Weekly Review February 7th – 13th 2022

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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. 

Last week saw the end of the Tour de Zwift, so this week has been a lot more chilled out.

I had intended to get in more than just the three rides, but foul weather and lack of motivation have played their parts.

Here are this week’s rides:

Wednesday’s outdoor ride was probably a little too chilled out, but I really enjoyed it so don’t feel bad about taking it that easy.

The downside to doing a bit of off roading / cycle pathways was in getting some glass in the rear tyre. I didn’t notice this until I tried to get out for a ride on Thursday dinner time and found the back tyre was flat. As such I lost most of Thursday’s riding time to fixing said puncture. But on the plus side I’m not competent enough to be able to do that myself. Not fast. But reliable.

Thursday’s ride was a bit of a disaster. Aside from the puncture I had some clown quite literally give me chase in his scaffolding van. Whilst I found it funny at the time, it was a stupid thing to happen and could have ended badly for both of us.

And then Sunday – today at the time of writing – was a good ride from a fitness perspective, and I really enjoyed the sprint finish, but if I’d had my way I think I would have been outside with 99.9% certainty. In a way though, it’s good because I said I wanted to do all the longer rides in the TdZ22, and I managed to do so. Today was the last day to meet the goal, so I’m glad to have met it.

I hadn’t planned to take this week quite so easy. I skipped Monday as usual, and then Tuesday through tiredness. Wednesday and Thursday went to plan (mostly), but I could have ridden on Friday. Again the rain put me off, and the thought of a turbo session came and went… yeah, laziness.

Saturday? More of the same. I wanted to go outdoors but the rain stopped me and I felt cheated. Rather than just suck it up and do an hour’s recovery ride indoors, I skipped it. And I felt bad for skipping it. Like I’d failed myself. Boo.

That’s probably why I pushed too hard, too quickly this morning.

Anyway, what’s done is done.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I have moved into the realms of unproductive training, according to the Garmin.

I’m not sure if this is because I’ve over egged it as of late and need a sustained period of recovery (ooh, I am in luck!) or simply that this week I haven’t kept up the intensity so it’s thinking I’m slacking off.

Well, I am taking a proper recovery week in the week ahead. Much needed. Even got myself a massage booked in, what a treat.

There will be some cycling thrown in, but nothing structured nor long in terms of distance or time. I suspect that will mean I return to the bike next weekend in a state of urgency, desperate to crank out some watts. And hopefully outdoors, too.

What I’ve found is I get really uptight if I don’t get a ride in. Even skipping Friday and Saturday this week, as I got on the bike and got stuck in this morning, my body seemed to relax into it, as though it was getting the physical activity it craved. Strange that. I’d have never have believed it a couple of years ago.

So yeah, no major plans this week. Just rest up, and see what comes of it.

My current idea after this is to get back onto RGT Cycling, as it looks to have upped its game as of late. I saw a video on GCN showing a bunch of new features, and if you don’t watch it for any other reason, there is a sly and subtle dig in there aimed at Zwift …

I include the weight graph above for a bit of a laugh really. It’s so fun to jump on those scales post ride and see the insane post workout weight loss. Sadly it all piles back on just as quickly. I’m sitting around 67kg… and maybe that’s why I get dropped in descents.

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy my rest week. Whatever you’re up to, have a good one.

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