Whilst riding Watopia’s Bigger Loop over the weekend just gone, I was taken for a partial ride around the Jungle Circuit. As the Bigger Loop doesn’t cover a full circuit of the Jungle, I figured I would go back – at some point – and put in a proper time. And that’s what I did this morning.
Watopia’s Jungle Circuit is a 13.8km loop with 99m of climb. This circuit is only available to rider’s who are level 10 and above, as far as I am aware.
I had a number of issues again this morning with pedal knocking. This has been plaguing me, on and off, for a few weeks now. Essentially what happens is I get a clunking sound / knocking feeling in my right pedal whenever the left pedal is fully depressed. To get around this, I have ordered some new pedals, which arrived today. They only came mid-afternoon so I wasn’t using them at the time.
I tried “setting off” three times, and each time got extremely annoyed with the knocking sensation. Each time, I stopped, dismounted, and tightened the left pedal. I did this twice. On the third time, I tried tightening the right pedal, and what do you know? It worked.
Much easier to see the initial trouble I had on the Strava graph.
One immediate observation is that the Jungle Circuit is the most up and down of any circuit I have ridden so far. It felt like it was about 1/3 descent, 1/3 ascent, and 1/3 flat. There’s also a sizable (3km?) lead in before you reach the start / finish line to begin your circuit.
Given that the first part of this route is mostly downhill, I switched to a low gear and started a bit of a grind. It took me a while to realise that I hadn’t yet started the timed part of the circuit. Whoopsie.
It was only when Zwift popped up the current live Jungle Circuit leaderboard / timings that I realised I hadn’t actually started my lap. Mostly up to this point it had all been down hill, so I was feeling pretty good about my time. Then I remembered if I’d been going down all this time, then I’d probably have to go quite a way back up at some point, too. Yikes.
I can’t remember what this area looked like graphically on my laptop. I know my laptop isn’t super great graphics (it’s 720p, and only 13″) but I figured it probably looked a touch better than what I saw on the iPad. I can’t wait to upgrade to at least 1080p.
One point of note, riding the Jungle Circuit on the Tacx Neo 2 meant most of the circuit had some variety of road feel. Whether it was muddy woomf woomf woomf type feelings, or more grids / planks, it was certainly different to the typical road sections I’m used too. Not unpleasant. Certainly not like the cobbles of Richmond.
Another thing I noticed on the Jungle Circuit more than pretty much any other circuit I’ve ridden was the lack of people riding. Each screenshot below and above shows quite a lot of riders nearby, but if you look closely at the timings, most riders are several minutes behind or in front.
At the time it seemed like more riders were doing the circuit in reverse, but I think that’s not accurate with a bit of hindsight.
Whilst pedaling around the Jungle Circuit I figured I likely should recognise some of the landmarks. But I didn’t. The only one that stood out was the bridge. I first rode across this bridge on the first stage of the Tour of Watopia, back when I was several levels too “young” to actually ride the Jungle Circuit for real.
It was around this point that I realised there was a very slim chance I’d make the 10km in 20 minutes of under target I frequently set for myself. I’d lost about a minute mucking around with my pedals, so wasn’t going to beat myself up about it. Even so, I didn’t do too badly all things considered. A good portion of this first 20 minutes was up hill. I am genuinely curious what my time would have been 5 or 6 weeks ago.
I think off to the right on the screenshot below is the long road to the Alpe Du Zwift. I saw one rider heading that way on the Zwift Companion App screen. I wonder if his or her legs have recovered yet?
I didn’t have a huge amount of time this morning, what with the pedal problems, forgetting where I’d left my iPad (upstairs on charge), and having to cut off the labels from my new clothes to wear for riding. As such I couldn’t go much beyond 30 minutes. I expected to get in 15km and then I’d be pretty much done.
I have no real basis of reference for this time. Sure, it’s my 30 day PR, but it’s also my first attempt.
Compared to the small number of fellow riders on the circuit, my time was about where I’d expect. I’m curious as to where I might be in 3, 6, and 12 months time. I’d be happy to be under 14 minutes.
Aside from a short bit of cool down, I had to get off the bike and get showered and ready for work. With the longer than usual segment of climb on this ride, I knew I’d gone a bit harder than I might normally otherwise have, but overall it didn’t feel a particularly strong ride. Certainly no more so than usual.
I was happy to get an “OK!” from the TSS man, and burn about 300 calories, give or take. Better than laying in bed.
I really wasn’t expecting a guesstimated FTP boost after this ride. I’m genuinely curious as to whether I could hold ~167w for an hour. It would be hell, I bet. However, with the Tour of Watopia Stage 7 being the Alpe Du Zwift, it may be that this figure gets an hour+ testing sooner than I’d like.
Ok, so still got the new shoes and pedals to unbox and try on. That’s all ahead of me now. I’ll make sure to take some photos and get them up on here once done.