Where did we start?
Backtrack; August 18th I did my best ever power test (317w for 20 minutes/ 301w @156lbs ) and was feeling really good. I was attempting to be super fit for a gravel race out in mountains called Pisgah Monster Cross, but my body just knew I was crushing it and decided to get some stomach bug at the end of August. I took a solid 2 weeks off from doing anything really productive on the bike, mostly because I was peeing out of my butt for a week straight. Eventually I did some trail rides with Finn, couple hour lunch spins to enjoy the break from the humidity.
I dove into the Off-season plan plenty fresh. I started September 25th. It starts with 3 weeks of “foundation”, which kind of gets your body used to some of the stuff you’re going to do, but not overdoing it. Then 10 weeks of weights. I chose the at home gym plan as I had a squat rack and some kettle bells, I did my best without buying that ViPR thing they were looking to do. So tons of squats, I added some dead lifts. Plus going to the gym is another monthly fee, driving to and from, etc. They also want you to ride 30 minutes before and after. It’s much easier to do that at home. Depending on the weather and how I feel, I lift, then do a chill MTB ride, or if I’m lazy I’ll just sit on the trainer and watch Stephen A Smith argue. My max 1 rep max squat was 235 at the first “test”. I failed 245. At the end of the strength phase, I was able to rep 235 4-5 times. Pretty cool to see massive gains being a newbie lifter. Long gone are the days of suddenly gaining 20-30w on our FTP, but big jumps in anything measured is cool. I feel like I could do more, but apparently the heavy lifting part is over.
Catching up to today, we have more focus on being explosive/fast with your lifts. Jump squats instead of heavy squats. FasCat has you lift one day, then do some sprints the next day. I must say that I’ve never done anything remotely close to “sprints” this early into the year. It seems that the trend is to touch that energy system a little bit in the off season though.
I was never a sprinter, but I’m hoping it makes a difference this go around.
(do people even want the strava links anymore, like who really cares?)
I will say that these felt really, really good. Sprinting from a standstill and cranking those RPMs up. My legs felt super fresh and could handle the jumps with ease. Couple weeks of this until we start the Sweet Spot base plan, that’s when Santa leaves back for the North Pole.
Bike Check 1
I guess to keep things interesting as I’ve been gone for a long time, we can recap what kind of rides we got in the stable.
I was originally on a cracked 3T Exploro that was repaired (not my first time) and may have accidentally bid on this because I wanted it. Ended up swapping all my crap over and bam, new bike. I think my seat position was a little off on the first ride making it feel strange. It certainly is a different beast from the Exploro, a little more upright, little more gnar ready, fits wider tires. The Exploro was awesome because it did really well as an endurance/racey road bike with 32s on it. I was very close to trying to find another one, but was really hung up on the 42mm measured tire max width. I have GXP on all my drop bar bikes, so I stick with some vintage cranksets to swap my powermeter over on all of them. I spent way too much time on the Sheldon Brown gear calculator to make sure 46 10/51 is going to be the perfect amount of gearing for me. The China carbon wheels are from 2018, same specs as the OG Stans Valors and have been absolutely bomb proof.
I only have one real ride on it, but I think it will be what I’m looking for in a gravel rig. Excited to see what fat tires we can fit in this pig.
jamespearl 