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.
There was only one ride this week. Therefore the structure of this weekly review is a bit different to the usual.
The only ride this week was on Sunday, and was The Christie Manchester to Blackpool Bike Ride 2021.
Coming off the back of the Covid illness, it was touch and go as to whether I’d be able to attend this one. Fortunately I tested negative on Friday, and whilst I didn’t get in any pre-rides or whatever, I was able to make the most of two weeks on the bench.
Whilst I couldn’t get many interesting graphs and stats from this week, there were some milestones to tick off from my yearly review / year goals.
- Ride the Manchester to Blackpool cycling event (if it’s on) – it was on 🙂
- Join a real world group ride
It’s an interesting one really, one of my other goals for the year was to do an indoor metric century. I suspect that would be easier, if only marginally. The speed differential between indoor and out, at least when it comes to Zwift, makes me believe I could probably do the indoor equivalent in ~3 hours, with a group.
Riding with all those other people, I guess, ticks off the group ride goal. I guess I’d still like to do a group ride with people I actually know, or could, in time, get to know. Like a cycling club, or whatever. But still, I’m going to tick that one off as I did ride with several groups, and have several chats along the way.
All in all, it’s a bit weird to have done my weekly 100km riding goal in one ride. And I definitely need a few more rides like that in me to get my body used to the rigour. That final 20km was a challenge, I won’t lie.
Whatever way I look at it, I’m proud of having ticked off a big cycling goal – my first metric century. The prospect of the imperial equivalent doesn’t exactly have my name written all over it, at this point, but I’d certainly look to do more of these types of rides in the future. Hopefully it won’t be a full year (until the next Manchester to Blackpool ride) before I do another.
Anyway, here’s to a more ‘normal’ week ahead. Today’s a rest day, for many reasons, but hopefully tomorrow will be a regular dinner time or after work spin. I’m looking forward to it.