Category: Zwift

cycling · fitness · Zwift

Sixteen weeks since total knee replacement and Sam is checking in

Sam B4 Comments

I checked in one month after knee replacement surgery.

I checked in at the twelve week mark too. Also here.

Now it’s been sixteen weeks and here’s the tl:dr version: everything is still very much a work in progress, with giant ups and downs, and a ton of physio.

Some days I feel like I don’t really even need the cane. Everything feels great and I’m looking forward to getting my right knee replaced and having all of this behind me. I can feel dancing in my future.

Other days everything hurts–both my left knee that’s recovering from surgery and my right knee that’s waiting for surgery–I can’t walk much without my cane, I can’t ride my bike on the trainer very far or very fast, and I just want to curl up and cry. Sleep can be challenging and I wake up during the night and struggle to get back to sleep. On those days, I can’t believe I’m going to have to go through this again with my right knee.

I need to remind myself that progress isn’t linear. There are ups and downs even if the overall trend is up.

So I am going to share some of the progress I’ve made.

First, this is the first week I’ve met my new distance goal. Yes, I won’t make my goal of 5000 km for the year. And yes, I’ve reduced my weekly distance goal from 150 km to 50 km. But I made it.

Second, I am continuing to pick up speed even if I am nowhere near as fast as I once was.

Third, in physio we are still working on surgery rehab on my left knee but we are also spending some time on my right knee working to get it ready for surgery this spring. It’s getting a brace to help it along until surgery.

Fourth, in physio we’re still finding new things that help. The latest is fancy physio tape. Once on, it stays on through the shower and lasts 2-3 days.

Left knee with total knee replacement scar and snazzy physio tape

Fifth, a work friend is also going to have knee replacement surgery in January and I’m happy to be lending all my stuff to her in between my surgeries–crutches, walker etc. That’s not progress for me but it is a reminder that I no longer need these things.

Sixth, it feels good to be doing personal training as well as physio. Today is both, Meg in the morning at the university gym and Estee in the evening. Sarah put my physio tape on today so this definitely feels like a team effort!

Anyway, wish me luck. It’s a struggle. And I’m hoping I actually get to ride a real bike outside before surgery #2. I’m making big plans for summer 2024.

Sometimes I wonder if my bike is thinking about me too
cycling · fitness · Zwift

Zwifting again! Zoom, zoom…

Sam B
Zwift collage

I’m Zwifting again and it feels good.

I mean, I’ve been riding my bike on the trainer while watching Netflix. And then I graduated to just noodling around the virtual worlds not really paying much attention to speed or distance. I just aimed for 15 or 20 minutes on the bike.

Then I made some changes that make it feel like I’m actually back in the game. I lowered my seat to its usual height. I reset my FTP to something reasonable. I changed my weekly distance goal from 150 to 50 km. I might even make it this week!

Weekly distance goal 23.8/50 km

And then this week I started riding with the virtual pace partners that Zwift offers. I’m hanging at the back with the slowest one to start but it’s nice to have a group I can keep up with.

Tonight I added a new thing, a Zwift workout. Yes, it was short and yes I’ve lowered my FTP, but it was still fun doing intervals again. Zoom for 20 seconds, recover for 40. Zoom for 30 and recover for 30. Zoom 40, recover 10. And then back the other direction.

I’m still hoping to get out on a real bike sometime soon but given that we’re currently under a freezing rain advisory that won’t be this weekend.

Guelph’s weather forecast
fitness · injury · Zwift

Regaining speed and trying not to care

Sam B1 Comment

Let’s recap last week’s ups and downs while recovering from knee replacement surgery (12 weeks ago).

I began last week declaring that I was back to training again and not just doing physio. Life could be about more than range of movement and balance. What this means is that I started riding in Zwift again, watching my avatar and the related metrics, not just watching My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Never Have I Ever. But then I managed to hurt another muscle. See Sam discovers another weird and painful muscle .

So I spent part of the week back on crutches and back to all the physio. Bah.

But that setback didn’t last long and now I’m riding again in Zwift actually watching the screen, which means that I can see I’m gradually getting faster.

Here’s my time on the Fuego Flats spring three times since surgery:

But just as it’s nice to see I’m getting faster, I’m nowhere near as fast as I was. That’s to be expected but I am trying not to care! I’ve ridden that particular sprint segment 171 times and my fastest time was 41 seconds.

The fastest time ever for a woman is 27 seconds. My fastest time puts me in the 16,479th spot of the 127,073 women who’ve ridden it.

I’m trying to take pleasure in getting faster in my recovery from surgery while not caring too much about not being as fast as I used to be and not being as fast as some of the women out there Zwifting,

Wish me luck in the return to bike training and wish me luck finding comparison useful and motivational in some contexts and ignoring comparisons when they’re neither of those things.

cycling · fitness · strength training · weight lifting · Zwift

Sam starts training from scratch, sort of

Sam B3 Comments

It’s been 11 weeks since knee replacement surgery. There’s a lot of rehab focused movement and physio under the bridge. So much hard physio.

Some things are going very well. But at this stage the gains are slow and it can feel pretty frustrating. It’s a lot of hard work for what feels like not very much improvement. At the same time, I can still easily overdo it and then need to take some time to recover. Three steps forward, one step back, as they say.

But the good news is that it’s not all rehab, all the time now. Starting this week I am going to try to get my cycling fitness back for its own sake, not just because cycling helps my knee. Up until now, when riding my bike, I’ve turned Zwift on but I haven’t watched. I haven’t paid much attention at all to the metrics. Watts per kilo? Who knows? Speed? Ditto. I note the distance when I hit save but I’ve been trying not to look really. Instead, I’ve been running Zwift but watching Netflix. (That’s not entirely true. Since I have the companion app open on my phone I have noted and appreciated all of your ride-ons!)

From the “count the workouts” group here’s what my Zwift entries have looked like:

This week I’ve decided to Zwift for real again, paying attention to numbers, as I begin my climb back to bike fitness. Obviously I’ll need to change my FTP to something closer to my current reality.

What’s FTP? “FTP, or Functional Threshold Power, is the wattage you can stay below and sustain for longer durations, while going above it causes fatigue to occur very quickly. It is one of the key training metrics used in cycling, and Zwift has built-in tests to measure it.” See here for more.

I’ve also changed my weekly distance goal from 150 km a week on Zwift to 50 km. Gradually I will build back up.

Here’s one of the tiny rides that will be my starting point. So tiny! So slow! But lots of room to build and grow.

I’m also doing this in the gym with strength training. Yes, there’s some rehab there too. But not all and my focus isn’t just recovery, it’s rebuilding for its own sake. Meg, the world’s best personal trainer, is there to help once a week.

What’s my overall movement plan right now?

  • I’m doing physio every day, twice a week in the clinic at Defy Physiotherapy with the wonderful knee fixer upper Estee.
  • On the weekends, once or twice I’m doing Aquafit at Movati.
  • I do strength training at the gym twice a week, once with Meg and once solo.
  • I’m back to walking Cheddar the dog, the yellow blur in all the cycling photos above.
  • And I’m Zwifting three or four times a week.
Cheddar, Chase, and Charlie hoping it’s dog walk time not Zwift time

It’s not quite from scratch but I do have a long way to climb back to where I was, both on the strength side and the bike fitness side. Everyone reassures me that having been there before my return will be easier than if I’d never done it.

It’s work but it’s also nice to have not everything, all the time be about knee rehab.

Wish me luck and I’ll see you at the gym!

fitness · Zwift

Eight weeks after total knee replacement Sam’s life is returning to something closer to normal

Sam B2 Comments

It’s been eight weeks now since I had total knee replacement surgery on my left knee. The incision has healed nicely. The swelling is down and my knee sort of looks normal.

What’s up on the movement front?

💟 I’m doing aquafit twice a week

💟 I’m riding my bike on the trainer most days

💟 I’m also doing physio most days, seeing the physiotherapist, Estee at Defy, twice a week.

💟 There are also short dog walks.

But beyond that, things are seeming more like normal. What do I mean by that?

💟 I mean, I’m sleeping through the night without a constant waking and rearranging of pillows.

💟 I’m back at work, walking around campus, enjoying seeing people and finding the work challenging and satisfying in the usual ways.

💟 Some days I forget to take painkillers.

💟 I’m using the cane but I keep leaving it places!

💟 I can easily put on socks and shoes, but perhaps even more importantly I can sit with one knee crossed over the other.

💟 And maybe most strikingly sometimes hours go by in which I don’t think about my knee.

Goals for the next 4 weeks?

💟 No big distances and very much weather permitting, I’d like to ride outside on an actual bike just once before winter hits. Likely it will be my Brompton with the step through frame.

💟 I’d like to start regular spin classes. Don’t worry I’ll tell the teacher I’m recovering from knee surgery and I’ll take it at my pace.

💟 My gym has hot yoga and I want to get back on the yoga studio. Again, I’ll be reasonable about going at my own pace.

💟 I’m starting personal training at the university again (hi Meg!) this month and I’m looking forward to doing more physical activity that’s not all about rehab.

Wish me luck!

Here’s me checking in after Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week Four, Week Five and Week 6 and Week 7.

cycling · fitness · injury · Zwift

Welcome back to Strava Sam!

Sam B

My last ride on Strava was my birthday ride. I blogged about it here.

Sam’s birthday ride on Strava, 58 km

And today, I’m back!

It was not 58 km, and not multiple hours.

It was on Zwift, not outside. But I did it! I rode my bike on the trainer.

Strava

Twenty minutes and 4.6 km might not seem like much but it’s a start. I wore my cycling shoes and I even lowered the seat to something more reasonable.

My goals from here on in? Keep lowering the seat until it’s back where it was, add time and distance, and start adding back some resistance….

See you out there!

fitness · season transitions · Seasonal sadness · winter · Zwift

Preparing for winter in different ways

Sam B

My friend Todd and I have been chatting and blogging back and forth about preparing for winter. Here’s his latest, a Week 1 post. Todd’s focus is on fitness, a shared passion, and spending time outside. I’m usually in agreement with that too. I feel better when I’m outside even in the winter months. Outdoor physical activity that combines those two things is the best.

This past week I shared my list of resources for coping with fall dread.

One thing I noted is that this year will be different for me. With my newly replaced knee I won’t be doing very much outside riding once winter gets here. It may be that winter gets here before I even get to ride a real bike. Normally I ride bikes outside year round but not this year.

So what’s my fall/winter fitness plan look like?

🍁Zwift is an obvious thing. I miss riding in Watopia.

🍁 I’ve also joined a fancy gym for aquafit, hot yoga, and some time in the weight room, possibly also the hot tub. As I noted in my September check in gyms with wood paneling and juice bars aren’t usually places I call home, I’m going to try to enjoy the luxury while I rehab my knee.

🍁 I’m going to try to gradually up my walking game. It’s been a few years. The success of that plan will depend on how well and quickly my left knee recovers from surgery and how well my right knee holds up while waiting for round two of knee replacement. If I succeed Cheddar will be a happy dog!

🍁Warm weather riding remains a possibility. It will depend on how quickly I can get back on the bike and ride.

🍁I’m going to try and keep our living space warm and cozy and inviting for floor physio and for home yoga.

I’m going to miss riding outside between now and spring but rehabbing my left knee and getting my right knee ready for surgery (prehab!) has got to be a priority.

What’s your winter fitness plan?

Cheddar basking in a sunbeam
cycling · fitness · inclusiveness · Zwift

Celebrating diversity on Zwift

Sam B1 Comment

Great news for the paracycling community and for those of us who see opportunities for greater inclusion in the world of virtual cycling. The latest Zwift update includes handcycles.

A handcycle in Zwift

To be clear people at home having been using handcycles to ride in Zwift but the virtual bike options didn’t match. And that matters.

Says Zwift in its announcement of the handcycle option, “Zwift is a platform for everyone and our goal is to represent all members of our community within the worlds of Zwift. We hope that the Zwift Handcycle will allow adaptive athletes to have more fun in-game and better represent themselves on the roads of Watopia.”

We’ve written before about inclusion in cycling both in the virtual and in the real world. See In favour of April Fools’ Day Trikes and Inclusive Representation and Not all bikes are pedaled by foot, Sam finds out. I’m happy that the Zwift developers made this a priority and I’m looking forward to seeing some handcycles out there this winter.

Zwift Handcycle

aging · body image · cycling · fitness · Zwift

The MAMILs have met their match, the OWLs!

Sam B1 Comment
The OWLs

I’ve written a lot here on the blog about men and body image. See here and here and here. There’s more too, if you search around.

I hate all the teasing men in lycra get, so many MAMIL jokes.

What’s MAMIL stand for? Middle aged men in lycra. And lots of the jokes are about men’s bodies in fitted cycling clothes. I hate them.

Here’s a light hearted one, less mean than most.

Goodbye Kevin. I could look the other way with the boozing and the skirt chasing but I didn’t sign up for bicycle clothes.

But on the other hand, at least older men in bike clothes are recognized to be a phenomena. There aren’t as many older women. See Sam is racing with the guys and wondering, where are the women her age?

However, I came across a Facebook group recently for OWLS! That’s Older Women in Lycra. Here’s the group’s description: “Designed to EMPOWEROWL.bike (Older Women in Lycra) made with ❤️ for women cyclists UCA age 55 and older. OWLs are changing societal messages on aging…one ride at a time!”

There’s also this article: Say hello to the ‘owls’ – older women in Lycra

From the article, “Such men have acquired their own acronym, and it’s entered the language. Mamils – middle-aged men in Lycra – are a recognised demographic who are a target market for advertisers, with considerable buying power and much to enjoy spending their money on, from beautiful carbon-frame bikes to stylish cycle-wear. But the Mamil only tells half the story. There are also what I call Owls – older women in Lycra – and we enjoy all those things just as much. And if that makes us objects of satire as much as the Mamils are… then fine.

British Cycling, the sport’s umbrella organisation, confirms that women ­cyclists – including a significant number of older women – are rapidly on the increase. BC’s women-only Breeze Rides – its scheme to encourage women to take up cycling – have attracted more than 13,000 women since the beginning of 2015. Of these, 59 per cent are aged 35 to 54 and 29 per cent are 55-plus. In the 50 to 59 age group in last week’s Ride London 100 – the biggest sportive in Britain – an impressive 26 per cent of entrants were women. Next month no less a 51-year-old than the Countess of Wessex is taking part in a charity bike ride from Edinburgh to London. A few years ago I cycled from London to Edinburgh myself, and it’s a hell of an undertaking.”

The OWLS race on Zwift and while I can’t join them yet–they race in the afternoon spot for the TTTs–I do appreciate that they’re there.

Might also be nice to just have a mature riders group for all people, including those who don’t identify as men or women.

cycling · fitness · Zwift

The HERD of Thundering Turtles might just be the best behaved group ride on Zwift

Sam B3 Comments
Newborn turtles heading for the water. Photo by Pedro Novales on Unsplash.
What is it?

A slower, longer Saturday morning group ride on Zwift. It starts at 930 AM ET and goes for 90 minutes.

event-snapshot

Here’s the event description, “Building up your endurance but holding a lower pace? This is the group ride for you! Join Paul as he leads The Herd on Elizabeth’s iconic endurance ride. Respect the leader’s pace and ride with the yellow beacon. This is NOT A RACE! Stronger riders are encouraged to fall back and help sweep the riders struggling in the back. Join us on Discord during the ride: https://discord.gg/Dr7ZtPV (Please use Push-To-Talk) Check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zHerd/.”

What’s to love?

They do what they say they are going to do. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against smash fests or rides where people who can’t keep up get dropped, as long as that’s what they say they are. That’s true IRL and in virtual cycling. The Thundering Turtles is a slow, steady, 90 minute ride where people stick together. There’s a veritable army of sweeps, more than 6 I think on the ride I was on recently.

They also wait and regroup. It’s the only Zwift group ride I’ve known to do that. In France the other week we all got the castle–at about the halfway mark–and waited for the rest of the bunch to catch up. This week we waited at the top of the leg snapper in Innsbruck. It was fun to race up and then wait, without falling off and down the other side. It got pretty crowded up there.

The group also sprints and you can join in if you want. Or not, again because they regroup.

The banter is friendly and supportive. There are lots of different reasons people are on a slower paced ride. For some it’s a recovery ride after a tough week of racing. Others are just starting out. Some people are coming back from injury. And for others that’s just the speed they roll.

Zwift agrees. Here’s their take on the state of affairs, GREAT GROUP RIDES: THE HERD THUNDERING TURTLES.