Today is the 2nd of December 2020 and my first entry for 2020.
A lot has happened since my last post on the 31st October 2019.
My dad was diagnosed with Stage IV gastric cancer and my entry into this blog had halted. I didn't end up racing the 3 hour MTB race at Buxton as we only received the news the day before. My mind was just not up to doing much over that weekend and pretty much for the rest of 2019, I did the bare minimum of anything.
We also lost Lucy on the 21st December 2019 at the age of 18.5. My life was just in the pits in December. I did a few mountain bike rides in Lysterfield to end off the year which was positive as it gave me the courage of being able to ride Lysterfield by myself in 2020.
We welcomed Sophie into our home on the 29th December 2019 and she has been a blessing to us - especially for 2020.
The start of 2020 was crazy, Australia especially along the east coast of NSW and Victoria had crazy bushfires which affected the air quality for months. We were discouraged to spend too much time outside and I could barely breathe for 2 months.
I did another mtb skills course with Sally in Feb 2020 which was much better than a previous one taught at You Yangs in Nov 2019. My next day riding at Lysterfield with the LDTR Ladies group proved to be a good day of skills application.
I also started doing Parkrun in Feb 2020 and ended up doing 2 runs before Covid hit for 2020.
We started the whole social distancing and different stages of lockdown from 13th March 2020. This meant that I started doing online Pilates classes because reformer classes were halted. A lot more walks as we were allowed to leave the house for walks and we also needed breaks from "working from home".
March 2020 is also when my training on Zwift became more consistent as we were not encouraged to ride long distances (and too far from home). I started to be active everyday - either walks, local very short rides or Zwifting.
My dad was home from hospital stay on the 24th May and he passed on the 30th May 2020 surrounded by the whole immediate family.
His funeral was on the 12 June 2020 and then Melbourne entered another stage of lockdown which was more strict than before due to the 700+ cases per day.
To get back to consistency - I signed up to do the Gran Fondo training program on Zwift and finished it 12th Aug 2020. The training program consisted of 2 intervals, 1 free ride and 1 long ride per week. The longest ride of this program was 3 hours long - expected for a Gran Fondo training purpose but it was easily done as it was done at Tempo range and I was able to watch Netflix/Stan without much effort.
Once the Gran Fondo program was done, I signed up for another one called Build Me Up and this one really did help me with regards to increasing my VO2 and threshold capacity. The training program consisted of intensity rides, intervals, threshold and 1 to 2 long inteval sessions per week. Started this program on the 15th Aug and finished on 6th November. My FTP increased from 165 to 179W.
During lockdown, I joined a few sessions during the week to keep in touch with friends and this included a Wednesday night RCC Womens ride on Zwift included ZOOM and a few Bicycle Network and Black Sheep Cycling training rides on weekends.
I also started and finished Zwift Academy Road in the midst of the Build Me Up program on the 2nd Oct and finished on 23rd November. The ZA 2020 this year consisted of 8 workout and 4 races/rides. My friends started an agreement for Monday nights to do the workouts we held each other accountable. This was good for me so I didn't rush through the academy this year like what I did last year. When restrictions lifted, I also started swimming just to break up the schedule of just walks and Zwifting.
I stopped doing home pilates sessions in May 2020 due to the lack of motivation and I used the area of the house for laundry. I have yet to return to KX Pilates, not due to motivation now that lockdown has stopped but due to injury from roller skating!
I started roller skating in 2020 in October just to learn a new skill. I bought my 1st pair of skates (Impalas) as they were so pretty but I have since upgraded to a proper (Chuffed) suede pair. I did have a big fall on my coccyx during my first ride outside (on the Impalas). My mobility has been limited and I couldn't finish the ZA Academy with 100% of my ability and I have not committed myself to another training program on Zwift due to the pain still lingering after 4 weeks after the fall. I still struggle to do a squat or put pressure on the area so I am not able to be back on the reformer.
We welcomed my first niece into the family - her name is Xanthe Grace Ling on the 21st November 2020.
To finish off the year, I am just going to enjoy a few mountain bike rides, hopefully do all the Zwift Tri Academy rides and more roller skating. I am not signing up for anything for 2021 due to uncertainty of the pandemic. I have signed up for a one-on-one skate session this Friday 4th and hopefully I gain enough confidence and skill to be able to join group skate sessions on Thursday nights.
