Immediately after my knee surgeries my bike focus was mostly about mobility–half pedal rotations, and then full pedal rotations, and getting on and off the bike and unclipping and clipping in with ease. That’s the thing that mattered most.
Next, I worked on being able to ride my bike for 30 minutes, and then 40 minutes, and then an hour at a time. There are lots of slower paced, friendly and supportive, group rides on Zwift. I love the Monday Morning Coffee Club and of course, The Thundering Turtles.
Finally, these past few weeks I’ve started working on bike fitness again. I’ve moved from mobility to casual riding for endurance to actually training. I’ve strapped my heart rate monitor back on. I’m tackling the easiest of the Zwift training plans. The one I’ve started is called “Back to Fitness.” I’m on Week 3.
The two day a week training plan leaves me some days free from group rides which I’ve also been enjoying. But just riding, in a group or with a pace partner, lacks structure. I realized getting fit again will require both time on the bike and some structured training.
Here’s the description of this plan:
“If it’s been a while since you’ve been on the bike, Zwift has a new training plan to get you rolling again. Back to Fitness is a 12-week training plan for anyone looking to jump back into cycling after some time away from the sport.
Co-written by Olympic gold medalists Dani Rowe and Kristin Armstrong, this plan is perfect for those returning to cycling after injury, pregnancy, seasonal time off, or other reasons for inactivity. It starts out with a set of shorter, lighter-effort workouts and builds throughout the 12 weeks.
“Whether you have had a recent hiatus from riding, you’re coming back from an injury, you’re a new mom or you’re ready for some accountability and fitness gains — Back to Fitness has you covered,” Kristin says. “Our 12-week progressive 2-day per week plan will get you back in no time, taking the guesswork out of your day all in under an hour!”“
Here’s the Over-Unders workout I did on Christmas morning!
So far I like the program a lot. The workouts are under 40 minutes and include a 5 min warm up and cool down. They’re tough but doable which is what I need right now. In just a few weeks, I’ve noticed my power is nudging upwards and my cadence is improving. I like the motivational text. It’s supportive and helpful but not too much.
I’m hoping after this I can start one of the Zwift Build Me Up programs, first the Build Me Up lite, and then the regular Build Me Up training program. My FTP in watts used to be, when I was racing regularly pre-knee surgery 180. Now it’s 117. I’ve got some work ahead of me to rebuild fitness.
(What’s FTP? According to Zwift it’s “FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power and represents the highest wattage number you can expect to average over a long time, usually between 40 minutes to an hour.”)
I’m excited about riding lots outside next summer and I’m looking forward to making progress on bike fitness through the winter.
Wish me luck!
