Weekly Review December 21st 2020 – January 3rd 2021

by

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. 

This weekly review spans two weeks, largely because writing up my yearly review for 2020 took me about three hours and also happened to land on the Sunday when I would normally write my weekly review. As such I decided I’d skip doing that week’s review and combine it with this one, instead. I’m sure you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Over the last two weeks I managed to squeeze in eight rides in total. After the Advent of Cycling challenge finished on the 24th December, I had planned to give myself a well earned Christmas Day, and Boxing Day off the bike.

That was fine. In my head I figured I’d get back on the bike on the 27th, but I was lazy this year. Oh, and used all my good riding time that day writing up the yearly review. Hey, what an excuse.

Those eight rides were as follows:

Somewhat unexpectedly, two of those rides were outdoors.

The bulk of the month of December was taken up by my self imposed created challenge of the Advent of Cycling.

Back in late November, the idea behind this seemed great. As I work in IT circles, there is a thing called “the advent of code” where each day from December 1st through December 25th, a new code puzzle is released. Each one, as far as I am aware, gets harder and harder to solve.

I have never done the advent of code.

But the premise seemed like it could be directly transferable. I could ride my bike every day for 24 days, building up to Christmas Day just like a chocolate filled advent calendar.

At the start of the challenge I had grand visions of doing an hours ride each day, completing some of the workouts I’d had on my todo list for a while, and generally being an all round fitness powerhouse.

Alas, no.

I have to admit I completely misjudged the intensity of riding so many consecutive days, and whilst I got through it, I found my body – particularly my right knee – was not appreciative of the experience.

The best, and most unexpected thing about doing the Advent of Cycling challenge was in getting to go outdoors on the 24th December.

This actually felt like a proper reward – just like the choccy advent calendars of my childhood with it’s bigger choc on Christmas Eve.

As we got to finish a bit earlier in the day with work, I was able to get out into a cold, crisp, yet pleasant late afternoon ride. I took a fairly wide, and meandering loop around Preston, realising during that trip just how essential a good pair of winter gloves are. I only had my fingerless summer gloves. Ouch.

The days off after this, through the Christmas break, were very welcome. And might I say, over indulgent. Yes, we couldn’t go out to eat this year, but we did a fine job of making up for it at home. I definitely gained a bit of weight over these three days. Mainly due to high levels of alcohol consumption. Well, it was Christmas.

And then moving into the second week, I got brave and went outdoors again. This time I saw sense and borrowed my wife’s winter gloves, although I had to stop twice and warm up my fingers all the same. Cold indeed.

The route I chose for that ride was Preston’s Guild Wheel. And honestly, that was a mistake. A good portion of this route was “trail”. Or, more bluntly, dirt track. Wet, busy, and in some parts, dangerous. I managed to fall off during this ride – thankfully doing very little damage to myself or my bike. This was due to a very steep, very muddy incline, and my impatience. When will I learn.

After this I had very little option but to stay indoors. The ice, snow and bitter cold all put paid to any further outdoor adventures. Roll on Summer, that’s all I can say. I am no fan of the cold weather.

Finishing up the second week I did one of Zwift’s FTP Builder workouts. This one wasn’t particularly intensive, but it had small bursts from recovery pace to high tempo. And the turbo trainer spin up lag caught me out on the second block, putting undo strain on my right knee. As such I came off that ride with a bit of a niggling pain.

Deciding to take it easier on the next ride, which in hindsight I should have skipped, I probably (or possibly) did more damage just by riding on it. Thankfully I had enough sense to take Sunday – yesterday – as a rest day.

I’m not sure if I’ll ride today. What with starting back up with the day job, and not getting a superb nights sleep (went to bed at the normal time but couldn’t get to sleep for whatever reason), I figure I might be best to start up properly again tomorrow. Due to Tier 4 restrictions, kids swimming is cancelled so I can get in one of those harder Tuesday night sessions I’ve been after for weeks now.

I’d also very much like to try Rouvy this week. I think what’s stopping me here is the laziness in installing the software, and also the uncertainty about how to take screenshots for my blog posts. I mean, silly little details, right? It’s so easy to find excuses.

So yeah, the plan for the week is just to get those 4+ rides in, hit the 100km, and try Rouvy (or The Sufferfest, depending on my mood). Nothing more than that.

Leave a comment