Weekly Review August 14th – 20th 2023

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

Quite a frustrating week, in some regards. It started well enough, but Wednesday saw a puncture only 6km in to the ride, and Thursday’s race was your typical waste of time.

But let’s not dwell. On with the show.

Here are this week’s rides:

Overall this week it feels like my gradual downward trend continues.

There are some positives.

I keep turning up, that’s one.

I enjoy my cycling, that’s another.

And I’m not losing that much ground, I feel.

However, I’m struggling to improve. Honestly, I’m not sure why. It looks, by all accounts, like I peaked around February and March this year.

Is that as a result of the heavy December, riding every day as part of the Advent of Cycling challenge that I set for myself? Maybe. I know from prior experience that a lot of fitness related activities have lagging indicators, so it’s a slim possibility that December’s workouts yielded good results in Quarter 1.

Another interpretation is that I hated my job in December.

By hated, I mean, like really hated.

I quit that job, because the guy I was working for was a grade A **** – insert your own four letter insult there.

Immediately after that, not only did I have a nice, relaxed Christmas (and the ability to fit in those Advent of Cycling rides with ease), but I also rested up for a couple of months after.

From that point of view it’s little wonder I was mentally up, and maybe that translated to performing well physically?

It’s really hard to say.

From there the graphs have been a bit of a roller coaster. I’m less concerned with the Anaerobic (red) graph above. It’s the blue / aerobic one that I care about the most.

All this said, the overall longest term trend is still moving up and to the right.

So it’s possible this is just a natural dip before another uptick arrives. I’ll be glad if and when it does.

For now I think I keep on going.

Business as usual.

Am I ready to tick up another 5w on the FTP come September?

No, I really don’t think I am.

I tried to on-road FTP test myself on Saturday and I bombed after ten minutes.

If I am to hit the target for my FTP test at the end of Quarter 3 then I need to be putting out a steady 262w, I believe, for the full 20 minutes. I’m way of that at the moment. Way off.

The weight’s doing alright, though 😀

You wouldn’t think it, if you saw some of the junk I eat.

Anyway, that’s all for this week.

Basically more of the same for the week ahead.

SST, recovery / endurance ride, Race (ahem), rest, Climb, then either a recovery walk or easy / free ride on Sunday.

Beyond riding more, I don’t know what else I could change to get better results.

I’m open to suggestions.

Leave a comment