Project 250 – Part 2

6 weeks ago I started a plan to try to build my FTP towards 250W, along with improving other areas of my fitness, using the Sufferfest “Plan with Dan”. In my Part 1 write up I covered some of the reasoning and background on my little project.

So how are things going?

Well, much to my surprise things are progressing pretty well. The main challenge for me in this type of endeavour is always sustaining the initial enthusiasm and committing to each of the sessions.  That initial rush of enthusiasm has a tendency to wane over the following weeks. Sessions get missed and then it all falls apart, like many New Years Resolutions.

This time round though I think by setting a specific, and realistic target it has helped keep the motivation, assisted no doubt by the fact I have blogged about it so there is no going back.

Of the 24 sessions that were scheduled so far I have only missed 2. The first was due to doing some big road rides instead and the second was down to being away with the family camping for the weekend. In that case I pulled the Friday session forward and did it on the Thursday evening. But couldn’t fit Saturdays session in and as I competed in the Ringwood Brewery Triathlon on the Sunday I ended up counting that as the session instead. Unfortunately it was one of the more intense sessions from the plan (The Tool Shed) which I was kind of disappointed to have missed.

I have moved some of the other sessions to fit around work, family and competitions but I have completed them all plus additional running, swimming and a couple of road rides and events.

Below is the full calendar of what I have covered so far up to the end of Week 6. Sufferfest sessions are in bold and black with red details showing Intensity settings where adjusted from 100%. The blue text show the time and average power I delivered during the session. Any additional training is listed in green and it’s position shows if this was done before or after the Sufferfest Session if it was on the same day.

Weeks 4 and 5 had some tough sessions in them. With the cumulative effect of those hard sessions along with other training there were a couple of times that I had to stop and take a quick 90 second breather or drop the intensity 10% for the last bits to make sure I could actually get through the session. Though that’s not great I have finished every one of the sessions.

At the beginning of Week 6 I took part in the Hart Triathlon along with Stu and 46 other members of our Tri Club. This was not only a great event, it was awesome to have so many others from the club competing. It was also the first time this year (maybe longer) I felt strong on the bike, covering the 20km bike course at just over 20mph average. I could sustain good power but also when I was overtaking people closely matched to my pace I was able to surge to pass them and then still retain a strong pace whilst recovering afterwards.

The first 3 sessions of Week 6 were aimed at Recovery – which was good because my body definitely needed some.

The final session however, the “Long Scream” was a different matter all together. This is actually a repeat of the first session you ever do as part of this plan but this time at 100% intensity rather than the much easier 80% intensity you tackle it at in Week 1. Beforehand you do a 20 minute “Igniter” Session to act as a warm-up, then the 30 minute Time Trial effort starts with around 10 minutes just below FTP, the next 10 minutes are around and just above FTP and the final 10 minutes are about 10% higher than FTP at around 249W.

It was a tough session, but sustainable. At the beginning I was seriously wondering if I would get through it, I started it more in hope than expectation. The little 5 second micro breaks it builds in where power drops 20-30W were more of a psychological help than a physical one I think. At the end I felt I could have gone either a little harder or carried on the final effort at close to 250W for a few minutes more. Either way once the session was uploaded and the notification email came through from Sufferfest it showed I had sustained an average of 240W for the final 20 minutes.

Using the 95% rule for FTP calculation that would move my FTP to 228W, one more than my original 227W calculated from the 4DP Test. Nothing significant but that also ignores the fact there were 10 minutes at close to FTP before the final 20 minutes. That might not be as taxing as the 5 minute MAP effort in the 4DP test but it’s likely to have had some effect. I was also able to sustain around 20W more for the same 155 BPM. So I am taking these as good signs that progress is being made and I still have 4 weeks to go before the next Full Throttle 4DP Test.

So now it’s all about Weeks 7-10; well almost.

There is the slight matter of Blenheim Weekend Warriors and a family holiday in Week 9. But I will stick with as many sessions as I can and hope not to come away from Blenheim injured like last year. Catch you at the end of Week 10…