Having had to skip yesterday’s planned ride due to frustrating crappy computer problems, I was forced happily decided to make up for it this lunch time. And not being quite sure what to do, I opted for another Sweet Spot Session.
Since my last ride I have, yet again, changed my cleat position. I’m happy with the left foot, but the right foot felt too far forwards. I was hoping that I’d corrected this. Interestingly, my wife decided to head on to Zwift for the first time in a while yesterday, and as she borrows all my kit, she commented how now the “pedals feel much better”. So, scientifically, I think we can deduce I must have nailed it.
Unfortunately, whilst my wife borrows all my kit, she also has a terrible habit of destroying it, too. And yesterday was no different. Somehow, she had managed to do the entire session without properly fastening the shoes (how?!) and the Velcro toe strap had spent the entire ride scraping against the big gear cog thing (not its real name). As a result, my right shoe was covered in oil. Absolutely fail.
Cleaning my shoe cost me about 10 minutes of time – and I couldn’t get all the oil off. Not even close. In the end I did my best but had to accept the fact that one of my white shoes is now black. Stylish. Knowing that my SST session was going to take 50 minutes, I’d be using up my entire dinner break on this one.
Initially I felt an obvious change in my right leg. Specifically my right knee. I’d done my best to ensure my cleat wasn’t dead straight – I definitely prefer a bit of offset, to have the heel pointing inwards towards the bike. I’ve seen some videos that suggest the cleat should be straight down the center of the shoe, but that feels so uncomfortable to me.
Even so, I was a little concerned that a steady 40 minute effort, at a fairly intensive pacing, might end up doing more harm than good.
By and large, this session proceeded without issue. That was good.
Until the fourth “off” block. At that point I started to cramp up in my right calf. That little knot of pain – the one that feels like a tennis ball under my skin. Love it. I managed to see the block through, and as the cool down was all that remained I coaxed myself home. I’m not sure if this is a result of having had 3 brews (coffee, tea, then another decaf coffee) mid morning. Or whether it was a result of the cleat position. Hard to say without another ride.
With this one done, I’m at ~60km on the week on the turbo. I’m at ~90km taking into account Monday’s outdoor ride.
As the weather is lovely – and if it holds – I may do another outdoor ride on Sunday morning. This is a bit of a pain due to having to swap the cassette over between the Tacx Neo and my bike’s back wheel. Roll on the delivery of my new cassette!
Unfortunately I have no idea when these will actually arrive. The price was great on the cassette, but I gather that’s because they didn’t actually have it in stock and then ordered it in from somewhere else as needed. And what with the whole covid situation, things are taking a while longer for me to receive said items.
Anyway, I’m considering a race for tomorrow’s ride. It’s been too long since I last raced. No doubt I’ll get a sound spanking.
I also need to move the kids bedroom stuff around this weekend, so I can then put my bike in a new room, and then change my Zwift setup somewhat – 4k baby. Well, that’s the plan. No idea if that’s going to happen this weekend, but it’s a thought.
