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:
- Tuesday – Back To Normal SST
- Wednesday – Punk-ture
- Thursday – Zwift Race the Worlds: Stage 3 – The Muckle Yin (B)
- Saturday – Zwift Climb Portal: The Crow Road
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.