Gonna try to do weekly updates on Wednesdays, which is usually (not always) a day I try to schedule for working from home. Warning: topics may vary wildly!

Anyhoo, one of the things I’m getting back into is Peloton power zone training. (Yes, we got a Peloton bike early on in the pandemic, and yes, we do still use it!)  Above is a pic with recent rides, and my Leaderboard/Peloton pic. If you do Peloton, be sure to follow me, I’ll follow you back!

I’ve discovered that 1) duh, I feel tons better mood-wise after exercising and 2) exercising is key for my mental and emotional health if I’m at a workshop, especially an intense workshop. The WMG workshops generally start at the very civilized time of 10 a.m., which means I have more than enough time to get up, hit the gym by 7 a.m., work out, eat breakfast, shower, and even get a bit of work done before heading to class. (Other workshops start earlier, but I still try to make it work—I got in 3 treadmill workouts during WOTF, for example.) The nice thing about the WMG workshops is, right now, they’re at Resorts World, which is a Hilton property, which means they have Peloton bikes.

Power zone makes since to me. It’s training, which means I focus on the ride, not the music (though I definitely have musical preferences, and will skew to picking a ride with music I like, given a choice). Your zones are based on your own current personal fitness, established by the dreaded FTP ride (in which you ride, as hard as you can, for 20 minutes—it is a miserable experience, and generally results in me laying on the floor gasping at the end).

Angie Ver Beck created The Power Zone Pack, and puts together weeks-long themed challenges you can join. She builds the challenge, choosing rides for each week with stated performance and training goals. You pick what format (3 rides per week, 4 rides, etc) and you’re placed in a team. The challenge provides structure, and weekly goals, and the added incentive to not let the team down.

This challenge is Seven Deadly Zones, and the team I’m on (run through Facebook) is Fear the Wrathletes. I’m working ahead on the rides (after this post, I have to do a 60 minute ride) to make up for the time we’ll be in Europe. It’s seven weeks long, culminating in retaking the FTP (if you so desire—other rides are offered as a substitute). Looking at my graphs so far, I think I will be retaking it to see if my FTP goes up. I think it might.