Mid year(ish) check in…

So far this year has been filled with ups and downs. From a injury perspective I have had a few hicups. I injured my knee playing soccer on a dodgy pitch and did a grade 2 tear to my PCL. This basically sidelined me for 3 weeks and I was in tape and a brace for a while. Just prior to this I had had a big break from the bike as my work life balance was all over the place. I gained a little padding and could feel the slip happening.

So, when the physio said that cycling was part of my road to recovery I was pumped. It was the first thing I did (aside from the prescribed exercises in the lead up) to start to push myself. If I was not going to play soccer or ice hockey I was going to dominate the bike in the mean time.

I started light. Just doing trainer rides in my office. Testing out the knee. There was inflamation but no real pain. Needless to say, I was back on the cycling and knew it was the path to recovery I needed. After about 4 weeks on the bike I was back on the ice and training. Then a week or so later I was playing my first game. I’ve not looked back since then. While my knee is not at 100% I can feel the progress on healing in small way. Lunging up a tall step streched me too much but I can now happily jump over the board on my bad leg. It’s been 2 months however and I had to make the call that soccer was out. I was just not able to kick a ball without discomfort nor would I be able to play the game in a way I would enjoy. So all in all I am back in shape feeling good. I should also mention I nearly broke my wrist in a ice hockey game as well as had a shoulder jarred when I lost an edge and flew into the boards. I’ve never had this many injuries in one season of sport! I guess I am just getting old

With respect to cycling specific stuff, one of the big things I noticed was a massive drop in FTP as a result of the break. Two months is a big one and I had read that for every week you miss you need a week to gain it back. AHHH!!!! So lets break this down a bit.

At the end of March/early April I had an FTP of roughly 295wats. I had been working hard and this was a great achievement in my previous year of cycling. When I got back on the bike in mid June 2016 I had dropped to roughly 230wats. I was also 5kgs heavier. As I was not over concerned with the loss, but more the recovery, I started slowly. It was all about my knee first, then time and distance. Once the inflamation post ride went, I started to get on the hills again. SO SLOW!! and continue to focus on regularity and getting longer runs at sustained power output.

Over the last 4 weeks I have averaged 6 rides per week with almost 7 hours in the saddle clocking up 216kms. Those are some healthy numbers for me. This is in part due to the fact I am now aiming to do no less than 40kms/day or at least on average for the week of rides. In my last 60km Zwift ride I got the FTP update and was back up to a respectable 286wats!! I can feel the power coming back in the legs and can see my average speed going up over rides. Just keeps me moving when the data is there. I have dropped 3kgs in the process as well and am now looking at cleaning up my diet again to clean up my boy fat percentage. I’d like to get this down and know that if I can get back to 15% I’d be happy. 3.3% to go!

So why write about all this? I dont know really. My hope is that this helps someone else. If even to just start riding, focus on recovery or get riding again. Maybe it’s just for me? Most likely :)

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