Whew. Tonight was really too hot for indoor cycling. The room felt stuffy before I even got on the bike, and the fan, spinning on the middle setting – usually more than enough to keep me suitably chilly (pre-ride, at least) was doing little.
I had about 30 minutes to kill. I wanted to get in a climb. Not fancying New York, I opted for Watopia’s Hilly Route, which throws in an early KOM attack, followed by another ~50m of hills on the ~10km circuit.
Feeling perhaps a little too eager, and over confident, I set off up the Zwift KOM at a rather aggressive pace.
I managed to keep it up (roughly) for the full 900m, smashing my previous record by over 20 seconds. Great stuff.
But.
I totally killed myself doing it.
After this climb I was coughing and spluttering for literally the rest of the ride. I felt really rough. I still do, typing this, a few hours later. I still have that froggy sore throat, like I have a bad cold coming on. And it all started on that climb. God alone knows what I’ve done.
My only aim for this ride was to get in as much as I could in 30 minutes. I perhaps should have opted for another Emily’s Short Mix, or a Jon’s Short Mix.
The thing is, I can get a more intense (maybe not better, mind) workout on a free ride. As I can push as hard as I like.
But in this case, I think I over did it.
Even with a lot of recovery after the climb, I was pretty much shot. My performance was lacking. The sprint … well, I tried. But a full two seconds off my best previous pace. Legs just weren’t having it.
What was most shocking to me was that coming round to finish the Hilly Loop, I was only just on pace to beat my previous lap. And that’s with a 20 second improvement up the climb.
I put this partially down to the heat. But if I’m being honest, it was only 20% heat, and 80% lack of effort to push myself further.
Not that every ride has to be a push.
I only just beat my previous time. Bit of a shocker all round really, all things considered. Anyway, it is what it is.
After this, Zwift had me going back up the Hilly Loop. No thanks. I opted to switch to the flat loop instead, knowing that with only 10 minutes to go, there was no way I’d complete it.
I set myself a goal of getting to 15km or greater before 30 minutes had ticked by. This is on par with the 20 minutes to do 10km target I usually set. I’m happy to say I met both, even with the ~130m of total climb in that time.
After this I was basically done. Both mentally, and physically.
Crazy thing is, it’s due to be even hotter tomorrow. Not much fancying that.
Overall, a more taxing workout than the previous two rides. But also, a less enjoyable ride in my opinion.
I’m looking forwards to having some more free time to myself next week, so I can get in rides on my own time, rather than shoving them in between finishing work for the day, and waiting for tea to be ready.
I’m looking at this ride as being on the grind. I didn’t particularly enjoy this – and maybe I’ll cover more of this in my weekly review, but the overall progress is what matters. And I’m happy with how that’s coming along.
Not sure what tomorrow has in store. Bit of a bitter sweet day as it happens. Looking forward to getting a well deserved holiday in, but it comes at a cost.
Until next time.
Ride on.