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.
Into the second week of the Advent of Cycling challenge now and the fatigue has kicked in. Rest days are important!
Particularly towards the end of this week I found that the thought of longer rides was a killer. I think the issue is that initially those shorter workouts on Mondays and Fridays were something of a novelty. Then once you’ve done a ~20 minute workout, when you switch back to one that takes an hour you feel really hard done by 🙂
Anyway, I haven’t missed a day yet, but I have a horrible sore throat that I’m concerned is going to be made worse by exercising. We shall see how it goes.
Here are this week’s rides:
- Monday – [AoC Day #5] Zwift’s Brisk Burn Workout
- Tuesday – [AoC Day #6] Zwift Race Like A Pro: Stage 1 – London Loop Reverse (INEOS) (B)
- Wednesday – [AoC Day #7] Hmm Hmmmm
- Thursday – [AoC Day #8] Zwift Workout Of The Week: Step By Step
- Friday – [AoC Day #9] Zwift Workout: Twenty Torch
- Saturday – [AoC Day #10] Zwift Workout: Sevens
- Sunday – [AoC Day #11] Island Hopper
It’s not often I get to climb Fox Hill, so that was a bit of a novelty.
On the flip side, having not done that climb very often, I was pretty much going in blind. I can’t say I messed it up, but with some pre-race recon maybe I could have done a little better?
By better I am only talking about maybe taking 2-5 seconds off the total climb, not that I might have been contending for a Top 10 finish.
When it comes to these races I really only have a couple of things in mind:
- Turn up
- Treat them like a very high intensity / FTP-esque workout
And so far I’ve done all of them with that mindset. I’m actually at the point now where my weekly races are some of the most fun, if most exhausting, minutes on the bike.
Even with an extra day’s riding this week, I still ended up doing 30 minutes less duration compared to the previous week.
In terms of calories burned and distance covered, the totals were pretty much identical.
Training Stress was higher this week. To be honest with 11 days continuous riding, it’s hard to really comprehend the difference. It has all blurred into one.
If I had to make an observation though, loosely it would feel like this week was easier than last. I think the Step by Step workout I did this week wasn’t as intensive as the SST workout I did last week. And the races last week felt more strenuous than this week.
It will be interesting to see how Stage 2 of Race Like A Pro ends up feeling. No idea what that is just yet.
It’s pretty wild to see that my weight has been down in the 66kg range now for the last 12 days (includes last day of November).
I actually feel like I’m underweight at the moment, and have been trying to add a bit of weight without any real success. However I should say that by this I simply mean eating more crap, not some balanced diet that is based on science. My weight tends to go up when I’ve had a beer or two, and then crash again shortly after.
Basically though, I think I have a calorie deficit to work with over Christmas, so no guilt about over indulging. Be interesting to see how that impacts the last race of this Race Like A Pro series though 🙂
Lastly this week, for the week ahead it’s a case of more of the same. Try not to overdo it, try not to aggravate my saddle sores, and try not to work too hard to make my sore throat any worse.
Weirdly I am looking forward to tomorrow’s race. But then I often get like this. On the actual day of the event the anxiety kicks in and I am far less enthusiastic.
Oh, and I guess last, last thing this week is I am looking for a series to get involved with. Something like The Tour of Watopia or whatever. I’m sure something will spring up in the New Year, but it would be nice to have some scheduled things in the calendar for December. I hate having to think.