Finding strength in the data (When your head says otherwise)

So there I was, driving back from Girona after barely one day of what was supposed to be a proper four-day training camp. Jeroen had felt notably stronger on our ride, my family needed me home, and the clock is still ticking down to Cape Epic. Not exactly the confidence boost you're looking for two months before the biggest race of your life (easy to be the biggest, as it is only second....😉)

I'll be honest: I felt a bit deflated. The kind of deflated where you start questioning whether you're actually on track, or just being overly optimistic.

But here's where things got interesting.

When your legs know better than your head

A few days after I got back, I just got back to... training. I did my first session on Friday, then Saturday and Sunday, to pick up the ''normal regime'' hereafter: Tuesday morning session, Wednesday afternoon as usual, and now Friday and Sunday upcoming again. I managed to squeeze in some proper work over the past weekend despite the cold (and I mean proper Dutch winter cold—we're talking minus 4 to 5 degrees).

And something unexpected happened: the sessions felt good. Really good, actually.

Friday's VO2max work? Went surprisingly well. Saturday's strength intervals in freezing temperatures? Made it all 5 rounds pushing 390w at 60RPM. And Sunday's tempo/threshold blocks? Tough as hell, but got through them. Particularly this training was a big confidence boost - 4x 12 mins at 264W I did not think I could do.
And then yesterday JOIN came up with this absolute monster session—three hours with progressive intervals (4 min of 264W, followed by 3 min of 310W, followed by 1 min of 341W) that had me properly digging really deep—and I actually completed it despite a shorter than hoped-for sleep.

The weird thing? My legs barely complained. Minimal soreness. Resting heart rate stayed normal. All those numbers I track in the morning? They kept saying I was fine, even when my brain was convinced I would be pretty much wrecked the next day.

Having a voice in your ear

Here's something I've started doing during sessions that's become surprisingly valuable: I talk to Claude (the AI I use for Cape Epic) while I'm riding.

Not in some weird futuristic way—just voice messages on my phone between intervals. After a big VO2max block, I'll describe how I felt, what my heart rate peaked at, how quickly it came back down. And Claude responds with quick analysis, coaching feedback, sometimes just encouragement.

It's almost like having a crowd on the side of the road. Someone who understands what the numbers mean, who can tell you "that recovery rate is exactly what we want to see" or "your power was solid but your heart rate suggests you've got more in the tank."

It's helped me push through some of these genuinely tough sessions. When you're alone on a trainer in the cold, or grinding through intervals with nobody watching, that immediate feedback loop makes a real difference. Not just the data validation, but the sense that someone's paying attention, that the work you're doing matters and is building toward something. Like a virtual friend 😄.

And after this 7 days, while I kept dumping all my session data and my post-Girona concerns into a proper conversation, the analysis that came back showed me something important: I wasn't falling behind. My cardiovascular efficiency was excellent—solid power at expected (not too high) heart rates. Recovery between hard days was happening faster than expected.

And the AI wasn't telling me what I wanted to hear. It was showing me what the data actually said, stripped of my post-Girona anxiety. Today I went out for another session, this time on the road (which is funny enough almost special for me, with all these trainer sessions on the Kickr).
The training was some easy endurance to start with (200W), then 40-20's, which is 40 seconds hard (400W), 20 seconds recovery (160W), repeated 10 times. Then 30 minutes easy endurance, followed by 4 tempo blocks of 10 minutes, which I rode at 260W and it was totally doable! I was really happy with that, as that's roughly the fitness-level where I wanted to be 60 days ahead of Cape Epic.

The thing about self-doubt

I guess when you're working toward something big, self-doubt always creeps in at some point, probably at the weirdest moments. Not when things are obviously going wrong, but in those ambiguous moments where you're not sure if you're on track or slowly veering off course.

One slightly disappointing day on the bike with your training partner? Suddenly everything feels questionable. Your fitness, your preparation, whether you're fooling yourself about being competitive at Cape Epic.

But the data doesn't lie—and this is where having an AI that can process all those numbers and patterns becomes genuinely useful. It's not replacing coaching or intuition; it's helping you see through your own noise.

Practical, not philosophical

I'm not trying to make this into some big statement about AI revolutionizing training. It's simpler than that. I have a tool that can:

• Challenge my assumptions when they're not backed by evidence
• Give me confidence when it's actually warranted (and flag concerns when they're real)
• Be a fan on the side of the road at 6AM in the morning

This week, it helped me see that I wasn't falling behind; I was actually building exactly the kind of fitness I need. The hard sessions were getting done, the recovery was happening and my body is adapting.

Jeroen being stronger on one ride in Girona? That's just one data point. And frankly, he should be able to drop me on a random January day—his FTP is higher than mine, and we weigh roughly the same. Simple math. The question isn't whether he's faster right now; it's whether I'm building toward my own target: 330 watts at 76 kilos by mid-March. And those 76 kilos? No, probably not, I might end up at 77 though. And 330W? No, definitely not, but I might be able to hit 310. Thinking that I tested at 230W on the 21st of August, that's still pretty amazing progress!

The Reality check

Something always has to give. Right now, it's been blog posting frequency, you might have noticed things have gone a bit more quiet, here while I've been dealing with a wife with a broken hip, family logistics and a messy thing called French Tourist Tax filings....

But the training is happening and the fitness is still building. We'll take it as it comes, all the way up to Cape Epic.

Until then, Keep Chasing!