Each week I try to review and reflect on my previous week on the bike. This allows me to see how my fitness and ability is progressing on a wider timescale than day to day. For previous weekly reviews please click here.
Something approaching normality then this week, with two outdoor rides and an indoor session. Boy does it feel good to be realistically looking like it’s back to bike time ahead.
It’s been a weird two weeks. Last week I reported on the sound of cracking / breaking noises coming from my chest and I was in a lot of pain after that. 7 days later and what, it’s magically healed? Go figure. I’m not complaining by any means, but the whole episode is weird, no doubt about it.
I’ve still got some back pain – basically in the spot where all this began. But we’re over four weeks since the crash and the reports online say 3-6 weeks for this sort of thing. I guess I’m falling in the “less bad” part of that risk assessment.
Anyway, here were this week’s rides:
- Friday – Back In The Game (Outdoors)
- Saturday – Spin Spin Sugar (Outdoors)
- Sunday – It’s Not Right, But It’s Ok-ish (Indoors / Zwift)
In short, Friday was a bit of an experiment. I felt ‘good enough’ to get on the bike, but the idea of doing yet more time in front of the computer was off putting. With the sun shining I decided I’d go out and take it easy, and the ride turned out to be enjoyable enough, if a little painful. That might be a recurring theme over the next few weeks, but I’ll tough it out.
So Friday being kinda laid back, I was eager to see just how much fitness / speed / stamina I’d lost over the last month off. And so on Saturday I kinda TT’d myself over a fairly long and mostly uninterrupted circuit. The results here were way more promising than I thought they might be. Happy days.
The downside is that after that one I was really sore in the shoulder / danger zone, so had already mentally resolved to getting in a turbo session this morning (Sunday at the time of writing).
As it happens, it is wet and horrible out there today, so turbo was always the best option anyway. I opted for an easy ride, and truthfully this is probably the most sensible thing I’ve done in ages. There’s still pain there though, when sitting up and then putting my body weight back down on the bars, there’s a stabbing pain for sure. Pants.
With all the time off the bike I’ve had loads of opportunity to think, plan, and in large parts, do new / different things.
So I’ve spent the time productively (by my standards) working on other projects. Things I’ve had in mind for ages but haven’t had the time to do. Some of those are cycling related, most aren’t. I won’t bore with the details.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in terms of cycling, or more generally fitness is my desire to do the 30 day / 200 press up challenge.
I’ve been thinking for ages about how bad my upper body is. This injury has kinda highlighted that in big, bold letters.
I wonder, had I had put time and effort into building my upper body, would I have withstood the crash better? Maybe not. But I reckon I can find the time to do 30 minutes each day to build up my upper body.
Why haven’t I already started then?
Well, it directly impacts my shoulder area. And therefore I’m kinda using it as an excuse not to start. But I am going to do it. I’ll track it on here. I hope you like pictures of flabby male belly.
Graphs and charts aren’t looking too great then overall, but that’s to be expected. I’m not dwelling on any of this stuff, and as the 80’s told us, the only way is up.
Based on yesterday’s ride I don’t think I’m as ‘down’ as I expected. That’s good news for sure.
I’m also pleased that whilst I’ve lost a month of riding time, it could have been worse, you know? Always try and think of the bright side.
Plan then, for the week ahead is to try out this push ups challenge.
I’m realistic. I can do about 10 press ups at the moment. 200 per day is not going to be happening in the first week, I’m sure. Not all at once, anyway.
I’ll see how much I can manage with my shoulder, but hopefully this actually helps in the longer run.
Bike-wise it’s all about building back up the base fitness. Yes, I’d love to get outdoors again tomorrow, but I’ll settle for another turbo session if things aren’t feeling much better.
For the rest of the week it’s just about finding that routine once more.
All in all then, things looking (and feeling) way more positive. Hurrah!