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’s rides were as follows:
- Wednesday – Endurance And Sandwiches (Indoors / Zwift)
- Thursday – Exit Via Gift Shop (Indoors / Zwift)
- Friday – Man About Town (Outdoors)
- Saturday – Go Hard To Go Home (Outdoors)
- Sunday – Push On (Outdoors)
Five riding days in a row this week, and three were back to back outdoors. No super long ride though, which was all part of the plan.
The most interesting observation I made this week was that, comparatively, I didn’t come anywhere near as short on the calorie count as I expected.
As above, one thing I decided not to do this week was to have a longer ride on Sunday. I went for 37km, whereas over the previous two Sunday’s I’ve done mid to high 60kms.
I expected to be significantly down on overall calories burned, but came out in the middle of the two previous weeks. Granted, last week I did not do five riding days, but still, if I had, that would likely have been a ~500 calorie ride so I was still only 500 calories off the pace.
I found myself pushing harder on the two weekend rides than I had intended to do at the point of setting off. No bad thing, just goes against my “recovery week” idea.
From the 12 month aerobic power graph I can see I’m just about averaging where I was prior to illness late October / early November last year. That’s good to know and hopefully will start to trend higher as we head into the Spring and Summer months.
One thing I’m seeing is that my results are smoother – less variation between the 5, 10, 20, and 30 minute lines (yellow, green, dark, and light blue respectively). Whilst not significantly higher than before, they do indicate the progress I’ve made has started to bed in and become my new normals.
And to be fair, I’ve noticed this whilst out riding. I am able to hold 3.1 w/kg for prolonged periods without feeling I’m killing myself. This is pretty nuts when thinking back to previous mammoth efforts (predominantly on Zwift) where anything over 3 w/kg was my stretch goal and seemed almost unattainable.
What I would say is that I am by no means heading for the stratosphere in terms of my performance. I think I’ve always been clear on this when writing this blog.
All I hope to show is that slow, steady progress can yield decent results. Consistently riding 5x a week inevitably improves my physical fitness, which pushes my potential to perform at ever increasing levels. Those increases are fractional gains, but gains none the less.
And if I can do it, anyone can.
Less impressive is my anaerobic ability.
I’m still down on where I was, and when sprinting even on very short max efforts, I cannot seem to break 1,000 watts again.
For what it’s worth, sprinting is never going to be my forte. I accept this. I’m not a huge fan of those lung busting efforts that leave me with a taste of blood in my mouth and an urgent sense of impending self soiling.
But they are useful, every now and again.
Between anaerobic and aerobic, I suspect I will always see the most potential for gains in the anaerobic / sprinting stuff.
Last for this week, the Garmin stats are just completely screwed up.
I suspect this is because my heart rate monitor is sending mixed messages. Sometimes it seems to work fine, other times it seems to report low numbers. No wonder the Garmin code is confused.
I don’t place much value on the training status graph / post ride reports. It’s always unproductive or de-training. Kiss it Garmin.
One thing I didn’t do this week that I said I would was to do an RGT session. I will correct that this week. I just need to figure out how to do workouts on RGT and I will be much more likely to make use of the software.
Other than that, I have entered the Manchester to Blackpool bike ride this week. That takes place on 4th July and will almost certainly be my first outdoor 100km / century ride. I will aim to do an indoor century or two before then, in prep. That said, I feel confident I could do that ride today with no real issues. Likely not a world beating time, but I am sure I’d make it without too much fuss.
For the week ahead my only goal is not to do 5 consecutive riding days. If I can do today as a rest day, then Thursday or Friday as a rest (weather depending), I will be happy.
I’d like to get an SST session in as well.
Then next week kick starts the Tour of Watopia 2021, so it will be back on the gas.