Weekly Review May 09th – 15th 2022

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 really feel like the end of my crash / injury period. I’ve done an SST session, and an outdoor climb where both proved challenging but I was there or thereabouts. There are still infrequent residual niggles in the area of my back that took the brunt of the crash landing, but compared to where I was 6 weeks ago, I feel almost back to pre-crash levels. Hurrah.

My rides this week were:

Weather-wise we had a cracker last week. I managed to get out for all but one of my rides, and aside from a bit of wind earlier in the week it felt as good as Summer. I did have to Google to check, but we are still ~6 weeks off Summer (21st June) so that’s nice. The best is, hopefully, still yet to come.

Whilst I enjoyed all of my rides this week, there are two that stand out for me. Those would be the SST session on Wednesday and the climb on Saturday.

I went through a long period where SST sessions were both frequent, and towards ‘the end’, fairly routine. I’d have to work for it, but I would come off at the end feeling that it wasn’t a total killer. SST being 90-95% of FTP alternating, as the blurb says:

Sweet Spot Training (or SST for short) will give great bang for buck. Training at around 90 percent of your threshold (aka the Sweet Spot) is useful because you can spend quite a bit of time there without building up undue amounts of training stress. You can do this workout as much as you’d like and watch your FTP rise over time.

Zwift SST Short description

I have to say I didn’t think I could repeat that again on Thursday. I was suffering during the final two ‘on’ blocks. And my heart rate was getting away from me also.

What this says to me is two things.

The first is that I am definitely not still at my previous FTP level. I think that’s a given, considering all the time off. I do need to re-test myself, but have been putting that off until feeling fully recovered. Obviously now I’m going to need a new excuse to avoid it.

The second thing this says to me is that yes, whilst that was a tough session, I did manage to get through it and persisting with it – even if just once a week – will inevitably bring me back to that target level.

When I mentioned ‘towards the end’ above, I do mean that I was finding the SST sessions fairly routine at a lower FTP, but when it bumped up I definitely was working hard for it once again. So maybe I’m not so far off where I was… if any of that ramble makes sense. It’s easy to over estimate how fit I was when looking in retrospect.

The other memorable ride this week was the climb of Jeffrey Hill on Saturday. The weather was amazing, and just getting to be out there on the bike was a treat in itself. Loved it. I almost put in a new PB – I would have smashed my previous one, but two cars got in the way and ruined it. That was the only downer to that ride.

Getting in a climb felt like the icing on the cake when it came to crash recovery. All the boxes seemed ticket. At least, all the boxes I care about. Still not done any sprint work in recent memory.

The one other thing I have been, and still am doing is my daily press ups.

I’ve got the target of 200 per day, but I’m a serious way off that just yet. After 15 days I am now able to do about 110-120ish in 10 minutes and then I’m absolutely shot. This is over double the amount from where I started, and I’ve also noticed I’m now able to throw in at least one rep of 25 in each session. That’s pretty crazy considering where I started.

I do feel like I’ve hit a plateau at the moment, where around that 120 mark I’m mentally smashed. I need to work through that, try for at least 130 this week. Always good to have a target. Oh, and music and a fan on full blast.

For the week ahead, with the weather still looking super nice (with a lot of showers thrown in), I’d be really happy with another week like this one.

The graphs are starting to come back to ‘normal’.

Another SST session would definitely be a good idea, painful as it is / was. And if I could get in another climb, well that’d be lovely.

I’m still not setting myself too many goals beyond that. I just have to keep putting in the kilometres, however they come, and good things will happen.

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