycling technique. I will incorporate roller sessions into my training to focus on technique.
Nick's training and other musings