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.
Only three rides yet I feel as exhausted as if I’d done five in a row.
It’s misleading really as both Wednesday and Sunday were walks of 1 and 2 hours respectively. I don’t track them on here.
Even so, the three rides I did do were challenging enough. It’s always a big ask to do both the Standard and Longer tour rides in any given week.
Here are this week’s rides:
- Tuesday – Tour of Watopia 2023 Ride: Stage 4 – Road to Ruins (Standard)
- Thursday – Race Watopia: Stage 4 – Volcano Circuit CCW (B)
- Saturday – Tour of Watopia 2023 Ride: Stage 4 – Big Loop (Longer)
I’ve had issues with the heart rate monitor strap this week. For chunks of, I think, most rides the numbers have been reporting far lower than they actually should have been. Or, in some cases, not reporting at all.
Interestingly, the problem is mainly in Zwift. The Garmin is able to pick up the data far more consistently than Zwift. And if my timing were better, I’d probably be fine with Zwift too – but it does involve a bit of meddling with the Connectivity menu, once in game, and once having been on the bike for about ten minutes.
Anyway, that’s led to Strava thinking I’ve been slacking…
Far from it.
It’s been a fairly hard week.
I’d say it was easier than last week, given that we didn’t have to do AdZ. But even so the combined total climbing was about the same, and the distance greater.
That said, I did enjoy the climb up the Epic KOM, even if I’ve been up there quicker. I’m trying hard not to compare to earlier in the year, as frankly those times seem so far out of reach right now as to be almost faulty data points.
One thought I had this week was that maybe I had set the crank length to 172.5 in the Garmin, and that was what might have been over reporting my numbers? I do remember doing that, but I’m convinced it wasn’t for any significant length of time. Certainly not months on end.
Weight-wise, things are little down on where I’d like them to be. I’ll go heavier on the calories this week.
Such a chore 🍩🍩🍩
But yeah no real concerns there.
With the week ahead it’s all about finishing off the Tour of Watopia. That means two more events, both of which are over 40km.
First up we have the Coast Crusher on Tuesday. That’s 42.5km, and 207m of climb.
I am hoping that the 42.5km is slightly misleading in that the first ~10km is a long and gradual downhill, so should be over quicker than it otherwise might be. Fitting 42.5km into a dinner hour is a bit challenging.
The on Saturday the longer ride is the new Big Ring route.
That’s 272m of climb over 48.9km. So a big ride, but largely flat. Hopefully in a good bunch that one shouldn’t be as taxing… but you never know, particularly after a long week.
The race this week is also on a new route, but Zwift isn’t saying which over on their website.
The name of the race is ‘Going Coastal’ which does tie up with a new route name, and that one is ~17km of basically flat road. So I’m not sure how I might fare on that. I’m sure I’ll get hammered regardless.
All that said, I do feel like my metrics have improved lately. With the longer, harder riding each week I feel like I’m seeing a slow but steady upwards trend starting to form. It’s a shame that this will be the last week of the Tour of Watopia in that regard.
However I think my previous game plan was also working, and the inclusion of a Saturday climb portal session is / was similar to the Tour’s Longer ride.
Anyway, with November pretty much here, I can’t help but look ahead to December and have to start asking myself the question of whether to do the Advent of Cycling challenge again. Twenty four days of back to back riding.
It makes the AdZ seem like the more preferable option…