A new week, a new month, and therefore a new stage on the latest Zwift ZRacing series. For August we are taking on “Race the Worlds”, which is accurate so long as the world means Scotland.
Yes, August will see 5 races across various Scottish routes, and today I took on Stage 1 where we hit the Rolling Highlands. Only one lap, and 105m of total elevation over 14.1km (of which 5km would be ‘lead-in’), meant this one would be fast and furious.
The challenge with this route would be the small but frequent little climbs, of which I think there was 5, but I may be wrong. If I am wrong I think I would be wrong on the lower side.
But anyway, each one was short – sometimes just 10m or so of total ascent – but taken at a really high intensity just so I didn’t get dropped.
The interesting thing about today’s ride, for me, was that I went into it with a positive mindset.
I didn’t get much of a warm up at all, and I can’t say I had been particularly looking forwards to having to get into my cycling kit and do a hard effort. But once on the bike, for whatever reason, I was feeling good about what lay ahead.
Perhaps it was the fairly low amount of climbing?
I’ve usually done better on this sort of route – short-ish distance, fairly flat, and with a decent sized group.
The other thing on my mind was the recent SST sessions. They’ve given me a renewed sense of belief that I can last longer than I think at a continuously high pace. The SST sessions have me doing 5 minutes recovery at 210w and that’s great conditioning for recovering under pressure during races.
Everything went fine and dandy – albeit pretty much at my limit – for the first 16 minutes.
Then we hit the castle corkscrew … and it was all over.
I dropped a feather AND put in a full gas effort (bearing in mind the previous 16 minutes of hard effort, full gas wasn’t my absolute limit when fresh), and yet I was still unceremoniously dropped.
It’s a shame, but I can’t say I don’t expect it by now.
Immediately after the castle corkscrew is the final climb to the line. That’s probably harder than the castle, because by that point you’ve already maxed it and now it’s like … okay, what’s left?
The answer: not much.
But enough. Enough to pull away from the only other person I was with by a decent gap.
All in then, pretty pleased with this one. Yes, as ever it’s a shame to get dropped. I’m not as fit as the front of the bunch, and I never will be. Sad fact, but I accept reality.
It’s all about the personal victories really.
Not giving it.
Giving my best effort.
About the only “bad” thing today was I only did ~30 minutes on the bike. But I worked for 20 of them.
Speaking of which, it’s a long while since I’ve seen this screen at the end of my ride:
Progress?
It might be based off race conditions (aka out of the saddle efforts), but it’s positive reinforcement that things are moving in the right direction.
A good way to end the weekday riding.
Looking forwards to a rest day, and then it’s looking like a climb portal ride could be on the cards for Saturday.
