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.
Not a great week on the bike, but a positive week in some ways. I had soreness in my knee on Monday, and decided rather than risk it, I ought to rest up and be sensible (for once).
Whilst off the bike I did some walking, but that led to the usual blisters. Sometimes I can’t seem to catch a break.
Fortunately all seemed well and I was back on the bike at the weekend.
Here are this week’s rides:
- Saturday – Week In The Knees
- Sunday – Let’s Put That One Behind Us
Annoyingly I broke my streak in terms of racing, which means I will miss out on the Beach Party achievement badge for July.
However, I guess chasing a silly and pointless virtual badge that I will never, ever look at is somewhat less important than protecting my knee joints that I tend to use for 12+ hours every single day.
Anyway, it’s not like I would have missed out on a top 3 finish is it? Not likely.
Interestingly this week, Woet Poels took his first Tour de France stage victory (Stage 15) at the ripe old age of 35. It certainly puts it into perspective when I’m ~5 years older and probably 5 orders of magnitude less fit.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, really.
Only two weeks ago I did my reset and began working back up for a lower FTP figure, aiming to hit my peak in what will now be 10 week’s time. I still think I’m on track for that, all things being equal.
I think a large part of the knee pain is simply that I have lost fitness. I haven’t been doing these SST sessions for ages, nor longer endurance rides. My body got something of a shock switching back to that routine. Therefore the soreness was probably inevitable. But maybe that’s a good sign?
Needless to say, the routine won’t be changing, and I’m going head strong into another SST session tomorrow, so let’s hope a little recovery has done the job. I certainly feel alright again now anyway.
On the weight front, things have been progressing mostly in the right direction.
Yesterday’s weigh in came after a heavy Sunday roast at the pub. I’m guessing that’s a lot of salt / water retention, and that tonight’s weigh in moves back towards the trend line.
Overall, happy with this.
Week Ahead
So the week ahead is set. SST, endurance, race, recovery, SST / climb, and then Sunday funday as usual.
Hopefully the Sunday weather holds this time around.
But yeah, let’s put last week behind us and crack on with the week ahead.