If you read my first “Motivation Monday” you'll know I was somehow suckered into riding the Monkey Knife Fight in April. I'd suggest you read that post to get an idea of what I've gotten myself into. The short, short version of it is this: it's a spring classic, PA style. That means dirt roads, gravel, steep climbs, shitty weather and lots and lots of fun. And beer. There's a beer sponsor.
In past columns, I've detailed some of my training theory behind a ride like this. Yeah, it's lots of muscular endurance and plenty of VO2 max work. No, it's not glamorous at all, but it gets the job done. In all honesty, training never is glamorous, is it?
Today, I'm going to chat about how you know it's time to test (even if it's outside your scheduled testing time) and modify your program a bit.
Testing Time?
Monkey Knife Fight is around 2 months away. That's not a hell of a lot of time to go about building the upper-end fitness necessary to complete a spring classic. And it's especially short time to get fit for a 64-mile spring classic with gradients up to 20%.
I ask myself again, “What the fuck did I get myself into?”
Or more appropriately, what did Nate rope me into?
Well, it's of little consequence. The date is set and the cash is paid, so I better make the best of it. I’ve got a couple short months to really cram in some kind of training before the big day comes. In reality, I don’t want to embarrass myself by being left for dead on some steep gravel climb. Nor do I want to endure the ignominy of having to put a foot down because my legs either cramp or aren’t up to the task at hand.
Really, would anything else other than total victory be acceptable? Not on my watch, no sir.
This next couple of months will absolutely be both a test of timing and a testing time. Will I have enough time to make the necessary jumps in fitness? Or will the relentless march of the clock and calendar put paid to my hopes and dreams?
That, dear reader, is why this is a testing time. It’s also why it’s “testing time.”
It's a numbers game
So, now is the time to test where I'm at and see where I can best focus my precious remaining time. It’s one of the rare occasions that I’m going to throw the book out the window and jump into an unscheduled FTP test to ensure I'm on the right track, fitness wise. Sure, in theory, I should be testing in 2 weeks. But as they say”I ain't got time fo dat!” And besides, I need to change things up now. I'm due.
How do I know? I just do. I'll show you how to figure it out too.
One of the biggest clues that it's time to test or retest fitness is simple numbers. In this case, I've been seeing aerobic decoupling numbers that are well below the “magic number” of 5%. In fact, in the case of some sweet spot intervals, I've been seeing negative decoupling numbers. That essentially means that, compared to heart rate, average power rose during an interval. And if that's the case during sweet spot work, it means something is shifting in a positive direction.
Besides the aerobic decoupling numbers, I've also noted that heart rate recovers faster between hard efforts. Sure, I've only been doing the occasional VO2 max workout during the base phase. And that's just to keep the upper-end fitness primed a little bit anyway, not to really affect any significant VO2 max shift. But during those efforts, I've found that heart rate returns to aerobic levels rather quickly after an interval. It's just another clue that it's time to start looking at changing up some FTP numbers.
Going by “the feels”
Riding an event like Monkey Knife Fight is very much a case of riding by feel. RPE plays an important part in events that involve varying terrain and crazy shit like 20% unpaved gradients. Well, RPE really matters in any case where your changing surfaces. That's mostly down to the change in resistance at the wheels: what feels harder isn't necessarily harder when you compare the numbers.
In this case, while it's admittedly been really shitty weather so far this season, I've been outdoors a few times. In those short 45ish miles, I've found short, hard efforts aren't terribly challenging after the winter base work. Short, sharp climbs are fairly easy to handle and pretty easy to recover from, generally speaking. Where punching over a tough roller might leave the legs feeling shabby for a little while, that fatigue simply isn't there right now. There's a small question of if this is because there's very little accumulated fatigue or if my legs truly feel that good. I'm going with the latter, actually.
Similarly, longer efforts such as muscular endurance drags up false flats don't really burn the matches much either. After around 7 weeks of longer duration muscular endurance training, I've found that those false flats melt under the pressure of my pistons. Not only can I push through them, there's little worry about recovering on the other side too: it's a pretty simple affair to spin out the legs for a minute and be ready for more. Again, it's a feel thing that means it's time to look at the numbers and consider retesting.
That said, feeling good outside is a great thing, right?
So you're saying you're ready to get stabbed in a monkey knife fight?
Well, no, not exactly. Not even close, in fact.
Where I'm still going to have a tough time are those longer dirt and gravel sections (otherwise collectively known as “the shit”, as in “we're getting in the shit now.”) To keep up with the pace, you'll have to pour on a little extra power in order to keep the speed up through those sections. That will require some VO2 max capacity to punch through the rough stuff and overcome the additional rolling resistance.
Additionally, you have to remember that an event like this is around 64 miles. That equates to around 4 hours or so, figuring on a 15 MPH pace. The longest I've sat my ass on the saddle for is about an hour and a half on Zwift. And no, the 29.something miles I rode in that ride aren't really comparable to real life. Well, in some ways they are: that's an hour and a half of straight pedaling. In a comparable outdoor scenario, I'd only be pedaling for about 2/3 of that time, or around an hour. So I'd be coasting lazily along for half an hour. Overall, you could call that 1.5-hour Zwift jaunt similar to a 2-hour outdoor ride. Basically, I need to get outside and plant my butt on the saddle for a while.
Finally, I've gotta start building in some repeats. I've done a couple workouts like this already, including a brutal “big gear depletor” workout. The aim here is to be able to repeat big efforts over and over and over again without breaking down. That only comes from repeatability work, so I'll be in for some tabatas, over/unders and zone 5/6 repeat work.
It would also be a pretty good idea to go and find some dirt roads to ensure I can remember how to ride on the rough stuff. You know, so I don't crash and shred myself on the first dirt section. Just a thought.
So where am I going from here? Well, I'll be spending my indoor trainer sessions on the tough stuff. That means VO2, repeatability work, and continued lactate shuttling work on some days. When I start getting outdoors, it's time to bring it all together and throw down the VO2 efforts, climbs, seated grinds and force work and all the recovery stuff that needs to integrate.
Oh yeah, and about that FTP test? 17.5% improvement over my last test. Yeah, I'd say it was time to test. Now I can get out there and start working through that testing time.
