The Christmas Champion
New leg, new me
Hi. Yes, I am still alive. And yes, I will finish my series on iliac artery endofibrosis. But let’s make a short fast forward to the present.
My surgery was six months ago now, and things are going pretty well! After I had no more limitations in terms of training volume and intensity, I stacked eleven 20h+ weeks on the bike. I believe this to be completely responsible. Why? Because if you’ve had 25 consecutive rest days, that still averages out to two rest days per week for the following 11 weeks or one rest day per week for the next six months.
Of course, that is complete nonsense, but I like to justify ridiculous training schedules. In Dutch we call this talking straight what is curved. You’re basically trying to put a good spin on something that is bad or crooked. Politicians do it on a daily basis, so I can as well. I well on my way to being in my best shape of the year by December. This is completely useless, but I will earn myself the Christmas Champion title and I am proud of it.
New leg, new me
But thanks to – or despite – this (over)training schedule, things are going pretty well. I will write in more detail on my experiences on the full recovery process in a separate post. The first months after surgery were pretty rough. Since October, though, I’ve started to feel better and the power has come back. I also took the opportunity to reset myself, not only physically but mentally as well. With nothing to lose and things only able to get better, I dropped bodyweight restrictions and committed fully to becoming a more powerful rider.
I doubled down on strength training. I am playing Ronnie Coleman 2x per week now. I’ve done strength training before, but never liked it. It felt like it only fatigued me without showing results on the power meter. This time is different. I have broken all my power PRs over the past month. A huge mental relief: it proves that the surgery was successful, but also that the gym work is effective.
For the latter, I attribute a lot to diet. To actually get stronger from the strength work you’re doing, you need to fuel it properly. You can’t lift heavy weights, do your intervals, and ride 20 hours per week while only eating just enough to sit at maintenance. No, you need to stuff your face. You need to look at your enormous bowl of oats and ask yourself: do I really need to eat all of that? Yes. Because it will make you strong as f*ck. The mindset should be to eat the amount that will make you stronger, not the amount that will prevent you from gaining weight.
In our weight-obsessed sport, it can be hard mentally to gain 5 kg and need to upsize your cycling kit. But then again, having a 410 W FTP is also pretty cool, aye. And I started using creatine, so it’s all water weight anyway… isn’t it? 😉
Happy Christmas, you filthy animal
So all the bad comes with something good. 2025 was not the best year, but I believe I’ve come out better mentally and physically. 2026 will be a good year on the bike. Regarding New Year’s resolutions, I don’t have any. I’ll just try to keep reminding myself of the lessons learned over the past months. And training responsibly?
Maybe in 2027.
Wishing you a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2026.
