After a week of good winter weather with plenty of fat biking in the snow, the thaw set in, and the fat bike fun was over. On Monday, feeling pretty tired after three days of fat biking in a row, I took it a little easier but managed to get in a session of pickleball.
Tuesday featured another NCC TT/Hillclimb episode; this time, we raced a double loop of the Champs-Élysées. I finished in just over 20 minutes with an average power of 287 watts, which puts my FTP based on the effort at 273 watts.
But before in the morning, Paula and I went skiing at Berkshire East. Despite the warmer weather, the slopes were perfectly groomed, and since it was very quiet, they stayed good. I skied almost all the trails, including some black diamonds I had not been on before.
On Wednesday, Paula and I played another session of pickleball.
Thursday, I joined some of my NCC teammates for a race in the Tour de Zwift. The race involved going up the Innsbruck climb, then descending and tackling a tough section in Innsbruck itself. During the climb, I maintained a steady average power output of about 270 watts. During the descent, I frequently used the supertuck (where no power output makes the avatar go very aerodynamic downhill) to let my legs recover. I thought there were no other NCC members near me until Jonathan suddenly appeared on the rider screen 20 seconds behind me. I had to work hard to maintain that gap, finishing with 9 seconds to spare.
I took Friday off from any racing, but after some drinks Friday night with our pickleball friends, was active again the next day.
First with a pickleball session in the morning, followed by a run in the afternoon. This was my first run in a long time, but I plan to do at least one run a week again.
I followed that with a 40-minute easy spin on the trainer on the Volcano KOM loop. It was good preparation for next week's NCC Hillclimb, which is on the Volcano KOM.
On Sunday, the weather brought wet snow, so I decided to do a longer indoor ride. I had wanted to ride up Mt. Ventoux for a while and decided to do the Ven-Top loop. It took me just over two hours to reach the top at an endurance pace. While I took a shower, I let my avatar coast down in the supertuck position. :-)
