Well, so much for my scheduled FTP Builder ride.
In truth, the prospect of a 1.5 hour ride on a week night just wasn’t that appealing. The workout itself looks like a good one, but I might need to “save it” for Saturday when I have a little more free time to spare.
Instead, I opted for a free ride on Innsbruck, with the intention of tackling the KOM.
For whatever reason, I had it in my head that doing the Innsbruck lap would take about 45 minutes. I might have been a little optimistic.
As seems to be the trend with Zwift at the moment, Innsbruck was very busy. There were ~1600 riders online.
I’m guessing that now Winter is coming, more and more cyclists are heading back in doors and onto their turbo trainers. Welcome back. The more, the merrier as far as I’m concerned.
It’s honestly ages since I last tackled Innsbruck’s Forward KOM.
Whilst I wasn’t aware of my previous time before setting off, I can tell you I put down a 30:31.
I’ve taken on the reverse KOM a few times since then, but I’d largely forgotten what the forward KOM was like.
My plan for this ride was to hit 85rpm, if at all possible, for the majority of the climb.
Given this, I was in the little ring very early, and remained there for almost the entirety of the climb.
Aiming for a cadence, rather than a wattage, was surprisingly beneficial for me. I found myself barely noticing the watts, rather than it being my primary focus as it is so frequently.
I also noticed I was at or around 2.9w/kg for a large part of the climb. This was good for me.
I have to say, there was a definite knot (maybe not the right word) in my left lower thigh for a large chunk of this climb. It took a lot of determination to keep pushing through. I didn’t feel like I was going to injure myself, but I certainly felt like this muscle has been taxed as of late. Clearly yesterday’s race was still in my legs.
At no point in this climb did I feel like this would be a weak time. I was definitely feeling like I was putting in a good effort.
Without knowing my previous time, however, I had no clue whether the predicted time was good or bad.
Sometimes I will pull out my phone and use the blog archives to track down a previous performance, and then I know for sure where I’m at. In this case, however, I was genuinely pushing really hard. No time for messing around on my phone.
It only came back to me as I crested the final steep part of the hill that Innsbruck forward KOM has a flat run in to the finish line.
By flat, I mean of course that after a few kilometers (and lots of minutes) of 7-9%, 3% by comparison feels like a descent.
I tried my best to dig in, get back in the big ring, and dig deep to push to the line. But my performance here wasn’t great. Aiming for that higher cadence had really taken its toll.
Getting in under 30 minutes should definitely have felt like a bigger achievement.
Honestly, I took the screenshot and then immediately eased off. I was absolutely thrashed.
Definitely a great workout, but no way I could do it twice in one ride. Not yet, anyway.
Personally I believe I am a better climber than I am a sprinter. Ultimately, I’m never going to win medals in either.
After the Forward KOM, the little uphill – called the Kleiner Hügel (amongst many other names) on Strava – feels positively like a sprint.
That said, I kinda regretted my move here.
I went really hard (by my standards), and kept up around 4.5w/kg for the whole climb. Once I’d started, I didn’t want to ease off until I reached the top. There was an element of not wanting to embarrass myself – having bolted too early than had to give up half way, or something. Pride. Ego. Call it what you will.
Fun times though.
I’d killed myself on that little hill, and by the time I got to the sprint my legs were just not up to it.
I set a new PR here, but I don’t trust it. Unfortunately, Strava stats for this segment don’t really work that well.
I’m sure I put in a better time during a Zwift Academy workout. Unfortunately that time didn’t seem to register. Zwift can be … disappointing like that.
Coming round to finish, my lap time was not spectacular. I’d really slacked off after the KOM, bar those two efforts on the way home.
I see Zwift’s latest update has added in some new achievements. I need to check those out.
I wasn’t sure if I’d get above 200w average on this ride.
I can say that I was not out of the saddle much – with the exception of the short lead in to the end of the KOM.
I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed to have not managed to hit that 200w over 20 minute target here. It felt decent, but I guess the little flat bits of the KOM gave me too much respite.
I’m also a little surprised at only having burned through 565 calories. That climb is no joke. Very, very sweaty 🙂
Overall I’m really pleased with this ride. The climb was amongst my strongest. The ride graph looks decent. I did a pretty steady warm up, and then I put in a decent effort on that climb.
I could have done more after the climb, in truth there I really slacked off.
I have no idea why my 20 minute effort is set at 208w. I don’t know when that happened. And I don’t believe it.
Zwift, stop lying to me.
