Sunday, December 04, 2022

Seemed Like a Good Idea Yesterday...

So yesterday I improved my treadmill 10k by just under six minutes. I wasn't full gas so I knows there's more to come. Followed that up with an easy bit of Zwifting on the bike - but that turned out to be a short and sharp crit race. I hadn't meant that - honest guv. Mind you, I bloody enjoyed it. Zwift races always start with a couple of minutes well beyond FTP and if you don't go with it, you aren't in the running - or biking in this case - and the race is over. I went with it and despite feeling pretty knackered, managed to keep myself in the lead group. I knew I wouldn't have it in me to out sprint anyone, so tried a sneaky invisibility power-up heading into the last lap. That didn't work but also, in a way, it did as it broke the group up and although I was quickly ridden down, several of the group were dropped. Into the last 200-300m I was lying in 9th but managed to move up to 6th on the line, so did manage a bit of a sprint. I was totally finished though. A gibbering wreck, and it took me a minute or two to get my breath back and my heart rate down. Definitely going to schedule in more of that fun - but maybe not as a recovery ride....

Anyway, caught up in an exercise induced high, I decided to schedule in a ride up the Alpe du Zwift for today (a virtualisation of Alpe d'Huez). I haven't managed the full ascent since 2019 - and halfway up, I wasn't sure I was going to get there today. With hindsight, it probably wasn't the most sensible training session after the week I'd completed up to that point but after much grinding, I got there in the end. I rounded out the weekend with an easy 5k jog. All in all, it's been a very productive week of training and I feel myself getting fitter, faster, stronger as the weeks pass. Oh, and I've set the date for my comeback 5k in the real world - but I'm not telling in case it changes...

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