A day at the computer led to the headache of the year, and the thought of another half an hour or so in the same room, staring at Zwift wasn’t an appealing prospect. And with the alternative being skipping a ride altogether, I decided to head outside, into the wind.
Yesterday I struggled along at a steady 130w for 15 minutes. Today, without ERG mode to keep me in check, I was unsure how I’d get on.
Firstly, keeping to a lower wattage meant I was really cold. This was a new one on me.
Fortunately my Rapha commuter jacket, combined with my arm warmers kept me pretty warm. Also, being bright orange, it meant I was highly unlikely to get hit by mental motorists hooning past me at break neck speeds.
Secondly, I was definitely going to be over 130w on average, as there is just no way to keep to a lower pace when hit by the constant up and down of the real world road surface. It would serve as a decent road test anyway.
My route was kept deliberately short, mostly flat (or as flat as I could plot), and away from main roads. I was aiming to explore some more of the local countryside I’ve yet to visit, but alas, an unexpected flooded road put paid to that.
As such I found myself improvising a route. And during this time I tried a few things like a minute at 180w, and then another minute at 200w.
What I can tell you, no pun intended, is that there’s definitely something not quite right in my knee. I’m not sure what. It’s not cadence related, I know that. I tried low cadence and high / typical cadence. That had no impact. It’s a pressure thing. The harder I push down, the more it hurts. It’s not a mega pain, but it’s the kind of pain that will become worse if I exert much force on it.
In short I think I’m safe still riding, as long as I basically behave and look after myself for the time being. 180w seems like my maximum for the next couple of days. I’ll see about building it up from there in due course.
So it definitely sucks to be having to ease off.
But on the plus side I got an hour on the bike, did a decent amount of calories for the effort (or lack of), got some exercise and fresh air, and feel all the better for it.
I really need some lights though. That has to be my next purchase. Anyway, enough. Time for a bath.
