Had a bit of a crisis of confidence recently and needed a morale boost after a couple inexplicable performances.
A couple of weeks ago I did the Dutch Diesel Cycling Volcano Circuit Race and Zwift detected an FTP increase to 296w. I was going well and feeling good after coming out of a bout of illness.
After that I did my normal commutes. Felt good but tired as expected. I had a Friday off and raced the 3R Volcano Flat Race and felt the commutes in my legs so my performance was just off as I expected
Come Sunday I decided to race the 3R Greatest London Race and despite feeling ok in myself and rested, the wheels fell off. I got dropped in the race. Out of the front group, through the next and barely hung onto the next. I just couldn’t get any power out although my heart rate was through the roof. No aches associated with fatigue in my legs. I couldn’t really explain it. I climbed off, put it down to a blip and tried again the next day. Even worse. 7km in to a race and I had to DNF. I was quite deflated. No idea whats happened I put it down to tiredness. I had been out till 2.30am on Friday night drinking etc. I went back to basics and had a couple of days off and then started commuting again and stayed off Zwift.
On Sunday I decided to see how I felt and rode up the Alpe de Zwift as a bit of a test. I turned myself inside out and it was my 3rd fastest ascent about 90secs off my PR. Power was ok.
Due to the weather (snow and ice), no commutes so far this week so I decided to do the last Tour de Zwift stage last night. No streaming in case I had to bail (pride thing). Its not officially a race but they are ridden like one and the field is massive and good quality. So how did it go?
4 Laps of the Perimeter Park loop which is rolling and has a nasty short, sharp climb 2.5km after the start. I rolled out and managed to get to the front early on, helped by getting to the pen early. The first real test was the climb which I handled fine. Lots of riders were constantly pushing the pace and despite being a double-draft enabled event it was tough to stay in the wheels and maintain my position at the front. Lap 2 was fine but lap 3 the elastic began to stretch on the climb and I just got on the coat tails of the lead group. Final lap and I made the mistake of being too far back on the run into the climb and let a gap go up the climb mixed in with lapped riders. Heart rate at max the elastic broke and I was popped. I TT’d to the finish and finished 18th (in ZP) out of 800+ and my power was good. 4.9w/kg for 20mins so despite feeling a bit ring rusty, I’m back!
Ride on!