Yesterday I was moaning and complaining about not having a set schedule for my rides, and that made each day more difficult than it might otherwise ought to be.
Well, potentially, problem solved.
I was thinking today might be a good day to start with The Sufferfest. But there’s one reason I haven’t. And that’s to make the 14 consecutive Zwift riding day “unemployed” achievement. I’m thinking I’ll not be doing this sort of thing until next year’s advent of cycling. And maybe not even then.
So it’s not or never.
I’d figured that I’d do a group ride, group workout, or maybe even a Zwift race today.
But Sunday is my only lie in all week, and by the time I got my lazy bones out of bed, if was nearly ten o’clock. Follow that with a nice bowl of cereal and a strong cup of filter coffee and it was closer to 11am before I could think about cycling activities.
Frankly I’m feeling really tired at the moment. A day off would be sooo welcome right now. But that’s not allowed. So instead I figured I’d do the least amount of work possible, whilst still doing something useful.
And so that leads me on to Zwift’s shorter workouts. I figure I might as well check them all out and work my way through them. I’ve only done a small number of them, so I still have a few left to do.
I’d also like to finish off my two remaining Zwift Academy 2020 workouts. That means workouts 7 and 8. But I looked at workout 7 today and thought… Yeah… No. It looked hardcore and my legs didn’t seem cooperative.
This workout, the Wave Rider, looked more suitable.
Forget the short time frame for a moment, and focus on what the idea behind this one actually is. It’s sweet spot training. Not quite my usual session (shorter for one thing) but this one has ramps, and bursts. Familiar yet different.
Seemingly ideal.
Essentially this one is:
- 8 minute @ 85rpm, ramping from 50% to 75 of FTP as a warm up
Then:
- 15 seconds @ 110rpm, at 150% FTP
- 5 minutes @ 90rpm, ramping from 88% to 95% of FTP
Repeated four times.
It’s really not too bad, as far as these shorter workouts go. Not a killer, anyway.
If I were to ask the question as to whether I would do this one again in the future, I’d answer yes.
It’s less intensive than Emily’s Short Mix, or similar. It comes in at 38 TSS, compared to Emily which has a TSS of 44. Those 6 points, under 30 minutes, really make a difference.
Looking ahead to my next sessions, I can see a couple of other fairly intensive (i.e. higher TSS) workouts than this one at the same length. 30 minute is an ideal amount of time for me when I’m doing something on the bike every day. I mentioned this yesterday.
But also I’d like to do the more intensive group ride on Tuesday night – forgot the name off hand, sadly – which I have done before and which kicked my ass. So I don’t want to thrash myself tomorrow ahead of that one.
Then into the rest of the week I’m looking at one, or maybe both of the Zwift Academy sessions. It really depends on how I’m feeling. Because right now I’m tired.
Anyway, that concludes a really long feeling week on the bike. I’m looking forwards to doing the weekly review this week, just to recap everything I’ve done. However, I have checked the stats in Training Peaks and it hasn’t been one of my most intensive weeks, even though it certainly feels like it has been.
There’s a bunch of factors as to why that is, which I will cover tomorrow in that post.
For now, I’m off to soak in the bath and let my legs rest up a bit.
Poor legs, they must be wondering what’s happening. I’ve gone from a few light sessions per week to constant efforts every day without a break. It’s mentally tiring, too. Roll on Christmas day.
In fact, roll on 2021. This year’s been a disaster in so many ways, I’ll be glad to see the back of it.
Until tomorrow, I hope you’ve had a good weekend, and thanks for reading.
