Zwift
I’ve discovered training programs in Zwift and I must say I am impressed with how well structured the training can be with ERG mode and there have only been a couple of glitches. I have been running Zwift from my iPhone which has a tendency to freeze/crash and I have also lost a few training rides due to my laziness. They eventually expire if you don’t use them in time. I now realise that I am struggling to stay motivated to train without having any events to prepare for and the monotony is getting a bit much. Anyway, I’m not giving up that easily. Thankfully event restrictions are easing in South Australia so bike racing can’t be that far away. I’m assuming that opening pubs will also mean bike racing can resume also. Oh and I almost forgot to mention how good the trainer is now that the gear changing has been professionally set-up by Pete at BMCR. Awesome job as usual from BMCR.
Digging out the old MTB
In preparation for mountain bike racing which I will need to practice for, I have spent half the day reviving my old 26″ mtb which hasn’t been used since its last Cape to Cape bike race in WA a couple of years ago. I’m not a competitive type but bike races are great motivators for getting out the house and active. Not only am I not competitive but the thought of bike training without a bike race/ride to prepare for is just something I’ve not previously been able to manage. Its for this reason…… and the social aspect of riding with good friends….. that I sign-up for the Tour Down Under Challenge Tour every year. However, year on year it hasn’t managed to motivate me to ride more or to improve my fitness on the bike. Anyway…. this has now changed and I’m eager to improve my speed and endurance. I’m not sure yet what my focus will be…. it could be 6hr endurance mountain bike events, road racing, cyclocross or track cycling. I am yet to find out.
Sleep
We’d all like to to get more sleep right? I’ve always considered myself to be a light sleeper often waking up multiple times during the night and looking at my phone for hours after waking at 4am. After stumbling across the Whoop band and the concept of sleep monitoring I thought that this was another area where I could improve my health. I thought the idea of monitoring sleep and recovery had merit but there was no way I was signing up to another subscription which seems to be the Whoop business model so I spoke to my friend Stefan about sleep monitoring with the Apple Watch which he has been doing for a while now. With my new Series 3 Apple Watch ($369) and an app called AutoSleep which was only about the price of a coffee and not a subscription, I have confirmed what I guess I already knew, booze keeps me awake all night. More specifically, alcohol significantly reduces my deep sleep. Thats assuming the watch is monitoring my sleep accurately. I’m not talking a lot of booze neither. After going WFPB I am now much more sensitive to alcohol and after one or two cans of pale ale (or 1-2 glasses of red) I’m done. Having previously been partial to binge drinking and murdering at least a couple of imperial pints in the first 30min, I am pleasantly surprised that I no longer want to finish off a whole six-pack of Coopers in one sitting. However, instead of suffering a hangover the day after drinking a few gallons of beer I now suffer a hangover immediately after two small cans of beer. I think the moral of the story is that alcohol is bad but I think I knew that already. The other surprise I learned is that I can actually sleep well for over 8 hours and get 2.5hrs of deep sleep. It remains to be seen if this translates to overall increased ability to train harder.
If you have any experience with sleep monitoring I’d be very keen to hear from you. Please comment below or send me an email using the contact form on my site.