Bit of a mixed month last month, the total distance ridden at 444.68km was respectable but it didn’t pan out quite the way I planned it. After managing almost 100km off road in August and starting to really feel on top of the Mountain Biking again in September I rode the MTB precisely once for a grand total of 22.17km. Inside on Zwift I rode 148.72km and outside on the road I managed a pretty decent for the time of year 273.79km.

So with the stats out of the way let’s have a quick look at why the riding landscape in September looked so different. The main reason for the paltry off road distance is pain. I’ve managed to bugger up my right shoulder somehow. It started aching towards the back end of July and has just got steadily worse to the point where I’m now struggling to lift my right arm above my head and certain movements such as trying to reach behind my back with my right hand are most definitely super wince inducing. Now you may think that not being able to reach behind your back with one hand isn’t much of a handicap, but let me tell you when you work at an airport and have to take off your belt and then rethread it through the belt loops on your trousers multiple times a day when you go through airport security it becomes a bit of an issue! In August when riding the MTB I was aware of the shoulder issue on the bike but it wasn’t really stopping me riding, the biggest issue was often getting my jersey and base layer off when I got home. At the start of September I went to my usual Trail Centre Llandegla in North Wales with a couple of friends that I haven’t ridden with for a long time and they are both considerably faster and better riders than me. This meant I rode further and faster that morning than I would usually and really for me pushed the envelope quite hard. This resulted in some pleasing Strava times and reminded me just how fast these trails could be ridden by really good confident riders. It also really hurt my shoulder! Hitting the first black trail descent of the day much harder than I usually attempt it in a vain effort to keep them insight soon had me wincing away and as the bike compressed through the first rock garden and my shoulders and arms tried to absorb the impacts my right shoulder felt as if it was going to give way. I got round the day without any major damage but that was the first time the pain had really crimped my riding. Not wanting to make the problem worse and mindful of the big plans I had for the end of the month that made the decision to lay off the MTB for the rest of the month an easy one.

Riding indoors on the Zwift Bike and outdoors on my road bike are fine, yes my shoulder aches a bit but again the main point of pain is getting into and out of tight cycling kit, when I’m on the bike its fine. That’s partly why it was a comparatively big month on Zwift, but as anyone reading this that lives in the UK will know, the season has most definitely turned in our little corner of the Northern Hemisphere – there were plenty of rainy horrible days last month which made jumping on the trainer a great option. Zwift is also great for helping you target specific goals or weakness’s that can be difficult to train for outdoors. I knew that I had some rides coming up at the end of September / beginning of October that were going to involve a lot of climbing. Living where I do there just aren’t really any big climbs on the doorstep, but by jumping on Zwift I could be toiling up the 10% plus slopes of Alp du Zwift within minutes so that’s what I did every time I looked out of a window and saw drizzle hitting the glass.

On the odd day the weather was kind I took the opportunity to dial in the new toy aka the Giant TCR that had been recently acquired from eBay the purchase and rebuild of which I covered in the last post so I won’t rehash it here. Right at the end of the month myself and a couple of work mates flew out to the Spanish riding hotspot of Mallorca for a couple of days with the intention of ticking off a couple of bucket list rides on the island. We achieved our objectives and in 2 days I did more climbing in two rides than I’ve ever done, burned out a set of brake pads in one descent and found the limits oaf a hire bikes handling with a massive speed wobble at 60kph downhill, but more about that adventure in a separate post. (Sneak preview pic below!)