For this evening’s ride I opted for a Sweet Spot Training (SST) session, which after last night’s 2×15 minute FTP intervals was probably not the best idea.
After last night’s ride, a little later on in the evening, I had a feeling in the top of my left leg – kinda like my leg needed cracking (like you might your knuckles), but I just couldn’t get it to pop. And it was quite painful.
Fortunately that pain had disappeared when I woke up, bright and … well, not that breezy this morning.
On the way home from work I was feeling a lot more enthusiastic about hitting the bike than I have been on many previous nights over the last few weeks.
I took this as a good sign. I figured I’d be up for the SST session. Yes, it’s fairly intense, but it’s nothing I haven’t done several times before.
In the first block I felt well enough. I could feel a bit of stiffness in both legs, but figured I’d shake it off as the session went on.
What probably would have helped tonight would have been some out-of-Zwift action. Sometimes I alt+tab out of the game and do something else – watch TV, or YouTube. Not so tonight, with the kids about it’s hard to watch anything without constant distraction. So I just stuck to music, and trying to dim the thoughts of pain.
Heading into the second block I was feeling alright. I tried my best to keep my cadence to around 95rpm.
In the early stages of this workout I was creeping upwards towards 100rpm on several occasions.
After the second block I was still relatively OK.
There was definite tightness in both thighs that wasn’t going away. Nothing to the point of pain in the sense that I had an injury, just over worked (by my standards) for sure.
I could tell the second half of this workout was going to be tougher than usual.
By the end of the third block I was really feeling it. Cadence had dipped down to the low 90s. Don’t be fooled by the screenshot below. This is because I was sitting up and taking the screenshot, which always has a moderate impact on my rhythm.
The fourth block was really tough today.
I used yesterday’s technique of putting on a different tune to see me through, but it finished early and honestly, I can’t even remember what track I chose. It was some awful dubstep track as best I recall. Not ideal.
By the end of the block I was glad to see the back of the hard stuff for the day, and even getting through the final 5 minutes at 175w was a tall order.
This is the closest I’ve come to quitting (or intentionally skipping) a workout in a very long while.
In hindsight I really should have taken today as a recovery ride.
There was no need to push myself twice in a row.
I’m happy to have completed the workout, but I do think I’ve likely done myself no favours in the process.
Glad to get through 527 calories, and take another 30km off the 100km weekly riding goal.
That’s all good, but I would likely still have done 30km even at 140w.
Tomorrow night is my birthday night. I had planned on working from home and getting a nice takeaway pizza to celebrate. Likely I would still have done a ride.
As it happens, I have been called in to work for an unavoidable meeting. Joy.
I’ll likely skip the pizza and maybe do it on Friday instead. I’ll go with the active recovery / FTP builder workout… what birthday is complete without the same old routine of any of the other 364 days in a year?
On the plus side, Tacx support have come through with a refreshed 30 day premium subscription voucher for me. I haven’t tested it yet, but it should mean I’m all set for the weekend.
I’m looking forwards to trying out a variety of their courses over the next few weeks.
OK, time for a rest.
