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 much as planned this one.
Got my three slightly more intensive rides in mid-week, then did my Zwift Run on Saturday, and a decent walk in on Sunday morning.
Here are this week’s rides (and run):
- Tuesday – Ready For More
- Wednesday – MyWhoosh – Endurance 8’s Workout
- Thursday – Definitely Not Perfect
- Saturday – Tour de Zwift 2024: Stage 7 [Run]
Getting back up to tempo was really the aim of the week.
Early on I got a little cocky, as per, and figured I could ramp up faster. I was punished for this with some knee pain on the harder intervals, which was enough to confirm that taking it slow and steady was definitely the right approach.
Overall I did behave.
The cycling side of things was pretty much fine. I got in a session on MyWhoosh, two on Zwift, and honestly wish Zwift would make it more prominent when cadence work is involved, because going low cadence is not helping the recovery at all.
But at this point I think I’m good, and the week ahead should involve a bit of threshold work.
All being well, I am hoping to get back to SST this time next week.
The running is going better than expected.
I’m surprised by this. It was initially very challenging. The idea of running a 5k each week was daunting, I’m not going to lie.
However, I think my initial ridiculous run has overall made things easier. At least on the mental side of it. Nothing has been that tough since.
It’s got to the point now where this week, where the run was ‘only’ 4.1km, I still pushed and did the 5km just to get myself used to it. I am hoping to keep this up after the end of the Tour de Zwift at this point, with the mid-term aim now to run a 10km each week.
On the positive side my legs are not hurting anything like they used to. It’s definitely taken longer to adapt than it did with cycling in the early days, but I’m getting there.
The big curious question is whether the running will help the cycling.
I have no way to judge this really.
But it’s giving me options, and when all I do is run / ride indoors, it’s nice to have a bit of variety.
I have the Stage 8 run to do this week I believe – Saturday – and then it’s on to make up week next week. That week I have two runs to do, both around 5km I believe. The final Stage 8 run is only 3.1km or something, which I find odd. Maybe I will try to run the longer one.
So yeah, week ahead is tempo up to threshold.
I’d love to get back to the weekly racing as well, but I want to get at least one, ideally two SST sessions in the bag – controlled intensity – before committing to a harder, ‘uncontrolled’ effort.
But overall, happy enough with everything right now.