Prudential RideLondon Training With Dani Rowe: Week 6

About this Series

Welsh-born Dani Rowe is a former pro road cyclist and three-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist in the women’s team pursuit with Great Britain.

Each week she is sharing her story preparing for the 2019 Prudential RideLondon 100 using the “Prudential RideLondon 100” Zwift Training Plan. See her full list of stories, or learn more about Zwift’s Prudential RideLondon Training Plans.

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This week I completed the hardest session so far in the PRL training program. Also the hardest session full stop since retiring from racing! It was actually a love/hate session. I hated it whilst in the middle of one of the grueling efforts but I was buzzing and loved it having completed it.

It’s funny how the body and mind tell you to stop midway through a session. This is your body’s defense mechanism trying to tell you to stop hurting it, but if you just don’t give in to the demons the reward is so satisfying once complete. The session I’m talking about was “40/20’s into FTP #1.” I’m used to doing 20 on 40 off but 40 on 20 off is savage! 40 seconds is long enough to get a near max heart rate and 20 off is not enough to get it back down, subsequently meaning the pain really kicks in after 2 sets.

But what I actually found the hardest within this session were the 10-minute blocks of threshold after the 40/20 efforts. I hadn’t recovered at all and really had to focus to get through these longer blocks. I actually had to adjust my workout intensity percentage down because I found I just wasn’t able to hold the power required. I think it’s important to know that this is ok, you haven’t failed if you have to drop the percentage. We all have days where we are more tired or not quite feeling on our A-game, and this feature lets us still complete a top quality session by reducing the power targets slightly.

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Note: this setting is called “FTP Bias” and allows you to increase or decrease your interval targets by up to 10%. It can be adjusted via Zwift Companion, by clicking the up/down arrows on screen below your list of intervals, or using the Page Up/Page Down keys on your keyboard.

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I’m already looking ahead to next week’s workouts–my aim it to fit in a couple of sessions before I fly to Mallorca. I’m actually going on a swimming camp in preparation for my serpentine swim challenge later in the year, however, I’m also hoping to get lots of bike riding in. I’m going to make note of the structured efforts within the PRL program and fit them into my rides on the road. This way I’m still ticking every box!

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