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  • Just had a look and the last few longer rides (60-80 miles) I did were all around 0.85 IF (so 85% of FTP, I'm assuming) and they were all 'pushing on' but not killing myself. For me that seems to be a comfortable intensity that wouldn't drop over 100 miles, but I'll see later in the week! Yesterday I did 63 miles with a lot of pretty quick climbing then rode back into an enormous headwind and it was 0.84 IF. I may be wrong, but I suspect NP for solo rides are lower because there are fewer massive spikes (e.g. village sign sprints) that you get on group rides; I didn't really go over 600w yesterday.

    On a slightly related note, and apologies if I'm preaching to the choir, but if you're looking for good on-the-bike food that isn't gels then Aldi bars are excellent. They do really cheap fruit bars which are just fruit mashed together (£1.50 for 6, I think) and also 'Hike' bars (50p each), which are mashed date with protein added and are AMAZING, especially the cacao ones.

  • Well I suppose it's all subjective, isn't it...? I would describe 'comfortable' as pushing hard but not breathing hard/hanging on for dear life/wishing for death. I've only ever done one 10 mile TT effort and I've not come close to that level of effort in a long time. Confession: I haven't tested FTP in a while, I just use the WKO4 mFTP, so it may be a bit lower than it ought to be.

    Last two weeks have been:
    63 miles, 4000ft, 0.84 IF;
    40 miles, 1500ft, 0.9 (pushing hard on the way back);
    75 miles, 4000ft, 0.85 (felt hard because I was still tired from the previous one);
    45 miles, 2000ft, 0.91

    • a few odd 25-30 miles at 0.9ish (with intervals).

    Based on how I've felt on the longer rides, I don't think my performance would drop much over another 25 miles. I'm hopefully riding a 40 mile chaingang later today, which may give me an idea of whether my IF/FTP is accurate...

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