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.
It seems like there’s been a huge update to Zwift this week which I’ve been kinda paying attention too, whilst remaining exclusively outdoors 🙂
In terms of riding I’m happy with how much I’ve done, particularly the Thursday ride. The only downside really this week was hurting my knee on Saturday.
I’d really like to get back on the turbo and get that habit back underway. I’ll talk more around that below.
Here are this week’s rides:
- Monday – Last Of The Bank Holidays 2022 (Outdoors)
- Wednesday – Ready For My Tea (Outdoors)
- Thursday – Dinner Date With Jeff (Outdoors)
- Saturday – Avatar: The Last Knee Bender (Outdoors)
- Sunday – No Knee-d (Outdoors)
I’m still having issues with Golden Cheetah so getting the Summary screen off there is something I’ve been missing for the last few weeks.
Instead, this week, I’ve pulled off both the 4 week, and 12 month Training Status screens from Garmin Connect.
I’ve kept my FTP at the 224w figure that came out of my 4DP test, and I wonder if that’s what is skewing (screwing?) up the charts and graphs? I really have no idea.
What is weird is the major downtrend in VO2 max, and the hockey stick uptick in Training Load.
The Sherlock Holmes in me says the two must be related.
I genuinely think if I were to get more seriously back into the indoor stuff then I would immediately jump back to the higher FTP figure. God knows the Garmin moans at me about it after every ride anyway.
On the indoor / structured training front as above I am seeing lots of good stuff about changes to Zwift.
It looks like their fairly recent new round of funding has translated into a decent team of developers who are starting to make some larger changes to the “game” itself.
The most notable new feature for me would be the “Ghost” riders. Being able to race previous PB’s is something that really should have been in for a long time now. At least it’s finally here.
There’s also a bump to the level cap (from 50 to 60), and automatic categorisation in racing (I believe).
I hear there’s also some new roads coming to Makuri Islands.
Oh, and Zwift Academy 2022.
Plenty of reasons for me to get back involved over the Winter months.
I must say, having spent the last few weeks looking for a Zwift alternative, there really isn’t a great deal of strong competition in the space. Wahoo is the most obvious of the bunch but I’m plagued with tech issues on their platform. Rouvy, Fulgas, and some smaller competitors lack enough of the core Zwift feature set that make me question why I’m looking elsewhere.
Anyway, it looks like I’ll be back on Zwift in the near future.
By far the best ride this week had to be the trip up Jeffrey Hill on Thursday dinner time.
Getting out on the quieter roads, in the sun, for a decent climb felt like a real privilege.
My time over on Strava was nothing spectacular, but then does it need to be?
Sometimes it feels like the constant need to chase KOMs (errr, against my previous personal COM (Chris on the Mountain) if nothing else) kinda overtakes every ride. I know I’m not alone in this.
It’s somewhat puzzling to me as of late that I feel decent on the bike. I can’t think that I’ve ever been able to go longer at a higher intensity, and yet the stats don’t agree with that story.
My 1 hour best pace wasn’t set recently.
My most recent ‘timed’ 20 minute max effort was a hard fail.
And yet subjectively I’ve never felt fitter. Strange.
For the week ahead I think it’s going to be a slow start.
My left knee hurts. There’s no escaping that. The smart move is to use the turbo coupled with some sort of software (cough, Zwift) to keep my efforts in check. AKA – recovery riding.
I’ve been banging on about doing this now for a few weeks so maybe I really ought to just shut up and do what I say I should.
Beyond that, the usual – ride >100km, 5 rides, do my best.
And maybe don’t sweat the stats?