This morning I took part in my third Zwift Academy 2019 group ride. This means I have one more group ride or race remaining to complete that part of the series.
I still have 3 Zwift Academy 2019 workouts remaining, and need to complete all three before the end of September. Four rides in ~3 weeks should be doable.
I almost didn’t make the start of this ride today. For various reasons – mainly my own laziness – I was running behind schedule. I managed to get on the bike with about 40 seconds to spare, and then we were off.
Prior to this ride I’d done about 100km on the week. As such my legs, particularly the tops of my thighs are / were feeling it.
I’m debating taking a rest day tomorrow, as the other ride I am considering is one of the Zwift Academy workouts… and they suggest resting at least a day before.
Also this morning the Yorkshire map was released.
In short, there’s tons of stuff I’m wanting to get into, but with such a limited amount of time – and tired legs – it’s hard to fit it all in.
As has been the case on a few group rides for me, The Fence was in full effect.
I like the idea of the fence. However, the implementation is buggy.
So much so that even when sitting on the beacon, I was seeing the fence warning message.
In the end it was turned off, but not before 13 unlucky riders got booted from the ride.
Generally this ride was around 2-2.5w/kg.
This was about the maximum I could manage, given the fatigue on the week.
I bodged up a few times, boosting away from the group on the climbs, then finding myself in limbo coasting along waiting for the beacon. And then when the beacon came, often finding myself behind as I wasn’t sufficiently sped up to tag on the end. Messy. My own fault though. This improved as the ride went on.
What I really like about these larger group rides is the chat.
In most rides I’ve done with large groups, the other riders have a laugh and a joke, and it really helps the time pass. Today was no different. There was lots of chatter, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming.
Maybe this would be different if we were all under 23 and vying for the contract.
On the last lap the ride leader, A. Johnson.C&CCC suggested we get our sprint on.
Even on tired legs I was really happy with my performance.
Putting out +600w would have been a new record for me a few months ago, so to do it on tired legs after ~30km was decent. If anything, I could have improved my start. Being in the pack, I couldn’t see the side of the road sprint marking starter post, so just had to guess based on the top of the hill, and prior course knowledge.
It was really challenging to find a steady pace on this ride. After yesterday’s free ride I really felt each up and down. Even though I like the scenery, having the steady ‘flat’ course just to work on cadence was really … idk, maybe not fun, but definitely something I enjoyed.
As I finished the ride I hit an unlock – 30 ride on’s in a single ride. I figured I would have had this previously, but apparently not.
If you’ve ever watched some of the more famous Zwifters – GPLama for example – he probably gets 30 ride on’s per kilometer.
That said, the constant pinging would drive me absolutely nuts.
All in all, this was a great end to the week. Not too hard, not too easy.
As above, I’m really considering taking tomorrow as a rest day, and then getting onto the next Zwift Academy workout on Tuesday night.
That said, I do also really want to ride the Yorkshire map. Fortunately it’s in heavy rotation this week (and month), so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Technically I guess I could do the Zwift Academy workout on Yorkshire, but I think that would kinda kill the route for me. At least, initially.
For the week this puts me at about 140km ridden, which is something I haven’t done since the start of August. No wonder I’m feeling it.
I’m looking forwards to doing the weekly review tomorrow, seeing the graph, and seeing how I’ve improved… if at all.
