For this morning’s ride I took part in my second event of the Vatternrundan series, a large group ride at a fair relaxed pace. I’m really not sure about what this event is all about in the real world – though I do know it’s a long one (from the chat comments), and it’s in Sweden.
My original aim for this series was simply to get the kit, which is one of the best I’ve seen on Zwift for a named event.
But it’s also a decent long, largely recovery ride for me. Now, I didn’t technically need a long recovery ride today, but I was rudely awakened by my eldest, but too late for the start of the 8am March Fondo, but still early enough to get into this one. The alternatives were either wait for the 10am Fondo, or find another ride. This way seemed easiest, for reasons mentioned above.
Almost immediately out of the gate today I managed to hit my 100km weekly Zwift riding goal. This is misleading as my actual weekly total was already over 100km, thanks to a trip up Cap Formentor on RGT Cycling. Still, it’s always nice to hit the Zwift goal.
I brought along a bunch of things to keep me mentally active today – an iPad for watching stuff, my phone for doing Duolingo lessons, and even the Nintendo to play a bit of Pokemon. Unfortunately my eldest wanted to play Pokemon, too, so I was S.O.L on that front in the end. And I couldn’t find much on YouTube, so ended up doing a lot of Duolingo. Still, alles is goed.
Being completely honest, I find these lower intensity rides quite frustrating at times. There are moments when I just want to gun it and put down a bit of power. In this regard, Sundays really should be about climbing. I figure I might need to get Tacx Software set back up so I have no excuses. I am definitely a bit bored of Zwift’s climbs at this point, and I’m running out of routes on RGT Cycling that aren’t excessively long.
Still, unlike the last time I did the Vatternrundan group ride, I was aware that by the end of this one I’d be at or very near to 1,000 calories burned, so that kept me generally grounded. Mostly though, my ass starts to hurt. And that then starts to get me frustrated in other ways. I tend not to notice the ass pain if my legs are burning more.
One nice thing today was that the Fence was off for the whole ride. There’s really nothing worse than people constantly bitching about the Fence for the entire ride. It drives me nuts. Sometimes I wish I could shut the Zwift chat off entirely.
But that said, today’s chat was great. People were friendly, there were no moaners about, the ride leader was friendly, a good communicator, and seemed to have a solid plan which everyone was sticking too. It’s always nice to ride with adults 🙂
So looking ahead, I want to hit the Reverse Epic KOM this week. Without having a weekend climb under my belt I’m already feeling a little… frustrated. Going hard up that hill should help alleviate the frustration.
I’m also tantalizingly close to completing the Everest challenge. Which I think… should mean a tron bike? I am not sure if it’s a guarantee. I’d have hit 50km climbed by now if I had set that as my goal early doors, and for sure, if I’d done all my climbing on Zwift. Still, no regrets on that front.
I do find it a bit frustrating that I’m going to have to spend money on two cycling programs per month.
Yes, Zwift is fairly cheap (at what, £12?) for the value I get out of it. I’m less convinced I’ll get the same value from Tacx Software. There’s two pricing tiers for Tacx Software as well (what a terrible name for a cycling app btw), which are 9.99 euros per month for standard, and 13.99 euros for HD content. I can’t record in HD as I’ve proven before, so I guess standard is fine. Slightly cheaper than Zwift, but still, 2.50 euro per ride, if I only use it 4x a month. Kinda expensive.
By comparison Zwift costs me about 60p a ride.
OK, so that wraps me up for the week.
I feel I could have pushed myself harder today.
I’m kinda tempted to put in a session of 2×15’s on Tuesday, as I should be fairly fresh by then, and I’ve been meaning to do that workout at my new 214w FTP. Sadism, I’m sure.
On the plus side, I shouldn’t be quite so tired and ratty for the rest of the day, like I was this time last week.
