No excuses, I’ve barely done any exercise this week.
OK, and now come the excuses. Or, well, reasoning. So you may have seen me moan about my job over the last few weeks. Fortunately I’m a contractor so if a job isn’t much fun, it does ultimately have a set end date. And yesterday was that end date. Hoorah.
That work has been draining me, and combined with an culmination of ramped up pressure throughout the week along with terrible outdoor weather, it’s been really hard to want to get undressed in the cold at 4pm, swap into my cycling kit, reboot my PC, and stare at the screen for yet another hour whilst having to exert myself.
Oh, I should also add that this week I’ve had to start wearing glasses whilst using the PC. So genuinely the eye strain thing is now a big deal.
But anyway, all that means I’ve only done about 20km this week. Lame.
However, today wasn’t the day to “correct” that.
See, last night I celebrated finishing that work by getting drunk and ordering thirty quids worth of pizza. I’ve not got drunk in the entirety of this year, and longer back than that. I can’t remember the last time I woke up with a hang over. Well, I can. This morning at 5am.
Had it been nicer weather I’d have gone out for a ride to work it off. But alas, rain. So I had to do an indoor ride. Or have yet another day off the bike. And frankly, having consumed a full pizza last night and another half for breakfast at 5am, I really needed to do some exercise.
Any exercise.
My plan was just to pedal to 30km. No targets. Just get through the pedalling without puking.
As ever with Zwift though, after a short while I got prompted with a start / finish line marker and found myself on the Fuego Flats reverse time trial route.
According to strava, my PB on this is 9:30. Insane. Today I managed a 10:30, but this one stands on my own pizza fuelled merit. Last time I was in a huge group ride and drafted to success. Today I was between 3.6w/kg and 4.00w/kg for the full effort. No drafting. And boy did it work me. That’s one way to kill a hangover. Sweat out the toxins.
After that effort I managed to hook up with a couple of other Zwifters who were warming up for their Zwift Academy workout.
Chatting away unaware where they were on the map, I looked at the riders nearby and spotted they were just a few seconds ahead. Really cool. So I spent the last ten kilometers riding as a small group, taking part in their warm up. Really good fun. Made me remember why I love the social aspect of Zwifting.
I must admit that as soon as I hit 30km, my only ride goal, I was done.
According to Zwift I worked off 1.7 pizza slices. Just another 11 or so to go. And that doesn’t factor in the alcohol. Of which there was a lot. Well, for me. 4 beers, two big Jack Daniels, and the last of the malibu. Not necessarily in that order. Eughh.
Anyway I think I’ll be in bed early tonight. And I think the weather may just hold out, if I’m lucky, in the morning tomorrow to allow me sneak outside. That said, if it’s super wet on the ground I might stay indoors.
Either way my next Zwift ride is going to be the first Academy workout. Should be OK given I’m at an accurate FTP at this point.
Truthfully the thing I’m most looking forward to is getting in at least one longer outdoor ride over the coming week. I’m off work now all week but the weather forecast is looking absolutely shocking. Hopefully I get lucky on at least one day.
We shall see.