Each week Zwift sends me an email summarising my activity for the week. For previous weekly reviews click here.
This week consisted of five rides, of which four were Zwift workouts, and the other was a Zwift race. Interestingly, this week I did not complete a single ride of 60 minutes or greater. I think this is the first time in a long while that this has been the case. Not a habit I want to get in to.
This week’s rides were as follows:
- Tuesday – Sweet Spot Training (Short)
- Wednesday – Sweet Spot Training (Short)
- Thursday – Jon’s Short Mix
- Friday – Race: Crit City
- Saturday – 45 Minute Rider’s Choice
Of all the rides this week, the Crit City race was by far the most enjoyable and rewarding. It was nice to get a couple of early morning work outs in, as well.
The week started well enough, with me forcing myself out of bed nice and early to get an SST session in before work. It certainly is a better use of my time than sat in traffic, commuting to a noisy office environment. I managed to keep this up for a whopping two days in a row, before a real life issue got in the way of this on Thursday morning.
Starting the day with a solid 40 minute work out can really only be beneficial in the long run, and every time I do / have done it, I have felt as though I’ve had a better day as a result. Also, it’s nice to know that the physical hard work of the day is done and dusted, rather than having it “hanging over me” to be done after work.
I wasn’t overly concerned about only getting in 30 minutes on Thursday evening, either, as I knew I had the Crit City race to “look forward to” on Friday. Even so, I think this is the first time in a good long while that I’ve come off the bike without being drenched in sweat. The first half of Jon’s Short Mix was definitely brutal. But the second half? Not so much.
Heading into Friday, I almost didn’t get to take part in Crit City. This would have been a major disappointment, but fortunately, I got my race in in the end. As above, this was the highlight of the week. Racing on Zwift is absolutely the best way to workout. It’s intense from the get go, and whilst I can definitely continue to improve on my performances, I am currently really happy with how things are going. I put a lot of credit on this to the Tour de Zwift, which really got me in the mood to race more frequently.
There’s no denying that after Crit City I was feeling fairly thrashed. I decided Saturday would be an easier ride. Ideally a true active recovery session. But instead, I went for a free ride and, perhaps, pushed myself a little more than I ought to have.
I came off the bike with the idea that on Sunday I’d either join the Vatternrundan group ride, or opt for RGT Cycling’s Majorca route.
In the end, I did neither. When Sunday came round, I wasn’t feeling the mood to get out of bed – my only true rest day of the week – and get on to the bike. Maybe it was the Domino’s pizza the night before. Maybe it’s just because I’m lazy. Or maybe it’s that I had already done my 5 rides for the week and I felt like I didn’t need to do one more.
Whatever the reason, as it got later and later in to the morning, the likelihood of me getting on the bike and doing 500m+ of climbing just became more and more of a pipe dream. Until it got late enough that I knew it wasn’t happening, and I decided I’d push the ride out to either today (Monday), or tomorrow. As it stands at the moment, it will likely be tomorrow – though hopefully in the early morning. Got to get that habit building back on track.
Looking back on the week I have to admit I’m a little disappointed in myself for wimping out on Sunday. With every ride being under an hour (I didn’t know that till getting my stats together for this post) I feel like I under applied myself in my activity. I’m happy with the work I did do, but I feel I had more in me.
Anyway, so long as I don’t repeat these mistakes this week, I’ll be happy enough. I do have a curry night on Saturday to look forward too, however, so need to be mindful of this. Sunday has to be a solid effort to work that junk off. No slacking permitted.
I’ll be looking for another race this week. Potentially, this could be a race up the Alpe Du Zwift on Sunday morning. That’s got some potential. Two birds, one stone, and all that jazz. I must admit to not knowing too much about the Zwift weekly racing schedule, so I’ll play it by ear, so to speak, for the next few weeks. Also, I noticed RGT Cycling has now got some scheduled racing, so that’s another option. That said, all the time’s I’ve seen are not so great for me.
That’s enough about me. How’s your week been?