Week 18

Monday: VO2max intervals at Kiara Hills. Initially wanted to do the loop at Mutiara Damansara but that had too many speed bumps. So did 1 interval there and another 5 at Kiara. Didn't quite manage the 300W on the climbs due to the gate and short downhill section, but good enough. 110 TSS points.

Tuesday: Short and sweet. Did Revolver with 330W during the ON section. Highest NP so far @ 279W. 75 TSS points.

Wednesday: Was supposed to follow Terry to Sempah but miscommunication led him to start off without me, so I did Tour de Damansara Heights with JK. Did an FTP set NP 255W to get to iDamansara, then just followed JK on the climbs. TDDH gave an NP of 205W which gave 131 TSS points for the day.

Thursday: Initially didn't want to ride today, but given the fact that we were about to have a nig dinner, I forced myself on the trainer to do HHNF. Didn't do the last 3.5 minute TTT though. Took it as it came. W/U 239W, Set 1 245W, Set 2 251W. 80 TSS points.

Saturday: Home - Junction to Tranum - Home. Took it slightly easy on the climb to Sempah on the way there for an NP of 237W, and pushed it hard on the way back from the Hot Springs for NP 241W. It was quite hard on the way back and I felt that I was just "hanging on" instead of "pushing on". But turned out feeling was just that, a feeling as it was a slightly higher wattage coming back compared to the Bentong ride 2 weeks back. Nice to finally manage a 30 km/h average Bentong ride which did not involve drafting the Le2a train.

The recovery week proved to be a boon and I thought I did well this week, with interval rides on weekdays and a strong long ride on Saturday. Initially wanted to prepare legs for the SIC Bikeathon, but family events curtailed that plan. So the weekend ride was adjusted. Wanted to ride both Saturday and Sunday but the Sunday ride was washed out by rain. Nevertheless, another good week in the legs for a total of 770 TSS points.

Week 17

Thursday: Got home early from the office and did Home - Sempah - Home. Didn't feel to sprightly on Sempah so only did 1 x 20 @ FTP on the climb before turning back for home. But really pushed through for an NP of 262W which I thought was OK on quite heavy legs. Wanted to car pace Terry on the way back but he had already left by the time I got back to HOA.

Saturday: Big ride of the week. Home - LDP - KESAS - Sungai Besi - Bangi - Sepang - Lukut - Sepang - Bangi - Sungai Besi - Sprint - Home. No intervals marked on the ride as it was a long, steady endurance ride. Spent a lot of time on the front at high Zone 2/low Zone 3, and really pushed it on the way back after Bangi. 355 TSS points.

This week proved to be a bit of a recovery week. With the super long ride on Sunday to Sungai Besar, I couldn't stand the sight of the bike for the first 3 days of the week. Only managed 2 days of riding during the week. But the rest seemed to de me quite the amount of good as I felt quite strong on the Lukut ride on Sunday. Only 520 TSS points for the week. This should be the last "recovery" week before the last push to Flanders.

Week 16

Wednesday: Initially wanted to do a long steady ride but some of the guys needed to get home early, so the plan was changed to a slightly shorter ride with hill intervals. Did Home - Batu 14 - Bukit Hantu - Tekala - Perez - Batu 18 - Bukit Ampang - Home. Bukit Hantu NP 251W, Perez NP 282W, Bukit Ampang NP 257W. Did a PB up Perez from the junction tailing Leonard. Only lost him at the last 300 metres at the steepest bit. But it was a time PB by far. Wanted to hammer it on DUKE heading back home but had to play bus driver as Faisaal was cramping and struggling. Still managed a decent 285 TSS points.

Saturday: Rode with the BJCC boys. Home - AI - GCE - Latar - Ijok - Fruit Valley - Batu Arang - Jalan Kuala Selangor - GCE - Home. No intervals marked on the computer just steady hard all the way with rotating paceline on Latar and hammering it on the Fruit Valley climbs. NP for whole ride was 224W for a TSS of 290 points.

Sunday: A long aerobic ride to Sungai Besar. Was conned by Razali who said it was 180 km from AI, which would have given me 210 km. But when we clocked 135 km at the u-turn point, I knew we were in for a longer ride. Turns out that it was 255 km. The only system that was put to work was the "ass-hardiness" as I clocked 8 hours of saddle time. The objective of the ride was slightly compromised as I had to drop back to tow 2 guys to Kuala Selangor. Was bonking a little from Kuala Selangor to Ijok as I didn't eat at Kuala Selangor. But managed to get in some nutrition at the Petronas and finished the ride strong for 375 TSS points.

Only 3 days of riding this week. Wanted to do a 3 day block across the FT Day public holidays, but mentally and physically I was pretty drained. Legs didn't quite want to work on the Tuesday and Thursday, but perhaps it was for a good thing. As it was, total TSS across the 3 days was already 950. A sizeable load for any given week. Add that to the 1000+ TSS from the previous week, no wonder I was a left a little mentally and physically fatigued.