Post Race Recovery Ride

My week of riding has so far not gone to plan. I had expected to do a race yesterday morning, but having taken part in 3R Richmond UCI Hilly Race (D) on Monday, I ended up tweaking a muscle in the back of my right leg. Apparently it’s a calf muscle. I am none the wiser.

Bloody Richmond. Bane of my life.

I didn’t think riding on a sore leg was a good idea for yesterday, let alone racing on it, so I had an unexpected but enforced rest day.

For today’s ride, I was in two minds – either another rest day, or see how I got on with a low intensity workout I’ve done a few times before.

Seeing as there was no immediate pain, I figured a low resistance spin might be just the ticket.

In truth this workout – Week 3 Day 3 of Zwift’s 10-12 Week FTP Builder – is pretty boring.

It’s 6 repeats of 7 minutes at 140w, with 1 minute at 100w between each block.

I still sweat. But my heart rate stays below 130, which is nice.

I decided to see how far this workout would take me round the Zwift London Leith Hill route, one that I’ve done before and found very challenging as a free ride.

I have no idea of the time up the KOM, but I suspect (unlike me) it wasn’t too hot.

The biggest problem I had on this ride was with my bike’s gearing. It’s all messed up.

I’m going to need to spend some time in the mechanic bay trying to figure all of this out.

I have a good few problems to resolve at this point.

Firstly, I am struggling to get up from the little ring to the big ring. The amount of force I have to put on the lever to make the change is ridiculous.

Secondly, there are a variety of clicks and chaffing noises come from the rear cassette when in the lowest / hardest gear and in the little ring at the front.

Thirdly, I have phantom shifting in the big ring.

It’s all a big old mess.

All of these problems, I believe, are down to improper cable tension.

Unless, someone has been tinkering with my bike. Very possible, with the kids about.

In some ways I wish for a true stationary trainer. Surely, less hassle.

I was happy that the workout took me far enough to cover the climb and some of the descent. It finished before I got back to complete the loop, however.

Ooh.

After the workout completed, I wasn’t quite ready to come off the bike.

My leg had felt good enough, but I wondered about how it might feel under a little more exertion.

I decided to stay on and aim for 30km.

I put a couple of small efforts in and felt generally decent.

That said, I didn’t want to go too hard for risk of doing damage.

Overall though, not a bad session to get back on the bike.

Before I get back on I need to resolve all the gearing issues. They are annoying me too much at this point.

In the interim day (Tuesday) I had forgotten just how bad things were during the Richmond race. Need to address this before the century attempt. I’ve now scheduled that in for Sunday morning at 9.15, for which I’ve found a group ride aiming for the same. All good.

I’ve opted for an in-game kit change.

Swapped for the Tour of Watopia bike and a World Bicycle Relief jersey. Swankarooney.

Overall not the most thrilling of experiences I’ve ever had on Zwift, but good to be back on the bike all the same.

I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store. Zwift keep emailing me about events and rides to take part in. There’s also this Zwift academy thing that I haven’t looked into in any great depth.

I’m still pretty gutted about missing the race yesterday. But I have learned my lesson: don’t race before a race 🙂

2 thoughts on “Post Race Recovery Ride”

  1. Hey, In regards to the noise when you’re in the smallest cog at the back and the smallest front chain ring.. This is what is known as cross chaining and you don’t want to make a habit of it (unless you’re running SRAM groupset), the noise you’re hearing is pretty typical. Quite likely the phantom changing on the front derailleur is due to cable tension, quite often the cables stretch after some initial use and need to be adjusted or a good excuse to upgrade to some Shimano Ultegra goodness 😉 I upgraded my Allez commuter bike from Sora to Ultegra and shifting is smooth as silk now. Also, just curious.. Do you do the Zwift workouts in ERG mode? I do all my workout rides in ERG and never need to shift gears the entire ride.

    Reply
    • Hi Philip,

      Thanks for the additional information, I really appreciate it.

      I am about to sit at the bike and try to fix a bunch of these issues – thanks for the heads up re: cross chaining, that should help when Googling / YouTube’ing.

      I do have the Shimano Ultegra cassette, but had trouble fitting it – maybe I wasn’t using the right spacer ring on the trainer. I’ll have another go at fitting it now.

      For workouts, yes, ERG mode. I find a gear that doesn’t clickety clack, and then sit in it for the duration. Being forgetful, it was only after the workout / when I dropped into ‘free ride’ that I remembered the horrendous gear / chain / noise problems.

      I’ll give it all a whirl now and see how I get on. Thanks again,

      Chris

      Reply

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