Well after a tough 4 or so months I think I can hopefully get back to training again. To get an idea of the damage done, my Strava account is there to depress me. Prior to the crash I was averaging 350 km + a week although I have to admit the training was not particularly structured. Sort of get on the bike and go, just get the miles in. A friend Mark has berated me many times for this but I just kept on going – until the recent enforced reset.

Without going too much into detail a few incorrect diagnosis and migrating pain through the lower half of my body (walking was hard) meant I have been off the bike. So it’s time to turn it around – I need to shift some unneeded weight, behave better and get more disciplined in how I train.

So it started tonight with Zwift. Zwift – everyone’s lockdown friend and I guess now the weather is turning it will be gaining in popularity again. We’ll miss the open roads but be grateful for the shelter of the pain cave as the weather closes in. It was time to get a new baseline so I decided to do a FTP test. Yes, I was scared of what it would reveal but in all truth there was no other option. I need to build from an known point and in truth perhaps a poor FTP will mean earlier improvements will be more of a morale builder!

ZWIFT has a number of build in FTP tests, basically two tests of differing duration and a RAMP test. I decided I wasn’t ready as yet for the more traditional FTP and went for the RAMP feeling it would be gentler on my still painful joints. It was a good choice as I’ll recover quicker and will be commuting tomorrow in the morning.

As you can see from the above you get a short warm up and then starting from 100 watts it increases power by 20 watts every one minute (please don’t give me grief for numerals and spelling out numbers in same sentence!).

My results were as follows: