Weekly Review January 9th – 15th 2023

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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. 

This week saw the kick off the Tour de Zwift 2023, the continuation of the Flat is Fast racing series, and a first ride on Zwift competitor MyWhoosh.

I’m tired already and there’s still a heck of a lot of racing and riding left to do before either of the two big series are done. Yikes.

Here are this week’s rides:

A busy week on the bike.

With racing, two long group rides, some Zone 2 work, and a first dive into MyWhoosh, there’s plenty to cover.

I’ll start with the racing.

This week started with Stage 2 of the Flat is Fast series, seeing us take on Richmond’s The Fan Flats. That was definitely easier than December’s trip to Richmond where we hit the Richmond Rollercoaster.

I’ve been doing alright in these Flat is Fast races. I’ve been able to stick with the big boys almost until the end, which is unexpected as all the stats and output and feedback I’ve had from cycling software over the last few years indicates I should be better at the hills. But I’ve struggled on the hilly races in particular, so it’s nice to go into this series feeling like I won’t be dropped, hard.

Speaking of hills though…

The Longer rides in this year’s Tour de Zwift are making sure we see, and feel, every single metre on offer in Zwift.

Stage 1 had us take on Yorkshire, in full, both ways. There’s a particularly brutal stretch in there, right towards the end where the gradients reach 18 or 19%, and that wasn’t fun.

Each stage gives us about 3 or 4 days to get the work done, so without much rest we went into Stage 2 where we visited Richmond, tackling 3 laps of the UCI World’s course in reverse. It was nice to get a new badge, but I was knackered already as we finished lap 2.

And Stage 3 is Ventop.

Ouch.

But my plan for the Tour de Zwift is to make it a bit more casual, a bit more social. I’ve enjoyed the first two group rides without pushing ridiculously hard. Rather I’m aiming for a high tempo pace – sitting around 3.0w/kg, but pushing harder on the climbs. Well, with Ventop, given it’s 100% all climb, I guess there won’t be much chatting during that one.

Still, I’m kinda looking forward too it. It’s like 2.5 years since I last did Ventop, so I’ve completely forgotten the route. Actually, is it Ventop? I can’t remember the route name. It doesn’t go right to the top – I think this one finishes 6km down, with the option to carry on and see it through to its ~1,500m glory.

I’m fairly sure I won’t be making it all the way to the top. Not with having to race mid-week as well.

Weight-wise, I’m still approximately in the 66kg range, for now. I’m still trying to put on a kilo, but it’s harder than it sounds. Overall, no major concerns.

I did a Zone 2 ride this week, but I won’t bother talking about that. It was as boring to ride as it is to write up.

And then on Sunday I spent an hour fiddling with a new cycling software app called MyWhoosh.

It’s not new, but it is new to me.

I’ve not yet got enough experience to fully and conclusively form an opinion. Aside from initial connection troubles though, initial impressions were good.

There’s a lot to check out in MyWhoosh, so I plan to get in a training session and do some map exploring before writing a more in-depth piece on it. Something to keep me busy.

For the week ahead though, it’s stacked. As above, I have Stage 3 & 4 of the Tour de Zwift, I’m not even sure what Stage 4 is yet, but hopefully it’s slightly less mean than Stage 3.

Then there’s Stage 3 of Flat is Fast. That is Volcano flat reverse. It’s longer (25km or so) and with more elevation (100m) than the first two races, so combined with everything else this week, I suspect I’m going to be absolutely dead.

No wonder I can’t put weight on.

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