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| Warming Up before the January Fondo |
First, welcome to 2022. May this year be better than the last one.
Wrapping up notes on the Fondo, wanted to capture a few overarching notes.
- Nutrition was a surprise.
- I've used Hammer products for many years with great success, but I was disappointed early in the week; using the "right" volume and getting off the bike feeling sick was new. Burping up Perpetuem is not something I'd like to relive.
- I thought going to Clif bars for easy calories was a no brainer pushbutton solution for indoors, but found them to be a) too bulky and b) too sweet. I was reminded of my experiences trying to fuel during a Half-Iron aquabike in 2013 where I relied heavily on Clif for calories and had trouble eating them while riding.
- Skratch Labs worked wonderfully. It's a light flavor with a little metallic tang to let you know you're getting your minerals too.
- Going forward, I'll dial back what I do for "regular" rides; I do not need gels and sugary mixes for a 45 minute interval session.
- Overall Strategy was a miss. Or perhaps just a rude awakening.
- I was overly optimistic that I could put down some mega miles early in the week and 'earn' rest days later in the week.
- My current endurance output is much improved from a year ago, but not where it needs to be to ride with the 'C' group doing 40 km/h for an hour or three. Instead, I rolled at 30 km/h and required MUCH more time investment. This became a spiral of pain (saddle time) and greater impact to other things I'd intended to do around the house/property this week.
- I needed about 18 hours in Zwift, and 17.5 hours of moving time, to accumulate 500 km. Being able to hang out with the 'C' group would reduce this to 12.5 plus breaks. Or said another way, the 3.5 hrs that I needed to complete my metric century would have been 140km.
- No intent to sound like I'm not happy with the results. I'm glad to be done and glad that I did it. As the week evolved, I started with "plan A" which became "plan B" which became "ok, just grind it out."
- I completed a metric century in October. It ruined me for a few days. This week, 100km was just another day at the office, so to speak.
- My HR was far, far down from where it was just a few weeks ago at similar outputs.
- In February of 2021, I did my first Fondo. It was on a different (harder) course, but a few things jump out: I was done 30 minutes sooner, my average power was up 15 watts, and my average heart rate was down about 10 bpm. I did the previous Fondo fresh, and not after 450 km on the previous 7 days.
What's next? A few things:
- A diet tune up is in order. I'm working far too hard not to be losing weight.
- More riding with Pace Partners. I really enjoyed this during the F500.
- Add more days of Fitbod for upper body strength each week.
- Sprinkle in Zwift events - Fondo, Tour de Zwift, etc.
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