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.
Overall, things were more positive this week. I managed five rides, four outdoors, and one indoors on my newly re-activated Zwift subscription.
My rides this week were as follows:
- Tuesday – Sun’s Back (Outdoors)
- Wednesday – A Swift Zwift (Indoors / Zwift)
- Thursday – Time Crunched (Outdoors)
- Saturday – Too Hot For Pedalling (Outdoors)
- Sunday – 1 Jillion Degrees Centigrade (Outdoors)
I can’t say I had one stand out ride this week, but what I can say is that the outdoor rides at the moment are 🔥☀️ red hot ☀️🔥. There’s some worrying global warming heatwave that seems an omen of the rest of this century, and it’s not good.
Sure, it’s hotter in other countries, but boy howdy, when you’re used to highs of 18-21c, ten degrees extra really, really kicks your ass.
Hanging over this week has been the on-going right knee pain I’ve been suffering for over a week now.
There seems to be a stretch, or something (I’m not a doctor), in the back of my right knee. I’ve been trying (and failing) to take it easier than usual, and thankfully it seems to be easing off. But it’s not gone yet, so I’ve tried not to put too much extra pressure on it. However, as the graphs below show, things are still looking better than they were. Which is nice.
Hopefully by this time next week, all being well, I will have a fully recovered knee.
Adjusting to a new work schedule, combined with the incredible heat this week has meant some of my rides have been later, and / or shorter than planned.
A couple of weeks back I started a new job and it’s been manic almost from day 1. Working to a tight deadline with a large amount of work, by the end of each day I’ve been thrashed. And due to the time crunched schedule, dinner time rides have been impractical.
However on Thursday morning the deadline got dropped. Good news as not only did it take the pressure off and allow us to do things properly rather than rushing a suboptimal solution, it gave me time to get in a dinner time ride. That was nice. If at all possible I do prefer riding earlier in the day. As a millionaire I reckon my daily rides would be between ten and eleven. That’s when I feel best. Until then I’ll have to make do with whenever I can get.
Also this week my Zwift subscription resumed. This wasn’t my doing deliberately, but rather that three months ago I paused my sub and time has passed by quickly, and so it auto resumed after that period was up.
In some ways this is a good thing.
The indoor rides, on a sore knee, are vastly easier to control and manage my pacing, leading to a quicker recovery.
The downside to indoor riding in this heat is its sweatier than usual. And it’s usually pretty darned sweaty. As the rain is forecast at some point later in the forthcoming week, I suspect I will be back on the turbo to, hopefully, explore that Makuri Island expansion I’ve yet to see.
Before then, I have something different planned.
I’m going to keep the plans for the week ahead all to myself for the purposes of this post. All will become clear as the week progresses. It’s not that exciting, truth be told, but it is different. How different? Even I’m not sure yet, so we shall see what transpires.
Anyway, for now, I can no longer stand at my PC. It’s 21:15 and it’s still 21c in here. It’s too hot. Sweating stood still. Not helped by the number of computers kicking out head needlessly.
Apparently the hottest days are still yet to come, with the mercury heading past 30c later this week. Fun times. Fun times.