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 this week as I succumbed to a bout of illness on Friday evening. Not sure exactly what I have, but I’ve been in bed with a banging headache and fever. Not fun. Fortunately it seems to be subsiding… at least enough to feel well enough to drag my ass to the PC and do this post.
Disappointing though as it’s been a long weekend and I’ve had a really strong midweek. Ahh well, you win some, you lose some.
Here are this week’s rides:
- 13th – A Clean Bike Is A Fast Bike (Outdoors)
- 14th – Oh Yeah, School Run (Outdoors)
- 15th – The Plan Is Working (Outdoors)
Having been cycling now for over three years, it’s nice to have a ‘first’ again.
Perhaps at some point I was setting new FTP figures more than once a week. I can’t remember. But I’ve definitely never put myself through more than one FTP test per week before.
That’s changed lately.
I’ve adopted a new strategy of riding hard / essentially doing an on-road FTP test every other ride, or every one in three rides.
I hadn’t predicted it, but in hindsight it’s not that crazy to deduce that the body adapts to the demands put upon it fairly quickly.
That’s my best guess as to how I managed to set not one, but two new 20 minute PB’s this week.
First I hit 257w on Tuesday, and then 259w on Thursday.
I reckon I could eek out another couple of watts if I did this on the turbo. But for now, I’ll keep trying outdoors until the weather truly turns.
What’s actually more surprising to me out of these two results was that I neglected to have a proper rest day on Wednesday.
I went out hard on Thursday, fully expecting to put in a good stint but not ever dreaming of getting a better result than Tuesday.
If I’d had my way I would have been doing endurance / tempo rides today and yesterday, so I wouldn’t have expected to improve on these figures for a third time.
The truth of it is I got lucky on both Tuesday and Thursday. The loop I’m using is fairly quiet during the day time / lunch break, but not always so. There are three key turns on that route that all lose time (hence the theory I could eek out a more consistent pace indoors), and on both days I was fortunate not to encounter any traffic.
That won’t always be the case.
But it also won’t stop me trying. It’s definitely nice to see some positive change.
Anyway, glad to see the results moving in the right direction – at least with regards to that one very specific type of riding.
How that will benefit the rest of my cycling, I can’t honestly say. But it’s often proven true for me that I get better at what I narrowly focus on.
I’d really love to get in at least a 50km ride tomorrow. With the Queen’s funeral etc, the roads should be super quiet. That’s the perfect time for me to get in a decent ride. But I need to feel markedly better tomorrow in order to go out there and exercise.
So that really sets the tone for the week ahead. Whenever I feel better I will be out there. I’m not going to rush it though, as I’d rather not limp out there and set myself back even further. Hell, being indoors for two days when I’ve got a three day weekend is killing me enough.