Still enjoying riding my bike on the indoor trainer and using the Zwift app to bike in a virtual world with other riders. I completed stage 3 of the “Tour de Zwift” challenge today (9 scheduled rides in January covering all their different settings).
I missed Greg today, but our schedules didn’t work to do this one together so he’ll be completing it tomorrow night. While I definitely have more fun with him in the room, there were still virtual riders there typing exclamatory things about the hills, adding a feeling of camaraderie even though I was alone in the gym.
The best and worst thing about Zwift rides is that I don’t know what to expect for elevation. My trainer duplicates hills by making it harder to petal, and Zwift slows down your miles per hour based on what your wattage (pedaling effort) would get you on the percent grade hill you’re on in their virtual world.
That means you could be putting in a solid effort and going over 20 mph:
Or you could be putting in a solid effort and going 6 mph:
Today’s ride finished with the most ridiculous hill I have ever climbed in reality or virtual reality. The overall ride had 1,168 feet of virtual elevation gain, and if you can see from the above screenshot, with only 1.8 miles left I’d done about half the elevation gain.
The last few miles of the ride were intense effort for 3-6 mile per hour returns. I had gotten to about 3.2 miles left thinking there was a chance I’d finish in under an hour, and then it ended up taking me 1 hour and 21 minutes to finish because I was biking slower than I run due to the giant hill.
Mentally, this was really tough, and I struggled to maintain my above 100 watt average which is usually my goal for rides (unless I rode the day before).
But like any challenge, maybe especially the ones you don’t see coming, I felt all that much more accomplished when I finished it.
And VERY ready for lunch.
I’ve been using our InstantPot to make batches of grains to keep in the fridge and then using the “beans, greens and grain bowl with dressing” formula to make easy lunches. (And the grains, berries, spices and a hint of molasses formula for breakfast).
Today’s lunch is teff (which is a tiny, sticky grain that I am a bit neutral on because it clumps) with black beans, chopped kale, green onions and the “best cheeze dip I ever ate” recipe from the No Meat Athlete book (not online but here are five simple sauces and a primer on using them to make fast and healthy meals).
It’s filling, flavorful and full of good stuff that will hopefully make my legs feel better because wow is it going to take more than a tumeric ginger shot to get ready for my interval run tomorrow!