My weekend of exercise was more ups and down, as is life.
Thursday was another local MTB race. I choked!

I had a good first lap and kept up with my main rivals in the 2nd group. I tried to stay near the front but out of the wind and was in 2nd (in the group) most of the time. Then up the first climb, my main rival attacked. I tried to both not cook myself and keep up as much as possible. This left a 50ft gap between me and a small group of 3 at the top of the climb. I decided to try to catch as slowly as possible along the ridge and then make up the rest of the time on the descent. Well that didn't work at all. Another rider attacked me on the ridge. I didn't go with him and they all just slowly pulled away. For the life of me, I dont know why I didn't go with that extra attack. For the rest of the race, I yoyo'd with a guy on a gravel bike. He'd catch up in the headwind section. I'd pull away on the descents and rougher bits. Then in the final minutes of the race, I looked back and didn't see him. So when a lapped little girl was in front of me for the finish, I played it safe. Right then, The gravel racer pulled up alongside of me with another. The 2nd guy blocked me a little. And while my sprint was stronger, I still lost by 3ft.

. Turns out I didn't see him because he was far closer and behind a bush. 6th place, minutes off the podium. My main rival finished 2nd, beating the others in his group.
Race was 1hr10min. 1037 Calories burned. Avg HR 178bpm. Cooked!
Friday I took completely off just to reset.
Saturday was a 4.5hr chill ride, like RPE 3-4. To "punish" myself for the silly mistakes on Thurs and for taking Friday off, I did RPE 5 instead. My riding buddy was on his fast road bike. So my normal 15-20w advantage over him was now a 5-10w disadvantage. And he only had to ride 2.5hrs. We mixed it up a bit, had a good time, then I continued that pace after he peeled off. Sometimes it just feels good to go faster than you should.
Sunday was a gravel group ride with some beginner acquaintances. I had a 3.5hr chill ride with 4x1m sprints planned. I expected a slow pace, so I took the MTB to make it a little harder and to get more experience doing hard efforts on that bike. Well turns out I really need that practice. My 1m efforts on the MTB sucked so bad. I'm not good at putting out power with the suspension and completely missed the pacing. I'll definitely be practicing that more this week.
My 1m efforts were 527w, 522w, 486w, & 446w. That's a bit off my PR of 589w.
Here's a group ride pic for giggles.
Also, I often make a funny face when trying hard.