Maximum Effort: Hungerford + Sky Stadium Crit 💥💥

Cruising recovery (3w/kg, 130HR)

Extra dose of suffering, all for the leaderboards

WHCS #5: Quick & dirty, the Southerly & Rainy edition

Evening Walk

200mg Caf / 600 Cals / ~2L Water
92 -> 88kg
NP 343W

TORQ Events 

Ride started with a good deal of faffing about to get the bike working. Found I had a small pinhole leak in my front tyre, sealant still bubbling out after several minutes. So went to grab the spare road wheel, then remember it had a plugged valve core 😓 Grabbed a valve core out of the gravel wheel and finally got everything ready, now ~20mins behind schedule.

Stage #3: Houghton Bay Climb (5:12 - 540W)
- While the decent Northerly blew me up to and then down Happy Valley, it was going to be a pain for this segment. Got up to speed before the roundabout and kept things measured on the lower gradients. Luckily today there was no mass of parked cars (or indeed almost any traffic) so had a pretty clean line going up.
- Mid-way up and hitting the steeper slopes finally saw the wind drop off, started standing on the steepest bits and legs barely hung on to the finish (Garmin had it at 5:09).
- Quite happy as I set a new 5min Power PB, but compared to last week's effort up here I did 50W extra but only shaved 5secs off... With a decent Southerly I reckon I might have a shot at 5min flat!

Stage #5: Hungerford the hard way
- Quickly hit up Hungerford to tick it off, then turned around and went back down to speed up my trip to link up with the Wed Worlds crowd.

Bonus: Wednesday Worlds!
- Had been planning to do the full loop around Miramar to add distance and meet up with the Worlds crew, but now had to cut through town instead. Caught them as they came down the cycle path, maybe ~20 strong but most of the heavy hitters were present. Had a few quick chats then we were turning up around Miramar and kicking things off.
- The theme for today would become "messy". Very slow driver brought things to a halt as we crested the top of Miramar, then gaps formed quickly and often with the tailwind. Managed to kick hard over the Pass of Branda and move up with the Dylan and another rider, we were rocketing along and getting a pretty big gap when we hit a stop/go and had to wait 20secs (and everyone caught back up).
- Managed to be up with a front group of 4 coming around the Airport, I launched early into the headwind and managed a solid >900W for 35secs to take the sprint. Most of the group rejoined through the bays, then again we slowed coming past some mowing/work crews.
- Couple more small attacks before we hit Happy Valley climb, I chased one of the last of them down and then we all eased into the climb. Pretty sure we were all feeling it now with the heat and oppressive humidity, there were a few surges on the climb and I managed to hold on with the front bunch all the way up. When a couple finally kicked for the finish, I hesitated but honestly didn't really have that kind of explosive power left in me.

Stage #2: Wrights Hill Revenge
- Talked Yar and Ants into joining me for Wrights, with the promise I would pull them behind Makara to make up the time. Shared some of my airplanes stash and kept the effort moderate (but felt harder in the humidity, HR was at threshold levels).
- Scouted down quickly and had a stop to refill water bottles before hitting Makara.

Bonus: TT effort from Makara to Ohariu Valley (18mins @ 395W)
- True to my word, I pulled the guys along from Makara until the next climb. Not sure if it was the bit of rest on the descent or extra water just before, but legs felt good and I was ripping along and really enjoying this. Was sad for it to end (and not be going all the way to Jville with the guys), but alone I turned up Ohariu.

Stage #1: Ohariu Valley North
- Coming off the harder TT effort, I dialed it back as there wouldn't be any KOMs today with this Northerly. Enjoyed rolling out and back along the quiet stretch, then carried on through Jville and down Ngauranga gorge.

Stage #4: Horokiwi to Gate (19:40 - 378W)
- Legs still felt OK at this point and so did energy levels (despite the lack of calories), but dehydration and the horrible humidity were taking their toll. Set myself a target of ~90% FTP for this climb which proved to be spot on, as HR was almost maxed even at that intensity.
- Managed to hold close to 385W for the first section of the climb, but fell off when it flattened out. Hit the summit feeling good and glad to be almost done!
- Rolled home via iRide to pick up some gels (scoffed 2 down to aid recovery) and extra fuelling for this weekend.

Notes
- No cramps today despite the weather, effort and dehydration levels. Lots of salt stains on the bibs though!
- Intervals.icu has updated it's FTP estimate to 445W (after the 5min PB @ 540W)! I had a feeling it was in this region, but would be pretty nervous to go out to try and hold that for 1hr.
- I've got some fun ideas to mix things up for the final 2 outings to close out the WHCS series, stay tuned!

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Alexander Glenn

WHCS Mad Dawg #3 + Wed Worlds: Effort at 100%, Humidity at 110% 💥

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Maximum Effort: Hungerford + Sky Stadium Crit 💥💥

Cruising recovery (3w/kg, 130HR)

Extra dose of suffering, all for the leaderboards

WHCS #5: Quick & dirty, the Southerly & Rainy edition

Evening Walk

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