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.
Pretty crazy that we are at the end of January already. I think having the first half of the month off work really helped kill that one off quickly.
Overall then a better week this week. Three bike rides – all mid week – and then I got in the Tour de Zwift Stage 5 run event on Saturday, and a decent walk out on Sunday morning.
However as a result I am absolutely stiff as a board.
Here are this week’s rides / run:
- Tuesday – Best Foot Forwards (Zwift Ride)
- Wednesday – MyWhoosh – Endurance #7 Workout (MyWhoosh Ride)
- Thursday – MyWhoosh Zone 2 Steady State Workout (MyWhoosh Ride)
- Saturday – Tour de Zwift 2024: Stage 5 [Run] (Zwift Run)
All of my rides this week were at endurance pace. I started the week off with a very sore knee, but am happy to say that is much improved at this point.
To add a bit of variety, and to check out the latest v3.5.2 update of MyWhoosh, I did two of my workouts over on that platform this week. It’s a really nice experience overall, and one that more people should give a chance.
I have a couple of gripes with MyWhoosh which I will get out of the way first.
Their patching system is nuts. Zwift patches take about 60 seconds, including download and applying the patch.
On the very same PC, MyWhoosh patches take me … well, put it this way, I set the patch going in the morning when I wake up in hope that it will be done by lunch time. Frequently they are 15gb+.
My other gripe relates to the PC hardware, which is that because MyWhoosh uses Unreal Engine, the graphics are nice – far nicer than Zwift – but the required PC spec is higher. That PC has an 7+ year old graphics card in it, but I can barely get 20fps steady, and it’s often down to <10fps. Zwift might look like the original version of Quake, but you can play it smoothly on a washing machine LCD display.
That said, I really do like MyWhoosh. And I know they are working on improving the second part of my gripe, although I think the nutty patches sizes might be a hazard of using Unreal Engine / their ecosystem.
Anyway, enough moaning.
The workouts were both good. And it was nice to do them on new terrain, even if I did work through most of both.
By contrast I genuinely can’t remember the Zwift one… so take from that what you will.
What I can remember, quite vividly, was the run I did on Saturday over on Zwift.
Mercy.
My poor legs.
I’m still very much adapting to running – and whether I will continue with it, post Tour de Zwift is questionable. But I will see this series through, at the expense of my poor feet, tight calves and aching hammies.
I actually don’t remember it being as bad as this when I adjusted to regular cycling. Right now I have several nasty blisters – both heels, my right little toe, and the outside of my right foot. Also my left big toe. Real fun.
Still, I am really pleased with myself for completing these runs. And it’s always nice to set new PBs.
The plan for the week ahead is basically the same.
Three low intensity rides whilst I build back up. There’s almost no way doing much more tomorrow is a good idea. Like I say I’m so stiff it feels nutty.
But I do intend to bump up the intensity to tempo for Wednesday and Thursday, all being well. I can’t sit at endurance forever.
Then it’s the run again on Saturday. I really don’t know what’s involved, but to be honest it’s just graphics versus actual terrain difficulties. The treadmill I use is not smart. I would need to manually control the incline to simulate the on-screen change, and right now I am a long way from that kind of thing.
But yeah, not a bad week all things considered.
I’d actually really like to get to ride outdoors, but the weather is crappo and I’m anxious about getting knocked off. So it will almost certainly be lots more indoors for the forseeable.