Project Best Winter Ever #3: Knee niggles, lack of sleep and Zwift Click/Cog testing

Welcome to the third instalment of Project Best Winter Ever. It's my first winter as a new dad and these instalments have covered what I've been up to over the last few months as I juggle my attempts to continue cycling alongside new dad duties as the light faded, the temperatures dropped and winter set in proper here in the UK.

If you haven't read it and want to you can check out instalment two here. 

What do I want my best winter ever to look like? Well, I'm not training fanatically all winter to take on a full race season that's for sure. I just want to get through the dark winter months by having fun riding my bike, successfully (for the most part) juggling parenthood with cycling and keeping things stimulating and fresh. 

At the last instalment, I'd been doing some local road bike races at the local velodrome, riding outdoors, as well as Zwifting, and was feeling pretty confident about successfully mixing parenting with riding. 

Well, guess what Cyclingnews reader, I'm here to tell you things got harder. 

What happened? I picked up a bit of a knee injury on the bike - more on that in a second - and our daughter who is approaching 11 months old seemed to depart from her pretty dialled sleeping pattern into a pretty broken one which saw (and continues to see) my partner and I get a lot less sleep. I think it's a combination of teething and adapting to sleeping in her own room. Either way, riding after a day's work and three hours of sleep hasn't been top of my list at times and I've been pretty tired to say the least. 

Back to the knee. Not long after instalment two I made a pretty amateur mistake and knocked out our Saturday morning club ride of a few hours on a combination of new pedals, new shoes and a new saddle, combined with the first proper outing of my winter bike since last spring. About five minutes from home after a very wet ride I just felt a twinge coming on in my right knee and thought 'Uh oh'. 

The next day cycling to pick my car up from the garage, I had a very painful right knee and a bit of a problem. I like to usually do an easy hour or a couple of rides in new cleats or after a bigger setup change to get used to and check the setup and stop and adjust things if I need to. I failed to do that and paid the price. 

I've had a few injuries over the years and know by now however frustrating it may be, that it's better to take the time you need off the bike or any other sport and give things time to heal and sort themselves out. That cycle of having a few days off followed by a painful ride and finding out the niggle is still there can be bad for morale and annoying. 

As such, I cut my cycling right down for a few weeks and worked on plenty of stretching, rolling out my IT bands, checking my shoe and cleat setup and taking anti-inflammatories. It looks like I'm out of the woods now and things are feeling ok, but it's been a useful reminder, especially as kit testing ramps up again next year. 

I believe it was a cleats-too-far-forward issue, maybe coupled with a higher stack height of my new pedals which I overlooked. Different models of Shimano SPD SL pedal have different stack heights and it's worth checking this if you are changing.

Cogging and Clicking

I've spent some time using the Zwift Cog and Zwift Click upgrade kit now, which provides a wide range of compatibility and virtual shifting for pretty much all bikes that feature 8-12 speed shifting (how many cogs are on the rear cassette). The Zwift Cog is a single-sprocket add-on unit that is fitted to the trainer, the Zwift Click refers to the small O-ring-mounted remote shifter that you attach to the handlebars.

Why bother with the Cog and Click? Well, in theory, it should enable a wider range of bikes to be used if you already have the now-discontinued Zwift Hub Classic smart trainer. 

Fitting the Click sprocket kit to the Zwift Hub Classic is simple. I timed myself on my last swap over and taking it off without rushing took me 48 seconds. The job is essentially the same as a freehub body swap on a rear wheel. To install the Zwift Cog kit, all you need to do is remove the thru axle or QR skewer, I'm running a QR on my bike (I know, shock horror) and remove the cassette with a chain whip and cassette tool. Then remove the drive side lock nut with a spanner. Then you can pull off the stock freehub body, install the Zwift Cog, tighten the locknut and you're in business.

The system comes fitted as standard on the Zwift Hub One trainer, so if you are considering this model, this should help you work out if it will suit you, along with my colleague Josh's advice in our guide to the best smart trainers.  

The Cog uses a three-pawl engagement system and the stock trainer freehub body uses the same system. There doesn't tend to be much freewheeling on indoor trainers so in theory unless you really are a super sweater or too keen on washing, the system should last a good while and should you ever need them, the bearings are common sizes.

On a road bike, the chain line needed for the system to run smoothly is on my Shimano 11-speed drivetrain at least, around halfway up the cassette. There were two derailleur positions where the shifter would run smoothly, outside of this though it's noisy and rough, so you will know if you are in the wrong gear. 

There are also very easy-to-follow videos on Zwift's YouTube channel to follow on setup, but it is very easy to do. If you have zero faith in your mechanical skills only the busiest of bike shops would fail to install the kit while you waited. Remember it took me under a minute.

The Click remote which attaches to the handlebars using O-rings is easy to use. You're going to want to dial in its position. For easy rides, having it on the tops is just fine. But for racing or hard efforts where you are out of ergo mode and need to work through the gears, you'll probably need it on the bar's drops. This is what I did when completing Zwift Academy workouts for example. 

The Click is easy and intuitive and the gearing changes are lifelike, you also get a gear selection display pop-up in Zwift so you know which gear you are in. Dropping down the gears for a sprint for example was pretty smooth. The only trainer lag I noticed was when descending from higher wattages. Though this may have party down to my own state of exhaustion.

Trying new things on Zwift

I've continued to try and get stuck into new things and take advantage of what's offered on Zwift. I signed up for the Ineos Grenadiers group ride recently with Michael Kwiatkowski for an easy-hour's spin. This was a great example of just finding some stimulation via Zwift which helped me jump on the bike after a day of work and looking after the baby. The opportunity to ride (virtually) alongside a pro got me excited and gives people a nice opportunity to interact with the sport's stars that didn't exist not so very long ago.

I've quickly learnt that more often than not, rides on Zwift start with a good portion of the group riding harder than advertised or needed. It's easy to find yourself working hard, not wanting to be left behind in whatever virtual world you happen to be in as the competitive juices kick in and the bunch accelerates. 

This was the theme on the ride with Kwiato and the man himself called for 'piano' as the pace lifted at the front. Amazingly a couple of hundred riders disappeared up the road and I found myself in a relatively small group spinning along with the ex-world road champ. 

I've also ticked off a few Wednesday 'rubber band' rides with my cycling club, joining club mates as the rubber band keeps us together but getting stuck into set sprints along the way. Again, even a small amount of social interaction is nice. Discussing what music we were all riding to or just following familiar (virtual) wheels eats up the time and keeps things fresh. 

For me this is along the lines of just getting out on the bike with mates and sprinting for signs, good fun and short intense sprints are good for everyone. Even if they do feel ten times harder on an indoor trainer, for me at least.

Talking of hard, the initial Zwift Academy workout has also given me a good workout and is a great way of getting a structured 45 minutes or so in. I opted for the shorter versions, I don't think I need to worry about competing for a place at the finals by knocking out the longer versions somehow. I saw first-hand some of the monster indoor efforts at the finals last year and have no doubt the athletes who end up there from the ZA programme all have some serious grunt. 

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail 

I've had to level up my organising and prep skills to ensure I get the time in on the bike. I'm not able to - for want of a better phrase - 'faff about' as much as I could pre-baby. If I'm getting on the trainer after work, I usually have a window before bath time to do it or after we have put the little one to bed. When I go for it just depends on how the day pans out and how the motivation levels are. 

Organising things in advance is the right way to go and saves unnecessary stress. I'm sure this is probably true for most riders as well but I need to make the effort at lunchtime or in the morning to get things lined up to ride. Ensuring the bike's bolted into the trainer, laptop prepped and ready, bottle made and kit sorted and within easy reach. 

When this isn't the case and I end up rushing around the house trying to find my heart rate monitor strap or locate a missing shoe for instance whilst trying to get my kit on time slips through my fingers and before I know it, it's taken half my ride time to get ready to ride. This just won't do when I'm on baby bedtime duty. 

My own laptop is a little sluggish and slow, and I've learnt if I don't wake it up, and load up Zwift in advance it can at times get bogged down and leave me feeling pretty annoyed so this is key. I know I could Zwift on my phone, but find the screen a bit small. However, I suspect my iPhone probably has more computing power.

Christmas and looking ahead

Christmas is just around the corner which means some extra time off and hopefully even more chances to ride the bike and continue testing winter kit. My knee is back to normal which hopefully means some more consistent riding. I finished up my last piece by mentioning ticking off a ramp test to establish some sort of baseline, well given my sleep-deprived state and poorly knee, I just haven't had it in me. That will come next time in the fourth and final instalment. 

Looking after a little one, especially for the first time I think shows how adaptable human beings are, and how little sleep we can sometimes operate on. You almost get used to the change after a while, though it certainly isn't easy. Our priority at the moment is looking after the baby and getting her (and ourselves) through the night. 

As the shortest day of the year approaches (next week!) and we start to slowly make our turn back towards the sun, you begin to imagine the spring and warmer rides. These thoughts always motivate me and they will help me try to stay consistent and provide a nice reason to head out to the garage for a session or brave the cold for a chilly spin.