Three reasons why I haven’t been out on my bike and stayed on the rack recently. I have no excuse really. My bike is winter ready, I have great lights and the right kit to wear. I haven’t even worn my Winter boots yet FFS.
In my defence I was away for a few days last week with Sally & Dan and then I was straight into work, travelling to Cardiff, Bristol and Southampton on the train Monday and Tuesday which knackered me out and since then I’ve been hunkered up in my bunker working from home. It’s rained hard every day since. Not ideal if you want to achieve 90 mins on the bike a day which I have tentatively set myself a goal as this winter.
I’ve even created myself a 25 mile gravel route to do in the dark but not done it yet
I find if I don’t get it done early in the day I get too tired late PM and my motivation wanes plus then I have to consider dinner time with Sally and then it doesn’t happen. It did do dinner this week and a late 30 min short and sharp sesh afterwards which hurt. Breathing that deep on a full stomach wasn’t a good idea.
On a positive note though my fitness has improved since getting back from Canada. I’m sure with some more outdoor rides I’d be in even better shape but my power numbers are almost back to where they were pre-holiday. Just the endurance is lacking which means I just need to get out on the damn bike.
I’ve got a bit stale with Zwift so I’ve paused my subs. I was sick of getting a kicking in races and the workouts are just too linear and boring for me so I’ve gone back to the old Sufferfest or Wahoo X Systm as it’s called now. Even though you watch and do the same thing over and over again, I find the variability in the sessions much more engaging. So if Zwift says do an interval at a fixed power number, Systm will do the same but vary the effort up and down slightly to achieve the same result. More of a real world feel. Throw in some thumping tunes and Pro race footage and it drags me in and time flies. Seems to work better for me, so I’ll stick with it for now.
Last night I did just over an hour of Cobbler. A Paris-Roubaix inspired workout. The actual session lasts 1hr 40 mins and is effectively 3 x 25 min sweetspot intervals. Two is enough for me. 50 mins just below threshold at quite a low cadence (circa 70-80rpm), grinding away takes it’s toll and is one of the only sessions I get twinges of cramp. One day I’ll do the 3rd interval too
No Dan this weekend so I had every intention of going out this morning then the rain started again FFS. More turbo time then I guess
Adios
Evenings are tough this time of year. The only way I can get sorted is to eat dinner at work and then go meet the club without going home. If I go home then that’s it, I’m not going out again! Getting the right balance with the correct amount of food is tricky though…
maybe I need a club too
Definitely helps if you can get the right bunch of heads