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.
For the first week in November, this one was a decent mix of indoor and outdoor riding. It’s cold out there now, and the roads are full of mushy brown leaves. But the rain has temporarily ceased so I made the most of the Autumn sun (and wind) and got in some much needed outdoor action. Hopefully I’ll grab at least a couple more dry rides in the week ahead.
This week’s rides were as follows:
- Tuesday – Right Side Good
- Wednesday – It’s Good, But It’s Not Quite Right
- Thursday – The Great Outdoors
- Saturday – Almost There
- Sunday – Heading Out Into Headwinds
Many of this week’s rides were on the easier side as I’ve been testing, adjusting, and re-testing my cleat setup, having moved to a new pair of shoes. I’m pretty much sorted on this front now, with the new shoes definitely feeling better than the old pair. The question remains to be answered as to whether any of this translates into increased power… I suspect not, but a man can dream.
Over the weekend just gone I got an email from Zwift where they have crunched my numbers from Zwift Academy 2021 and determine, wrongly imho, that I am a sprinter:
I quite like that they have done some further analysis and used this to suggest some workouts to do next. That’s definitely an improvement over the previous two years ZA outcomes.
What I would say is that I disagree with the results. Not only do I personally not believe that I am strongest in sprinting, but I simply trust the 4DP test results far more. And I was surprised by those results.
The reason I don’t believe in the Zwift results isn’t just because I know, at heart, I am not a sprinter. It’s because I watched people during my rides and I saw most people did not attack the sprint. If they had, there is simply no way I would be in the 98th percentile. I know this. You know this. Let’s not kid ourselves 😉
Still miffed at that Finish Line performance though.
Speaking of things being wrongly classified as sprinting, this week I got two results from the Garmin where the “primary benefit” was deemed to be Sprint.
On both occasions I found that unusual as I hadn’t either intended to do any sprint work, nor really felt like I had. So clearly I don’t understand how the metrics are calculated.
Because of the chance to get outdoors again this week my metrics are a bit loose and free. Outdoor rides always tend to skew the charts, largely because they are completely different in approach to the turbo rides. I’ve said it countless times by now that for pure efficiency you cannot be a turbo session. But they are comparatively boring, so I won’t pass up the chance to go out if I can get away with it.
I’ve still not chosen a training plan to pursue for my indoor rides. The Poison Dartfrog workouts look the most suitable, but again they focus on high intensity stuff. I quite like the sweet spot approach as not only does it not totally thrash me, but it feels like the best bang for my personal buck. As above, high intensity / sprint / anaerobic isn’t my forte. I prefer the 5-20 minute work best.
Looking to the week ahead, ideally I’d like to get outdoors again if at all possible. As I sit writing this at my lunch break, the ground is dry and whilst the temperature isn’t high, it’s warm enough to get out. I may regret not doing, given it could rain at any point. And after work is now too dark to go riding.
It may be that I look to The Sufferfest now for the next two weeks, going with their training programs based around my 4DP result, rather than the Zwift outcome. I simply need to have my riding dictated to me… having to choose, along with everything else I have going on, just makes me take the easy route. Or the easy ride. That’s not helping.
Also, and lastly for this week, I am fully aware that we are moving into Christmas season. Weekly big meals and alcohol are the order of the day for the next 6-8 weeks. I’m being mindful of this. I do enough exercise to mitigate it, but still, I’d rather not do the damage to begin with. However I failed on that front over the weekend just gone. Waking up with a hang over sucks… but my Sunday morning bike ride was a great way to kick it into touch.
Here’s to another week!