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 consisted of four riding days, two in, two out, a change of platform from Zwift to The Sufferfest, and some horrendous real life stuff that spannered my plans good and proper.
This week’s rides were as follows:
- Tuesday – Joining The Sufferfest (Indoors / The Sufferfest)
- Wednesday – Something To Prove (Outdoors)
- Saturday – A Second Attempt At Learning The Sufferfest (Indoors / The Sufferfest)
- Sunday – On The Road Again (Outdoors)
The big riding news this wee was changing from Zwift to The Sufferfest as my primary indoor riding platform.
I’ve been saying I’ll do this for months. Absolute months. And I finally got around to doing it.
Of course, it didn’t go without a few hiccups. I had expected this, and fortunately they managed to iron themselves out later in the week.
The other big news this week was, BUT OF COURSE, the day after my Zwift sub expires, they release a whole new world to explore. So bloody typical. Can’t make it up. I’d waited, and waited… and waited for some new content, and then bam, the day after I leave. LOL.
Anyway, jumping into The Sufferfest came with a few technical problems for me on the Tuesday. This was definitely kinda expected, but left me super frustrated that out of an hour or so on the bike, I managed about 15km of riding.
Also I went away not only frustrated with the lack of ride time, but stressed I had several new technical hurdles to overcome, should I be able to actually use TSF as an indoor riding tool.
As such, when the sun started shining on Wednesday, I decided to not risk another indoor night fighting the computer – particularly as I’d had a hard day’s worth of tech problems at work – and just get out on the open road and do a hard session to make up for the previous day. That ride went really well, though I smashed myself perhaps more than I ought to have.
Then Wednesday night, well, the week just got turned upside down. Hospital visits, no sleep that night, it kinda finished me off for Thursday before it had even started. And by Friday night I just wanted a beer, not a bike ride.
Fortunately, I got back into the swing of things on Saturday. And perhaps due some good luck, I had a decent session on The Sufferfest, repeating the workout I’d tried to do on the Tuesday night.
I learned a bunch of things about The Sufferfest this week – all of which I am building up into a bigger, standalone piece covering the differences between Zwift and that platform. There are several that I’ve found, and I’ve only done two rides.
What I will say is I am actually enjoying The Sufferfest more than I expected. It is different to Zwift, in many, many ways. But it’s better in some ways, for sure. I’m looking forward to spending at least a month, probably two, with the platform and really discovering what it’s all about.
Last I got outdoors again, unexpectedly, on Sunday. It was due to rain, according to Google / the BBC, but the rain didn’t come. So I managed to get in a 40km ride, and thus save my 100km riding goal target. Really pleased about that, and I really enjoyed that ride overall. It was just a nice bike ride, and a good workout, all thrown in to one.
So goals for the week ahead are simple:
Do the 4DP fitness test.
That’s it. All other rides will be easier or entirely recovery rides. But on that one I need to give it everything. Let’s see how I do.