Good Friday Update

Its been awhile since I've posted so I figure I'd better update. Last week took a rest week after two straight weekends of MTB racing. My body took a beating as well as my Kona. Getting old is not conducive to MTB racing.

I also started my new job last week. Well Kinda of. Part of my severance stipulation was I had to work three days @ the old place & two @ the new. This week it was the reverse; two @ the new & two @ the old. I got a free pass thanks to the holiday so all ties are now done with the old defunct company(I hope). I'll be making less money but the commute is a little shorter & the place is climate controlled & fairly clean. A real selling point bonus for a guy in maintenance. It's nice not to have to dress in all my Carhartt's to stay warm & it will be even nicer not to sweat my ass off all summer.

I got the first mow of the season in last Monday. It has begun my seasonal fight with the weed whacker. Technically I didn't weed whack last week but if history shows anything I'll have to fight the weed whacker all season. To make things even more interesting I'm going to put out a garden this year too. Hopefully the last freeze is done & I'll get it going this Saturday. Just what I need more yard work. Yeah! Actually I'm pretty excited about fresh home grown veggies.

Training: A recovery week means FTP test this week. Got that out of the way on Tuesday. One whole watt increase. I know massive but a watt is a watt. Wanted to get in a nice ride today but the weather isn't going to cooperate so it looks like more trainer time. No racing this week. Next week hopefully will be another MTB race in Neosho @ the Tour de Tick. Then another week or two off & off to the Syllamo Revenge. A 50 mile MTB race isn't too bright but I got given a free entry so its hard to turn down. Plus I already got my first stupid move of the year out by racing in the mud & snow two weeks ago so its open season on stupid Scott tricks.

With this wind it must be Kansas?

Holy Crap I thought the SPR had been picked up & plopped down in Kansas. 20-25mph winds with gusts to 35+. Normal everyday winds for KS, suckfest for me. I did use the block headwind from the West to get in a 20 min FTP test, identical to the ramp test results(actually thought it might be lower). No wonder Tilford is so damn strong after fighting winds like that for 90 years.

Good ride all in all except for the 45 minutes or so when the sun went into hiding & I would have killed for my vest or a section of newspaper(your not wicked old school if you have to ask what its for). Halltown, Lawrenceburg, BFE dirt road near Comet to make TK happy. Actually the dirt road was the highlight of the ride. Ripping downhill with a tail wind on 23's equals big shit eating grin. Then over to Phenix, down to just east of Ash Grove, to Center(wind damage to the church), back side of Bois D'Arc via Mountain Lion Conservation Area, then Elwood & home. All that for 107 kilometers, wind made it seem farther. Actually topped out not far from the southern arm of Stockton lake. Never ridden all the way up to it might have to do that in the near future.

FTP testing

Last season I didn't do any FTP testing. I based my wattage numbers on the results of my 40k TT in Arkansas. Not smart but gave me a good baseline to work from. This year I've decided to test more often to see my actual progress. So far so good. Test in January was right at my old FTP so started back at where I was at mid summer. Test this week was a big improvement. Probably where I was at mid cross season.



I started out too hard in the January test which I did on my cx bike on the trainer. February's test was on the TT bike on the trainer. I think for now I'll retest once a month. Come this summer maybe every two or three weeks as I get closer to State TT. I'm also going to play around with several different testing methods to see how close the results are.