Week 15

Monday: Rode with Adly, Shyrim and Kenny to KKB via Ulu Yam there and back. Wanted to work the climbs, and put in some decent amount of work on the front. Managed to do both. On the way back, I decided to pull a Maxime Monfort from the right turn after the bridge. In my mind, I was on the Galibier. And the terrain was quite similar too, but on a smaller scale. The first part was more of a false flat where I monstered a big gear, and the part after the camp on the left was steeper, akin to the steeper section to Sierre Chevalier. NP for both climbs were 248W. 280 TSS points.

Tuesday: Longest ride of the 4 day block to Bentong and back. Legs were very heavy out the door and on the climb to Sempah. NP was only 232W and I felt like I was working very hard. But on the way back from Bentong it felt that whatever it was blocking my legs were gone and I pushed it as hard as I could from the hot springs to the top. NP was 240W for almost an hour. Not too shabby on the back end of a 4 day block to be pushing that hard. 325 TSS points.

Saturday: Rode Home – Batu 18 – Tekala – Broga – Lenggeng – Broga – Kajang Perdana – Home. Although it was supposed to be a ride WITH BJCC from Batu 18 to Lenggeng, it turned out to be a ride IN FRONT of BJCC for almost the entire route to Lenggeng. Took it as my responsibility to control the pace and bring the group to the climbs in good condition. Mission accomplished, I would say. Pushed it really hard from Kajang Perdana to TTDI averaging a (wind-assisted) 37 km/h. 325 TSS points.

Sunday: I thought my legs would be OK after the long ride on Saturday. But turned out to be otherwise. Knowing the nature of rides with P2K, I just had to suck it up and bear with it. Couldn’t respond when Kelvin jumped away at Kuang, and couldn’t close the gap just before the left turn to the rolling climbs on Jalan Batu Arang. Felt better on the way back and helped close down Leonard who was feeling VERY frisky. A hard and fast ride for 180 TSS points.

After the weekend extravaganza, wanted to log another ride on Thursday but the legs felt really iffy and I was quite fatigued. So decided to save it for the next day. But Friday turned out to be a case of slight fever and stomach discomfort. So THAT plan was shelved. However, target was achieved. More than 1000 TSS points this week. 1110 to be exact! Now to back this up with another big week next week as Wednesday is a public holiday and next weekend will be a long 4 day weekend.

Week 14

Tuesday: Hell Hath No Fury with the main sets at > 250 watts. Stage 1 NP 250W. Stage 2 NP 253W. Stage 3 NP 254W. Stage 4 NP 289W. The bright point of the workout? Everytime Emilia Fahlin comes on screen. Such a CUTIE-PIE!!! Unfortunately, she only turns up like 2 times. But motivation enough to stay on the trainer. 100 TSS points.

Wednesday: A Very Dark Place for the usual threshold + VO2max combo. But instead of the typical 5 sets at the highest VO2max I could do, decided to add a twist to the workout. Wanted to see how many sets I can do at 290 watts before I threw up my lunch. Turns out the answer is 7 sets! AP for the sets were 295W, 293W, 295W, 294W, 293W, 296W, 294W. Pretty damn hard in my book. 100 TSS points.

Saturday: Rode Sempah at 145 pm! Right smack in the middle of the afternoon! And for good reason. I had to send Lin off at the airport in the morning. Her flight was supposed to leave at 845, and I would have been able to get out at a decent hour. But it was retimed to 1245 so I got back a bit later. Was still determined to ride as it was supposed to be part of a 4 day block in conjunction with CNY holidays. Ideal conditions allowed me to push hard all the way. Created a PB (both time and power) from the Sg. Rumput sign to the workshop. NP 262W for 38:30! Coming back down was a bit iffy thanks to the broken cable stop, wet roads and plenty of cars on the back roads thanks to CNY traffic. 200 TSS points.

Sunday: A Belgian hardman day! It started off pleasantly enough from the 1-Utama junction/ But as we turned into Bukit Jelutong the heavens opened up and we were soaked to the bone in seconds. Waited with the BJCC crew at AI for the rain to subside. But after 45 minutes with no signs of abating and the official ride called off, we headed out anyway since we were wet and still would have had to ride back home anyhow. A pretty steady and sometime easy-ish day thanks to a slower newbie. Rode GCE – Latar – Ijok – Latar – GCE. It poured nearly all the way until the return leg on Latar. A NP of 195 watts put this on the upper end of a Zone 2 ride.

Planned for it to be a 5 ride week. But Friday morning's planned ride with JK to Sempah before work was rained out. Had to settle for a 4 ride week. 630 TSS points.

Week 13

Abandoning the SBD seems to have made quite a good impression on the legs. Some quality workouts during the week and on the weekend. The weekends was short-ish but hard rides to keep something in the legs. The next three weeks will be all about smashing myself to bits, with plenty of public holidays and the wife being away in Europe.

Tuesday: Hell Hath No Fury as it was intended to be. Have never done 2 x 20 ever on the trainer so this was sort of a benchmark on where to go from here onwards. Was targeting ~240W for the 20 minute sets and ended up with 247W and 246W. Next up: 250W. 95 TSS points.

Wednesday: A Very Dark Place never fails to get me totally cross-eyed for the intervals. Managed to make it ascending power levels across all 5 intervals AP 293W, 297W, 300W, 305W and 307W. Was really seeing stars at the end. 80 TSS points.

Thursday: A high-ish Zone 3 day. Warmed up to the opening of Angels and did the Over/Under for NP of 232W, which in hindsight was a bit high. Then 2 x 20 @ Zone 3 NP 224W and 223W. Was thinking about bagging it midway through the 2nd interval but found something in the tank to push through. 80 TSS points.

Saturday: Did Sempah with the Flanders gang sans Terry. Wasn’t planning on doing any intervals as this was a low-ish TSS/intensity week as prep for the upcoming three hard weeks. Was supposed to go to Bentong as my long ride but wasn’t feeling too good at the start. Promised myself that if I managed to stick to Leonard’s wheel all the way up, I didn’t have to go to Bentong. As well I didn’t. on the way back, my pedal totally separated from the spindle just after the Penchala tunnel, so I had to pedal back on one leg. I could only imagine what could have happened if that occurred just as I was coming back near the Hot Springs *shudder*. Set a PB for time up Sempah trailing Leonard. Pretty happy with how it turned out. 200 TSS points.

Sunday: Sempah again, but this time with P2K. This time instead of chasing Leonard, it was do-or-die sticking with Danny Feng. Kenny went balls to the wall from the start of the climb so that definitely took something out of the tank. Got gapped slightly at the steeper pitch around 22 minutes in. Half decided to bag it but chased on again. Was dropped for good at the 3 km to go steep pitch. Hung on to Leonard until the world’s hardest right turn. Two consecutive PB’s on two consecutive days. SCORE!!! The ride back was a free for all on MRR2. Had a go coming up to the LDP toll and again on the slight downhill to the 1-Utama intersection. I’m never going to be able to outsprint Adli, but a fun push nevertheless. 225 TSS points.

675 TSS points. Does not come across as an easy week, does it? But nevertheless, the two shorter weekend rides hopefully didn’t put the legs through too much and sets up the tone for a good three week block. With CTL at 93.6 TSS/day after today's rest day, I'm hoping to push it to above 100 TSS/day after three weeks. Hello pain, suffering and sore legs...

Week 12

A combination of a poorly attempted South Beach Diet and a hard previous two weeks made the weekday sessions pretty much a bust. Found out the hard way that carbs are absolutely essential to quality training sessions.

Wednesday: Did 1.5 sets of Hell Hath No Fury. Aborted the workout after 10 minutes of the second 20 minute interval. The legs were not in shape and the mind wasn’t able to push through. Did the sets at 240W and that felt like a monumental effort. 65 TSS points.

Thursday: Tried to do A Very Dark Place but couldn’t even get the 1st interval up to 280W. Decided to bag it after feeling weak physically, and mentally not being able to push through even a tempo set.

Saturday: Some carbs on Friday left the legs in much better conditions. Rode with BJCC to Ijok (via Latar) and Batu Arang. Rotating paceline on Latar including a breakaway on the final stretch to Ijok after the left turn was good threshold work. The rest of the ride was spent pretty much at aerobic or tempo. 280 TSS points.

Sunday: Rode to KKB with P2K. Needless to say, it was hard work. Going out it was a head/crosswind after Rawang and they were going full gas. Did my best to hang on and even spent a turn or two at the front. On the way back, took the Ulu Yam way. Despite the hard miles already in the legs, I was quite pleased that I still managed 265W NP up the climb. Didn’t go too crazy at the beginning, rode within myself and managed to chase down a couple of people who had gone on ahead at the start. 255 TSS points to cap of a great, HARD weekend of riding.

615 TSS points, mostly accrued on the weekend.

Week 11

This is the second week of the two tempo intensive weeks thanks to the long weekends of Christmas and New Year.

Tuesday: Riding in Penang you can't really avoid doing some intensity. There's climbs everywhere you look. So I decided to throw in some Zone 4 work on the backside of the island. Teluk Bahang - Balik Pulau NP 255W. Balik Pulau - Teluk Bahang NP 260W. Interspersed with high Zone 3 on the Pesta loop (0:29 at 221W) and hard effort on the way home (0:50 at 218W). 240 TSS points.

Thursday: Did Hell Hath No Fury at Zone 3 levels. Main sets were NP 223W and 229W. Pushed it a bit harder on the TTT set for NP 254W and added a 0:20 tempo set at the end at 211W for 100 TSS points.

Friday: Seems I never learned my lesson from the previous week and decided to do a session on Friday before a long ride. Zone 3 to A Very Dark Place at NP 218W with an added 0:15 at NP 214W for 75 TSS points.

Saturday: Solo ride to Kuala Selangor via Rawang - Latar and back via Kampung Kuantan - Ijok. Steady 210W all the way there and back for 245 TSS points.

Sunday: A long ride with Leonard to Senawang via Kajang - LEKAS. Kept effort reasonable on the way there coz I knew coming back will be hard. Much nicer riding with someone swapping turns off the front giving the legs some time to recover. Didn't mind being dropped on the hills as I was watching my watts. Had to drag Leonard back from Kajang coz he bonked, having not eaten enough on the way there. Low Zone 3 average for 320 TSS points.

My highest TSS week so far at 980 points, pushing my CTL up above 90 TSS/day. Time to rest and recover and absorb all that hard work.

Week 10

This is the first of two weeks of high-ish volume focus, with a lot of work in the endurance and tempo region, with no work above L4.

Tuesday: 1 hour Zone 3 to A Local Hero. NP 211W. 70 TSS points.

Wednesday: 1:25 Zone 3 in the morning via LDP - U-turn - Penchala - DUKE - SPRINT - Office. NP was 213W. In the evening was 0:45 Zone 3 Office - SPRINT - Penchala - Jalan Sungai Buloh - Home. Was held up a bit due to bad traffic on Jalan Sungai Buloh. NP was 202W. 155 TSS points for the day.

Thursday: 0:45 Zone 3 to The Fight Club. NP 207W. 0:10 Zone 3 to Revolver. NP 212W. 65 TSS points. Wanted to go longer on Revolver by the chamois on the long tights were REALLY uncomfortable on the trainer.

Friday: 0:48 Zone 3 to Revolver. NP 210W. 0:22 Zone 3 to last lap of WC 2010. NP 209W. 80 TSS points.

Saturday: Kuala Selangor with BJCC. Legs felt heavy in the morning. Not a good idea to ride the evening before a long ride. But pushed through and finished the ride strong. Pretty fast on the first leg out to Kuala Selangor via Kapar. 255 TSS points.

Sunday: Home to Slim River toll coz on the way back to Selama/Penang. Home - KKB was a fairly sedate affair keeping effort reasonable at around 200W. Pushed hard from KKB to Slim River coz I knew the next day was a rest day with plenty of food. 200 TSS points.

A bagful of work in this first of two weeks left my ass feeling quite sore. Huge collection of TSS points in the bag for Flanders (825, to be exact).