About 18-20 months ago, I decided to take a week or so off the bike. and never got back on… Fast forward to 11 days ago, I’m a whole bunch heavier (nothing fits me anymore), and I finally decided to get my ass back on the saddle.
11 Zwift rides later, I’m getting there. On July 10, my first ride was a 25 minute ride averaging a whopping 158W, which damn near killed me. intervals.icu put my FTP at 165W that day.
On Sunday I lined up for a race - Cat D It didn’t kill me, averaged 216 for 30 mins of racing, and got a new FTP of 207. So that’s nice.
It’s a low slow grind back to fitness, but hopefully you can find a way to enjoy getting a little bit fitter every week. If you really did gain a bunch of weight a mirror will probably be just as effective as a scale for now.
Yeah, belt buckle test I find works better. I was not paying attention to that, and finally stepped on scale a while ago and it was 8lbs heavy. Always listen to belt buckle !!!
Jason, welcome back. Just get back to all that swimming and bike fitness will follow (cardio, weight etc)
Not swimming just yet, but I just did my first run. 10 minutes on a local trail. felt awful but I’m feel good having done it and proven to myself that I can.
Goal is to make it consistent until the end of summer. If I can do that, then I’ll look at adding in a little swimming over the winter.
Looking at doing some kind of off-road event next year, either Xterra or an 8/12/24 hour mountain bike thing.
While I still did some activity pretty consistently, I’ve been training at 50% of what I was all last year. I’m trying to get myself back into more “respectable†volume (per ST standards), but I’ve found that having the mentality that I’m just gunna jump back into the same power/paces as before to be pretty humbling. Plus the weight has ballooned up a bit, too.
I had a big year last year and decided to be low key this year, then had a health issue which made it even lower.
Pretty amazing, went from walking to run/walk 3/2, that seemed horrible. Took forever to get to 4/1, then 5/1, then 9/1. Then one day some form of “fitness” just returned and was able to do 20. None of it fast, mind you, but the consistency really adds up and then I think if you have historic fitness the gains come exponentially
Im right there with you. Retired from triathlon end of 2020. Have worked out pretty consistently since, but not a lot of cardio volume. My weight has slowly crept up and I realized I couldn’t eat less. Was going to have to burn more haha. So started running again a couple months ago. Let me tell you, being out of shape and 20 lbs heavier, running is almost a different sport than I remember haha.
Have gotten up to 17 miles a week with a shorter term goal of 30 by end of summer then maybe work that up with the better running weather here in Houston in the winter.
mind you, but the consistency really adds up and then I think if you have historic fitness the gains come exponentially
Good luck!
I absolutely agree, I came to tri after cycling for years but not too much the few years prior, and man, the cycling fitness just rocketed up but I’ve really had to work hard on the running and swimming aspects more.
Off topic a bit, but its also disheartening when most of my time savings could come from a better run and secondarily a swim, but I enjoy whipping out a long ride or a zwift workout a whole lot more than any kind of swim or run interval training.
Any interest in joining our ZRL slowtwitch team for the fall racing season? We are a C cat team with a mixture of Cs & Ds all of whom identify as triathletes. We race in Americas east at 6:30 pm Tuesdays. Starts in September. Some, like me, are in our 60s while others may be in their 30s.
Any interest in joining our ZRL slowtwitch team for the fall racing season? We are a C cat team with a mixture of Cs & Ds all of whom identify as triathletes. We race in Americas east at 6:30 pm Tuesdays. Starts in September. Some, like me, are in our 60s while others may be in their 30s.
sounds like a blast. I think I’ll be able to make that time (7:30pm Atlantic) work, but I won’t know for sure until the kids’ fall schedules are out.
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