After a very successful “Couch to Cat C” project, Boone has just wrapped up his second week of the next phase: a 6-week training block we’ve dubbed “C to Shining C”, as our goal is to move him from a beginner C racer to a podium. Here’s how the week unfolded…
The Plan
As a reminder: the basic plan we’ve settled on for the 6 weeks contains a mix of four different types of rides. (Many thanks to Alan Dempsey of HPP Coaching for giving us solid advice that sets Boone up for success).
- Races: Boone will race the C’s every week or two to check his progress, work on race craft, and of course get in a good workout.
- VO2 Workouts: this will be the cornerstone workout of each week. Nobody likes VO2 work, but we both agree Boone is getting a lot of benefit from these.
- Pace Partner Intervals: we’ll use the Pace Partners (Diesel or Cadence) to anchor a fun, interactive interval workout. Warm up with the pace partner, then sprint off the front for 15s. Or drop off the back, and put in a measured 2-minute effort to get back on. Lots of options here.
- FTP Ramp Tests: we’ll do at least two ramp tests to measure FTP progress.
- Recovery Rides: some days, Boone will just need an easier effort in the saddle. Since he’s still a beginning cyclist, even easy efforts are far from wasted.
Ride 5: V02 Workout
The first ride of this week was his cornerstone workout: the VO2 session. He killed it last week, so this week we made it a bit tougher – adding 10s to the VO2 intervals, and removing 5s of recovery time. Our goal is to get to where the VO2 interval time matches the recovery time, then we’ll start lengthening both together.
Boone rode up the Innsbruck KOM for this effort, just to get out and see the world a bit. His first time in Austria – he said it was warmer than he’d expected. “Throw another shrimp on the barbie!”
His beginning and ending heartrates for each interval looked a bit better than last week, which could indicate that he’s growing fitter. He’s certainly learning how to suffer – to use the mind to overcome what his body is saying. Most of us are capable of more than we think!
Ride 6: Recovery
This ride came the day after his VO2 workout, so we took it easy. This is a very valuable lesson for beginner cyclists to learn: you don’t need to push hard every day. In fact, you shouldn’t.
If you push hard every day, your body won’t be able to recovery adequately. You’ll end up with “hard rides” that aren’t hard enough, and easy rides that are too difficult. Better to rotate between difficult rides and recovery efforts.
For this ride, Boone started with Dan Diesel. And he tried to keep his HR around 145bpm, which is zone 2 for him.
Ride 7: New Bike Day!
Boone and I had been going back and forth as to what sort of Zwift setup he should get. He finally settled on the Wahoo KICKR Bike – a fine choice! With no intentions of riding outdoors, and liking the idea of no maintenance or multiple parts to fiddle around with, the KICKR Bike seemed like the perfect fit.
It arrived a few hours before Boone’s scheduled ride, so we put it together, mounted it on a top-secret rocker plate (more on that in a future post), and Boone took it out (in?) for its maiden voyage.
Boone had a lot of fun testing out the KICKR Bike’s Climb feature in Titans Grove and Repack Ridge, while I clicked around on the Wahoo app and dialed in the virtual gearing options. A couple of fit tweaks were needed once the ride was done, but Boone pronounced the KICKR Bike a winner. He’s a happy Wahooligan!
Ride 8: Crit City C Race
With two bikes now set up in the Zwift Insider Lab, Boone and I could ride together, once I changed some monitor cables around. He got the big screen, and I got one of the smaller ones. The plan was for us to ride together for Boone’s race warmup, then I would keep spinning in Watopia while he headed to Crit City for a 6-lap C race.
It was a little strange pedaling my bike on the small screen while Boone raced next to me on the big one. I kept finding myself pushing higher watts than normal, because my brain kept telling me I was in a race!
Boone did a great job in this race. If you recall, in Boone’s first C race he held on for the first 4.5 of 8 laps, before getting dropped.
This time around it was only a 6-lap event… and Boone held onto the front group to the finish! He rode really smart, staying in the wheels – and I’d say he was never pushed to his limit until his final sprint effort. He’s definitely getting stronger – and still dropping weight (down over 45# since early January). The progress is obvious.
Boone’s Sunday afternoon races have become a fun tradition here in the Schlange house. Monica comes up to watch, and our friend Zane usually comes over as well. Check out this crazy clip of the final moments of this race – whoever says Zwift racing isn’t immersive and intense has never raced with Zane in the room!
Boone finished in 3rd place with a solid final sprint. He said his legs felt like they were going to explode at the end, but he kept pushing and they just kept working! Another mental barrier broken.
Watch the full race recording (sorry, no live cam this time):
Week 2 Takeaways
First things first: apparently we set our goal too low. This second training block’s goal was to take Boone from a beginner C to a C podium, and he did that after just two weeks!
Three things Boone was a big fan of this week:
- His new Wahoo KICKR Bike
- PR Lotion: the reduced leg burn really helps him push harder
- VO2 Workouts (the results, not so much the experience)
We’re looking forward to getting more Zwift rides in together in the coming weeks – including a side by side VO2 workout. Ouch, x2!
A New Goal
As we spun around Watopia together post-race, Boone and I discussed a new training goal for this training block. We had a few ideas:
- Try to win a C race
- Podium in other C races – longer ones, hilly ones, etc
- Reach 3.2 w/kg so he upgrades to the B’s
In the end, we decided on the third option – mostly because we like the idea of getting to race together in the B’s, but also because he felt that targeting “staying in the C’s” wouldn’t push him hard enough.
So that’s our new goal – an FTP of 3.2 w/kg. We’ve got 4 weeks of training left, and right now he’s around 2.8-2.9 w/kg. Based on his rate of weight loss, we figure for him to hit the 3.2 w/kg target he’ll need to be around 210 pounds, with an FTP of 305W. Both numbers are very doable. Game on!
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