Volcano KOM Attempt

Due to some unexpected work commitments I didn’t get to ride yesterday evening after work. That sucked.

Then Saturday’s are always a bit of a weird one for me in terms of when I might get a ride in. Typically it happens early afternoon, but today, my wife was on Zwift instead! Outrageous. So i had to wait my turn.

When I finally got on, I had about 30 minutes to ride before I had to be elsewhere. I opted for a 20km Watopia Route, knowing I likely wouldn’t get to finish it all.

The route would take in a bit of flat, followed by a journey up the Volcano KOM, then back to the beachfront to finish (that bit didn’t happen).

If anything I think I went a little bit too hard, too early on this one. Due to my wife swapping her seat over, and me not marking the spot on the stem that I’ve been happiest at these last few rides, the first 5 minutes of this ride involved a lot of stop / start / re-adjust.

Hopefully, I have about correctly guessed the old stem location. If not, bleh. Cannot be arsed with more of the problems I’ve had in that area.

Hitting the outer rim of the Volcano, I was very conscious I’d have about 10 more minutes before I really needed to be off the bike.

And it took a further ~10 minutes to get to the Volcano KOM start line.

Oh well, now that I’m here, and all that…

I kinda got a bit cocky and thought I’d be able to “out of saddle” it way more than I actually managed. This has been biased by recent performances on Box Hill which is a somewhat comparable climb.

I managed to stay out of the saddle for a good chunk of the first half of the climb – the bit before the flat upper middle bit.

After that though, I was thrashed. It was a grueling effort to reach the top. I remember staying in the big ring, but that’s about all of it.

With the recent loss of my phone, it’s so much harder to screenshot quickly when putting in efforts. I find I get so many fewer. Sad times. Maybe recording the rides is a way forward. And … maybe not.

Due to Zwift insisting that I only care about my last 30 days, rather than my truly desired lifetimes results, we can see I put in my best ever effort!

In the last 30 days…

Well, according to Strava this is the fastest I’ve climbed the Volcano. Kind of makes sense. I am getting faster as my fitness continues to improve.

I write this with a beer on my desk. I’m not going (too) crazy with this cycling lark 🙂

So all good. I was dead after this. I felt a bit sick. I must have looked awful. The kids commented.

I did the down hill for the easy kilometers. And once I hit the bottom, I was off and into the shower.

Boosh. Ride done.

I’m looking forward to reviewing my averages for this week. It’s felt like a strong one. Which probably means it has really been decidedly mediocre.

Over 400 calories would have been nice. I have beers and pizzas to work off.

That said – the whole Zwift pizza slices thing? That’s like 250 calories a slice!

What the hell are people putting on pizzas?!?

A choppy ride in many respects. Choose a harder structured workout feels like it would provide a better workout for 40 minutes of effort.

Certainly more efficient.

All in, I’d liked to have stayed on longer. I did a long-ish walk with my little one in the pram this morning. Got blisters for my troubles. Not done a long walk in over 4 months now. My pram-days have been replaced by bike sessions.

Happy days.

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